by Robert Wiener
NJJN Staff Writer

August 27, 2009

Stephanie Martin, a former schoolteacher, was named the new preschool site director of JCC MetroWest’s Brody Early Childhood Center in Whippany.

She begins her new job on Aug. 31.

Martin replaces Amy Fingeret, who resigned in June to become the early childhood director at Temple Emanuel of the Pascack Valley in Woodcliff Lake.

Alan Feldman, chief executive officer of JCC MetroWest, greeted Martin’s appointment with “great excitement.”

“Her enthusiasm for our early childhood programs is boundless, and we are confident that she will bring leadership, joy, and creativity to our school,” he said in a release.

For the past two years, Martin has been a substitute teacher at the Brody Center, located on the Aidekman Family Jewish Community Campus, and at Livingston public schools, where she taught students ranging from kindergarten to high school.

She has also volunteered as a fund-raiser for the Brody center.

Martin holds a master’s degree in education from Adelphi University and a bachelor of arts in politics from Ithaca College.

Prior to her career as an educator, she worked as an assistant, then a director, at legal search firms in New York and a litigation assistant at a law firm in Philadelphia. She lives in West Orange with her husband and two children.

A week before starting her job, Martin made a pitch to the families of youngsters two to five years old in the MetroWest community.

“I want people to know we are here,” she told NJ Jewish News. “I will be reaching out to the community so we can grow an already wonderful program that has so much more to offer than others in the community, including swimming, after-school enrichment, and summer camp, and beyond early childhood programs, we offer a full range of activities for the family.”

Martin said she wants “to continue making the center a warm, loving, bright, and cheerful environment. I am bringing a talent of relationship-building between families in Morris County and the JCC.”

Lauren Saltus of Randolph, a member of the search committee whose two daughters have attended the Brody Center, said, “The school has been wonderful for my children. It has provided a nurturing, caring environment that has allowed them to thrive.”

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