ANTHONY AND GINA ARGENTO

Broadway Stages is one of New York’s premier full-service film and television studio production companies. A certified woman owned business by the City of New York Minority and Women Owned Business Enterprises (M/WBE), Broadway Stages has been an integral part of New York for almost four decades. With 60 soundstages located across Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island, and with additional expansion underway, Broadway Stages currently has over 1.6 million square feet of integrated space and services available to handle all types of productions.

Broadway Stages was founded in 1983 by Tony Argento who turned a dilapidated movie theatre on Broadway in Astoria, Queens, into his first soundstage. Numerous commercials and music videos were filmed at this namesake location, including legendary musical artists such as Aretha Franklin, Beyonce, Jay-Z, Will Smith, and others. In the 1990s, Broadway Stages expanded to Brooklyn where additional soundstages were built, broadening from music videos to film and television production. Tony’s sister Gina Argento learned the ropes from her brother at a young age and joined the family business after earning a master’s degree from St. John’s University. Today, Gina serves as the president and CEO, overseeing day-to-day operations and, together with Tony, provides strategic business direction and client relations. Steadfast values based on decades of experience, along with a heritage steeped in tradition and community focus are at the core of Broadway Stages’ business philosophy and the catalyst to make a lasting, positive local impact.

JEFFREY DENMAN

Jeffrey Denman is the Vice President of Yoswein New York (YNY), a full-service lobbying, governmental affairs, and communications firm established in 1994. Jeffrey is a native Brooklynite, born and raised in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. He holds a Masters of the Arts degree in Public Policy from Stony Brook University. His career in government and public affairs has spanned numerous issue areas, ranging from education to economic development, and has included positions in both the public and private sectors. At YNY, he has undertaken advocacy campaigns on behalf of clients such as Brooklyn Public Library, JetBlue, Brooklyn Defender Services and Wegmans Food Markets, as well as proudly providing pro-bono government relations counsel to The Campaign Against Hunger. Jeffrey currently lives in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.

GEORGE HULSE

George Hulse is Vice President and Special Advisor to the CEO of EmblemHealth. He has dedicated much of his resources in health care helping marginalized communities recognize the importance of being active participants in the management and wellness of their health care – striving to protect that immigrate communities, working class and communities of color are not victims of health disparities.

Mr. Hulse has over two-decades of executive leadership in health care. He has spear-headed, organized, and created a wide range of programs and opportunities to support local and inter-national health initiatives. He recognized the South Bronx and Central Brooklyn as enormously underserved medical deserts and established “Healthy Villages” in both communities. Understanding our health care industries enormous resources and the positive affect we could administer beyond our borders, he helped to create 16 Health Care Missions to the Dominican Republic, 8 Health Care Missions to Haiti and one mission to Puerto Rico immediate after Hurricane Maria in 2017.

George is a former District Leader and Vice Chair of the Union County Democratic Committee, as well as a former Delegate to the Democratic National Convention from New Jersey. He served his county with honors as a Drill Sergeant in the United States Army.

He is a member of 100 Black Men of New York and the Association of Black Health Care Executives as well as, a board member of the Friends of Harlem Hospital, Greater New York Chamber of Commerce, Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD), Community Board of American Diabetes Association, Caribbean-American Chamber of Commerce and the CaribNews Editorial Board.

During his career, George has been the recipient of many honors and awards included being the Grand Marshall of the West-Indian American Day Carnival Parade, the Bronx, Puerto Rican Parade, and this year the Grand Marshall of the Bronx, Dominican Parade.

NICK LEMBO

Nick Lembo was born and raised in Brooklyn and earned an architecture degree from Cornell University. In 1975 he founded Monadnock Construction. It is a general contracting and construction management firm that has built more than 20,000 apartments and houses in the New York City area. Nick launched Capsys Corp. in 1995 in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Capsys developed a groundbreaking approach to manufacturing high-quality prefabricated buildings. It produced more than 3 million square feet of modular housing and hotels. In 1985 he founded The Hudson Companies, and in 2005 he founded Monadnock Development which is active in both affordable and market-rate housing. He is a past president of the Associated General Contractors of NY State and currently serves on a number of non‑profit boards.

INGRID LEWIS-MARTIN

Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Chaplain Ingrid P. Lewis-Martin is an advocate for community empowerment, realizing her passion as a 4th grade student when, under the leadership of her African-American studies instructor Ms. Scott, she and other students organized a protest of the local A&P Supermarket to express their displeasure that no persons of color were employed.
Chaplain Ingrid currently serves as the Chief Advisor to Mayor Eric Adams. Prior to her current position, she proudly served with Adams as Deputy Brooklyn Borough President and his senior advisor, and for seven years as his chief of staff in the State Senate.

Her political career started in 1983, when she volunteered at Renaissance Development Corporation as she awaited her test results from the New York City Board of Education to pursue a career in teaching. Ingrid wrote several grants for the organization, which successfully garnered funding for the organization. As a result, the organization’s executive director asked her to volunteer with the re-election campaign of Representative Major R. Owens. Within two weeks, she was offered the paid position of deputy campaign manager, and her journey in politics began.

From 1984 until 1992, Chaplain Ingrid was hired as an educator at IS 320 Jackie Robinson, her alma mater. In addition to her duties as an instructor, she served as a dean of students, graduation coordinator, as well as taught modern and African dance in the after-school programs. During the summer months from 1990 until approximately 2005, Ingrid was the executive director for Youth Development Center, Inc. (YDC), a program she founded and privately funded that annually provided free summer camp programs for 200 youth living in Vanderveer Estates and Ebbets Field Apartment Complex. To date, former campers ask her to reinstitute the camp so that they may enroll their children in the program.

Chaplain Ingrid continued to utilize her free time to assist numerous elected officials and individuals who aspired to public office. During the early 2000’s, Chaplain Ingrid helped Roger Green in his bid for re-election, and as a result, Assembly Member Green offered Chaplain Ingrid a part-time position on his team. As a member of Assembly Member Green’s team, Chaplain Ingrid was always called upon to help elected officials on their campaigns, serve as a surrogate, and perform a host of other responsibilities.

Chaplain Ingrid is a proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., Eastern Star, and New Life Ministries Pentecostal Church. She is a member of the Healing Hearts Chaplaincy, which serves as an ambassador to the United Nations. Chaplain Ingrid has been married to Glenn D. Martin I for more than 36 years and is the proud mother of Glenn D. Martin II and grandmother of Meagan P. Martin. She is a black belt in Shotokan Karate, loves to dance, and has two titles that she boasts about: the “Empress of Karaoke” and “Grandma-ma.”

BRIAN SIMON

Brian Simon is the Founder and Managing Partner at Hollis Public Affairs. He strategically advises Fortune 100 companies and fast-growing startups navigating the high-opportunity intersection between private and public markets, drawing on a career of demonstrated success in shepherding ambitious initiatives from concept to reality. With a relentless
drive and a committed attention to detail, he has guided business leaders and elected officials through legislative and regulatory challenges to achieve their objectives and deliver projects with lasting impact.

Portraiture by LeVue, Visit our website at www.levuestudios.com

Launch Expeditionary Learning Charter School

Launch is a middle school in Crown Heights, Brooklyn that operates in partnership with EL Education and NYC Outward Bound Schools. At Launch, every student is known well, families and the community are integral partners, and every student develops his or her intellect and character in order to achieve more than they thought possible. Launch does this through implementing meaningful, relevant and rigorous curriculum, and partnering with community organizations to inspire high levels of academic achievement and civic engagement. Launch has partnered with TCAH since they opened ten years ago, we work together to build a better world. Launch and TCAH are collaborating to open a 3 acre farm as part of an experiential learning campus on National Park Service land at Floyd Bennett Field.