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Board of Directors
Tom Wells, President
Tom is an attorney and the founding partner of Wells, Jaworski & Liebman, LLP, Attorneys-at-Law. Tom practices from New Jersey and Vermont. He is active in civic organizations in both New Jersey and Vermont. Tom is also the principal of Wells Mountain, LLC which develops and operates real estate properties in New Jersey and Vermont. Tom has traveled to Africa and Haiti numerous times and has been active in the YMCA, in particular its World Service Program, for over 40 years.
Carol Wells
Carol is currently the Executive Director of the Bristol Downtown Community Partnership and a member of the Bristol, Vermont Select Board (town council). She has been very active in numerous community organizations, such as Bristol Friends of the Arts, PTO, the Five Town Business Council and Art on Main. The former owner/manager of an independent bookstore, she uses her expertise in literacy to shape and develop two WMF programs, Book Angels and Imagination Library. She visited our African programs in 2006 our projects in Haiti in 2008 and 2011.
David Bolger
David is a highly successful businessman, banker and philanthropist. David’s civic accomplishments are numerous and his philanthropic causes even more so. He has provided continued support to West Bergen Mental Health Center, Valley Hospital, Mt. Bethel and Westside Presbyterian Churches, Northfield Mount Herman, Kay Espwa ( Project Hope) and hundreds of other charities. The Bolger Foundation is WMF’s single, largest donor.
Jordyn Wells
After graduating from Bard College with a double major in Anthropology and Studio art, Jordyn joined Do Something, a New York based national non-profit that inspires and supports young people changing the world. As Do Something’s Chief Program Officer she provided young people with the funds and skills to start and grow their own community action projects and non-profit organizations managing the distribution over of 400 grants annually, ranging from $250 to $100,000, including the Do Something Awards, a televised awards show on Vh1. In addition, she was instrumental in the creation of the Do Something’s Boot Camp Program that to date has trained 2000+ young social leaders and activists. In the fall of 2010 Jordyn left Do Something and traveled to East Africa to consult on Metrics and Evaluation and program development for several non-profit organizations. She currently divides her time between NYC, where ahe is pursing her MSW at Columbia and Kenya, where is works as the Director of Strategy and Evaluation for the Kibera based NGO, Shining Hope for Communities.
Ruth Bernstein
Ruth graduated from Saint Michael’s College in May 2006 with a double major in Psychology and Elementary Education. Throughout her time at Saint Michael’s, she was active in the campus volunteer organization (MOVE or Mobilization of Volunteer Efforts). During the summer of 2005, Ruth traveled with MOVE to Southern Uganda, facilitating the distribution of scholarships to displaced Sudanese living in refugee settlements. She also worked with Save the Children in the western highlands of Honduras for a summer. Here in Vermont, Ruth spent two years volunteering on the pediatric ward of the local hospital. Ruth currently works at the Addison County Parent Child Center and is active in our literacy programs.
Bob Dill
Bob and his wife Marianne, owned and operated The Rinks, classic roller rink and entertainment establishments in Bergenfield and Montvale, New Jersey for more than 20 years. Bob now manages various commercial real estate properties owned by his company R2D2, LLC. Bob got involved in the recreational industry after leaving a position as Vice President for Human Relations of the American Stock Exchange. Bob has been active in Ridgewood YMCA for many years, and serves on the World Service Committee. Four years ago, he visited the YMCA of Haiti.
Rick Claydon
Rick has devoted his professional life to the Ridgewood YMCA and has served as CEO since 1994. Rick is a long-time member and past president of the Ridgewood PM Rotary and heads up the International Youth Exchange as coordinator and counselor. Additional volunteer positions include serving on the Board of Directors at the Phoenix Center, a not-for-profit school for young people with disabilities and board member and past president of the New Jersey Association of Y Professionals, advancing the professional development of YMCA staff members. He has traveled to Kenya and Haiti to observe our projects and programs in action.
Brent Edmonds
Brent is the President and founder of E.C.I. (Edmonds Contracting, Inc.) which was established in 1984. He is a 16 year member and Past President of the Bergen Highlands/Ramsey Rotary Club. He has also served as the Vice President of the Upper Saddle River Education Foundation for the past 4 years. Brent has supported the Center for Food Action for over 10 years and has just completed his largest mission to date by fundraising and building a new 5200 square foot Food Center in Mahwah, NJ.
Christopher Lutz
Chris is a Senior Vice President of Investments at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, where he leads a financial advisory team servicing high net worth individuals, and middle market institutional clients. Chris is deeply involved in his community and participates in a variety of charitable pursuits that focus primarily on children and education. He is a founding board member of the Hoop-A-Paluza Foundation, a grass roots non-profit organization that has granted over $2.5 million for local children’s charities since its inception in 2002. He also sits on the board of Team Walker, an organization that provides after school programs and tutoring for underprivileged children in Jersey City, N.J. A graduate of Muhlenberg College where he was a member of the varsity football team. Chris lives in Madison, New Jersey with his wife Alison and their three children, Paige, Matthew, and Alexandra.
Denis Salamone
Denis has spent his entire 35 year career in accounting and finance. He is currently the Chief Operating Officer of Hudson City Bancorp in Paramus, New Jersey. Born largely out of educational opportunity provided to him during his formative years, Denis is passionate about advancing similar opportunities for underprivileged children. He is an active supporter of Bishop Ford Central Catholic High School, a multi-cultural New York inner-city school and currently serves on the Board of Trustees of St. Francis College, an institution which has historically nurtured immigrants and the children of immigrants. He is a Board member of the Ridgewood YMCA and is a former Board member of The Fred Waring Foundation, which provides assistance to an orphanage in Cambodia.
JT Bolger
JT Bolger currently serves as the President of Bolger & Co. a commercial real estate management firm as well as serves as the Managing Partner for two real estate development companies. JT is a very active RV’er and currently serves as The NJ Good Sam Club, State Director, a nationally known leader in the Camping Industry. He also extremely involved with his children’s school activities and coaches many youth teams within his Community. While he has not visited the home countries of the scholars to date, he has enjoyed meeting WMF Scholars and looks forward to promoting the WMF Mission.
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