Civil Union Review Commission

The NJ Civil Union Review Commission Commissioners

New Jersey Division on Civil Rights
31 Clinton Street, 3rd Floor
Newark, New Jersey 07102

J. Frank Vespa-Papaleo serves as Director of the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights, and as such, is the state's lead anti-discrimination officer responsible for ensuring diversity and equal opportunity. The Division, with nearly 85 employees, administers and enforces the New Jersey Family Leave Act and the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination, guaranteeing equal opportunities in employment, housing and places of public accommodation without regard to race, creed, color, national origin, nationality, ancestry, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, or marital, familial, domestic partnership or civil union status, or other characteristics.

The New Jersey Law Against Discrimination, which was the nation's first statewide civil rights enforcement statute, is widely considered the strongest of its kind in the nation. Director Vespa-Papaleo is recognized for issuing a groundbreaking legal decision involving student peer harassment (L.W. v. Toms River Regional Schools), developing the nation's first Disabilities & Public Accommodations Investigations Unit, which has dramatically enhanced accessibility for persons with hearing loss, vision loss, or mobility disabilities, and for utilizing the Division's broad powers to protect the rights of children of racial minorities (Director v. Le Terrace Swim Club), a class of female victims of sexual harassment (Director v. City Coffee and Ronald Ford, Jr.) and racial minorities who were victims of predatory lending (Attorney General v. NPG, et al.). Additionally, he has established cutting-edge community dialogue and staff leadership opportunities through the establishment of a Civil Rights Employer Advisory Council and the DCR Ambassadors Program. Civil Rights Employer Advisory Council and the DCR Ambassadors Program.

Garden State Equality
67 Church Street
Montclair, NJ 07042

Steven Goldstein is chair of Garden State Equality, the state's largest LGBT civil rights organization. From the time he founded Garden State Equality in 2004, New Jersey has enacted 153 laws at the statewide, county and municipal levels advancing the civil rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community -- more LGBT civil rights laws in less time than in any other U.S. state.

Steven has held senior positions in the news media, campaign politics and government service. He was co-campaign manager in Jon Corzine's successful 2000 campaign for the U.S. Senate; communications director for Eliot Spitzer in his successful 1998 campaign for New York Attorney General; and communications director for U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg and the Senate Budget Committee Democrats on Capitol Hill.

As a lawyer on the staff of U.S. House Judiciary Committee in the early 1990s, working for then-Rep. Chuck Schumer, Steven helped to write and pass nine federal civil rights laws. As a television news producer, Steven has won 17 television awards, including 10 Emmy Awards.

Steven and his partner Daniel Gross, together since 1992, made history in September 2002 when they became the first same-sex couple in the wedding announcements of The New York Times. Their religious wedding in Montreal, and civil union the next day in nearby Vermont, was covered around the world. In 2007, they were the first couple to get a civil union in New Jersey.

Fulfilling a lifelong dream at age 45, Steven is studying to become a rabbi at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. He is currently on leave in order to lead Garden State Equality full-time, for which he declines a salary.

Stephen J. Hyland, Esq.
Secretary
PUBLIC MEMBER
ATTORNEY GENERAL DESIGNEE

Barbara Allen, Esq. is the Director of the Office of Legal and Regulatory Affairs at the Department of Human Services where she has worked for the last 23 years. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Criminal Justice from Trenton State College, with minors in Psychology and Sociology. She also obtained a Juris Doctorate degree from Pace University School of Law in White Plains, New York. She is admitted to practice law in New Jersey.

She serves as the Department's Ethics Liaison Officer, DHS ADA Coordinator and is the DHS representative on the Governor's Advisory Council on AIDS. As a member of the Advisory Council she was instrumental in assisting with the drafting of the Stand By Guardianship Law. Her areas of expertise include mental health and disability law, employment law issues such as the Law Against Discrimination, (LAD), the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

Barbra Casbar Siperstein
PUBLIC MEMBER
GUBERNATORIAL DESIGNEE

In 2004 she was a recipient NJ Personal Liberty Fund’s Honors Award, and was a voting delegate to the 2004 Democratic National Convention and its first transgender delegate. In 2005-2006, she served on Governor - elect Corzine’s Labor and Workforce Development Transition Advisory Board. In 2006 she received the Trenton Gay and Lesbian Civic Association Triangle Award. She has served on the Edison Township Municipal Alliance since its inception. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from Rutgers and an MBA from Pace University.

Widowed in 2001, she takes one day at a time, enjoys spoiling her grandchildren and wishes they can enjoy a life where people learn to communicate, take responsibility for their actions or inactions, and have respect for each other!

Sheila Kenny, Esq.
EX-OFFICIO MEMBER
DEPT. OF BANKING & INSURANCE DESIGNEE

Department of Banking and Insurance
20 West State Street, P.O. Box 325
Trenton, NJ 08629

Sheila Kenny is currently Director of Legislation and Policy for the New Jersey Department of Banking & Insurance where she oversees the Department’s legislative and regulatory affairs unit. Prior to her current position, she served as Legislative Counsel for the Department. Previously, she was Associate General Counsel for the N.J. General Assembly Majority Office. She has also worked in private practice and was a law clerk to the Honorable Sybil Moses, Assignment Judge for the Bergen Vicinage. She earned a J.D. from Rutgers Law School (Newark) and a B.S. from Georgetown University and was a 2003 Leadership New Jersey Fellow.

Joseph Komosinski
EX-OFFICIO MEMBER
DEPT. OF HEALTH DESIGNEE

Registrar of Vital Statistics
P.O. Box 370
Trenton, NJ 08625

Joseph A. Komosinski is in his 23rd year of service as a state employee. The last ten years have been within the Department of Health and Senior Services’ Bureau of Vital Statistics and Registration, serving the last 5 years as the State Registrar. He is a member of the National Association of Public Health Statistics and Information Systems (NAPHSIS) and has served as a member of the organization’s Communication Committee and the Interstate Jurisdictional Exchange Committee. Mr. Komosinski currently serves a member of the Technical Advisory Boards for the New Jersey Violent Death Reporting System and the Help America Vote Act, as well as serving as the New Jersey Vital Statistics Cooperative Program Director. He was honored for his work in the field of advancement of vital statistics as the lead technical advisor for the New Jersey Voluntary Electronic Death Registration System and received accommodation for the application being deemed one of the top five applications designed in the field of government in 2001. He has successful implemented the Certificate of Birth Resulting in Stillbirth, the Domestic Partnership and Civil Union legislation.

Erin O’Leary, Esq.
EX-OFFICIO MEMBER
DEPT. OF FAMILIES & CHILDREN DESIGNEE

Department of Families and Children
222 South Warren Street
P.O. Box 729– 3rd Floor
Trenton, NJ 08625

Erin O’Leary is the Director of Legal Affairs for the Department of Children and Families. In addition to her duties as liaison to the Administrative Office of the Courts and the Office of the Attorney General, Ms. O’Leary oversees the following units: Office of Legal & Regulatory Liaison, the Administrative Hearings Unit, the HIPAA/OPRA Unit, Child Care and Youth Residential Licensing and the Interstate Services Unit.

Before coming to DYFS, Ms. O’Leary was a Deputy Attorney General initially assigned to represent DYFS, and the Department of Health and Senior Services and Division of Medical Assistance and Health Services, which included several administrative, civil and appellate matters. After graduating from Rutgers School of Law – Camden, Ms. O’Leary clerked for the Honorable Stephen Skillman during the court year of 1998-1999. She is a member of the New Jersey and Pennsylvania Bars.