Back row, from left: Richard Diamond, Diane Lefebvre, Colleen McCarthy, Susan Dilts, Carin Blatteis, Jane Fox, Meghan Fitzgerald, and Tom Dilts
Not pictured: Stacey Cozewith, Carol Dvoor, Amy Shimalla, and Dan Puntillo
Current Board Members of The Children’s Hope Initiative, a committee of the
Friends of Somerset County Youth, Inc.
Barbara Barkley has been active in community service for over twenty-five years, working extensively with Hospice, local schools, and her church. Currently she is serving as the Coordinator of Stephen Ministry at Liberty Corner Presbyterian Church, and she is also a board member for SHARE in Africa, a charitable organization that seeks to empower girls in Africa through education. Barbara is married with two children.
Jim Buccini is the Chief Financial Officer for Couch Braunsdorf Insurance Group, Inc., a New Jersey insurance agency based in Somerset County. He presently serves on the board as Treasurer for the Good News Home for Women, a residential addiction treatment center in Flemington, NJ. Jim and his wife Linda are long-term residents of Basking Ridge, NJ, where they are active members of Liberty Corner Church and other youth-serving community organizations.
Kim Charles is an Independent Marketing Consultant and an active member of many community organizations. Her lifelong passions involve working on child abuse and hunger initiatives and currently volunteers with Proactive Parenting while also working on her hunger initiative 1canCAN. She currently serves as Archivist, National Trends Chair and Technology Chair for the Central New Jersey Chapter of The Links, Incorporated. She is also Lead Teen Advisor for the Central New Jersey Chapter of Jack and Jill of America. Additionally, she is an active volunteer with the Girl Scouts and Montgomery Township School District.
Stacey A. Cozewith, Esq. is a Partner at Snyder & Sarno, LLC, a law firm exclusively devoted to family law matters. Stacey is a resident of Somerset County, a member of the Somerset County Bar Association and Trustee of the Somerset County Bar Foundation. Stacey has been recognized as a Rising Star by New Jersey Super Lawyers for 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012 and featured as one of New Jersey’s Women Leaders in Law for 2012.
Thomas Dilts is a retired Superior Court Judge who handled child abuse cases for 16 of his 20 years as a judge in Somerset and Hunterdon counties. He was President of the CASA of New Jersey Board of Trustees and is co-chair of the New Jersey Domestic Violence Fatality and Near Fatality Review Board.
Carol Dvoor is and was formerly the Hunterdon County Site Director for Safe Harbor Child Access Center, an all volunteer agency that provides court-ordered supervised visitation. Carol believes in assisting families to not only survive but to thrive.
Jane R. Fox is a long time teacher who now, in her retirement from teaching, is a volunteer at Safe Harbor supervising parents who are working hard to reunite with their children.
Colleen A. McCarthy is an attorney in private practice in Somerset County. She is a member of the Somerset County Bar Association and was awarded the Chief Richard Z. Voorhees Award for Child Advocacy in 2011.
Meghan Musso is an experienced litigator at the law firm Connell Foley, LLP, where she advises on matters involving environmental liability, mass tort defense, product liability, insurance defense, and corporate and commercial disputes. A lifelong Somerset County resident, she resides in Basking Ridge with her family.
Daniel Puntillo is the past President of Friends of Somerset County Youth, Inc., our parent organization. In 2012, Daniel retired as Executive Director of Middle Earth after serving the young people of Somerset County for over 40 years. Dan and his family live in Somerville.
Mary C. Jacobson has been a Somerset County resident for over thirty years although the majority of her legal career was based in Mercer County. Mary served in the Attorney General’s office in Trenton for over twenty years, including time supervising appeals in child protection cases. After being appointed as a judge in the Superior Court of New Jersey, she served in Essex and Mercer Counties, including stints as Presiding Judge of the Family Division and Assignment Judge in Mercer County. She retired from the bench in 2021.