Resident Elected to ANJEC Board of Trustees

East Brunswick resident Liti Haramaty was elected to the Board of Trustees of the Association of NJ Environmental Commissions (ANJEC) at the organization’s 39th annual Environmental Congress on Saturday, Oct. 20, at Middlesex County College.

Former Gov. James Florio addressed environmentalists from around the state who were assembled at the Congress, sharing his thoughts on the tremendous impact of the nation’s Clean Water Act since its passage 40 years ago, and the challenges New Jersey faces to ensure clean water for the future. Florio acknowledged the vital role that local environmental commissions play in protecting water quality in their communities.

“This year New Jersey’s environmental community has really come full circle,” said ANJEC Executive Director Sandy Batty. “Thanks to the Clean Water Act, the rivers are no longer ablaze with toxic chemicals as they were in 1972, but we are once again facing extreme threats to the vitality of our natural systems due to severe storms, an extended economic recession and a political climate that is unfriendly to the environment.”

Haramaty serves on the East Brunswick Environmental Commission and is a founding member of the Friends of the EB Environmental Commission, a non-profit organization dedicated to local environmental education and conservation. She is also co-founder of National Moth Week, a global citizen science project focusing on moths and biodiversity and has been involved in various environmental projects such as the East Brunswick amphibian protection plan, a project that includes observations of amphibians during spring migration in their habitat and presentations to school kids about the importance of protecting amphibians and local ecology.

Haramaty holds a Master of Science degree in Ecology, and has worked at SUNY Stony Brook and Brookhaven National Lab. She is employed at the Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers University, where she has been involved in a variety of research projects such as drug discovery from natural products, programmed cell death in phytoplankton, human effects on coral reefs.

Haramaty lives with her husband and two children in East Brunswick.

ANJEC members at the Congress also elected Nelson Dittmar, Jr. of Cranford Township to a second two-year term as president of the Board of Trustees. Nancy Tindall of Allentown was reelected Vice President of Operations for 2012-2013 and Marion McClary of West Milford Township accepted the office of Secretary.

In addition to Haramaty, ANJEC gained five other new trustees in the election, including: Renee Resky of Livingston, Leonard Berkowitz of Berkeley Heights Township, Thomas Gibbons of Jersey City, Nick D’Ambrosio of Montclair, and Kenneth Miller of Newark. Trustees who were reelected to additional three-year terms include Chris Allyn of Harding Township, Cliff Lundin of Andover Township, Gary Szelc of Fanwood and Cinny MacGonagle of Bethlehem Township.

ANJEC is a statewide nonprofit organization supporting local environmental commissions and municipal officials in their efforts to protect the environment and preserve natural resources in their communities. For more information about ANJEC visit www.anjec.org.

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