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Princeton-Blairstown Welcomes New Trustees
January 20, 2015 By Jane Hynes

Additions Bring Financial Expertise and Commitment to New Jersey’s Youth

Princeton, NJ – January 20, 2015 -- The Princeton-Blairstown Center (PBC) today welcomed several new board members to the organization. PBC offers a wide variety of youth development and experiential educational programs to students in the Mid-Atlantic States, including Trenton High School and Rivera Middle School in New Jersey and Global Neighborhood Secondary School in New York City.

The current board unanimously voted in Tim Downs, Bruce Petersen, Gwen Cogan Brunelli and Daphne Thomas Jones to three-year terms as Trustees. A finance and accounting expert, Mr. Downs currently heads Princeton University’s Facilities Finance and Administrative Services team. With degrees from Temple University and the University of Delaware, he recently served on the Board of the Pennsylvania Department of Education Board of Private Licensed Schools and assisted the Council Rock School District as a special project consultant.

“Bruce, Tim, Gwen, and Daphne bring exceptional financial expertise, business acumen, and a commitment to supporting at-risk youth that will complement PBC’s current board. We warmly welcome them to the organization and look forward to working with them,” said Pam Gregory, PBC’s Executive Director.

Bruce Petersen, a recently retired Managing Director at Goldman Sachs and Princeton alumnus, joined the board as well. He brings extensive financial expertise to Princeton-Blairstown, after a 35-year career in the financial services industry. He is a former board member and current finance committee chair of New Jersey Swimming, Inc. He and his wife are former emergency foster care providers for the Division of Youth and Family Services of New Jersey.

Gwen Cogan Brunelli, a graduate of the University of Central Missouri, has extensive experience in communications, public relations, government/public affairs, and relationship building. She has held leadership positions at Verizon, Adelphia Communications, and Cablevision Systems. She is also a licensed secondary school teacher and has taught courses in English and Journalism.

Daphne Thomas Jones, a Princeton graduate and a graduate of the Princeton University Teacher Prep program, also brings her experience as a financial services executive to the PBC team. She is Co-Executive Director of the Professional Services Group of Central New Jersey and an independent actuarial and product development consultant.

PBC’s signature program at Trenton Central High School, Leaders of Tomorrow (LOT), addresses the need to improve Trenton graduation rates by identifying ninth graders at high risk of dropping out and engaging them in an innovative combination of programming that emphasizes social emotional learning, academic counseling, leadership development, environmental awareness, and practical applications of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM).

At the Blairstown Campus, a 264-acre expanse in northwest New Jersey, students participate in intensive small group adventure-based experiential workshops designed to improve skills such as leadership, goal-setting, and healthy risk-taking. These experiences also promote environmental stewardship and complement students' classroom education in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Most students have never experienced many of the outdoor elements of these trips.

About Princeton-Blairstown Center (PBC)

PBC seeks to transform the lives of vulnerable young people through integrated experiential and adventure-based programming in schools and at our outdoor campus. What began in 1908 as a summer camp run by Princeton University students to give inner-city boys an opportunity to have a character-building fresh air experience has evolved into a wide variety of year-round youth development experiential educational programs serving over 5,800 students from the Mid-Atlantic States. For more information on PBC’s services or to donate, visit www.princetonblairstowncenter.org.