The Advisory Committee

An Advisory Committee works with the Trustees to review and recommend the most appropriate proposals for funding.

Flora Castillo, Chairperson

President of Pivot Strategies, LLC.

Flora Castillo is currently the President of Pivot Strategies, LLC., a consulting firm in the transportation, healthcare and insurance industries. In this role, Flora developed groundbreaking initiatives and secured some of America’s leading health care insurance companies such as UnitedHealthCare and AmeriHealth Caritas.

Flora also served as the first Latina elected chair and only the sixth woman to lead the American Public Transportation Association, (APTA), an international and the pre-eminent organization representing the entire $58B North American public transit industry for over 100 years. In addition, Flora was the youngest member of the board and the first Latina woman appointed for the New Jersey Transit, the third largest statewide public transportation agency in the United States. She served under seven Democratic and Republican administrations until her retirement in June 2019.

Flora is the recipient of numerous awards including the 2018 Rosa Parks Leadership Diversity Award, Women’s Transportation Seminar NY, 2017 Latina Pioneer Award; Latinas United for Political Empowerment (LUPE); the 2016 Celebrating Women Who Moved the Nation Award, COMTO; and the 2013 Latina Trailblazer of The Year, Statewide Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of New Jersey.

Karen L. Hershey, Esq.

Founder, KLH Advisory LLC

Karen L. Hershey, Esq. is a seasoned public affairs strategist, stakeholder engagement expert, and communications leader with decades of experience building trusted partnerships among public officials, business leaders, and community stakeholders throughout New Jersey. Her unique background spans leadership roles in law, government, environmental policy, economic development, and public communications, including service as a Deputy Attorney General, elected Mayor and Councilwoman, Chamber of Commerce executive, and environmental regulator.

As the founder and principal consultant of KLH Advisory LLC, a certified Women Business Enterprise (WBE) and Small Business Enterprise (SBE) in New Jersey, Karen works with clients to move their most important goals forward by building trust, fostering collaboration, and translating strategy into meaningful community impact.

From 2020 to March 2025, she served as the Community Liaison Officer for Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind where she led outreach and relationship building efforts across diverse communities, government entities, business leaders, and advocacy organizations. Previously, as CEO of the Greater Toms River Chamber of Commerce, she expanded economic development visibility and strengthened public-private collaboration across Ocean County.

Vince Maione

Owner, ESM Professional Consulting, LLC

Vince Maione is owner and the sole member of ESM Professional Consulting, providing professional energy consulting services ranging from electrical engineering and utility operations to leadership/mentoring/coaching, government/community relations, utility expert testimony and project management, for the electric power industry. He founded the business in 2018 after a lengthy career in the industry.

Maione is a graduate of Villanova University, where he received a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and a minor in Mathematics. He also graduated from the University of Maryland where he received his master’s degree in business administration. He is a member of the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society and holds licenses as a professional engineer in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland.

Prior to ESM, Vince served as Region President of Atlantic City Electric in New Jersey from 2009 to 2018, a public utility owned by Exelon Corporation that serves approximately 547,000 customers in southern New Jersey. He began his career with Atlantic City Electric in 1984, holding various supervisory, management and senior leadership positions until he retired after 33 years of service.

Maione was appointed in 2020 to the New Jersey American Water Board of Directors. Maione is also Board Certified by the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD). Maione was a former Board member of the New Jersey Utilities Association, New Jersey State Chamber of Commerce, “Choose New Jersey” and a Trustee member for Public Media N.J., Inc. (NJTV). Maione was also appointed by Governor Chris Christie in 2012 to the New Jersey Italian and Italian American Heritage Commission, where is presently the chairman. Maione is a former Town Council member of Hammonton, N.J., where he served two terms in public office.

Zenith Shah

Co-Founder, Authentic City Partners

Zenith Shah was born in Surat, India, and at an early age moved with his family to Atlantic City. In 2016, Zenith co-founded Authentic City Partners (ACP) to create development projects in Atlantic City committed to bettering the lives of those in the community. ACP’s first project, Orange Loop, has focused on redeveloping and helping to bring small businesses back to the beach blocks of New York Avenue, St. James Place and Tennessee Avenue.

Prior to ACP, Zenith spent over a decade in leadership positions with the Portfolio Compliance Group at BlackRock, the world’s largest asset management firm, where he began his professional career.

While building business, Zenith remains active in supporting community leaders and causes.  Zenith serves as financial advisor for The Leadership Studio of Atlantic City, which is a non-profit striving to advance the physical, energetic, economic and spiritual growth of the city’s residents through programming and partnerships.

Dr. Amy Williams

Marine Science Teacher, Marine Academy of Technology and Environmental Science (MATES), Ocean County Vocational Technical School District

Amy Williams is a marine science educator, with research interests in coastal resiliency, living shorelines, natural and nature-based features, community outreach and stakeholder collaboration, public participation, ecological economics and GIS/LiDAR analysis. Since 2019, Amy has been with the Ocean County Vocational Technical School District. She currently teaches a variety of courses at the Marine Academy of Technology and Environmental Science (MATES). Additionally, she serves as an adjunct professor at Rowan College at Gloucester County and has previously taught courses at Stevens Institute of Technology, Ocean County College and Burlington County College.

Amy serves on a number of community boards, including the New Jersey Marine Educators Association and the New Jersey Resource Project. She is a volunteer for the New Jersey Organizing Project, a member of the science committee at Long Beach Island Foundation of Arts and Sciences and a past president of Alliance for a Living Ocean. She has also served as volunteer coordinator for ASBPA’s Coastal Conference and secretary of Passport to LBI.