KELLYN BOARD OF DIRECTORS
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Eric FontanezEric Fontanez, Principal of Marvine Elementary School, a car enthusiast with a fun loving daughter. He was born and raised in Bethlehem by his mother, an elementary school teacher and his father, a Bethlehem Steel worker. In the Fontanez household education came before everything else. After high school Eric knew he wanted to teach so he attended Kutztown University where he received a degree in Elementary Education. He was fortunate enough to find a teaching position in the Bethlehem Area School District where he spent the next nine years.
Working with a classroom of students wasn’t enough; Eric wanted to be able to make a bigger difference. Eric became the Assistant Principal of Fountain Hill Elementary School at the age of 31. He then went on to become the Principle of William Penn Elementary School before moving to his current position at Marvine Elementary. Eric is very involved with the community. He has been an Executive Board Member at the Hispanic Center of the Lehigh Valley since 2013. He’s also an active member of the Mayor’s Latino Advisory Committee and the Northside Citizen’s Committee. Eric’s involvement with these committees allows him to give back and strengthen the community he was raised in. Eric is proud to be working in the district where he grew up. Being a bilingual Hispanic, he values diversity and believes all students have the potential to learn when given the right tools. His main priority is helping his students become productive citizens in the wonderful city of Bethlehem. |
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Jeff FrankJeff Frank is the farmer and owner (with his wife Kristin Illick) of Liberty Gardens in Coopersburg, PA. Since 2000 they have been producing vegetables for the Lehigh Valley and New York City markets. They specialize in intensive growing practices on their small acreage.
Jeff serves on the board of the Lehigh County Seed Farm, an incubator for new farmers in the region, and is active in education initiatives on the farm and in other settings. He is past president of the Emmaus Farmers' Market and has served on the boards of several food and agriculture related organizations. Prior to farming, Jeff worked for seven years for GrowNYC as a project manager and environmental educator. He helped teach thousands of New York City students the skills needed to effect environmental change in their schools and communities. He served on the boards of the Environmental Education Advisory Council, the Newtown Creek Citizens Advisory Committee and several other organizations. He is the author of "Urban Environmental Education," and "Ozone Air Pollution: Study and Action." Jeff attended the University of Michigan where he earned a BA in history and an MS in Natural Resource Policy and Behavior. He lives in Bethlehem with his wife, Kristin, and their two children. |
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Meagan L. Grega, MD, FACLM, DipABLMMeagan L. Grega, MD, FACLM, is the Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer of Kellyn Foundation (www.kellyn.org), a 501(c)3 non-profit dedicated to making the Healthy Choice the Easy Choice. Kellyn provides school-based healthy lifestyle education and “Garden as a Classroom” programs; supports access to nutrient-dense produce and delicious plant-powered prepared meals via the Eat Real Food Mobile Market; engages participants in hands-on, plant-based cooking classes in community settings and offers intensive therapeutic lifestyle change interventions for individuals and families. She is a summa cum laude graduate of Bucknell University with a B.S. in Biochemistry/Cell Biology and earned her MD degree from the University of Pennsylvania Medical School.
Dr. Grega spent several years as a medical officer in the United States Navy, attaining the rank of Lieutenant Commander before resigning from active-duty service. She has been a staff Family Physician at Hunterdon Medical Center, the Director of Women's Health Services at Lafayette College and is currently the Managing Director of Llantrisant Retreat and Wellness Center (www.llantrisantretreat.com), the home of Kellyn Foundation. She has been a featured speaker at American College of Lifestyle Medicine Annual Conferences and frequently lectures on the topics of Lifestyle Medicine at colleges, universities, hospital Grand Rounds, medical residency programs and community forums. Mentoring residents, medical, dietician and nursing students is one of her passions. She is honored to serve as faculty for the St. Luke’s University Health Network Anderson Campus Family Medicine and Internal Medicine Residency programs, Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine for the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University and as faculty advisor for the LKSOM/SLUHN medical student Lifestyle Medicine Interest Group (LMIG). She is a member of the True Health Initiative Council of Directors, the current conference chair for the American College of Lifestyle Medicine Annual Meeting and serves as a member of several national task force groups dedicated to the expansion of evidence-based lifestyle medicine services. Dr. Grega is a member of the American Academy of Family Physicians, a Fellow of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, serves on the governing Board of the American Board of Lifestyle Medicine, and is board certified in both Family Medicine and Lifestyle Medicine. Child/Family health in general, and the obesity epidemic in particular, are issues in which Dr. Grega has had a long-standing interest. She believes the benefits of regular exercise, adequate sleep, supportive social connections, healthy food choices and the art of balance are the keys to improving our children’s future, as well as our own. Towards that end, she is committed to finding practical solutions that can be implemented by families and communities to strengthen each other physically, emotionally and spiritually. |
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Kaitlyn Pauly, MS, RD, DipACLMKaitlyn Pauly, MS, RD currently serves as the Senior Director of Engagement and Administration at the American College of Lifestyle Medicine. As a registered dietitian with an undergraduate degree in marketing, Kaitlyn has held a variety of positions including those in higher education, food service, clinical weight management, veterans health services, medical professional non-profits, and corporate wellness. As a diplomate of lifestyle medicine, she is committed to supporting and empowering individual, community, national and global wellbeing through evidence-based and practical approaches to health and healthcare. Kaitlyn enjoys a number of outdoor activities including snowboarding, mountain biking, trail running, camping and hiking in the beautiful Pacific Northwest where she lives with her husband Todd and their two dogs.
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Melissa RecchiaMelissa Plantone Recchia is the Supervisor and Corporate Secretary at Strunk Funeral Home, Inc. She has been a licensed funeral director since 1991. She is a graduate of Easton Area High School, and continued her studies at Temple University before graduating from Northampton Community College in 1990 with a certificate in Funeral Service.
Melissa is a member of St. Paul's Lutheran Church, South Easton, where she currently chairs the Mutual Ministry committee, is active on the Safe Harbor committee that volunteers to make and serve food on a monthly basis, and was a former co-leader of the Junior Youth Group. She has served on the Alumni Board at Northampton Community College for over ten years, where she currently serves on the Executive Board, chairs the Alumni/Student Outreach committee, and was a former chair of the Fundraising committee and the White House Dinner committee. Melissa has also volunteered for IU 20 as an educational surrogate parent for several years. Interests include reading, cooking, yoga and pilates. She and her husband, Nicholas, Jr., reside in Palmer Township with their three children, Alayna, Andrew and Alisyn. |
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Marc RittleMarc Rittle is Executive Director of New Bethany Ministries, lives locally on the West Side of Bethlehem. Marc has been in non-profit leadership for over a decade, most recently as Vice President at United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley. A champion for housing and food security issues, Marc works together with local partners to solve critical social issues. He co-founded the Lehigh Valley Food Policy Council and is a steering committee member of the Lehigh Valley Regional Homeless Advisory Board. Prior to non-profit work, Marc taught adjunct Sociology courses at Loyola University Chicago and other Chicago area universities, writing original course content in topics such as “Sociology of Poverty.” Marc is married to Sarah Andrew, a Bethlehem native and local attorney. Sarah and Marc have two children attending Bethlehem Area School District.
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Eric RuthEric J. Ruth is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Kellyn Foundation. The well-being of children raised in today's world has been a significant influence in his life. Raising three children, teaching thousands more and seeing the habits, pressures and influences on our children and families, has led Eric to co-found the Kellyn Foundation.
Mr. Ruth is a graduate of the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts. Eric served fifteen years in the accounting field focused on the management and operational side of business, rising to C-Level positions. Eric took that knowledge base into the fledgling Internet industry, where he spent ten years with a strong emphasis in developing relationships with customers, primarily in the healthcare arena. The combination of a strong management, financial, and marketing background provides Eric with unique, wide-ranging business expertise. Eric is responsible for providing the vision and the resources to sustain the initiatives for Kellyn. He also loves spending time in the neighborhoods with community members or interacting with groups of children or families. In partnership with co-founder Meagan Grega, MD, they provide the leadership for the Kellyn “Healthy Neighborhood Immersion Strategy” Currently, Mr. Ruth is the co-chair of the Lehigh Valley Food Policy Council and serves on many of the task groups of that entity. He is also a member of the Rotary Club of Easton |