Dr. James W. Brown

Chair, GlobalDLA.org Advisory Board

Dr. James W. Brown is designated “One of the Top 40 Innovators in Education”​ by the Center for Digital Education. He loves teaching face-to-face or online and enjoys nurturing that next generation of college students to go on in science, health care or public health. He has been dubbed “The Godfather of Online Science” by Linda Jeschofnig CEO of Hands-On Labs, Inc. for his advocacy and pioneer work to delivering science courses completely online and opening the door to a science education through the world wide web.

He his a former college/university dean at OCC and NJCU, director of microbiology at Roche, vice president of a biotech corporation, and NJ Assistant Commissioner of Health. Chair of the Leadership Committee of the Global Distance Learning Association (GlobalDLA.org)!

Sara Spector

NYDLA, Advisory Board Member

Sara Spector has resided in the Midland area for fifteen years and has sat on numerous local charitable boards including a charter member of Midland Teen Court. Ms. Spector is a former child abuse prosecutor and utilizes her extensive knowledge of both sides of the criminal justice system to ensure the best outcome in every case.

Ms. Spector has received numerous honors and was asked to teach Grand Rounds to Southwestern Medical School in Dallas to teach the Professors and students how to recognize Munchausen by Proxy signs in parents. Ms. Spector was also featured in a Texas Monthly
article about a case she prosecuted.

Frank Sonnenberg

NYDLA, Advisory Board Member, Author

Frank Sonnenberg is an award-winning author and a well-known advocate for moral character, personal values, and personal responsibility. He has written eight books and has been named one of “America’s Top 100 Thought Leaders” and one of “America’s Most Influential Small Business Experts.” Frank has served on several boards and has consulted with some of the largest and most respected companies in the world. Frank’s newest book, Listen to Your Conscience: That’s Why You Have One, was released in November 2020.

Additionally, his blog — FrankSonnenbergOnline— has attracted millions of readers on the Internet. It was recently named one of the “Top Self-Improvement and Personal Development Blogs” in the world, and it continues to be named among the “Best 21st Century Leadership Blogs,” the “Top 100 Socially-Shared Leadership Blogs,” and the “Best Inspirational Blogs On the Planet.”

Beth Fitzgerald

NYDLA, Advisory Board Member

Life and Career Strategist. Coach. Author. Teacher. International Speaker. Master EFT Practitioner. Entrepreneur. She is a certified life coach, certified John Maxwell Coach, Master EFT Practitioner, Positive EFT Practitioner, international speaker, and trainer. She brings years of experience from her time working on Wall Street at a small boutique hedge fund, then at Prudential Financial in the Portfolio Management Department, and finally in The World Trade Center where she managed the internal sales force for Oppenheimer Management.

In addition to her corporate experience, she has twenty-plus years as the mother of four children. She has been coaching clients and writing her blog for over six years now. She has worked with every client from recovering drug addicts to Wall Street executives and she has identified one common thread amongst us all–although we all want to be happy and successful, we first need to be loved and accepted. This book was written with that in mind.

Dave Crane

NYDLA, Advisory Board Member

Dave is best defined as a Communications and Engagement Expert because his coaching sessions create results in record times. His speaking style quickly engages audiences and individuals to change and think differently. His presentations are thought provoking, entertaining, insightful, and straight to the point. Participants at his events are always left with a strong urge to take action.

He is a master in the art of entertainment. He can immediately create engagement and infuse focus, energy, and a learning environment with audiences of all nationalities and languages. Even when working with 13 simultaneous translators.

Dave has been professionally engaging audiences of all ages since he was 3 and has hosted events for over 15 million individuals from over 117 countries on 5 different continents. His TV footprint is closer to 2 billion viewers. Simply, Google his name and you’ll find among the many 1,000s of results, he is listed as winning ‘Blind Date’, one of the UKTV’s first reality TV shows, working with stars like James Brown, Bruce Willis, and Sting and hosting global events like Emirates Airline Dubai Rugby Sevens for over20 years.

Steve Olenski

NYDLA, Advisory Board Member

Like his older siblings, Steve Olenski began his professional career in the supermarket industry where he learned the value of rolling up his sleeves and getting one’s hands dirty. Eventually migrating to the white-collar world, Steve never forgot his blue-collar roots and “getting dirty” and putting in a hard day’s work

Having never graduated college, Steve fought his way to working in marketing departments of the biggest brands in the world including Oracle as well as creative director on the agency side. Moreover, Steve earned a place among the world’s most influential journalists and writers who have written for many leading publications for over 10 years including Advertising Age, Adweek, Business Insider, and Forbes. Over that time he has amassed a close network of executives and thought leaders that are second to none. He has been referred to as “The Distiller of Truth” and “The CMO Whisperer” by the former CMO of Walmart and Prudential. The CMO of the Grammys calls him “…one of marketing’s definitive authorities” while the CMO of PayPal says of him “I value his partnership, skillset, and experience.

From CMOs and business leaders from the world’s biggest brands to celebrities and athletes, Steve’s innate ability to instantly put people at ease while dispensing his unparalleled level of real-world experience and knowledge make him, as one business leader called him: A unicorn. No one is more attuned to the state of marketing than Steve.

Marshall Makstein

NYDLA, Advisory Board Member

As a longtime presentation evangelist and a true believer in the power of a well-designed presentation, it only makes sense that Marsh initiated the concept that would become eSlide. While the business world was on the “Death by PowerPoint” bandwagon, Marshall felt strongly enough about well-designed presentations that he decided that it was time a company specialized in PowerPoint design and production. Marshall believes that presentations are a critical corporate communication tool, and promotes the idea that effective PowerPoint can actually bring LIFE to ideas and organizations. In his 20+ years in the industry, he has seen many examples of the influence a good presentation can have on a company. He has seen great presentations motivate firms to survive tough challenges, and has witnessed stock prices soar after a strong presentation by company leadership teams.

Along with a B.S. degree in Organizational Communication, Marshall brings a unique combination of creative, technical, and managerial talent that provides clients with effective and efficiently produced visual media. When not in front of a computer screen, Marshall can be found fishing or just floating around the Navesink River on the Jersey Shore with his wife and two daughters. In the winter he hibernates and dreams about warmer weather.

Tom Abogabal

NYDLA, Advisory Board Member

Tom leverages his 18+ years experience in enterprise sales & consulting in EdTech to focus on making technology and programming education accessible to people of all ages and backgrounds by establishing strategic corporate, academic, and government partnerships. Tom assists the CEO and Advisory Board in identifying, securing, and growing partnerships that bring value to NYDLA’s membership of 5 million+ and portfolio of strategic partners.

He believes that there is an intrinsic and inescapable connection between education and opportunity, but more so that there are right kinds of education for the opportunities of the 21st century – and that everyone should have that chance to seize them. The tools & languages that power the digital economy are essential – regardless of one’s academic and professional background – to meet the demands of employers and society today as well as tomorrow. Employers, Universities, Governments, and Students are all essential parts of the equation to ensure the growth of our society, economy, competitive advantage, and opportunity stream.

Tom studied at Rutgers & Cornell universities and currently lives in Wall, NJ where he enjoys taking advantage of all that the Jersey Shore has to offer, volunteering, playing tennis & golf, and spending time with his family and friends. An avid world traveler, Tom has been to over 60 countries which have helped shape his worldview on education and he is fluent in English, Arabic, and French (and looking to add Spanish to his brain server).

Jon Horovitz

NYDLA, Advisory Board Member

Jonathan (Jon) Horovitz is a successful sales executive and leader, specializing in building strong teams, revenue attainment, consultative selling, distribution development, operations, and contract negotiations in the mobile industry. He is the principal consultant at Atrium Unlimited, LLC which he founded in 2006 after successful careers as Vice President and General Manager at AT&T Wireless (McCaw Communications) and Area Vice President for the New York Area for Nextel Communications.

Jon was recently Director of Prepaid Sales for Boost Mobile in the Northeast, growing the sales, revenue, and branded Boost retail locations for Sprint. Prior to that, he served as Senior Vice President of Sales and Channel Partners for Unwired Nation (Austin, Texas), a financial services mobile applications provider, where he built a financially focused national sales team to secure mobile banking applications in the community banks and credit unions.

Under his direction as Area Vice President for the New York Area at Nextel Communications, Jon and his team of Sales Directors, Managers, and sales representatives grew the net consumer base from 200K subscribers to over 900K subscribers in less than three years and delivered almost $1 billion in revenue. Along with introducing the first prepaid wireless service for the company (Boost Mobile with over 300K new customers in year one), he reduced fraud, churn, and bad debt in the very challenging New York wireless market.

Mr. Horovitz holds a BBA from The College of William & Mary Mason School of Business. He is a Scholar Member of the Gerson Lehrman Consulting Group and has published one book.

Mitchell D. Erickson, Ph.D.

NYDLA, Advisory Board Member

Mitch is a chemist with specific expertise in environmental science. He is a strong advocate of distance learning for academic, occupational, avocational, and recreational learners.

Mitch has held multiple volunteering positions for his alma mater, Grinnell College, and received their Alumni Award in 2007. He has held numerous volunteer positions for the Boy Scouts of America. He is a passionate proponent of STEM, notably for BSA.
Dr. Erickson is a Science Advisor (Senior Executive) for DHS Science and Technology. He establishes trusted partnerships with other agencies so that we can leverage each other’s resources and investments. The Partnership is his currency; cost-savings are the result.

Dr. Erickson has had various technical and management positions. Notably, he was the Director of DHS’ National Urban Security Technology Laboratory in New York City for over a decade. Dr. Erickson’s research career was in environmental science and analytical chemistry. He earned his Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry from the University of Iowa. Dr. Erickson holds one patent and is the author of over 150 technical publications, including two books–Analytical Chemistry of PCBs and Remediation of PCB Spills.

Lee Cockerell

NYDLA, Advisory Board Member
& Disney, Exec Vice President

Lee Cockerell is the former Executive Vice President of Operations for the Walt Disney World® Resort. “As the Senior Operating Executive for ten years, Lee led a team of 40,000 Cast Members and was responsible for the operations of 20 resort hotels, 4 theme parks, 2 water parks, a shopping & entertainment village, and the ESPN sports and recreation complex in addition to the ancillary operations which supported the number one vacation destination in the world.”

Lee has served as Chairman of the Board of Heart of Florida United Way, the Board of Trustees for The Culinary Institute of America (CIA), the board of the Production and Operations Management Society, and the board of Reptilia a Canadian attractions and entertainment company. In 2005 Governor Bush appointed Lee to the Governor’s Commission on Volunteerism and Public Service for the state of Florida where he served as Chairman of the Board.

He is now dedicating his time to public speaking, authoring a book on leadership, management, and service excellence titled, Creating Magic…10 Common Sense Leadership Strategies from a Life at Disney. which is now available in 13 languages and his latest book, The Customer Rules…The 39 Essential Rules for Delivering Sensational Service. Lee also performs leadership and service excellence workshops and consulting for organizations around the world as well as for the Disney Institute.