Members

Eileen Kelly was appointed to the Summit Board of Education in May 2023. She is serving as President of the Board of Education for the 2026-2027 school year. She is currently a member of the Education and Student Activities/Services Committee and chair of the Negotiations and Personnel Committee.

Ms. Kelly and her family moved to Summit in 2019. Ms. Kelly has served as Technology Chair for the Overlook Auxiliary, has assisted five Summit businesses to secure over $25,000 in COVID-19 grants, and has volunteered as an ESL teacher at the Summit YMCA. She is currently a mentor at American Corporate Partners: a Non-Profit mentorship program for Veterans. Ms. Kelly has also served on various boards in New York City including the Board of Harlem Dowling, Equishiu, and the University Club of New York.

Professionally, Ms. Kelly is Head of Product Strategy at OPIS, a Dow Jones company. Prior to Dow Jones, she spent 15 years working in a variety of financial, operational, and strategic roles, including four years in Buenos Aires, Argentina as an Economic Analyst. In 2016, Ms. Kelly also became a tech entrepreneur and Co-Founder of a mobile travel application called WingIt.

Ms. Kelly holds a BA from Colgate University. She lives in Summit with her husband, Matthew, and their two young sons.

Contact Eileen Kelly

J. Carlos Mahecha was appointed to the Summit Board of Education in May 2024. He is serving as the Vice President of the Board of Education for the 2026-2027 Year. He is Chair of the Operations Committee and a member of the Negotiations and Personnel Committee. 

Mr. Mahecha has served as a volunteer and youth coach for the Summit YMCA, Summit Girls and Boys Recreational Basketball, Summit Junior Baseball, and Summit Recreational Girl’s Soccer programs. He is also an adjunct professor at Union College of Union County and has taught Federal Taxation and Accounting courses.  Professionally, Mr. Mahecha is a Senior Finance Manager at Johnson & Johnson Corporate leading global financial systems implementation initiatives.

Mr. Mahecha holds an AAS from Union College of Union County, a BS in Accounting from Rutgers University, and an MBA from Saint Peter’s University. Mr. Mahecha is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Institute of Management Accountants.    

Mr. Mahecha has lived in Summit for 24 years with his wife Laura and three children, including two graduates of Summit Public Schools and one set to graduate from Summit High School in 2025. 

Contact J. Carlos Mahecha

Melanie Cohn was appointed to the Summit Board of Education in May 2021. She served as President of the Summit Board of Education for the 2025-2026 school year. She is the Chair of the Policy Committee and a member of the Negotiations and Personnel Committee.

Ms. Cohn is the Executive Director of the Visual Arts Center of New Jersey, an AAM accredited museum, where she has led the organization in growing its community programs, including the establishment of an art therapy program with New Jersey Veterans Affairs. Under her leadership, the Art Center has received several prestigious NEA and IMLS grants. Previously, she led Staten Island Arts, deepening its programs in art and healing, education and folk art. Before that, she spent seven years at the New Museum of Contemporary Art as an administrator in the Curatorial Department. 

She has served on the Advisory Committee for the Urban Art Program for the NYC DOT, and on panels for IMLS, the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, NJ State Council on the Arts, and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. She led Staten Island Arts in receiving a 2009 Rockefeller Foundation Cultural Innovation Fund Grant, 2010 and 2013 NEA Grants, and a 2014 Design Trust for Public Space “The Energetic City” award. In 2013, the Staten Island Chamber of Commerce awarded her the Louis R. Miller Business Leadership Award. 

Ms. Cohn is active in arts advocacy and policy, and has served as a New York State Captain for National Arts Advocacy and on the Steering Committees of the NYC Arts Coalition and NY Culture AID (Active in Disaster). She serves as president on the board of the National Organization for Arts in Health, is a member of the Summit/New Providence Rotary Club. Ms. Cohn's son graduated from the Summit Public School system in 2022.

Contact Melanie Cohn

Kimberly Gianis was appointed to the Summit Board of Education in May 2026. She is serving on the Communications and Operations Committees. 

Mrs. Gianis is a 5th generation Summit resident. In fact, her great grandparents helped build the Summit Diner. She attended Franklin Elementary School, Lawton C. Johnson Summit Middle School and (after a year at Kent Place) graduated from Summit High School in 2001. 

She played Division 1 Lacrosse, first at Dartmouth and then transferred to Vanderbilt, where she helped the team to the Final Four. She graduated from Vanderbilt University with a bachelor’s degree in Economics.

She is a Managing Director at Park Walk, a brokerage firm that specializes in distressed assets. She spent 11 years as a research analyst on the Trade Claims Portfolio at Contrarian Capital, a distressed focused hedge fund based in Greenwich, CT. Prior to that role, Mrs. Gianis worked on sourcing and origination on the Distressed Debt desk at Deutsche Bank.

Kimberly and her husband have three young children.

Contact Kimberly Gianis

Mark Gundersen was appointed to the Summit Board of Education in May 2025. He is serving as a member of the Operations Committee and is Chair of the Education and Student Activities/Services Committee.

Mr. Gundersen has over 20 years of experience in private credit and investment banking. In addition to his recent appointment to the Board of Education, he currently serves on the City of Summit’s Economic Development Advisory Committee, is a member of the Summit Downtowners’ Association, and volunteers as a head coach in the Summit Softball and Baseball League.

A graduate of Bernards High School, Mr. Gundersen earned a B.A. in Economics from Williams College and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. He resides in Summit with his wife Lucy and their son, John. 

Contact Mark Gundersen

Jenny Hoff was appointed to the Summit Board of Education in May 2026. She is a member of the Communications Committee and the Policy Committee.

Ms. Hoff has been actively involved in the Summit school community. She served as Executive Vice President of the Brayton PTO for the 2024-2025 school year and is serving as President for the 2025-2026 school year. She also serves as co-president of the PTO Presidents Council, which meets monthly to discuss district wide school policies, priorities, and issues.

Professionally, Ms. Hoff is a communications professional and certified personal finance educator with more than 20 years of experience in journalism, media, corporate communications, and public-sector leadership. She most recently served as Chief Communications Officer for the City of Summit, where she led public information, resident communications, media relations, and budget and policy communications. She previously served as Director of Communications for the City of Bee Cave, Texas, where her work earned statewide awards for events and crisis communications.

Her family moved to Summit in part because of the strength of its schools, and she is honored to serve the community and help support Summit’s students, educators, families, and schools.

Earlier in her career, Ms. Hoff worked as an international reporter and later hosted and produced a personal finance podcast featuring nationally recognized financial experts.

Ms. Hoff holds bachelor’s degrees in Journalism and Political Science from the University of Missouri-Columbia, as well as an Executive MBA from Steinbeis University in Berlin, completed in conjunction with the Berlin School of Creative Leadership.

She lives in Summit with her husband Philipp and their two children.

Contact Jenny Hoff

Walidah Justice was appointed to the Board of Education in May 2021. She served as President of the Board during the 2024-2025 school year. She is currently the Chair of the Communications Committee, and a member of the Education and Student Activities/Services Committee.

Ms. Justice and her family moved to Summit in 2018. Ms. Justice currently works as the Chief Community Life and Wellbeing Officer at Kent Place School in Summit, New Jersey. She has worked in K-16 education for over 20 years. Prior to Kent Place, Walidah Justice worked at Episcopal Academy, in Newtown Square, PA where she served four years as the Director of Diversity and Inclusion and two years as the Associate Director of Admission and Multicultural Outreach. 

Before transitioning to independent schools, Ms. Justice worked for nine years at Villanova University in the Office of Undergraduate Admission, Center for Multicultural Affairs and the Office of Student Development. Additionally, she has worked at Temple University and the University of Delaware before entering independent schools. 

Throughout her career, Walidah Justice has worked actively with marginalized students to provide safe spaces, amplify student voices and support each individual student’s success. Ms. Justice volunteers her time by working with Special Olympics and serving on the Villanova University Alumni Association Board of Directors. Ms. Justice holds a B.A. in Communication from Villanova University.

Ms. Justice and her husband, Breyon, have three children; one graduate of Summit High School and two currently attending Summit Public Schools.

Contact Walidah Justice