Meet Our Staff

Executive Director:

Brian Reilly, M.A.

Brian Reilly comes to the College of New Jersey from the City of Buffalo, NY, where he most recently served as Commissioner of the Economic Development, Permit and Inspections Department. There he managed a 177-member staff that conducted all planning, development, housing, permitting, and inspection functions, doubling their programmatic outcome levels by instituting cross-silo teams, project based management and performance tracking systems.  Brain has also worked as Director of Economic Development for the City of Cleveland, Ohio, where he was responsible for deploying $40 million of incentives for business growth and was instrumental in developing one of the country's most successful "land banks" for vacant and abandoned properties, a model for subsequent local efforts and national policy.

Prior to working in Cleveland and Buffalo, Mr. Reilly’s redevelopment work in Milwaukee’s Menomonee Valley for Mayor John Norquest, won national environmental awards. Transforming 1,200-acre blight into “the most marketable industrial land in southeastern Wisconsin,” won Sierra Club’s “Best 10 US Developments” and US EPA’s brownfield “Phoenix” award.

In 1996 Mr. Reilly created The Johnson Foundation’s nation program on sustainable development at Wingspread facilitating a number of environmental policies, technical and regulatory efforts aimed at municipalities and co-created the Sustainable Racine community-wide Improvement effort.

Co-Director, Institute for Sustainability Planning and Governance:

Donna Drewes, P.P., M.C.R.P.

Donna Drewes is an award-winning professional planner with 24 years' experience in community and natural resource planning. Donna worked as a professional planning consultant in the private sector, for public agencies and for private, non-profit organizations. Her experience includes extensive work related to both master and conservation plan development. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in soil science and a Masters' degree in City and Regional Planning, both from Rutgers University . Before coming to the MLUC, Donna served as the director of a six-county, non-profit organization operating in northwestern New Jersey . That organization received financial and technical support from the Federal government's Natural Resources Conservation Service. In 2003, Donna was recognized by the New Jersey Chapter of the American Planning Association for the development of a publication entitled "Building Greener Communities: Planning for Woodland Conservation."

Program Manager, Institute for Sustainability Planning and Governance:

Winnie Fatton , B.A.

Winnie Fatton’s academic background includes a BA in Creative Writing from the University of Missouri and 30 credits toward a Master of Arts in Teaching from Trenton State College (now The College of New Jersey). Winnie has been an educator for over 25 years.   Her experience ranges from teaching 4th grade to high school English.  She currently teaches SAT Prep classes (Verbal section) for Hunterdon Central Regional High School in Flemington, NJ. She has held a variety of jobs, from writer's assistant to private tutor to secretary, during the years when her main focus was raising her 2 children. Winnie was formerly the Director of Education for the South Branch Watershed Association, Inc. in Flemington, NJ where she helped to develop "The Waterways Stewardship Group" program which teaches students how to conduct biological monitoring of waterways in order to assess water quality. Winnie plans to continue her interest in environmental preservation and in carefully planned land use through her work with the MLUC.

Program Manager, Institute for Sustainability Planning and Governance:

Patricia Ruby, M.E.M.

After earning a B.S. in biology and environmental studies from Ursinus College and a Master of Environmental Management degree from Yale University, Ms. Ruby managed conservation programs for the Upper Raritan
Watershed Association for several years. During this time, she administered two federally-funded water quality projects totaling over $100K, reorganized the land preservation and water conservation programs
for more effective operation, trained volunteers and staff, and participated in regional policy and planning activities.

Ms. Ruby then joined the NJ Sustainable State Institute at Rutgers to manage the development of county and municipal sustainability plans as well as climate and energy plans. Specifically, she coordinated a team
from Rutgers to develop Energy Efficiency and Conservation Strategies for 12 municipal recipients of ARRA funding, administered the contracts, and shepherded the projects through DOE approval. In addition to hiring
and supervising research assistants, Ms. Ruby researched policies and best practices to develop guidance incorporated into the award-winning Sustainable Jersey program. She was appointed as Acting Director of
NJSSI before joining the MLUC team in 2010. In addition to supporting the Climate Showcase Communities project, she continued her role in Sustainable Jersey and oversaw the program’s certification process.
Additionally, Ms. Ruby is the co-PI on a new project that will focus on developing best practices for companion animal management and wildlife conservation in NJ.

Ms. Ruby also provides technical assistance and administrative support to the Lamington Conservancy, a volunteer-led land trust that operates in Somerset, Hunterdon, and Morris Counties.

Sustainability Research Project Coordinator, Institute for Sustainability Planning and Governance:

Anthony O'Donnell

Tony O’Donnell is a Project Specialist at The Municipal Land Use Center at The College of New Jersey. Mr. O’Donnell is currently the project coordinator for the EPA Climate Showcase Communities program and deals with highly specialized technical, economic, and policy topics associated with research and outreach on energy and sustainable development. From 2004 to 2010, Mr. O’Donnell was employed as the staff economist at the New Jersey Pinelands Commission, where he was responsible for managing the Long Term Economic Monitoring Program. In addition to compiling, maintaining, and analyzing a large and diverse database for more than 50 municipalities covering over 900,000 acres in South Jersey, Mr. O’Donnell also published an annual report on the regional economy. Prior to that, he worked as the State Plan Director at the Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions (ANJEC) coordinating strategies for local Environmental Commissions during the cross-acceptance process. Mr. O’Donnell holds a Master of Science degree in Food and Business Economics from Rutgers University in addition to a Master of Science degree in City and Regional Studies from the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental and Business Economics from Cook College – Rutgers University.

Project Coordinator, Land Use and Transportation Program

William Beetle, P.P., M.C.R.P

Bill Beetle holds a Master of City and Regional Planning degree from Rutgers University and has over 30 years of professional planning experience in both the public and private sectors, focusing on transportation planning and the interface between transportation policy and project development and land use. While with the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT), Bill lead the Department’s development of the award winning guide “Managing Transportation in Your Community,” the Department’s participation at the State Planning Commission, the application of the State Development and Redevelopment Plan to NJDOT policy, planning and project development practices and the integration of Context Sensitive Solutions (CSS) to project planning and design.  In private practice, Bill led the development of the Meadowlands Transportation Master Plan, The Route 1 Regional Growth Strategy, and the Atlantic City Regional Transportation Plan, and contributed to the Statewide Freight Plan and the Peninsula at Bayonne Redevelopment Plan.  In addition, Bill led the formation and delivery of the CSS Course offered by the National Transit Institute.

Bill was awarded the American Planning Association New Jersey Chapter Distinguished Service Award for 2007.

Project Manager, Land Use and Transportation Program

Carmen V. Valentin, B.A.

Carmen Valentin holds a Bachelor of Arts in Biology from Rutgers University and a Certificate in Project Management from the American Management Association. Carmen was formerly the Operations Manager at the NJ Department of Community Affairs’ (DCA) Office of Smart Growth (OSG) where she was responsible for overseeing and coordinating the activities of various work units including the Planning and GIS units. She also created and managed project teams to fulfill specific mandates of the State Plan. In 2000, Carmen worked with Dr. Martin Bierbaum, helping coordinate State Plan implementation efforts in various state departments and agencies. Carmen is a trained facilitator and a former member of the NJ Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) Facilitator Corps. She has provided facilitation services for various state departments, counties and universities. She was the Public Outreach & Education Coordinator for the DEP’s Pesticide Control Program for over 10 years, where she developed and delivered interactive pesticide safety education programs for the general public and provided compliance training to over 2000 pesticide applicators, farmers and agricultural workers annually.