Isles, Inc.
Board of Trustees

Linda Warder Revelle is Chair of Isles' Board of Trustees.  She is principal of Revelle Management Training Associates, a training and development firm that specializes in staff and executive training.  She is also an internal consultant for the New Jersey Judiciary. She previously held advertising and marketing positions with Prudential, Dow Jones and Nabisco. She joined Isles' Board of Trustees in 2004.

Robert Harris is Vice Chair of Isles’ Board of Trustees and Co-Chair of the Isles Capital Campaign. He is a principal and co-founder of the ENVIRON International Corp., based in Princeton. He has over 25 years’ experience in the areas of environmental health and engineering, with particular emphasis on water and air pollution, and hazardous waste issues. He has served on Isles’ Board of Trustees since 2001.

Manish H. Shah is Treasurer of Isles’ Board of Trustees. He is a financial representative with Northwestern Mutual Financial Network as well as a Certified Pension Consultant and Certified Estate Planner. Before that, he worked as managing partner and founder of The Source and as president of McCleary Trading Corp. He joined Isles’ Board of Trustees in 2004.

Brian Trelstad is Secretary of Isles’ Board of Trustees.He is the chief investment officer at Acumen Fund. Previously, he was a consultant at McKinsey & Company in the healthcare and non-profit practices and editor of the McKinsey Quarterly. He wrote case studies at Stanford University’s Center for Entrepreneurial Studies and advised early-stage technology companies. He was lead environmental staffer for President Clinton’s AmeriCorps program and co-founded the Center for Environmental Citizenship. He joined Isles’ Board of Trustees in 2004.

Dr. Kemi Alli is the senior pediatrician at the Henry J. Austin Health Center in Trenton, where she has worked since 1998. She is also a champion physician with the New Jersey Statewide Asthma Coalition and the coordinator for the Reach Out and Read program (ROR), a national program she initiated that promotes early literacy by providing new books in pediatric exam rooms and advice to parents about the importance of reading aloud. She joined Isles’ Board of Trustees in 2006.

April Aaronson is director of policy, planning and evaluation for the New Jersey Department of Human Services in Trenton. Formerly, she directed the Mercer County Department of Human Services and served as deputy director of the Division of Youth and Family Services in the NJ Department of Human Services. Prior to her state and county roles, she served as Director of Health and Human Services for Trenton. She lives in Trenton and joined Isles’ board in 2008.

T. Missy Balmir is special assistant to the Commissioner of the Department of Human Services of the State of New Jersey. Previously, she was director of Intergovernmental Affairs in the Office of Gov. Jon S. Corzine. She has worked in government at the congressional, state, and local levels for the past five years. She joined Isles’ Board of Trustees in 2007.

Ted Brown is an inspector with the Trenton Department of Inspections. Previously, he worked as assistant site director for the Isles’ YouthBuild Institute. He graduated from the YouthBuild Institute in 2005, and joined Isles’ Board of Trustees in 2007.

Edward J. Butler is a juvenile corrections program expert with more than 20 years of educational, recreational management and military experiences, including extensive administration and training of youth, staff and clients. A Trenton resident, he joined Isles’ board in 2008; he was senior vice president of Isles from 2001 to 2005, managing the Isles’ YouthBuild Institute. He has a 17-year career as an officer in the U.S. Army National Guard and was honorably discharged in 1996.

Thomas Byrne is president of Byrne Asset Management, LLC in Princeton and has extensive background in the financial markets. He is an officer and trustee of the Fund for New Jersey and recently stepped down as board chair of the Princeton Academy of the Sacred Heart, a school he helped to found in 1999. He is on the New Jersey advisory board of the Regional Plan association and joined Isles’ board in 2008.

Bruce Coe served as president of the New Jersey Business and Industry Association, the nation’s largest employer association, from 1982–1996. He retired from Kidder, Peabody & Co., Inc. in 1975, after 20 years, including serving on the board of directors and the executive committee, to pursue a career in public service. He joined Isles’ Board of Trustees in 2005.

Jeannie Mae Davis is a clerk for the city of Trenton, where she assists with the coordination of various cultural and heritage affairs. Previously, she was a clerical trainee at Isles' YouthBuild Institute. She is also an active committee member for the Juvenile Conference Committee for the Mercer vicinage. She joined Isles’ Board of Trustees in 2005.

Liz Gray Erickson worked for Save the Children, where she co-founded Youth Noise – now a web-centered nonprofit that inspires and empowers young people to become a force for social change. She previously worked for American Express in marketing and Bloomberg Asia in sales. Liz joined Isles’ board in 2008 and also is a member of the board of directors of Youth Noise, Hands on Helpers and Kidsbridge Children’s Museum.

James B. Golden is the chief safety executive for the school district of Philadelphia. Previously, he was a federal security director with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. He worked in law enforcement for more than 32 years and is the former police director of the Trenton Police Department. He has served on Isles’ Board of Trustees since 2001.

Steven Goodell is a partner in the Princeton law firm Herbert, Van Ness, Cayci & Goodell. He has been a lawyer for 22 years. He began his career as an assistant Mercer County prosecutor and now represents municipalities, corporations and nonprofits in litigation and administrative matters. He joined Isles' Board of Trustees in 2005.

Rev. Karen Hernandez-Granzen has served as pastor of the Westminster Presbyterian Church in Trenton since 1995. She was instrumental in expanding Get Scholastic Enhancement Tutoring (Get S.E.T.), Partnering with Parents and all Trenton Youth connection (TYC) programs. Karen has extensive experience working as a youth director at Presbyterian churches in urban settings. Her work has brought her face to face with youth and gangs in Brooklyn, the San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago. She joined Isles’ board in 2008.

Martin Johnson is president and founder of Isles, a community development and environmental organization. Started in 1981, Isles was founded by Princeton University students and has received broad recognition for its work developing tools that families and neighborhoods use to build assets, restore the environment and achieve self-reliance.

Mr. Johnson is a founder and chairman of the New Jersey Regional Coalition, trustee of the Capital Health System, trustee of the Capital City Redevelopment Corporation, and trustee of the National Housing Institute. He is a former trustee and Executive Committee member of Princeton University, a founding director and former chairman of the New Jersey Community Loan Fund (now New Jersey Community Capital) and a founding trustee of the Housing and Community Development Network of NJ. He taught at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University from 1996-97. During that time, he co-founded the Success Measures Project, a national effort to re-think impact measures for community-building work.

A 1981 graduate of Princeton University, Mr. Johnson and his family have resided in Trenton for 26 years.

Eldar Shafir is a professor of psychology and public affairs at Princeton University. His research focuses on how people reason about, and make judgments and decisions in situations of risk and uncertainty. In recent years he has developed a particular interest in decision-making in the context of poverty. He joined Isles’ Board of Trustees in 2004.