Camp Team Allies

Glen Feinberg, Esq. 
Partner - Coffey Modica O’Meara Capowski LLP 

Glen has represented summer camps in cases alleging serious physical and emotional injuries for more than thirty years, including sexual abuse and molestation. His understanding of camping standards and the needs and goals of camp directors makes him uniquely qualified to defend summer camps in litigation. Glenn has been an integral part of our camp program and has defended sone oof our most difficult and challenging liability claims with great success. Glen’s forward-looking approach makes him uniquely qualified to provide world-class counsel to the most vulnerable defendants. 

Glen focuses his practice on the defense of individuals and institutions sued for claims involving severe emotional distress and psychiatric injury. This work often implicates New York’s Child Victims Act and similar laws throughout the country. In handling these ultra-sensitive matters, Glen invokes his network of esteemed local counsel, as well as his knowledge of neurobiology and cutting-edge psychotherapy techniques. 
Glen began his legal career as an Assistant District Attorney under Robert Morgenthau in Manhattan.

Lee J. Sacket, Esq. 
Partner - L’Abbate, Balkan, Colavita & Contini 
Mr. Sacket has extensive experience in the camping industry. After spending his childhood at camp, he worked at day camps and residential camps as a counselor, group leader, sports specialist, sports director and staff recruiter. As an attorney, Mr. Sacket has counseled and represented camps for more than 20 years. These services include drafting and negotiating contracts, representation in litigation and mediation and risk management counseling. 

Mr. Sacket has presented at the Tri-State Camp Conference and authorized numerous articles focused on issues in the camping industry. Mr. Sacket has practiced in the areas of commercial litigation, professional liability litigation, environmental liability, including asbestos related matters, general liability, insurance defense litigation and medical malpractice. He is presently the Co-Chairperson of the Design Professional Group, which focuses on the defense of architects, engineers and related design professionals. 

Lee was named to the 2015, 2016 and 2017 New York Metro Area "Rising Star" lists. Each year, no more than 2.5% of the lawyers in the state are selected by the research team at Super Lawyers to receive this honor. Mr. Sacket has also been rated as one of New York’s Top Ranked Lawyers by ALM and Martindale-Hubbell every year since 2015.

Scott R. Green, Esq.
Partner - Goldberg Segalla 

Scott R. Green is an experienced employment litigator and trusted counselor to a diverse array of employers, including publicly traded corporations, small businesses, multinational corporations, nonprofit organizations and individuals. His practice involves defending management against employment discrimination, harassment, retaliation and wage and hour claims in federal and state courts and before various federal, state and local administrative bodies, as well as defending employers against class action lawsuits and multidistrict lawsuits involving employment issues. Scott also routinely litigates restrictive covenant and non-competition disputes and handles traditional labor law matters, including negotiating collective bargaining agreements and handling National Labor Relations Board charges and union arbitrations. In addition to litigation, Scott regularly counsels employers with respect to employment agreements, employee handbooks and employment policies, practices & procedures. Scott has handled several camp employment matters.

Gwenn Kudler Gelfand, LCSW 
Licensed Certified Social Worker - Camp Team Mental Health Director
Gwenn has worked on the staff of Brown & Brown, for over a decade. As the Camp Mental Health Director, she works as a consultant to various Directors, Staff and Campers. In this capacity, she provides support, guidance and crisis intervention. She has authored dozens of articles, has lectured and trained staff at various camps throughout the country as well as providing critical support during crisis situations. She is a long-time camper, counselor and group leader at residential and day camps and has three adult children all of whom attended day camp and residential camp. 

Gwenn has more than thirty-five years of experience in the field of eating disorders and child, adolescent and adult psychotherapy. For 30 years she was on staff at the Cohen's Children’s Hospital, a division of the Northwell Health Systems, where she worked in their departments of Psychiatry and Adolescent Medicine. Gwenn is currently in full-time private practice on the Upper East Side of Manhattan and sees customers on a virtual platform. 

Gwenn received a Bachelor of Social Work from Cornell University, a Master of Social Work from Columbia University and has extensive specialized training in the field of eating disorders and in cognitive and behavioral therapies.

Praesidium 
We know what works. We know how to prevent the sexual abuse of children and vulnerable adults by employees, volunteers and other program participants. Using current research and root cause analyses of thousands of cases of abuse across a diverse range of organizations, Praesidium has identified eight organizational operations that provide opportunities to decrease the risk of abuse by employees, volunteers, or other program participants. Together, these eight operations make up the Praesidium Safety Equation®. Praesidium has a several solutions including: ARMATUS® learn to protect system, know your score! online self-assessment, praesidium risk assessment and accreditation, praesidium guardian certification, anonymous reporting helpline, praesidium’s screening and selection toolkit, crisis management, litigation support.

Gregory S. Love, Esq. 
Managing Partner - Love & Norris 
Greg is the co-founder of MinistrySafe Institute and Abuse Prevention Systems. His customers include camps, churches, universities, private schools, public and private charities, child-serving non-profits and youth sport organizations. Greg has worked with Brown & Brown on sex abuse prevention training as well as participating in several webinars for the camp community. A specialist in legal standards of care related to child sexual abuse, he has consulted with organizations such as the U.S. Olympic Committee, U.S. Center for Safe Sport, WinShape, Awana International and Trail Life USA. 

PM Pediatric Care
Providing Resources to Support a Healthy + Happy Summer Camp Experience 
PM Pediatric Care is a national leader in comprehensive pediatric care, including treatment of injuries, illnesses and mental and behavioral conditions in children, teens and young adults. With a national telemedicine presence, as well as nearly 100 urgent care locations in more than 15 states, our team of dedicated pediatric experts has gained a reputation for delivering compassionate, top-quality care to help children thrive. 

As experts in pediatric physical and mental health, PM Pediatric Care proudly partners with camps to provide services that support camp infirmaries, staff, counselors and campers.

PM Pediatric services can include:

• Physician health services through telemedicine, supporting care for campers 7 days a week from 8am to midnight. 

• Mental and behavioral health through telemedicine, supporting children dealing with anxiety, separation anxiety and homesickness, grief and sadness. Individual and group therapy available. 

• Healthcare consulting services to help camps establish a gold standard for organized infirmary, sick protocol and education for camp leaders. 

• Pre-Camp Services to provide virtual education and training for parents or staff related to mental and behavioral health awareness, bullying, gender identity and sexuality and preparing children for camp, to ensure a more successful summer experience. 

Erik Bernstein 
President - Bernstein Crisis Management 
Erik Bernstein is President of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc. an international crisis and reputation management firm providing solutions for both organizations and individuals. Erik and his team have extensive experience working with leadership from camps, schools, sports organizations and youth groups in all aspects of creating, building and maintaining their readiness for – and resilience against – threats to operations or reputation that might impact the bottom line. His expertise bridges from back-end crisis management, including planning, preparedness and training, to outbound crisis communications and media relations, ensuring a cohesive, holistic approach to protecting customers’ interests. 

Before making the move to full time crisis consulting, Erik operated a social media and online marketing company providing both reputation management and marketing services to customers. This position provided an unusual level of daily exposure to the types of online issues organizations of all shapes and sizes face, and kickstarted his career in crisis management. 

Crisis management is a fast-paced field, and the rules of engagement can shift with the tide of public opinion. Through supporting customers in a wide range of industries, Erik has developed proven methods to prevent, prepare for and reduce damage taken from crisis situations, continuing to share that knowledge with a steady stream of speaking engagements, training sessions, guest lecturing for universities including NYIT and USC’s Annenberg School, and media interviews for outlets like the Wall Street Journal, Business Insider and Bloomberg, as well as the award-winning Bernstein Crisis Management blogs.

Jake Mendlinger
Vice President of ZE Creative Communications
Jake Mendlinger is Vice President of public relations agency ZE Creative Communications and works alongside Brown & Brown to help camps effectively communicate with families, communities and media in emergency scenarios. Jake has more than 15 years of experience providing strategic communication counsel and crisis management support for camps, public school districts and independent schools to create and maintain an empowering narrative within their communities and directly engage with families and faculty.
For more than 35 years, ZE Creative Communications has represented a range of camps, schools and educational programs to generate positive news coverage, produce award-winning marketing collateral and effectively interact with media amid a myriad of crises. Through this partnership, Brown & Brown's camp customers have direct access to the agency's full suite of copywriters, public relations specialists and graphic designers as well as company's co-president Ron Edelson and executive vice president David Chauvin who have decades of experience in crisis management strategy, government relations and marketing.

Michael Mellen, PCC
Rabbi President, Iron and Sage
Mike is an executive and organizational coach and facilitator, who works with individuals and values-driven organizations to create space for growth, innovation and possibility. Mike has led pre camp orientation talks for Brown & Brown camps for many years. His work with top executives, high potential team members, entrepreneurs, clergy, educators, camp teams and boards moves people to see their work, organizations and lives more holistically, enabling them to better tap into the strengths that can propel them towards a vibrant, equitable and impactful future. Michael is interested in the knotty problems of leadership, the power of vision and the joy of creativity. With many years of camp and youth program experience, his current work with summer camps includes executive coaching for camp leaders, staff training, speaking about risk management and coaching and facilitation related to mission, program and strategy. Prior to launching his company, Iron and Sage, Michael served as a congregational educator and rabbi, as Director of Youth Programs and Director of NFTY for the Reform Movement, and as an innovation consultant with the Jewish Education Project. 

Paul Reichenbach
Senior Camp Program and Director, Emeritus 
Paul provides invaluable advice and staff orientation talks for Brown & Brown camps. Throughout forty-four years, Paul Reichenbach had the honor of supervising many of the youth programs of the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ). After graduating from NYU, Paul served as the Co-Director of the URJ Teen Leadership Camp in Warwick, NY in the 70s and 80s. Commencing in 1978, Paul added to his journey the management of teen and young adult travel to Israel and Europe sending more than 30,000 participants on meaningful, joyful and safe adventures. Commencing in 2002 until his retirement in September 2019 (seventeen years), he supervised the operation of eighteen (at its peak) URJ Camps across North America welcoming more than 14,000 young people for inspiring, transformative and friendship filled summers. The core of Paul’s responsibility throughout his career was to build, guide and partner with wonderful teams of deeply dedicated professionals who were inspired and instructed to create communities where the health, safety, security, dignity and personal welfare of campers and staff were essential for tremendously successful summers ensuring the happiness and confidence of kids and their parents.

Patrick Connelly 

Connelly Consulting Group, LLC 
Patrick Connelly has been recognized as a pioneer in the camping industry. For 30 years, he has been a leader and innovator of large YMCAs, Camps and Girl Scout outdoor centers. Patrick has provided camp orientation sessions for Brown & Brown camps and consulted on camp topical issues. Patrick has presented and been a keynote speaker at numerous ACA and YMCA camp conferences and has traveled across the country providing training and program support to hundreds of organizations and thousands of staff. Patrick served on the task force that created the YMCA Day Camp Director Manual, authoring the chapter on Character Development. A proud UCONN Husky, Patrick has a Masters in Energy and Environmental Sciences from UCONN. Since 2007, Patrick has been providing consulting services; and in 2018 he created the Connelly Consulting Group, a team of industry professionals that provide best in class trainings, program assessments and recommendations, master planning services and more. With a long and distinguished list of customers the Connelly Consulting Group is “Teaming With Excellence!”

Michael V. Cardone 
Executive General Adjuster - Crawford & Company - Global Technical Services
Michael is a multi-line insurance adjuster who began his insurance adjusting career in 1988. He has been working with Brown & Brown and their insurance company partners to address the property claims of their camp customers for over 30 years. Michael understands that the needs and requirements of Camps vary due to the type of Camp, Camp operations as well as the time of year they may find themselves submitting and addressing a claim. Several Camp owners know Michael for having addressed their claims over the years in a fair, prompt and expedient manner. Michael has assisted Brown & Brown camps in settling the largest property claims, including one more than $30 million. 
Michael currently holds adjuster licenses in 16 states where independent adjuster licensing is required. He specializes in large loss property and casualty claims and continues to handle claims of various causes, complexities and dollar amounts. Michael is committed to providing the best possible customer service.

Evan Heltay
Expert Online Training - Co-Founder and Chief Operations Officer 
EOT passionately supports our customers' efforts to create healthy, safe and successful summer camp programs. As part of that commitment, Brown & Brown has cultivated a partnership with Expert Online Training (EOT), the camping industry's leading staff training and performance program. Professional staff training helps reduce accidents and injuries and with that in mind, Brown & Brown has secured a 20% discount with EOT for all Brown & Brown customers. 
Through EOT you can initiate your staff training remotely with over 120 professional videos and interactive quizzes created by some of the most respected educators in the camping world. 

General topics include leadership, mental health and behavior, physical and emotional safety and supervision. In addition, you can create your own videos and quizzes. Camp staff can access everything on their own schedule from a computer or smartphone anywhere and your camp can track their participation and comprehension. Camp administrators and staff receive online and toll-free customer service support from a helpful team of tech and camp professionals. In addition, a course completion certificate issued by EOT may be a helpful tool in defending litigation in the future. 

Staff quality is a primary factor separating good camps from great camps, and we all know the myriad staff issues many camps faced this past summer. Give your team the opportunity to be great!

Mary Herbst 
Crisis Team Specialist
Mary Herbst is the VP of Enterprise Risk and Compliance for the YMCA of the North. The Enterprise Risk Management team is committed to the identification, prioritization and management of risk, safety and security for all of urban branches, childcare and camp sites. As leader of this team, Mary Herbst brings over 20 years of Crisis Management and Response expertise from companies as large as Carlson Companies, Best Buy, InComm and others to lead and manage any significant emergency situation that may occur. In addition to helping teams ensure that their plans and up to date, Mary also has conducted realistic crisis scenario tabletop exercises that both identify gaps in current plans and to better prepare those who may not have responded to these types of incidents collaborate with others to gain insight into response strategies. Mary performs critical advice and guidance to our Crisis Frepsonse Team.