First Tee – Greater Trenton’s Board of Directors has appointed Rosalind Williford as its new President

Jan 16, 2025 – The First Tee of Greater Trenton (“FTGT”) Board of Directors is proud to announce that
Rosalind Williford has been appointed President of the Board, making her the first African American woman
to serve in such role for the Chapter. Rosalind joined FTGT’s board in 2016 and has been a key leader and
contributor to the Chapter’s mission, most recently serving on the Executive Committee as Vice President.
“As a dedicated board member, Rosalind’s passion to deliver on our mission and ensure that we continue to
fulfill our goal of positively impacting the lives of young people from all walks of life is inspiring and helped
propel FGTG forward. FTGT and all its constituents are in good hands with Rosalind at the helm,” said Jeff
Hughes, the former President, whose term expired, has led the organization for the past 14+ years and
remain actively engaged on the board.

First Tee Greater Trenton is a diverse youth development organization that is aware of the need to provide
impactful life-changing programs for underserved youth in Mercer and Burlington counties. Our mission is to
provide educational programs that build character, instill life-enhancing values and promote healthy choices
through the game of golf.

First Tee – Greater Trenton Executive Committee

Rosalind Williford
Executive Committee
Board President
Chief Financial Officer at Esperanza Health Center
Rosalind Williford is currently the Chief Financial Officer at Esperanza Health Center. She has over three
decades of experience in multi-disciplinary finance, organizational development, and team building.
Rosalind is a results-driven leader with a proven track record of optimizing operational stability, efficiency,
and profitability. She consistently demonstrates her ability to enhance processes by implementing new
standards, internal controls, and procedures. Rosalind is skilled at collaborating with senior stakeholders
and can efficiently translate business requirements into tailored solutions that achieve defined objectives.
Rosalind holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting/Organizational Management and an Executive
Leadership Certificate from the University of Pennsylvania. She has a strong commitment to serving the
community, and she is currently a member of several organizations and boards dedicated to the positive
development of youth. Rosalind lives in Bucks County, PA with her husband, Don, and is the proud mother
of one daughter, Ashli.

Paula Taylor
Vice President
Co-Owner of Arlee’s Raw Blends
Paula Taylor is the principal owner of Arlee’s Raw Blends LLC, an organic, cold-pressed juice, raw and
vegan food business with locations in Princeton and Trenton, New Jersey. Paula is passionate about
healthy eating and enjoys sharing her views about living a vibrant healthy lifestyle. Paula believes in taking
the stress out of eating and dieting by simply eating clean. Paula devotes much of her time and efforts to
working with nonprofit organizations whose missions include the education and economic development of
minorities and the underprivileged. Paula is a current member of the Mercer County Community College
and the Penn Medicine at Princeton Hospital Foundations Boards, and a former member of The Young Scholars Institute Board of Trustees. She has been actively involved with many nonprofit organizations including, Isles of Trenton, Sisters’ Network of Central Jersey, Susan G. Komen Fund Central and South Jersey, The Fund for Women and Girls, and Jack and Jill of America. Her specific contributions to these organizations include co-chair of Isles 30th Anniversary fundraiser, serving as a voting member of The Fund for Women and Girls, and co-chair of the 20th and 25th Anniversary fundraisers for Jack and Jill of America, Mercer County.

Paula has held many leadership positions, is adept at managing and motivating members of
nonprofits, and has a wealth of experience in organizing and planning charitable events. Her leadership
experience includes serving as President of Jack & Jill of America Inc., Mercer County, and two terms as
President of The Girl Friends, Inc. Trenton Chapter. Paula was the Kick-Off Committee chair for the 75th
Anniversary National Convention of Jack and Jill of America, Inc., and chaired the 2017 National
Convention for The Girl Friends Inc, an organization of professional African American women. Paula
attended the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Philadelphia and received a Bachelor of Science
degree in Marketing.

Marie Bardzilowski 
Treasurer
Vice President and Branch 
Manager Northfield Bank
Marie is currently a Vice President and Branch Manager of Northfield Bank in Pennington NJ. She is a 30+
year banker in the NJ, PA and DE areas. Marie’s experience in finance straddles branch banking, private
banking, and helping to create, teach and manage banking programs. 
​Marie’s husband, Joe, is an avid golfer who has been golfing since the age of 13. He spread his love of the
game to Marie and their children. Their youngest son, Owen, was a member of the Jr. PGA. Some of their
fondest memories as a family are enjoying Sunday mornings on the East Course of Mercer Oaks. Their
youngest daughter, Ella, just celebrated her Quincenera at Mercer Oaks for that reason. Owen joined the
Princeton High School Golf Team in his freshman year in 2016. 
​They lost their son Owen in September of 2016. Since, they have committed to serving the youth in their
area. 
​Marie (and the family) also works with Attitudes in Reverse (West Windsor NJ), American Foundation for
Suicide Prevention (NJ Chapter) and is the current Vice President of the Pennington Business and
Professionals Association.
​Marie was born and raised in Trenton NJ. Marie and her husband Joe live in Princeton NJ. They have 4
children, Maria, Miles, Owen and Ella. 

Mahesh Yadav
Secretary
Optima Global Solutions
Mahesh has over 30 years of experience in the IT services industry with leadership roles in award-winning
companies contributing to accelerated growth from start-up to successful exits. Founder & CEO of Optima
Global Solutions, Inc., a fast-growing software and services firm. Prior to Optima, Mahesh held executive
positions at Nova Soft Information Technology, Corp and Hexaware Technologies, Inc. As COO of Nova
Soft, an NJ-based IT services firm, Mahesh was responsible for Global Sales & Operations. As AVP of
Hexaware Technologies, Inc., a Global IT Services firm based out of India, Mahesh was a key member of
the start-up and founding team and was responsible to set-up its US operations. Mahesh began his career
as a Sales Executive for Patni Computer Systems (recently acquired by Cap Gemini).
Mahesh serves as a Board Member of New Jersey Technology Council and The First Tee Greater Trenton
and as an Advisory Board Member with the School of Business – Dept of information Analytics, Montclair

State University, NJ. A passionate golfer and founder of South Asian Golf Association, which promotes Golf
in the South Asian Community. 
An active Angel Investor in various early-stage and growth-oriented technology companies in the USA and
Asia. Mahesh holds a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Bombay University, India.
Mahesh has been a resident of Pennington, NJ for over 21 years and lives with his wife Clara and his
daughter & son, Rhea & Rehan who have both enjoyed being part of the First Tee Program and are active
volunteers of the chapter.

Jeffrey Hughes
Immediate Past Board President Ares Management Corporation
Jeffrey Hughes has 28 years of experience in corporate finance and is currently a Managing Director and
Portfolio Manager with Ares Management Corporation in NYC where he focused on privately placed debt
investments. He holds a BA in Economics from Temple University and an MBA from Bloomsburg University.

He spends a lot of his free time working with youth programs in urban areas. As a teenager, he was introduced
to golf by his father and followed him by supporting youth sports and education. His involvement in junior
golf dates to 1998 in the Greater Trenton Junior Golf program. In addition to exposing golf to under-served
youth, one of Mr. Hughes’s primary goals with respect to the program is to increase parental/guardian
involvement in the lives of their children.

Board of Directors

Willis Santil
Hitachi Vantara
Willis Saintil is an experienced Technical Account Manager with over 22 years of pre-sales, and customer
experience, both from a business and a technical perspective in the information technology and services
industry. Prior to joining Hitachi Vantara, Willis’ vast technical experience as both a customer and vendor
has played a significant role in is his success at EMC Corporation, Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank AG,
Storage Networks, Chase Manhattan, and Bank of Montreal.
He firmly believes in establishing a relationship/partnership in aligning customer requirements with
solutions. His background includes selling and creating solutions with a successful track record focusing on
customer problems, helping customers to reduce costs, and enhancing overall operational efficiency. His
success is primarily due to his ability to listen and respond to customers’ needs to build a solution that fits.
He is a graduate of SUNY College at Buffalo and New York University –Polytechnic School of Engineering,
with a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and a Master of Science in Telecommunication and Information
Management.
Willis lives in Basking Ridge, NJ with his wife Justina. They have two sons and one daughter. When not
working, Willis likes to spend time with his kids, play golf/tennis and do volunteer/charitable work in the
Trenton and Princeton area.

John Kostin
Retired – Mercer County Park Commission John Kostin has been a lifelong Mercer County resident. He grew up in Hamilton Twp. NJ and graduated
from Hamilton High West in 1987. A graduate from Trenton State College in 1991 (currently The College of
NJ). Married for 28 years to his wife Kristin and 2 beautiful daughters, 26 and 23 years of age. John has
been in the golf industry for over 30 years, and Director of Golf Operations for the Mercer County Park
Commission for over 26 years, running the Counties 5 golf courses. Started the Future Champions Tour
over 23 years ago. It is a competitive golf tournament for area youth that is provided at a reasonable price.
John likes nothing more than giving back to youth golfers and seeing them succeed in the field of golf and
life in general.

Kyle Peace
Janssen Pharmaceutical
Kyle Peace played and had a love for many sports at an early age and developed a liking for the game of
golf just after graduating college at Hampton University in Virginia. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree
in Finance with a minor in Marketing and began an 18-year career at Johnson & Johnson spanning finance,
sales, marketing, operations, and training in their pharmaceutical business. Kyle has continued as an
accomplished senior executive, with more than 30 years of commercial experience leading sales,
marketing, and in general management, in a diversity of industries, spanning large corporations, to
small/mid-size start-up and entrepreneurial companies. Currently, Kyle leads a national sales team in
oncology for GSK, focused on women’s cancer.
Kyle instills and teaches a mantra that practice makes improvement (not perfection), focus, confidence, and
commitment of excellence to your craft. This marries well with the overarching themes of The First Tee
which provides area youth an alternative and accessible forum for positive character development, values,
and life skills through the game of golf.
Being a father of four daughters, the older two who play D1 soccer at the collegiate level, Kyle has taken an
interest and been involved in the successful journey of the female youth athlete. Kyle quickly developed a
deep passion for coaching and wanting to give back. He has been on the soccer sidelines and became a
USA Track & Field Sprint Coach to train one of his daughters, who became a nationally ranked sprinter,
setting PA state records while medaling at many AAU Junior Olympics. #GirlDad

Dwayne Redmond
Bank of America
Dwayne Redmond is head of Field Marketing for the Wealth Management businesses of Bank of America.
In this capacity, he is responsible for driving brand awareness and engagement and sales support targeting
affluent and ultra-high net worth individuals in all local markets across the U.S. Dwayne and his team
deliver strategic marketing programs that create meaningful connections between target audiences and
over 15,000 sales professionals.
Prior to his current role, Dwayne led various functions, including product development, sales support,
strategy development, and client account management at Merrill Lynch, Prudential Insurance, New York
Life, and BNY-Mellon.
Dwayne resides in Plainsboro, NJ with his wife, Lisa, and their two daughters.

Cindy Sussman
Henry J Austin Health Care
Cindy Sussman grew up near Wilkes Barre, PA and has lived in Yardley since 1985. After graduating from
Kenyon College in Ohio, she received her MD degree from the Medical College of Pennsylvania where she
specialized in emergency medicine. She became director of emergency services at Robert Wood Johnson
University Hospital at Hamilton. After she and her family went on a medical mission trip to Honduras, Cindy

was inspired to continue that service locally, working as a physician at Henry J Austin Medical Center in
Trenton, NJ, followed by several years in telemedicine. Now retired, Cindy is committed to working for
underserved populations, particularly in the areas of health care and education, and has spent many years
on the board of the Village Charter School in Trenton. She has also served on the board of the American
Red Cross. Cindy is an avid golfer at Cobblestone Creek Country Club and has been actively involved with
the women’s golf committee there. With The First Tee of Greater Trenton, she is happy to mesh her love of
golf with her desire to improve education and character development for children in underserved areas.

Michael Mitchell
The Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies
Michael Mitchell currently leads Global Market Access communications at the Janssen Pharmaceutical
Companies of Johnson & Johnson. He earned a Master’s in Business Administration from Rutgers, The
State University of New Jersey and a Bachelor of Science in Health Policy and Management from
Providence College. Michael instantly became a lifelong golfer at age 13 after a youth clinic in his small
hometown of Nahant, MA. He has since developed a passion for affording activity and sports opportunities
to adolescents, volunteering and coaching across many sports, but with emphasis on basketball and golf.
He believes people build active habits into adulthood when they continued youth sports into middle and high
school years, noting those years as critical to the positive influence of sports on personal and community
health.

Beth Golden
Dow Jones
Beth Golden is Vice President Content at Dow Jones. She leads a global team responsible for content on
Risk & Compliance and Factiva, Dow Jones’ premier news and risk data platforms. Beth started her career
at Dow Jones as an editorial assistant coding The Wall Street Journal and Barron’s. Her work has included
editorial services, content curation, metadata and consultative sales. She currently serves as a mentor and
tutor at HomeWorks Trenton. Beth also has volunteer experience with First Step Coalition for the Homeless,
Dress for Success, Habitat for Humanity, and Cherry Tree Club. When Beth’s not working and volunteering,
she enjoys playing golf at any of the Mercer County golf courses. She holds a BA from Indiana University of
Pennsylvania and an MA from the University of South Carolina.