Brooklyn native Kendra Chiu brings over 12 years of experience in nonprofit work, volunteer organizing, and education to the North Brooklyn Angels. Before joining the Angels, Kendra was the Senior Director of Grants and Communications at Outreach, a behavioral health not-for-profit that provides treatment and training services throughout the greater New York Metropolitan area. At Outreach, she grew to oversee the acquisition and management of philanthropic and government grants, communications, program evaluation, and government relations. Passionate about mentoring, Kendra also served as an adjunct professor at St. John’s University for incoming freshmen for nine years, and was a “Big Sister” volunteer mentor at Big Brothers Big Sisters of NYC for ten years before her mentee aged out and became a college freshman. Her volunteer role at the organization also involved five years of building and leading a young professionals committee that focused on mentor recruitment and fundraising, efforts that earned her a Community Excellence Award from the National Association of Asian American Professionals, and the Hall of Fame award from Big Brothers Big Sisters. Kendra received both her Master and Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from St. John’s University, and is a proud graduate of the 2018 cohort of the New York Community Trust Leadership Fellows Program.

Felice Kirby has been in Williamsburg for 4 decades. Originally hired as a professional community organizer to fight property & business abandonment, Felice eventually became co-owner of Teddy’s Bar & Grill, managing the popular community spot until its sale in 2015. Based on her community organizing experience in the South Bronx, Queens & North Brooklyn, Felice spent 15 years employed as a trainer & lecturer in collaborative problem-solving & community policing, training with the NYPD, Harvard Kennedy School Executive Sessions & 24 other municipal agencies. She is also involved locally, with cherished community organizations: NAG (Neighbors Allied for Good Growth), Greenpoint Chamber of Commerce, Brooklyn Allied Bars & Restaurants, and The People’s Firehouse. Felice lives with her family on N. 8 St.

A veteran of the North Brooklyn community, food business, fashion and art worlds, Anjali Suneja joined North Brooklyn Angels as a part-time kitchen coordinator in June 2021 by happenstance, becoming a full fledged Kitchen Manager for the Angels in March 2022. Anjali brings with her an accomplished history of leadership in renowned Brooklyn establishments: Union Pool, Commodore, Pies ’n’ Thighs, to name a few, as well as serving as a founding shareholder of Roberta’s. Alongside her career as a pizzaiola, Anjali also co-founded and operated a nonprofit after school program, Step Right Up. As a teaching artist, she provided arts programming for children in New York City’s in-need communities. A veteran resident of North Brooklyn for 22 years, outside of the Angels, Anjali can be found working on voice over projects, spending time with her family in Philadelphia, swimming at McCarren Pool, body surfing at Rockaway Beach, and sharing with volunteers the happenstance story that brought her to the Angels.

For almost 20 years, Lauren has made her home in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Before her role at the North Brooklyn Angels, she worked as the Events and Space Use Manager at St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church in Brooklyn Heights. During her time at St. Ann’s, she played a pivotal role in expanding their programming, organizing special events, and nurturing community partnerships and outreach efforts. When the COVID-19 pandemic emerged in 202, Lauren began volunteering with the North Brooklyn Angels, which motivated her to establish a food pantry at St. Ann’s. This year, the St. Ann’s Pop-Up Food Pantry received recognition from the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island, underscoring her dedication to serving the community. In addition to her community involvement, Lauren is a visual artist. She lives with her husband and daughter just east of McGuinness. Lauren holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Maine College of Art and a Master of Fine Arts from Washington University in St. Louis, MO.

John is the Vicar of the Episcopal Church of the Ascension in Greenpoint Brooklyn where he has worked to focus the church toward the needs of the vulnerable. He has been involved in ministry and advocacy for those without housing, those living with AIDS, the LGBTQIA+ community, and others. Before becoming Vicar at Ascension John was the Episcopal Chaplain to NYU and surrounding campuses. He lives in Greenpoint with Tara Anderson where they are raising their two children, Phaedra and Vito.

Neil Sheehan is a life-long North Brooklyn resident, with over 45 years of experience in non-profit leadership, advocacy, community organizing, and volunteerism under his belt. Most recently, Neil was the Executive Vice President for Outreach, a behavioral health not-for-profit that provides treatment and training services throughout the greater New York Metropolitan area until his retirement after over 35 years of service. Among his accomplishments, Neil helped open the agency’s second adolescent residential facility in Brentwood in 1992, which further expanded Outreach’s adolescent services and solidified the agency’s presence in Long Island. Sheehan also helped guide strategic efforts to develop and expand the organization’s training institute which provides certified training to prospective and current drug and alcohol treatment professionals. Establishing a successful record in fundraising, Neil also oversaw the development of the organization’s biggest annual fundraiser which regularly attracts 700-800 attendees from varying industries. A passionate volunteer for many community nonprofit causes, Sheehan was a longtime participant and Board member for the St. John’s Bread and Life Soup Kitchen as well as a Co-Chair for the Affordable Housing Task Force for the North Brooklyn Waterfront Rezoning. In his spare time, he is a married father of two boys, and a “struggling humorist” who takes great joy in tasting, smelling, seeing, and participating in spontaneous brainstorming. Neil is hoping to “earn his wings” with this new project.

Kevin Thompson studied Business at LSU, Baton Rouge, Louisiana and graduated from the Tulane University School of Law, New Orleans, Louisiana. Originally from New York City, Kevin has lived in many places across the US, as a result of working in the oil and gas industry. Kevin practiced law in New Orleans for 9 years, prior to moving into Public & Government Affairs. In this new capacity, Kevin represented ConocoPhillips as Public Affairs Manager and Tribal Liaison in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Arizona. He was responsible for maintaining positive relations with the Southern Ute and Ute Mountain Ute Tribes, as well as the Jicarilla Apache and Navajo Nations. Later, he represented Shell Oil and Motiva as Public Affairs Manager for Downstream Refining and Chemical assets at their New Orleans facilities. He then moved into the role of Communications and State Government Relations Manager for Sunoco, based in Philadelphia. Kevin is now responsible for Public & Government Affairs for ExxonMobil in New York and New Jersey. His responsibilities include public and government affairs, communications and media relations. A dedicated Brooklyn resident, Kevin serves on a number of boards in the community, including the North Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce and Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce.

Kendall Charter has made a career at New York City’s YMCA. He began working at the Y in 1993, and over the following six years, he held positions in Membership and the Youth and Family programs. Then, in 2000, he transferred to the Long Island City YMCA, where he served as Senior Program Director for eight years. In 2008, he was named Associate Executive Director at the Prospect Park YMCA and the Park Slope Armory—a position he held until assuming the role of Executive Director at the Flatbush Y. He then moved over as Executive Director at the Greenpoint YMCA in October 2015. Kendall holds a bachelor’s degree from York College, where he studied social work, and an MPA from the Metropolitan College of New York’s Graduate School of Public Service.

Carlos Feitoza grew up in Manaus, a city in the middle of the Amazon rainforest, in Brazil. From a young age he knew the importance of community organizing and development, and how faith and the church (as a people) play an integral role in the process. Passionate about connecting people and helping them work together for the common good, Carlos has been building bridges and helping others realize their inherent potential long before he moved to NYC.

Currently serving as the Pastor of Justice and Mercy at Oaks Church Brooklyn, he holds a B.A. in Music from Berklee College of Music (Boston, MA) and a Masters of Divinity from Alliance Theological Seminary/NYACK (New York, NY) with an emphasis on Urban Ministries and Missions work. He is also an accomplished artist/musician who has helped advocate for and raise awareness to community issues by leveraging the power that music and the arts have to bring people together.

Having worn a number of different hats throughout the years, Carlos is fluent in multidisciplinary collaborations as well as multi-cultural environments.

Originally from Southern California, Molly Giliotti moved to New York City 25 years ago to pursue a degree in Education from New York University, graduating in 2001 with a dual degree in Early Childhood and Childhood Education. After NYU, Molly continued her education and received her Masters Degree from Bank Street College of Education in Literacy. She taught for 12 years in the Department of Education in schools in both Brooklyn and Manhattan, and also returned to Bank Street to serve as both a Teacher’s Assistant and Adjunct Professor. Molly has lived in Williamsburg for the past ten years and started volunteering with the North Brooklyn Angels almost 4 years ago when her two sons entered grade school. Looking for a way to connect more with the North Brooklyn community, she spotted the big blue truck one day after dropping her kids off at school and decided to pop in the kitchen. When not helping to organize the volunteers, Molly can be seen most weekends in the park playing baseball with her two Yankee-obsessed sons and husband or cheering them on in their Little League games.

Fang has been living in Williamsburg for over ten years. Having witnessed how the neighborhood drastically changed right in front of her eyes, she is looking for opportunities to support her beloved community and the local residents. Fang is a numbers person; she started her career as an Enterprise Risk Consultant at one of the big four accounting firms, and then a major US financial institution before she found her calling in the nonprofit sector. In the past ten years, she worked as the finance lead for two large nonprofit organizations supporting millions of charitable distributions and met amazing individuals that had inspired her along the way.

In her free time, Fang loves “patrolling” the neighborhood with her dog Max, and discovers the new, old and hidden gems in the neighborhood.

A Greenpoint native raised on Staten Island, Phil Mauro is a professional photographer and professor of photography at Wagner College. His diverse work has included clients ranging from Random House, to Apple Computer, to the Lenox Hill Neighborhood House, to name just a few! Returning to Brooklyn in 1987 and settling back in Greenpoint in 1995, Phil has also dedicated the past 25 years to causes supporting the Greenpoint community. As a board member and active volunteer, among many ways in which he helps, Phil can be seen taking snapshots of the Angels in action to help us tell and share the stories of our neighbors and volunteers!

Jonathan has worked in client-facing roles across varied industries, from hazardous waste management to fitness to finance. More recently, he has started two different client success teams as an early employee at a software company (and also hosts his company’s large conferences, which he claims “simply means bombing jokes in front of 1,000 people at 9am”). Having moved in March 2020 to Williamsburg, he found a sense of belonging and purpose in the mission of “neighbors helping neighbors”, especially given the increased need in challenging times. One of his goals is to figure out how to continue to serve the community in ever more environmentally friendly ways.

As VP Creative/Marketing for the East River Ferry, Paul was an integral part of the team that launched the successful service which eventually became NYC Ferry. He was the US Project Manager for Karsan, the Turkish auto manufacturer whose submission made it into the finals of Mayor Bloomberg’s NYC Taxi of Tomorrow competition and was the Senior Innovator at Uberangst, a Brooklyn-based innovation & technology company. Paul also spent time as Creative Director/Interactive at Mirrorball, a NYC nightlife agency and as Sr. Producer with Action Sports Adventure Productions, a sports hybrid-agency that represented the US World Cup Soccer teams, the US Soccer Federation, the Women’s Sports Foundation, the American Basketball League (later the WNBA), and the US Volleyball Association. While at ASAP he directed commercials for such clients as Nike, Reebok, UPS, Budweiser, Noxzema, Wilson Sporting Goods, and Time Warner. He also spent over 20 years in the video game industry as a Chief Creative & New Technologies Officer, working with such companies as Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft, SEGA, NewKidCo and Acclaim Entertainment. He was EVP of R&D & Licensing at both Acclaim and NewKidCo and managed relationships with MLB & MLBPA, NFL and NFLPA, NBA, NHL, NCAA, and also MCA/Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures, 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. Paul managed the development of such video games as the Mortal Kombat series, the NBA Jam series, the WWF series, and the Simpsons games. He led the development of the first ever dedicated motion capture studio, where, in addition to creating video game content, special effects for the first two Batman movies were produced. Prior to video games, he spent many years in the toy industry working for Matchbox and later LJN Toys. As EVP of Product Development at LJN, he was head of the team behind the creation of the Thundercats cartoon series and toy line. During his time at both LJN and Matchbox, he also Directed and Produced a large catalog of commercials. Earlier in life he had the pleasure of participating in the often misunderstood world of rock n’ roll, but that’s for another time. Paul was born in Buffalo (Go Bills!), and now works as a Creative/Marketing Consultant as well as serving as President of the North Brooklyn Chamber and Chairman of the Photoville BOD. He lives with his wife Debbie and their dog Juno. He also owns a collegiate, summer baseball team and has seen 27 of his players sign Major League contracts.

Evan is co-founder of Pythia Public Affairs, a New York-based communications, government and political strategy firm. Prior to founding Pythia Public, Evan spent years in public service as a senior adviser in the New York City Council and at other government offices, and as a communications officer on political campaigns, including Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s successful campaign for attorney general. As a government aide, Evan developed and executed political and communications strategies to pass legislation, change land use, and influence the direction of public resources. During these fights, Evan built relationships in government and communities throughout New York and beyond, and developed a keen understanding of public process–keys to executing successful issue–based and business efforts.