Leslie Felner, Director-at-Large

Board of Directors

Leslie is a retired development professional working with not-for-profit and government organizations over her entire career.

Born in New York City, she and her family moved to the Albany area where she was educated in the South Colonie School system. Among her activities, she was active in the Girl Scouts transferring her membership from the Greater New York City Council to the (then)Hudson Valley Girl Scout Council and remained a member through her Senior Scout days. Summers were spend at Camp Ish-Sho-Da and then at Camp Little Notch from about 1967-1974. She was staff at both Camps from 1976-1979.

Leslie has a BS in Biology from the State University of NY at Brockport; an MS in Health and Safety Education from the Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Master of Public Health (MPH) specializing in Maternal and Child Health/Public Policy from the University of Illinois - School of Public Health at Chicago. She has worked at reducing infant mortality in Chicago and has developed public health policy aimed at increasing health care services to the elderly, medically underserved and those who are uninsured or disenfranchised. In NYC, she was the administrator for public school based pediatric medical services, working with NYC Board of Health, and NYS Dept. of Health. Additionally, she has provided technical consulting with community agencies in New Jersey to assist them in applying for grants for a variety of health and human services initiatives.

Before joining the FoCLN Board, Leslie concluded a 3-year term as the President of Hadassah Northern New Jersey, a state affiliate (with 15 chapters) of Hadassah (WZOA) a national organization with over 300,000 members. Her affiliate has over 10,000 members and a fundraising goal of over $500,000. Her leadership was honored by the New Jersey State Assembly and by the United States Congress. She sits on the Fair Lawn Board of Health as well as on the Fair Lawn Recreation and Parks Advisory Board.

As a Board member, she wants to insure that Camp Little Notch, attracts, and provides a positive influence on every camper who attends. It is because of the camp philosophy and influence of girl-centric planning, including positive staff role models, which allowed her, and many of her camper-friends, to succeed in their adult lives. She is also interested in the long-range planning of FoCLN and the camp. Her past and current interests in CLN (as a donor) was to secure funds to replace and upgrade some of the most pressing maintenance needs. Fundraising for on-going maintenance in camp is something that is an interest of hers and that she would like to pursue. She is also interested in seeing how best to leverage the property as an income-producing entity and marketing it as such.