Alejandra Antoine joined JLOSH in 2019 and currently serves as the Assistant Vice President of Community and will step up to be the Vice President of Community programs in the 2022-2023 Junior League year.  Alejandra joined JLOSH as an opportunity to give back to the community and learn more about running a non-profit.

What is your favorite thing you’ve done/learned/experienced with JLOSH?
Several projects come to mind, my first project was the provisional project we completed at Seth Boyden, building out their nurses pantry. I also really enjoyed the Grant process from the 2020-21 award, learning about the organizations and seeing the work being done in the community.

Tell us about where you're from and your life outside of JLOSH.
I was born in Washington, DC and lived in Maryland, Dominican Republic, and Florida before making my way to NJ. I moved to NJ in 2002 for work and have lived in West Orange for the past 8 years.  Outside of JLOSH, my first job is household CEO/COO.  I’ve worked for NBC for nearly 20 years, my current role is VP of Digital Analytics.

What's your favorite local restaurant?
Lorena’s in Maplewood and Serenade in Chatham (great vegetable panache)

What is your favorite movie of all time?
No favorite movie but I love Pixar and Illumination animated movies.

What are your hobbies / what do you like to do for fun?
In the spring and summer, I love gardening.

Tell us a little bit about your home life (family, pets, kids, etc)
Home life is busy! I’m the mom of two boys, Julian (8) and Nicolas (6).

Alizeta Diallo is a brand new member to JLOSH, only joining a few months ago.  She joined JLOSH in search of building friendships and learning more about the community in which she lives.  The JLOSH mission to help children in the Oranges and developing its women leaders was also a big factor in her choosing to become a member amongst other local non-profit organizations. Alizeta currently serves on our fundraising committee. 

What is your favorite thing you’ve done/learned/experienced with JLOSH?
As a new member, and having volunteered to only few events, I was amazed to experience the sense of community/family amongst members, kind of like once a member, always a member. At the November general membership meeting in Orange, NJ, It was refreshing/empowering to meet members who grew into leaders in their careers and/or pursuing their own passion like founding their own nonprofit (MEND & Warehouse).
Members lookout and support each others in several ways. Upon mentioning my desire to continue speaking French, one member introduce me to a group that meets to practice French.

Tell us about where you're from and your life outside of JLOSH.
I am a native of Burkina Faso, a West African French speaking country and moved to Montreal, Canada when I was a teenager.  I eventually made my way to Washington DC with a deep desire to learn English where I took intensive language classes and learned the language in 6 months!  I then went on to get a Bachelor's in Business Administration from Howard University.  I was hired on campus by a NYC Investment Banking firm and after looking for apartments in NYC & NJ, I fell in love with New Jersey. My 1st apartment was in Elizabeth, NJ. When I got married and decided to have a family, Maplewood was the right place to buy a house and raise a family.

Before the pandemic, I was in Guinea West Africa working with Peace Corps and was evacuated back to New Jersey in March 2020. Upon my return, I accepted a position as an Emergency Project Manager with FEMA. Outside my work hours, I volunteer for a nonprofit, HIP, where I am an active as well as a board member. I also volunteer for an association who tends to the needs of the Burkina be community (where I am originally from). As a certified Project Management Professional (PMP), I also attend and volunteer (as needed) at my professional association:  Project Management Institute (PMI). Earlier this month, I volunteered for the NJ Center for Nonprofit annual conference which brings together over 500 individuals and nonprofits for the 2-days event filled with informational webinars on the Nonprofit world.

What is your favorite movie of all time?
Pretty Woman

What are your hobbies / what do you like to do for fun?
I like dancing/workout: Zumba; I also enjoy going to the movies with my family which was not possible last year.  

Tell us a little bit about your home life (family, pets, kids, etc)
I am married with 02 kids. My daughter is a Junior a Columbia High school where she is also a Cheerleader. My son is in 4th grade at Tuscan and loves playing soccer.

Sara Thom is one of JLOSH's Sustainer members that has been part of the league since 2004.  She was invited to JLOSH by another member (Sara D'Andrea) who at the time both had preschool aged children.  She had been volunteering on a domestic violence hotline. It wasn’t close by, and she was paying a babysitter every week in order to volunteer. When she learned that JLOSH had domestic violence programming and family friendly events, she said "I want to hear more!"

Tell us about where you're from and what led you here. 
I grew up in a small town in Wisconsin called Beaver Dam, not far from Madison. I went to college at Brown, and then got my Master’s in Public Health Policy at UNC-Chapel Hill. After grad school, I moved to the DC area, where I worked on health reform first at the Department of Health and Human Services, then spent a few years working on social policy issues on Capitol Hill, and later moved to a think tank. I took about 8 years off from paid work to raise my kids, and during that time we moved to Park Slope, Brooklyn. Once my second child was born, we were bursting out of our apartment, and moved to Maplewood.

What do you do outside of JLOSH?
I work for a nonprofit called Bedtime Math Foundation, which was founded by former JLOSH president Laura Overdeck (who was in my provisional class). We’re working to change our culture and help kids love math, and we do that by creating high-energy, kid-appealing activities, games, books, apps and more. We’ve got several other amazing former JLOSH members and sustainers on our team, including Sandy LoPiccolo, Joy Kalfus, and Maura Bigelow. Junior Leaguers know how to get the job done! In terms of volunteering, I’m the Chair of the Board of Trustees of Advocates for Children of New Jersey. ACNJ advocates for policies and legislation that help kids in our state grow up safe, healthy, and educated. During the pandemic, they’ve been instrumental in securing funding to keep child care centers operating, and they helped get New Jersey’s new home visitation law passed. I also co-facilitate a support group for parents in the Maplewood-South Orange community who have teen or young adult children with mental health challenges. It’s a chapter of a larger organization, and we bring in speakers and provide opportunities for parents to share their experiences and resources with one another.

What's your favorite thing you've done/learned/experienced with JLOSH?
I’m very proud of the work Karen Hilton and I did to spearhead the resource fair for Essex County teens aging out of foster care, which was a partnership with the Junior League of Montclair-Newark. The program became a model for similar resource fairs in every county in New Jersey, and our leagues received an AJLI Vision Award for it in 2013. The partnership came about because I’d gotten to know women in other leagues through my placement on SPAC (State & Public Affairs Committee). The Junior League network is powerful, and serving on SPAC is a great way to get to know some dynamic, smart, interesting women from other NJ Leagues.

What is your favorite local restaurant?
Begum Palace in Madison has really delicious, authentic Indian food. My friend and former JLOSH member Sumukah Ravishankar introduced me to it before she moved VA a few years ago.

What is your favorite movie of all time?
Before Sunrise. Or pretty much any movie by Wes Anderson.

What are your hobbies / what do you like to do for fun?
Read, cook, drink good wine, hang out with friends, watch movies with my husband.

Tell us a little bit about your home life (family, pets, kids, etc).
My son Peter is a senior at Rutgers and my daughter Ellie is a freshman at West Chester University, so my husband Marc and I are new empty nesters.  We’ve got 2 cats to keep us company.

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Taryn Sullivan is new to JLOSH within the last year and is currently on the Membership committee and is really enjoying brainstorming ways to expand the membership.  Taryn joined JLOSH because she has moved around a lot in her life and now that she is settled in New Jersey, she wanted to find a way to build a community of like minded women and have opportunities to serve and give back. 
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Tell us about where you're from and your life outside of JLOSH.
Born in Arizona, daughter to two Air Force officers, which took us all over the US with a good stint in Michigan and then high school in Florida. Studied Chinese language and literature and Asian studies at GW in Washington, DC, where I met my now husband of 16 years! We lived in Providence, RI, Cleveland, OH, and Northern Virginia, but spent most of my time working with factories in China. Vietnam, India, Turkey and Brazil. After 8 years in manufacturing and supply chain, I founded a startup focused on improving supply chain efficiency that ended up being a bit ahead of its time, but led my career into software product management and operations. I helped reposition, grow and sell an educational robotics company, and then did that again for another educational software company. We landed in the NY/NJ area because of the acquisition, where I joined Google and am now a product manager leading education innovation efforts.  While I love my work and find it rewarding, I try to stay active outside of work too! I am a very active member of my church, a lightweight member of the elementary PTA helping to raise money, and take piano lessons. 

What is your favorite local restaurant?
The Order in South Orange. They have all kinds of food but their buttermilk biscuit breakfast sandwiches are the best!

What is your favorite movie of all time?
Tie between Moana and the Iron Lady. Moana is such a great story and the shiny crab cracks me up. “You know who you are” is my mantra. And the best quote from Iron Lady is “what we think, we become” Check out the scene here.

What are your hobbies / what do you like to do for fun?
I love playing basketball - need to find an adult league when things open back up. I also love the beach, walks in the woods, skiing, jogging and biking recreationally. Our family also plays a lot of music - so singing, piano, drums, guitar and bass can often be heard on a Saturday afternoon coming from our house. I also love to travel, but it was hard when the kids were small. We are excited the kids are getting older so we can go on fun adventures together! 

Tell us a little bit about your home life (family, pets, kids, etc)
My husband, Nate is my best friend. He’s a Rhode Islander that studied political science and is now in product marketing (but hopes to start a software company soon). He is hilarious and super emotionally aware and open. Rare find. We have two children, Mary is 5 and Sam is 4. We packed them in tight just 16 months apart and so far so good, as they are best buddies. Betty, our nanny, has been with us since Mary was 4 months old and has moved with us four times. She’s truly part of the family, and the kids call her “Betty Sullivan”. She has two grown boys that live back home in Senegal and Zambia.  We used to have two cats, but they both passed just prior to moving to this area. My husband says that they endured and thrived through so many moves and life changes, and were ready to graduate.  We hope to get a dog someday when the kids are old enough to take them out in the cold. :) (the Florida girl in me, I suppose)