Montclair Local was founded in 2017 and became a non-profit news organization in 2020. In 2023, it acquired and merged with Baristanet, a longtime local digital outlet. The Local’s chief executive is publisher Liz George. The Montclair Local Board of Trustees provides oversight, strategic guidance and help with fundraising.
Our Board
Catherine Taibi Autorino is a native of Montclair who has more than a decade of experience leading teams in breaking news, audience development and business development. At the professional network LinkedIn, she builds revenue-driving programs with news publishers and journalists worldwide. She previously managed partnerships with news publishers at Meta (Facebook and Instagram). She began her career as a reporter/editor at the Huffington Post and later oversaw social media strategy for Bloomberg News. In 2020, she was named Forbes 30 Under 30 for her innovation in social media storytelling and served on the Under 30 Community Board. Autorino enjoys mentoring future female leaders and has held leadership roles in both Bloomberg and LinkedIn’s Women’s Community. She holds a B.A. in English and Creative Writing from Wesleyan University and when not working, she can be found on stroller walks with her husband, two children and dog, Franky.
Jonathan Bellack is a veteran internet technology leader and owner of a product management consulting business. During a 30-year career that started in the dot-com trenches, then to DoubleClick, Jigsaw and Google, Bellack led teams focused on delivering better internet advertising, digital products and technology that helps keep users safe from threats and fraud. Bellack has a B.A. degree in biology from Yale University and an M.B.A. in marketing and management from the NYU Stern School of Business. He helped co-found and is a board member of NJ 11th for Change, which advocates for transparent, responsive and accountable government. Bellack and his wife moved to Montclair in 2003 and are raising their two sons here.
Trei Brundrett is a co-founder, senior adviser and former chief operating officer for Vox Media, a native digital media company that he helped grow from a collection of sports blogs to the expansive powerhouse it is today. He also has led large-scale internet strategy, advertising and development projects for Fortune 500 companies, political campaigns and media clients. Brundrett is vice chair of The Texas Tribune board and serves on the boards of the McDonald Observatory and OpenNews. He studied history and astronomy at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He and his wife and four children have lived in Montclair since 2017.
Brian Carovillano leads a team at NBCUniversal News Group that reviews content, reporting questions and all standards issues at NBC News, MSNBC, CNBC and Telemundo. He also is deeply involved in NBC News’ election and race-calling operations on primary and election nights. Before joining NBC, he spent 21 years at The Associated Press as a reporter and editor in Rhode Island, Boston and San Francisco. He was the founding editor of the AP’s regional desk in Atlanta, then Asia-Pacific News Director in Bangkok, then national editor. As managing editor from 2017-2021, he supervised the AP’s journalism from around the world and oversaw work honored with the profession’s highest awards. Carovillano also led the expansion of AP’s news partnerships, grant-funded journalism and investigative reporting. A native of Westfield, N.J., he has a B.A. in English from Colby College. After moving around for more than a decade, he settled in Montclair with his wife, daughter and son. Carovillano loves snowboarding, hiking, fishing and other outdoor pursuits and is always on the hunt for good Thai food.
Kathleen Carroll is a veteran journalism leader and free press advocate. She traveled the globe for 14 years as executive editor of The Associated Press, the world’s largest independent news organization. She chaired the Committee to Protect Journalists board and served on the Pulitzer Prize board the last year as co-chair. Her career began in her hometown, Dallas Morning News, while she was attending the University of Texas at Arlington. Later jobs took her to Newark, Los Angeles, Paris, San Jose, Calif., Washington and New York. An avid gardener, she has repeatedly failed to persuade visiting deer to eat weeds instead of flowers. She and her husband, writer Steve Twomey, moved to Montclair in 2002. They are the proud parents of an adult son.
Jennifer Dorr-Moon is a writer and editor who also helps nonprofit organizations and others through Jennifer Dorr Communications Strategy. She is co-creator and managing editor of the New York School of Interior Design’s award-winning Atelier magazine. She writes speeches and communications for leaders in the design industry, nonprofits and colleges. She has been published in The New York Times, Huffington Post, Adirondack Life, Yoga Journal and elsewhere. She previously worked in publicity for Simon & Schuster and DK Publishing and headed publicity for the 92nd Street Y’s signature lecture and reading series. She co-founded Montclair Public Library’s Open Book/Open Mind authors series while serving as a library board member. She holds a B.A. in psychology and English from Tufts University and is a Montclair native. She’s often about town walking her red dog, Luther, shuttling her kids to sports or escaping it all with her nose in a book.
Stephen Engelberg is the proud father of three daughters who graduated from Montclair High School. In his 15 years in Montclair, he proved himself a thoroughly mediocre coach of recreational soccer. He’s married to Gabrielle Glaser, author of four books and a gifted cook and gardener. When he’s not helping the Local raise money, he’s the editor-in-chief of ProPublica, an independent, nonprofit investigative news organization, a job he’s held since 2013. During 18 years with The New York Times, Engelberg founded the paper’s investigative unit and reported from Washington and Warsaw. He has shared two George Polk Awards and two Pulitzer Prizes and co-authored “Germs: Biological Weapons and America’s Secret War.” He grew up in Lexington, Mass., a town not unlike Montclair. In line with his New England roots, he is a crazed fan of Boston sports, particularly the Red Sox and Celtics.
Holly Shakoor Fleischer is a veteran entertainment executive who built a Hollywood career as a publicist, later developing and producing television and movie projects. From 2018 to 2021, she was Gabrielle Union’s producing partner for Union’s production company, I’ll Have Another. Their feature films include “Cheaper by the Dozen” on Disney+, “The Inspection,” a critically acclaimed independent feature film, and the Netflix romantic comedy, “The Perfect Find.” Born and raised in Wayne, Fleischer earned a B.A. at Tulane University before moving to Los Angeles. She and her husband moved to Montclair in 2021 and live with their two daughters and dog, Roxy.
Kelley Holland has been a local business owner, author, and longtime business and financial journalist with The New York Times, CNBC, and Business Week. One of her cover stories helped Business Week win a National Magazine Award. In 2017, she founded a financial coaching and public speaking business serving women, and her best-selling guide to financial well-being, “You Are Worthy,” was published in 2022. A native of Buffalo, NY, Holland graduated from Amherst College and earned a graduate business degree from Yale University. She and her husband, Steve Kanengiser, moved to Montclair in 1999 to raise their three children. All of them attended Montclair public schools, and Holland held positions on what were then School Action Teams at Bradford and Montclair High School. In her free time, she is an avid reader and pie baker, and also enjoys adventure travel – preferably not all at the same time.
Alice Anoff Iversen has spent more than a decade working to strengthen education, particularly through philanthropic partnerships. She spent nine years at Montclair State University, first in admissions, where she guided prospective students and parents through the process and contributed to the university’s enrollment goals. She then moved to donor relations, where she built relationships with alumni, scholarship recipients and community partners to increase support for MSU. For the past two years, Iversen has served as Discovery Officer at Stevens, where she identifies, cultivates and secures major gifts to support the university’s goals in research, innovation and education. Iversen moved to Montclair 13 years ago from Westchester County, NY. She grew up in a newspaper-loving household and has an M.A. in Marketing from CUNY Lehman College. She and her husband, Matt, are raising their daughter and son in Montclair, where the Iversen family has been involved in the community for many years. She loves traveling, reading and knitting.
Justin Jamail is an attorney and serves as the general counsel of the New York Botanical Garden. He previously worked at the Metropolitan Opera as in-house counsel and before that, he specialized in cross-border mergers and acquisitions for a leading international firm’s Tokyo practice. In addition to local news, Justin supports independent literature as a board member of the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses. His first collection of poetry, “Exchangeable Bonds,” was published by the Brooklyn-based press Hanging Loose in 2018. A native of Houston, he has a B.A. in American studies from Columbia University and a J.D. from Fordham University. Justin and his wife, Amber Reed, moved their family to Montclair in 2016 after a long spell in Tokyo, where both their children were born, and a short spell in Brooklyn. In 2021, Amber co-founded AAPI Montclair, which she serves as president.
David Jones spent 40 years as a journalist for two New York-based newspapers, six of those as a Wall Street Journal reporter in New York and Pittsburgh and six as a New York Times reporter in Detroit and Washington. Jones was an editor at the Times for 28 years, 15 as national editor and 10 as editor of national editions, during which he also spent eight years as an assistant managing editor. From 1997 to 2012, he was a trustee of Pennsylvania State University. He holds a B.A. in journalism from that university and an M.A. in American history from New York University. A native of Connellsville in southwestern Pennsylvania, he and his wife, Mary Lee, have lived in Montclair since 1972.
Henry Lanman is an attorney with more than 15 years of experience working for non-profits. He currently is vice president and general counsel of the Muscular Dystrophy Association and previously was general counsel at the Metropolitan Opera. Henry holds a B.A. from Amherst College and a J.D. from New York University. He and his wife, Johanny Garcia, a physician with RWJ Barnabas, moved to Montclair in 2008 and live there with their two daughters.
Meredith Levine is a lawyer with a background in housing policy who most recently served as special counsel at the Battery Park City Authority. She previously worked as chief of staff to the commissioner/CEO of New York State Homes and Community Renewal. Originally from Franklin Lakes, Levine has lived in Montclair with her husband and two young children since 2019. She holds a B.A. in history from Yale University and a J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center.
Vate Powell loves Montclair so much he moved here twice. First in 1995 to clerk for Montclair’s U.S. District Judge John W. Bissell. And again in 2005, when Vate and his wife, Johanna Howard, moved from Brooklyn to the South End. As an attorney, Vate spent 10 years at MTV Networks/Viacom, where he was vice president and senior counsel in the intellectual property and litigation group, working on productions for all channels, including news. He now co-owns Johanna Howard Home, a luxury home textile brand headquartered in the South End. And, with his Montclair High School student daughter, Rose, Rose + Co. Candlemakers, a hand-poured soy candle line.
Jake Silverstein has been editor-in-chief of The New York Times Magazine since 2014. He was editor-in-chief of Texas Monthly from 2009-2014 and a senior editor from 2006-2009. Silverstein is co-editor of the best-selling book “The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story” and the author of the book “Nothing Happened and Then It Did.” He was a contributing writer for Harper’s Magazine and a reporter for The Big Bend Sentinel in Marfa, Texas. A native of Oakland, Calif., he has a B.A. in English from Wesleyan University, an M.A. in English from Hollins University and an M.F.A. in creative writing from the Michener Center at the University of Texas. He and his wife, Mary, an archivist at the Jewish Theological Seminary, and their two sons, Leo and Joe, have lived in Montclair since 2014.
Brian Trainor joined the New York Times in 2017 and leads the corporate financial planning and analysis team. His work at The Times touches on everything from budgeting and strategic planning to advising executives and writing board presentations. Trainor studied economics at Hunter College in New York and spent seven years in the finance department at Toys R Us before joining The Times. In his free time, Trainor enjoys playing guitar, going out for a run and spending time outdoors with his family. Trainor and his wife Kate, a children’s book editor at Penguin Random House, moved to Montclair from Brooklyn in 2014 and have three children, Graham, Lucy, and Clara.
Jason White is a technology and business leader who lives in Montclair with his wife, three kids and two cats. He is a co-founder of Nova Intelligent Systems, a finance startup, and previously spent a decade at Facebook, where he held leadership roles across product marketing and business partnerships. He joined Facebook in 2013 after a dozen years in media, including stints at NBC News, CNN and the PBS NewsHour. He holds a B.S. from Northwestern University and an M.A. in Religion and Ethics from Yale University. A native of Millbury, Mass., Jason is a proud Red Sox, Celtics and Patriots fan. When he’s not cheering on those teams or his kids on the soccer field, Jason can be found strumming the guitar or playing for his softball team. He lives in Montclair with his wife, three kids and two cats.