Bob Townley

Executive Director

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Bob's broad experience in nonprofit management is bolstered by a Master's degree in Social Administration from Columbia University. He has worked extensively with families in New York City, including homeless families at the Henry Street Settlement's Urban Family Center. His commitment to helping families secure employment and childcare has been the driving force in his work. Bob's other love is sports and recreation. In the mid-1980s he became Youth Coordinator of Community Board One, and he started Manhattan Youth in 1986 with Lower Manhattan parents. His commitment to social activism helped him organize community meetings and services for residents including successful advocacy efforts for parks, sports leagues and schools. In the aftermath of 9/11 Bob took the lead in organizing services for the downtown community.

Bob ranks as one of the longest-serving members of CB1. He is a member of the Hudson River Park Advisory Board, the Residents Advisory Board of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation and he is a founder of the Downtown Soccer and Little Leagues. A native of Coney Island who grew up in Manhattan and Queens, he has lived in Tribeca and has been a Battery Park City resident for over 20 years. Bob enjoys hiking, music about beaches and the ocean, he loves the gym in his building, and he is a die-hard fan of both the New York Giants and New York Jets!

Matthew Behrens

Lawyer and Parent

Matthew Behrens is an attorney with the law firm of Shearman & Sterling LLP.  He lives in Manhattan with his wife and their two children.

Bruce Cronin

Board Chair and Professor

David Gage

Instrument Repair Shop and Parent

Board member David Gage has lived and worked in Tribeca since 1977. He and his wife Judy raised their two children, Mollie and Isaiah, in their Tribeca loft . Their children attended both the neighborhood schools and various Manhattan Youth programs and day camp. For many years David enjoyed coaching both his children and others at Manhattan Youth Basketball leagues. He is the adoring grandfather of Isabella, now three and a half and a frequent visitor to Manhattan Youth open play areas.

Since 1978 David has been President of David Gage String Instruments in Tribeca, a brick and mortar shop specializing in the restoration , sales and rentals of string basses, celli, violins and violas . He is also the designer and manufacturer of a line of transducers for the amplification of instruments in the violin family. David plays the upright and electric basses as well as the guitar and enjoys sharing his love of music and musicians with area children who now rent their instruments through the shop.

Janiece Brown Spitzmueller, Esq.

Sptizmuller Lawyer

Paul Hovitz

Teacher, Activist, and Parent

Ron V. Shenfield

Ron Shenfield, Treasurer MY Board of Directors is an accomplished healthcare consultant and project manager specializing in large-scale healthcare planning, strategy, capital development, administration, and operations. With a diverse career in senior executive, consulting and government roles, having set healthcare policy, directed and run long-term care facilities, and both planned and administered hospital programs, services, and capital developments over the past 25+ years.

Ron’s industry knowledge, contacts, and leadership/consulting expertise span the full breadth of healthcare planning, administration, and operations. His experience provides the ability to advise on and lead all project phases, from defining the vision to executing the plan.

Ron has also lectured and presented before some of the top universities and healthcare associations throughout Canada and the U.S.

Ron holds a Masters Degree in Social Policy & Administration with a minor in Business Administration from Columbia University, Bachelor degrees from the Universities of Calgary and Alberta, and has chaired or contributed to over 20 senior-level planning and action committees in both Canada and the U.S..

Ron was a co-founder of Manhattan Youth in 1986 and continues to serve as a Board member, currently he is the Board Treasurer.

Ron and his wife enjoy travelling, kayaking, sailing and hiking.

Beth Kirschner

Parent and Attorney

Beth Kirschner is a long time resident of downtown Manhattan.  Beth is the Managing Attorney of a Manhattan law firm and the mother of a son who is an active member in the MY after school program as well as the basketball program.

Carlo Calabrò

Advisory Board

Italian-born entrepreneur and screenwriter, living in NYC in the Financial District since 2018 with his wife Irma and their two children, Iolanda and Emilio.

Deeply engaged in supporting public schools and the local community, Carlo is also the chairman of Taste of the Seaport, the yearly food festival that raises funds for Peck Slip School and Spruce Street School.

Gene Shafer

Advisory Board

Gene is a long-time resident of Tribeca. He and his wife have raised their son and and daughter in the neighborhood. He's also based his fitness training business, ARC Athletics, in the neighborhood.

He feels the Tribeca community is one of the best parts of the neighborhood.

Jeff Wu

Advisory Board

A graduate of the NYU Stern School of Business and a Certified Public Accountant, Jeff brings over 13 years of financial, operational, and people management experience to organizations small and large. Before joining The Tutorverse as a partner in 2015, Jeff learned from the best at PwC and Amazon.

Tiffany Winbush

Advisory Board

A bridge builder, champion of inclusive communities and an advocate for the betterment of women and girls. Tiffany has lived in Lower Manhattan for almost 20 years and calls this community home along with her husband and two school age children who attend a local public school where Tiffany serves as Chair of the School Leadership Team. Tiffany is also a marketing executive in the financial and healthcare industries and is passionate about continuing the legacy of community service that was instilled in her by her family while growing up in Louisiana.  

Tom Brasell

Advisory Board

Tom Brasell is a founding community member of Manhattan Youth . In 1986 Tom volunteered with Bob Townley & Ron Shenfield as he encouraged, supported and even drove young players from the Lower East Side (where Tom was born and raised) to football games.  

In 2020 Tom, was unanimously elected as the President of the Roberto Clemente Foundation. Clemente, the great Baseball Hall of Famer and humanitarian, lost his life on New Year’s Eve in 1972 while embarking on a humanitarian mission to deliver aid to earthquake victims in Nicaragua.  The Foundation, founded by Clemente’s late wife Vera Clemente, arranges and conducts sports clinics/competitions, school visits to educate children about the life of Roberto Clemente and supports numerous charitable and relief activities.  

The Foundation’s mission is to promote positive change and community engagement through the example and inspiration of Roberto. Roberto Clemente would rather be honored with service to the world, rather than simple commemoration.  Tom is continuing that legacy.

For nearly two decades, prior to joining the Clemente board, Tom served as Vice President of Community Affairs for Major League Baseball and as President of Major League Baseball Charities, where he was responsible for Major League Baseball’s community and charitable programs, partnerships and initiatives. Prior to those positions Tom directed MLB’s Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI) program. Prior to MLB, Tom directed constituent services for New York Council Member Miriam Friedlander and worked for New York City’s Department of Youth Services. Tom serves on the Board of the Greater New York Sandlot Baseball Alliance (previously as Honorary Chair). He is an alumnus and former staff person of the Boys’ Club of New York, and past chairperson of the Murry Bergtraum High School Athletic Field Advisory Committee and the Lower East Side Neighborhood Coalition, respectively. He has served on University Settlement's Second Century Committee, Bates College Diversity Task Force, the United States Selective Service Board, New York City Neighborhood Advisory Board 3, Grace Church School's Alumni/ae Executive Committee, and Harlem RBI’s Bids for Kids Benefit Committee and on the boards of the Lena Horne Scholarship Committee, Pueblo Nuevo Housing Development Corporation, the Gabe Velez Foundation, Hamilton - Madison House, CUANDO, and the P3/Pier and Park Playground Association, among others. Tom was inducted into Boys & Girls Clubs of America’s Alumni Hall of Fame and the NYC Sandlot Baseball Hall of Fame and has been recognized by the National Urban League with their Face of Leadership Award, and received honors and awards from the New York City Department of Education, the American Baseball Coaches Association, the New York City Council, the New York State Senate, and numerous youth baseball leagues. He was presented with Sports Integrity Global Alliance’s (SIGA) inaugural Recognition Award and currently serves as an Ambassador to Boys & Girls Clubs of America Native Services and as an adviser to the Paley Center for Media.

We are honored to have Tom back at Manhattan Youth

Shonali Gupta

Advisory Board