Executive Committee
These are the members of the Executive Committee
Alan Karpas President
A resident of Livingston since Jan 1970. Raised two sons who graduated from Livingston High School. Currently have two grandchildren in the school system, one in high school and the other at Mt. Pleasant Middle School. Oldest grandson graduated L.H.S. 2008 year and attends Stanford University. A founding member and Chairman of the Livingston Vision 20/20 Committee, the Long Range Planning Committee for the town,a member of the Livingston Transportation Committee, the Livingston Green Committee, I also co-chair The Livingston Skate Park Committee and am President of HCHY Youth Appreciatioin Week Committee. I have been President of HCHY since 2006. I am a member of the the United Way of North Essex Executive Board. Currently serve as the Chief Operating Officer of Supreme Security Systems, Inc. Union NJ
Martha Ackermann Vice President
Martha Ackermann has a long standing history of her commitment to the Township of Livingston. A resident of Livingston since 1986, Martha has immersed herself in activities that involved children. She is employed at Harrison Elementary School as a teaching assistant in kindergarten. Prior to raising children she previously was a retail executive and fashion director for a group of fine department stores in New York City for thirteen years.
For more than 10 years, she has served as a co-chairman of the PT Council’s Town wide Safety Committee. In her capacity as a member of this Committee, Martha works closely with the Livingston Township Police Department, the community and representatives of the school system to ensure that safety for Livingston’s youth is a priority. In addition to her continuing work on the Safety Committee, Martha was a founding member and is the current Vice President of the Healthy Community Healthy Youth (HCHY) Initiative of Livingston, a collaborative partnership between youth and adults creating a community where all young people thrive. As a member of HCHY she has become active in the United Way and she is currently serving on their board.
Health and safety are just two of Martha’s passions. Ensuring students in Livingston have access to a well rounded education is also paramount. Martha served on the Livingston Long Range Planning Committee’s Redistricting Subcommittee where she was instrumental in the decision to reconfigure sixth grade education, so that the sixth grade, a very important and critical group of youngsters in the prime of their development, would receive their sixth grade education in a standalone middle school. In addition, her work during these years on the committees resulted in building expansions at all six of the district’s elementary schools.
Martha believes that exposure to the arts is an important element in a well rounded education. She is a founding member, and the current President of Children’s Theatre of Livingston, an organization which allows children the opportunity to experience every aspect of the theatrical process, from acting, to set design, to lighting and the backstage crew. The Children’s Theatre of Livingston, which performs one play per year, gives nearly 100 children the opportunity to experience theatre. The exposure this organization provides to the arts during a child’s formative years affords the children of Livingston yet another avenue and passion to pursue as they grow into productive members of society. Martha doubles her involvement and her investment in the arts as a member of the Arts Council of Livingston. An active member of this organization, which actively promotes artists and groups related to the arts throughout the community, she was most recently appointed as Vice President in charge of performing arts. In addition to her current participation as an employee in many of Harrison’s activities, Martha volunteered at Mt. Pleasant Elementary School for years while her children were in attendance. One of her major accomplishments as President of the PTA (01-03) was raising $46K for a new playground. Martha also served as a member of the Budget Task Force for many years.
Martha greatest accomplishment though is her children Jeffrey, Jill and Christine.
The Reverend Leslie E. Martin Secretary
Leslie E. Martin graduated from Ewing High School and began work with the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) as an Assistant Highway Inspector. He attended college in the evenings, earning an Associate in Science Degree from Mercer County Community College and a Bachelor’s Degree in Civil Engineering from Drexel University. He held various positions at NJDOT, including Principal Engineer, Project Engineer, and Section Chief, Statewide Transportation Planning. Upon hearing God’s call, Leslie took early retirement from NJDOT, and entered Princeton Theological Seminary in September 1997. He completed the three-year Master of Divinity Degree (M. Div.) program and graduated on May 15, 2000. He was ordained into the Christian ministry by the Hungarian Reformed Church in America on June 4, 2000.
From September 1997 until April 2001, Rev. Martin served as Supply Pastor of two small churches. He concluded his service with them to become Pastor of the Calvin Reformed Church in Norwalk, CT. He served the Norwalk Church as Pastor, until
May 31, 2005. Accepting the position of Director of Development at the American Hungarian Foundation, he began work there on July 11, 2005. He concluded his work at the Foundation in May 2006.
Leslie E. Martin is a Past-President of the Certified Public Managers’ Society of New Jersey, Past-Vice-President and Past-Treasurer of the American Hungarian Civic Association. He has served the Trenton Hungarian Reformed Church as a Sunday School Teacher, Elder, and Chief Elder. He is Past-President of the American Hungarian Reformed Presbyters’ Association. In September 2000, he was elected to a four-year term on the Board of Directors of the Hungarian Reformed Federation of America, a fraternal life insurance and benefit society, headquartered in Washington, D.C. He was also elected to the Board of Directors of the Bethlen Nursing Home, in Ligonier, Pennsylvania, and served on that board for 10 years, beginning in 1997.
On May 1, 2003, he was elected Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Hungarian Reformed Federation of America. He served as Building Committee Chairman from 2003 until 2005 for the New $8.3 million Bethlen Nursing Home in Ligonier, PA. Leslie served as the Secretary-Treasurer of the Eastern Classis of the Calvin Synod, UCC from March 2003 to March 2006. He is a former member of the Board of Directors of the New England Fraternal Congress (NEFC), and former Chaplain of the NEFC. In July and September 2006, Leslie received training for Intentional Interim Minister by the Interim Ministry Network, of Baltimore, Md.
Rev. Martin is currently serving as Pastor of the Federated Church of Livingston, New Jersey. He began his service in Livingston on April 1, 2007. The Federated Church of Livingston is a member of the American Baptist Churches of New Jersey and the United Church of Christ.
Helen Flores Treasurer
Helen Flores has been the Executive Director of the Metro YMCA’s of the Orange’s West Essex branch since 2002. Prior to that Helen served as Executive Director of the South Mountain YMCA another branch of Metro YMCAs of the Oranges for two years. Ms. Flores has been a YMCA professional for 24 years, coming from the Staten Island YMCA, where she began her career as an aerobics instructor, and over 15 years rose to become their Associate Executive Director. Helen also was an adjunct professor for early childhood curriculum at the College of Staten Island, part of the City University of New York from 2000 to 2002.
Ms. Flores responsibilities include Livingston’s only NAEYC-accredited childcare program called Peanut Shell, another newly acquired childcare center called Weekday, well as two ACA-accredited day camps, 16 after school sites in five different Boards of Education and a full facility YMCA in Livingston. In 2004, Helen instituted a professional development program to ensure that all staff certifications are in place and up-to-date, towards a goal of “providing quality programs and service with excellence” to all who participate in West Essex YMCA programming.
Ms. Flores holds an M .S. in Education from Brooklyn College and a B.S. in Education from Wagner College. She serves on the Executive Advisory Board of Healthy Communities-Healthy Youth, on the board of ACAP and a member of the Coordinated Schools Health Committee, all located in Livingston. Ms. Flores is also a Board member of the Livingston Kiwanis Club, and a member of both the North Essex and Livingston Chambers of Commerce.
Beth Spector Executive Coordinator
Beth has resided in Livingston for over 20 years and has been an active town-wide volunteer for most of those years. Beth’s husband, Brian, is an attorney in Florham Park. Her daughter, Stephanie, who is 23, is 2004 graduate of Livingston High School, a 2008 graduate of Syracuse University and earned her Masters Degree at New York University in May 2009. Stephanie is a second grade special education teacher in New York City. Her son, Matthew, 21, is a 2006 graduate of Livingston High School and is a senior Communications Studies major at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.
Beth’s involvement with the community began when her daughter Stephanie enrolled in Harrison Elementary School as a kindergartener. Beth became a contributing member of the Harrison Elementary School PTA from the start, first as a volunteer on the Human Relations and Cultural Arts Committees and then as Co-President, which position she held for two years. While at Harrison, she founded the Talent Show and the Art Appreciation Committees, and worked on the Cultural Art Committee for many years. She was also instrumental in organizing and raising funds for the Basket Bonanza, the proceeds of which were used to benefit Harrison School students.
Beth also served as Co-President of the Livingston High School HSA. During her term, she organized two successful fund-raisers, the monies raised from one event were given to students in need due to difficult family circumstances, and the proceeds from the second event were used to help fund Project Graduation. Beth also organized and helped run the Halloween Hoopla for four years. She was a member of the Parent-Teacher Council, and was elected as its Treasurer, which position she held for two years. While on the P-T Council, Beth was a member of the Scholarship Committee and was the organization’s liaison to the Livingston Municipal Alliance Committee. She was also a Vice President of the Sisterhood of Temple Emanu-el of West Essex for many years. From 2004 to 2008, Beth and her husband, Brian, served on the National Parents’ Board of Syracuse University, where he is very active in alumni affairs.
She is a 1978 graduate of Rutgers College with Academic Distinction with a B.A. in History. Professionally, Beth was a paralegal and has worked in the corporate law area for a number of law firms and corporations. She also was employed as a Paralegal Coordinator for a large law firm where she hired, supervised and evaluated paralegal staff, and had the sole responsibility of managing the law library for another large firm. Beth has continued to volunteer in the community throughout her professional career. –
“Working with HCHY Executive Committee and the members of the organization has been a very rewarding experience. I am looking forward to working in many of the projects that make HCHY great.”
Nicole Karpas Youth Member
Katie Simko Youth Member
Katie is a junior at Livingston High School (LHS) and Co-President of the LHS Community Action Club (CAC). She has been a member of HCHY since the sixth grade. Her involvement began with her interest in having a say in the Livingston community and this organization gave her the perfect outlet to do so. She has been an active teen participant in HCHY’S Neighborhood Coffees and is a member of the Skate Park Committee. Katie is also a member of Livingston’s Vision 20-20 Committee and serves on its Volunteerism With Senior Citizens Sub-Committee.
