"Village First" Slate Vies for SO Board of Trustees

The following is a press release from "Village First!" 

A team of three long term South Orange residents with deep roots in public service filed 717 petitions March 11 for candidacy for the three open seats for Village Trustee. The upcoming election is May 14. Geraldine Mehu, Joseph Kika, and Kelly Mattheiss Sullivan will run on a ticket called “Village First!”

Geraldine Mehu, an alumna of Seton Hall University, and South Orange resident for two decades, is married to Eric Moore, a lifelong resident and ranked officer in the South Orange police department. They have a 10 year old daughter, Gabrielle, who is a girl scout.  

Geraldine works for a major financial services firm in New York City as an Assistant Complex Director. The group is responsible for the oversight and supervision of $9 billion in assets with over 150 employees, including financial advisors.  Geraldine has been in the financial services industry for almost 15 years and served in a diverse set of leadership roles, including head of product strategy, director of private wealth client services, and as an executive director with oversight on products and services, revenue growth and risks. 

She has also been instrumental in having her firm support Seton Hall University’s Business School by sponsoring a scholarship award for business students.  She was deputy press secretary to a former NJ governor, has served as a board member of the Financial Women’s Association and a current board member of Marylawn of the Oranges.  She is an active member of Our Lady of Sorrows Church, contributing to its community efforts and serving as a minister of hospitality.

 

Joseph Kika is a Senior Education and Training Consultant for a global technology company based in West Caldwell.  He is the District Governor of 16E for the Lions Club International (LCI), a not-for-profit organization which gives 100% of its funding to worthy causes, most notably the global effort to prevent blindness, to aid the visually impaired, and to find solutions for diabetes.  In his capacity as District Governor, he oversees over 1000 members in over 40 clubs in Union, Essex and Morris counties and has been successful in securing significant financial Emergency Relief Grants to aid those in need from the effects of Hurricane Sandy.  

Kika is a coach for Special Olympics for Essex County, and plays an indispensable role in the success of this program for challenged youth.  He is also an active member of the South Orange-Seton Hall University Engagement Committee which works with the entire student body to involve students in the South Orange community.  This Committee sponsors the Community Cup Ultimate Frisbee Championship between Seton Hall and Columbia High School, the South Orange Invitational Frisbee championship, a competition which brings students and fans from other universities into the Village of South Orange, and several other events and projects to help improve relations between the students, the university and the community.          

Kelly Mattheiss Sullivan grew up in South Orange.  She is the niece of the late Theo Buklad, the first woman elected to the Maplewood Township Committee.  Like Theo and her late husband, Henry, she and her husband, John, are partners in their own law firm, Sullivan & Mattheiss, P.C., located on Vose Avenue.  They engage in a general practice of law, with an emphasis on family and estate matters.   

Kelly is a member of the New Jersey Supreme Court Attorney Ethics Committee for Essex County and sits as a volunteer panelist in Essex County’s Early Matrimonial Settlement Panel Program.  She is an active member of Our Lady of Sorrows Church.  She sings in the choir, is a member of the Parish Council and is currently serving as the chair person of the Church’s 125^th Anniversary Committee. 

In addition to church activities, Kelly has her own time slot as a radio reader for EIES (the Electronic Information Education Service) which, in conjunction with Seton Hall, broadcasts from the old library and services the blind, visually impaired and homebound in our community and neighboring communities.