EXTRAordinary PEOPLE

Shirley Wachtel
  • 5.0 (3)
  • PERSONAL JOURNALS
EXTRAordinary PEOPLE

EXTRAordinary People lets you inside the world of the people you may see everyday, but those who have let their light shine onto the world because of their unique talents, contributions, and STORIES. In their own words, each discusses the hardships which they have encountered and what it took for them to rise above the obstacles and make a difference. Join Shirley Wachtel and be inspired by these EXTRAordinary people!

  1. NOV 4

    Marj Billker Graves

    Marj Billker Graves joined the Army Nurse Corps during her final year of nursing school in 1967. She served as a head nurse on male orthopedic wards at Darnall Army Hospital, Fort Hood, Texas, and at Ireland Army Hospital, Fort Knox, Kentucky. As a Captain, Marj volunteered for Vietnam where she continued to serve as a head orthopedic nurse with the 24th Evacuation Hospital in Long Binh. During her tour of duty, she was selected as the nurse for a two-person medical team to accompany both the Bob Hope Christmas Tour in 1971 and the Sammy Davis, Jr. USO Show in 1972. After a return assignment in the United States at Madigan General Hospital, Tacoma, Washington, she resigned her commission to marry her husband, Bob, also a Vietnam Veteran. She was selected as Kentucky’s Vietnam Veteran for USA Today’s 2012 Veterans Day issue, has been featured in numerous articles in The Courier-Journal,  was inducted into the Kentucky Veterans Hall of Fame, is a recipient of the Daughters of the American Revolution Distinguished Citizen Medal, and in 2023 was the first female veteran to serve as Grand Marshal of Louisville’s Veterans Day Parade. She is a retired Occupational Health Manager from UPS.

    45 min

  2. SEP 2

    Ian Feibelman

    Simply put…Ian is camp, and camp is Ian. He began his career as a camper, counselor, Division Leader, and administrator at a traditional day camp in New Jersey. Ian has only missed 2 summers at camp since he was 3 years old! He takes pride in his hands on approach to camping. His personal leadership and spirit are reflected in Black Bear Lake’s rich traditions, extraordinary staff, and quality program. Ian is an active member of the American Camp Association and regularly attends and participates in industry events and conferences to find ways to further improve the camp experience. Ian graduated from Rutgers University with a degree in Economics and a focus on Business Management and Entrepreneurship. He lives in Monmouth County with his wife Dara, whom he met at summer camp!

    42 min

  3. JUL 8

    Mayor Brad Cohen

    Mayor Brad Cohen was elected to the office in November 2016. The Mayor began his public career in 2010 when he was elected to the East Brunswick Board of Education. Working with a dedicated group of Board members, he helped navigate the schools through difficult economic times in the wake of the Recession and the draconian cuts in State Aid. He was named Board President in 2014 and helped select the new Superintendent of Schools. Balancing fiscal responsibilities with massive needs in information technology, strategic planning, and infrastructure, the future Mayor chose to use his skills to improve the quality of life for all the residents of East Brunswick.

    40 min

  4. MAY 6

    Rabbi Larry Brandspiegel

    Larry I. Brandspiegel joined the East Brunswick Jewish Center in August 2018 as Cantor and Director of Education before being ordained as a rabbi. Affectionately known as Rabbi/Cantor Larry, the spiritual leader now serves as the President of Jewish Educators Assembly and spiritual advisor of the Northern New Jersey Region of the Federation of Jewish Men’s clubs. With over 30 years experience, he continues his work as cantor while infusing the evolving congregation with renewed energy.

    28 min

  5. MAR 4

    Kate Lancaster

    Kate Lancaster is in her ninth year working as a middle school teacher at Jamesburg Public Schools. She is also a certified Reading Specialist and was recognized as an Exemplary Educator for the 2023-2024 school year for her strong knowledge and skills, inspiring presence, and positive impact on students, colleagues and the school community as a whole. Kate's own experience, as well as her work in the public school system, connected her with the Minding your Mind nonprofit and she is now heavily involved volunteering for their organization through the annual A Celebration of Life gala in Spring Lake, NJ. Her efforts have assisted in fundraising close to $300,000 over the past three events. She is passionate about ending the stigma associated with mental health issues and takes pride in her commitment to making a difference in her community.

    39 min

  6. JAN 22

    Aparna Parthasarathy

    Aparna Parthasarathy is a high school senior passionate about remedying structural inequalities, closing educational gaps and representing Generation Z’s values to shape legislation with elected officials. Aparna is a literary advocate and author of Tales of the Invisible, a book that addresses the intersectionality of feminism and the importance of representation. Aparna served as a board member of She’s the First and was nominated as a liaison to the local women’s commission and is a youth advisor for the town’s center for domestic violence and educates peers on dating violence and women’s empowerment. Aparna is on the executive board of Model UN, educating younger students on foreign affairs and international relations and is a state advocacy lead for Students Taking Action Now: Darfur (STAND) and contributes to increasing awareness on human rights crises and ending genocide. She is also the founder of PoliText, an organization that focuses on civil education among young adults and the importance of political knowledge and has been awarded the Presidential Volunteer Service Gold Award.

    21 min

  7. 11/13/2023

    Marc Korpus

    Marc Korpus, having had a fascination with maps since youth, took up the creation of of them as an occupation at age 42. He found that mapmaking is now one facet of the discipline of "geographic information systems" (GIS), which marries cartography with databases and statistics and is performed on a computer rather than a drafting board. Until his recent retirement, Marc was a GIS analyst for a nationwide engineering firm, helping engineers and scientists in such endeavors as planning freight railways in New Jersey, monitoring the fish species in New York Bay and routing power from Quebec to New York City.

    26 min

  8. 10/02/2023

    Rosa Lowinger

    Rosa Lowinger is a Cuban-born American writer and art conservator. The author of Tropicana Nights: The Life and Times of the Legendary Cuban Nightclub (Harcourt, 2005) and Promising Paradise: Cuban Allure American Seduction (Wolfsonian Museum, 2016), she is the founder and current vice-president of RLA Conservation, LLC, the U.S.’s largest woman-owned materials conservation practice, based in Miami and Los Angeles. A fellow of the American Institute for Conservation, the Association for Preservation Technology, and the American Academy in Rome, Rosa writes regularly for popular and academic media about conservation, the arts, and Cuba. She holds an M.A. in art history and conservation from New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts and divides her time between Los Angeles and Miami. Her debut memoir will be out in October, in time for National Hispanic Heritage Month. DWELL TIME: A Memoir of Art, Exile and Repair  entwines the details of conserving historic buildings and works of art with the story of her family's double exile as Jews from Eastern Europe in the 1920s and then Cuba in early 1961 (Row House Publishing; October 10, 2023).

    30 min
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
3 Ratings

About

EXTRAordinary People lets you inside the world of the people you may see everyday, but those who have let their light shine onto the world because of their unique talents, contributions, and STORIES. In their own words, each discusses the hardships which they have encountered and what it took for them to rise above the obstacles and make a difference. Join Shirley Wachtel and be inspired by these EXTRAordinary people!

Information

  • Creator
    Shirley Wachtel
  • Years Active
    2020 - 2024
  • Episodes
    36
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2024 Shirley Wachtel
  • Show Website
    EXTRAordinary PEOPLE

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