United Way of Northern New Jersey, which served Warren County and the rest of the northern region, is pleased to announce the appointment of its Board of Trustees officers: Board Chair Dr. Michael Gerardi, Board Vice Chair Cynthia Chiarella, Treasurer Peter Schlicksup and Board Secretary Dr. Vanessa Trespalacios.

The director of Pediatric Emergency Services at Goryeb Children’s Hospital, Gerardi has been a long-time champion of United Way’s focus on removing the barriers that keep hardworking ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) families and individuals from achieving financial stability. Involved from the project’s debut more than a decade ago, he served on the initial ALICE taskforce and remains on the ALICE Research Advisory Committee for New Jersey.

A retired PricewaterhouseCoopers partner, Chiarella joined the board in 2015 and is a passionate supporter of women’s philanthropy, also serving on the United Way Women United steering committee to help retain and recruit members. A licensed accountant with a master’s degree in taxation, she specialized in the human capital and tax aspects of corporate global mobility programs.

Schlicksup is a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers where he has served the firm’s largest public and private manufacturing and consumer products clients. He has 27 years of experience working in both the U.S. and abroad. This marks his second time serving as United Way’s treasurer.

A board-certified internist at Barnabas Health Medical Group, Trespalacios works in outpatient primary care. She received her medical degree from Universidad Central Del Este in the Dominican Republic. During her residency in internal medicine at Morristown Memorial Hospital, Trespalacios received the Outstanding Resident Award for her communication skills with patients. She joined Barnabas Health Medical Group in 2012 and currently serves on the Physician Advisory Board.

“We welcome our new officers and look forward to working with them and the entire board to further our mission to help families we call ALICE and those in poverty who are living paycheck to paycheck,” United Way CEO John Franklin said. “This is an impressive group of talented leaders who we believe can help us make even more strides in our fight for ALICE families.”

Throughout its five-county regional footprint, United Way is working to improve the lives of the 133,000 households — 26 percent — that are unable to afford necessities as ALICE or in poverty.

For more information about United Way of Northern New Jersey, visit www.UnitedWayNNJ.org.