We are currently growing our Board, Advisory Board, and Fundraising Committee. If you are interested in serving, please contact us.
Board
Natasha Campbell is a native of Brooklyn, NY, and the founder and Executive Director of Summit Academy charter school in Red Hook, Brooklyn. She has dedicated her professional life to pursuing her calling to serve people in the social sector. Natasha worked with Leadership, Education, & Athletics in Partnership (LEAP), a program serving young people in Hartford, Connecticut housing developments. Once in NYC, she led the Miccio Center in Red Hook and decided that Red Hook did not need more youth programs, it needed better schools, and she founded Summit. Ms. Campbell holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Hartford, majoring in Biology and dual Master’s of Business Administration from American Intercontinental University, with a concentration in Management and Healthcare Administration. Natasha recently completed a Doctorate in Education with a concentration in curriculum and instruction at Capella University. She is an avid fisherwoman in fresh and salt water.
Capt. Jonathan Atkin | Maritime Photographer
Jonathan’s work experience spans museum management, dance, and many maritime activities. Jonathan currently specializes in photographing ships and is known for meticulously planned aerial media from manned helicopters and drones. His clients include blue water cargo shipping, towing companies, cruise lines, shipyards, and the broader workboat sector. At 19 he sailed as a merchant seaman from Galveston Texas to Haifa Israel and back on a trans-Atlantic bulk carrier making his first serious maritime photographs. While pursuing an MFA at the RIT, he combined a passion for dance in photography, briefly creating his own dance group. After grad school, Jonathan became a Program Developer for the newly designed Brooklyn Children’s Museum, the nation’s oldest children’s museum. Prior to specializing in maritime photography, Atkin completed over 850 assignments for The New York Times Travel and Arts & Leisure sections. His other editorial work ranged from the Smithsonian Magazine to The Wall Street Journal, with noteworthy coverage of civil rights. Jonathan advocates for historic ships and their value to American heritage. Jonathan combines his love for dance and maritime in the Hero Project where he directs and photographs world class dancers aboard historic ships, creating an evocative duet between dancers and ships that brings a unique visibility to maritime heritage. He is an active participant of Harbor Ops Committee at USCG Sector NY and a member of Connecticut Maritime Association.. He has a 100 ton Masters License.
John DeCruz | Pilot, Sandy Hook Pilots
Captain John J. DeCruz is a member of SUNY Maritime class of 1992 and later earned a B.S. in Marine Transportation from SUNY. He worked as a Mate in the New York Harbor and sailed deep sea as 3rd Mate. He is a Full Branch Maritime Pilot and was from 2015 to 2023, President of the New York Sandy Hook Pilots Association. He has been piloting ships in the port of New York and New Jersey for 20 years. In the 10 years prior to being named President, Captain DeCruz held various leadership positions on the Sandy Hook Pilots Board of Trustees. He was their first Black apprentice and is their first Black President. Captain DeCruz is active in the maritime community holding various positions and memberships: New York Harbor School (Board Member/Billion Oyster Project); New York Harbor School (Member/Pro Advisory Committee); Marine Society of New York (Member); Organization of Black Maritime Graduates (Member); New York Maritime Athletic Advisory Board (Member); New York Maritime Industry Museum (Board Member); and the American Merchant Marine Veterans Association (Member). Captain DeCruz resides in Morristown, NJ with his wife (Marcia) and 3 children (Shannon, Daniel & John). Photo by PortSide board member, photographer Jonathan Atkin of www.shipshooter.com
Carmen Rainieri | Carmen is a construction executive who does global project management throughout the U.S. and Caribbean. He did the cost estimating work on our business plan for the building space next to our ship. Carmen appreciates all things waterfront having grown up along the Jersey shore. His dream is to get a historic ship and bring it back to life, something we are now working on together.
Carolina Salguero | Founder & Executive Director, PortSide NewYork
Carolina began life in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn and spent her teen years living on the New England coast that was her first maritime inspiration. She graduated magna cum laude from Yale with two majors (Art and American Studies). The social policy studies of the latter informed her journalism and ultimately PortSide. She worked around the world as an award-winning freelance documentary photographer and writer from the opening of the Berlin Wall through 9/11 where she arrived at ground zero on her own boat. Her intrepid photojournalism had her survive a hit man and Shining Path bomb in Peru, and a car-jacking at machine gun point in South Africa. Since 1998, her research, documentation and advocacy have focused on New York City's waterfront. In 2002, she completed a 2 year project on NYC tugboats for National Geographic which introduced her to the working waterfront. In 2003, she launched the first interactive community board website in NYC for Brooklyn Community Board 6 about the "Piers 6-12 Study" which attempted to shut down the Red Hook Containerport. She founded PortSide in 2005; and in 2007, supervised the haul-out of its flagship, the tanker MARY A. WHALEN. Her photos and essay in Narratively capture her maritime motivations. Carolina has received awards for her PortSide work from the Obama White House, City Lore, the Friends of George McAnaney, the National Maritime Historical Society, and others.
John Speakman (he/him) | Interim Board Chair. Assistant Vice President at NYU Langone Health. John is a native of Boston, Massachusetts but grew up in the United Kingdom (his parents arrived in the US courtesy of the RMS Queen Mary). He returned to the United States in 1991 and worked at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and then the National Cancer Institute before returning to New York to serve in his current role at NYU Langone Health. His professional interests focus on the way information technology and data science can advance healthcare and the life sciences. He lives in Red Hook, five minutes from the Mary A. Whalen, with his husband and daughter.
John Weaver | John began his career on stage and shared the stage with Katherine Hepburn on his first tour. After years of acting, he went into production in theater and television while continuing to use his rich baritone for voice overs. He directed Ch 7’s Eyewitness News at 11pm five nights a week and was the Producer and Director of the first season of "Like It Is,” a weekly public affairs TV program focused on issues relevant to the African American community that ran from 1968 to 2011 with its original host Gil Noble. From staff Director at WABC-TV, he turned to producing and directing commercials for twenty five years, becoming a Senior Vice President at Young and Rubicam. John made PortSide and the MARY WHALEN the focus of his diverse talents since 2007. He brings a unique personal history to PortSide's re-use of the ship; his father in law Alf Dyrland was captain of the MARY WHALEN for twenty years. Captain Alf Dyrland was not aboard when the MARY WHALEN ran aground in the famous 1968 episode that led to a Supreme Court case; that was the other captain. His wife has donated the papers of her father Captain Alf Dyrland, giving PortSide a precious collection of memorabilia relating to the ship and the Norwegian immigrant community. John advises on the performing arts programs at PortSide NewYork, and is a key part of the branding and visioning team. John’s hobby is woodworking, sometimes on a large scale; he built his own log cabin vacation home in the Pennsylvania woods.
Lissa Wolfe | Real Estate Broker. Lissa grew up in Brooklyn; except for one year of high school when she attended Tauranga Girls' College in Tauranga, NZ as an AFS (American Field Service) exchange student. Being an exchange student in a coastal town on the North Island was Lissa’s fore into maritime life. However, it wasn’t until after going to college in the US did Lissa start volunteering in rowing and boat building with FTA (Floating the Apple). When Lissa was a resident of Red Hook, she managed the Red Hook rowing program for FTA. Lissa was a founding member of VCB (Village Community Boathouse) where she continues to volunteer as a senior coxswain. Lissa has been a member of several boards in NYC including: East River Crew, VCB, the Bryn Mawr Club of NYC, and most recently served as Co-President & Treasurer of the NY Harbor School PTA. Lissa recently moved to Texas. Lissa looks forward to using her previous career's event planning skills as well as her NYC waterfront knowledge to be an advocate for PortSide.
Advisory Board
Barry E.A. Johnson | Founder | Chairman at Bedowin360 Capital, a purpose-driven investment platform partnered with private wealth to direct capital into opportunities across the USA, launched in 2021. They invest in funds and companies that prioritize maximizing ROI while supporting serially excluded communities including African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Native Americans, Women, LGBTQ+ and others. Barry has over 30 years of professional experience spanning family offices, media, Wall Street, other Fortune 500 companies and government. He has a global perspective due to travels across 69 countries and management experience. He served as an Obama White House appointee in several senior advisory capacities: first in the U.S. Department of Commerce as Senior Advisor for Economic Development; then as founding Executive Director of SelectUSA, the first White House initiative to promote and facilitate inward investment from foreign corporations and reshoring of US corporations. In that capacity, he also served as the first Chairman of the Inter-Agency Working Group on FDI comprised of senior officials from 35 executive branch agencies whose policies influence U.S. investment climate for FDI.
Peter Liguori
Peter is a media executive, most recently CEO of Tribune Media, and a former top executive at Discovery Communications Inc. and 21st Century Fox. For additional info see his resume.
Phil Reed | Naval Architect, Salvage Master, Managing Director, Reed Maritime LLC. Phil is an accomplished Salvage Master and Salvage Engineer. He worked for Titan Salvage for over 20 years on many and high profile, complex salvage jobs. He was one of several Salvage Masters on the famous COSTA CONCORDIA Wreck Removal Project and was one of the principal authors of the Titan-Micoperi bid tender. He was involved throughout the project including parbuckling, refloating and the redelivery of the wreck to Genoa. In December 2012, he launched his own salvage consultancy Reed Maritime LLC which offers services worldwide to salvors, vessel owners & operators, underwriters, P&I clubs, government agencies and solicitors. He is a US-based member of Lloyd's Panel of Special Casualty Representatives (SCR). In 2015, he did salvage work in New York Harbor in the matter of the GREY SHARK which was brought, while afire, to the Homeport pier in Staten Island. Phil has a BS in Marine Engineering/Marine Transportation from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point and a MS in Ocean Engineering from the Florida Institute of Technology.
George Sandberg | Professional Mariner with considerable Management Level sailing experience. Over 25 years Nautical Science teaching experience. Main interests include application of simulator training in the maritime domain including Train the Simulator Instructor and Assessor courses, maritime course and curriculum development, Human Factors in the Maritime Industry, Bridge Resource Management, and leadership in the context of shipboard operations .