Our Team
Board of Directors
The Board of Directors of the Jersey City Arts Council is a group of passionate, knowledgeable and experienced individuals with diverse backgrounds, interests, and age groups, representing all geographic wards of Jersey City.
JCAC from left to right: Mike Grabowski, MacAdam Smith, Alvin Pettit, Heather Warfel Sandler, Natalie Brathwaite, Asheenia Johnson, Bethany Widrich
Former Board Members:
Mary Sansait
Susan Justiniano
Sarah Ordway
Robinson Holloway
Nyugen Smith
Kevin Clark
Renuka Sawhney
Marlene Sandkamp
Charles Kessler
Asheenia Johnson
Wycliffe Daniels-Wilkinson
Bethany Widrich
Heather Warfel Sandler
Robyn Alcock
MacAdam Smith
Co-Chair: Natalie Brathwaite – Brathwaite is the Regional Public Affairs Director at Fidelity Investments. Past jobs have included Aide to the Office of the Mayor of Jersey City, Director of Programs and Community Engagement at the Newark Trust for Education.
Co-Chair: Mike Grabowski – Grabowski is a Senior Lighting Designer with 15 years of television experience, working for numerous broadcasts at several networks, including ABC, NBC, CBS, MTV, Bravo, CNN.
Secretary: Amy Elise de Jong – De Jong has lived in Jersey City since 2008 and has contributed to the local arts community as a singer, actor, writer, visual artist, and organizer. She has helped curate and organize local arts events such as the Cathedral Arts Festival and Digable Arts Festival, served on the founding committee for the Cathedral Arts Live performance series, and directs the annual Grace Church Holiday Concert. De Jong worked in elementary education for 10 years and now serves in an administrative role at Training The Street.
Treasurer: Michael Stubblefield – Dr. Stubblefield is the National Medical Director for Cancer Rehabilitation for Select Medical, Director of Cancer Rehabilitation at the Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation and Professor of Rehabilitation at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. He is triple board certified in the fields of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Internal Medicine, and Electrodiagnostic Medicine. Outside his medical career, Dr. Stubblefield is an accomplished nature photographer, birder, writer, and avid art collector. The Stubblefields’ art collection includes hundreds of works with emphasis on natural history as well as modern and contemporary realism. His images and articles have appeared in hundreds of publications across the globe, and he has won several awards for both his photography and writing. As a Jersey City resident, he spends much of his free time photographing the amazing birds of Liberty State Park.
Alvin Pettit – Pettit is the director of the Mary McLeod Bethune Center in Jersey City, as well as a member of the city’s Artist Certification Board and the Public Art Advisory Committee. He is the president of the Bergen Hill Neighborhood Association. Pettit is also a well regarded painter and sculptor.
Ashley Ragg
Jeff Dess – Jeff Dess is an award-winning educator, best-selling author, and notable public speaker who specializes in the areas of culturally responsive education. He is the Co-Founder of Trill or Not Trill – the disruptive educational firm and leadership institute. Jeff is a TedX speaker who has reached over 100,000 learners from institutions and companies.
Jeff is an author of 7 books, including the Amazon bestseller, We Wear Kicks To Work Additionally, he has performed as a spoken word poet internationally on the continents of Europe, Africa, Asia along with the Caribbean. He currently serves as the Director of Leadership & Engagement at New Jersey City University.