Ann Vipamaneerut is the owner of Rice Factory, a restaurant in Milltown, New Jersey featuring Thai foods. Her given name is Vilailuck Vipamaneerut, but all of the patrons and friends affectionately know her as Ann. Ann, who is 54 years old, has lived in the United States for over 27 years, and earned a Masters Degree in Business Administration from Saginaw Valley University in Michigan in 1996. After returning to Thailand, she came back to the United States in 2000 where she and her husband Paul worked as servers in a restaurant. On November 4th, 2014, they decided to start their own business and opened the Rice Factory. They have been serving customers with their unique dishes ever since.

Bea Lurie is the daughter of two child Holocaust survivors, her father, Sol, and her mother, Evelyn Rebecca Lurie, whose parents escaped from Poland with two toddlers. Bea learned by her parents’ actions the importance of helping those in need and devoted her career to making a difference in the lives of others as a leader of nonprofit organizations and government agencies, and as an owner of two businesses. Bea also is an active volunteer in her community and at her local synagogue. LIFE MUST GO On is the remarkable story of Sol Lurie, a child survivor of six concentration camps during the Holocaust, who continues to be a beacon of hope. After a bucolic childhood in Kovno, Lithuania, Sol was just eleven when the Nazis invaded and he and his family were forced to move into the Kovno Ghetto. The Kovno Ghetto was one of the only ghettos to later become a concentration camp, and Sol was among just a few Jewish survivors from Kovno. In this inspiring story of tenacity, character, faith, love, and forgiveness, we follow young Sol through heartbreak and fear, torment, and torture. Through Sol's eyes, we learn the history of the communities in Eastern Europe, especially Lithuania, which has in the wider history of the Holocaust. Along the way, we meet the righteous few who helped save young Sol's life. After being imprisoned in six other concentration camps for a total of four years, Sol was liberated from Buchenwald on his 15th birthday. To this day, he still joyfully celebrates every year the day he was born and liberated. Miraculously, Sol’s three brothers and his father also survived the Holocaust. Her inspiring story was written with Dr. Steven Leonard Jacobs, also a child of survivors and genocide scholar.

Jonathan Hunger is the author of Agitate!, a revealing memoir of how he was able to overcome his fears by the example of Frederick Douglass. Jonathan is a native New Yorker who grew up primarily in New Jersey. He attended the University of Maryland for his undergraduate degree, and soon after spent a year working on construction as part of AmeriCorps with Habitat for Humanity. Following his term of service, he attended The College of New Jersey where he received his Master of Arts in Education, and spent the next ten years working in public schools in New Jersey and Maryland. After realizing that teaching was ultimately not the right fit for him, he returned to graduate school to pursue a career in international relations. Surprisingly, however, instead of finding work in international affairs, Jonathan ended up in a park ranger trainee position with the Department of the Interior at the Frederick Douglass Historic Site in Washington, DC. and it was this experience that inspired him to write his first book. Jonathan lives in the Baltimore suburbs with his family.

Renee Weingarten is the creator and founder of Renee’s Reading Club, featured on Facebook, since 2017. Today, the club has over 62,000 members with members in every state in the United States and in over thirty countries around the world. Renee’s Reading Club is a site for sharing book recommendations, monthly “new book” release announcements and the popular live weekly author “Facebook Live” events throughout the year. Many well-known authors are members of the club who participate in these events. Renee, an avid reader, has been a librarian for over forty years and lives in Atlantic Beach with her husband of 43 years and their Goldendoodle, Sophie. They are the proud parents of two and grandparents of three young children.

MARIO FRONZONI was born on Valentine’s Day in Elizabeth, New Jersey. A resident of East Brunswick, New Jersey for 43 years, Mario is married, the father of two, and grandfather of three grandchildren. After retiring from a career as a professional engineer in Mechanical Engineering and Management, and after securing five US patents, and, as lead engineer on the latest aircraft carrier (CVN 78) steam condensers for the US Navy, Mario began to pursue his passion for sports in earnest. In particular, he has become a leader in promoting the current national craze for pickleball. Mario reveals his knowledge of this popular sport and thoughts on why so many people, young and old, are obsessed with this form of exercise and recreation.

MILT HEUMANN received a BA from Brooklyn College in 1968, and a Ph.D. from Yale University in 1976. He taught as an assistant and associate professor at the University of Michigan from 1973 to 1980, was a Guggenheim Fellow at Yale Law School from 1980 to 1981, and has been a professor (1981), and then Distinguished Professor (2013) at Rutgers until the present. He was Chair of the Department of Political Science at Rutgers from 19997 to 2003. During the 1980’s and 1990’s he was also an occasional Visiting Lecturer (for courses on criminal sentencing) at Yale Law School. Professor Heumann has written extensively in the field of criminal justice, and more recently also in the “right to privacy.”

Supreme Court Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson cited Prof. Heumann’s research extensively in her undergraduate honors thesis at Harvard College, another indicator of his lasting impact on undergraduate students.

Sarah Esposito, PA-C, is a certified Physician Associate at Integrated Dermatology of NJ, located in East Brunswick, New Jersey.

Sarah received her Bachelor's degree in biological sciences from the University of Delaware. She then graduated with a Master’s degree in Physician Assistant Studies from Seton Hall University, where she was awarded membership in the prestigious Alpha Eta Honors Society, the National Honors Society for Allied Health Practitioners.

Prior to joining Integrated Dermatology of NJ, Sarah worked in emergency medicine for over three years. She has trained extensively in dermatology since joining the specialty in 2014. In addition to medical dermatology, Sarah is skilled in the surgical removal of skin lesions and cancers.

Dee Gwiazdowski has been in the design field for thirty-two years, nineteen of which have been with Ethan Allen as a Design Consultant. This is a second career for Dee. She is both passionate and dedicated to creating spaces that are well designed, functional and reflect her client's lifestyle and needs. Each of her projects takes into consideration the rooms' architecture and furnishings that her client wishes to incorporate into the design. Dee is a Diamond Spirit and Gold Spirit award winner.