About
All About Isles
Our mission is to help people build not just solutions to today’s challenges, but pathways to lasting change
Founded in 1981, Isles, Inc. is a community development organization based in Trenton, New Jersey. We believe everyone deserves a healthy community where they can grow and thrive. Our mission is to create the environment necessary for individuals and families to build and enjoy healthy, sustainable lives. We design and develop interconnected services that work together toward this goal, and we share what we learn with others who can make a difference.
The work we do
We research and develop innovative, practical solutions to a variety of problems faced by our communities. Our solutions toolbox includes resources that open paths for individuals and families to succeed as well as strategies, policies, and actions that improve the community in which they live. Our solutions are offered to and implemented in the community where we can learn from the outcomes in order to successfully challenge and change inequitable systems.
Isles’ interconnected services help us to realize our mission in a variety of ways including:
- Education and training for adults and youth through an alternative high school, job training center, and family support services
- Building financial security through innovative coaching, services, and resources that help people manage money, restore credit, and build savings
- Promoting healthy living by tackling environmental hazards, fostering energy infrastructure, improving open space, and expanding access to locally grown food.
- Revitalization of communities by working alongside local residents to plan their neighborhoods’ future and to develop energy infrastructure, healthy homes, parks, gardens, shared facilities, and more.
- Driving systemic change through policy research, advocacy, and coalition-building that addresses root causes of inequity, influencing local, state, and national decisions on housing, environmental justice, economic opportunity, and community health.
History
Rooted in Trenton. Built to last.
Isles began in 1981 with a question, not a program. A small group of Princeton students believed that communities hold more capacity than most development approaches ever reach — and that a different kind of organization was possible. They called it Isles: places that learn to meet their needs from within.
The first project was a garden. A vacant lot in the Carroll Street neighborhood — trash-strewn, written off — became the test. Three people spread soil and built a simple fence. Neighbors thought it was a little crazy. By the end of that first summer, every plot was planted, and new friendships and confidence had formed across fences. The first island had taken root.
What followed wasn’t a plan so much as a practice: listen carefully, respond to what people actually need, research innovative approaches, and build each new effort on the last. Gardens led to housing. Housing revealed hidden toxins. Environmental health work uncovered lead poisoning in children’s own homes. Lead work led to policy change. Each problem, addressed honestly, opened the door to the next.
That practice is still how Isles works — and it shows in what we’ve built. Healthy homes and green spaces. Gardens that feed families. Education. Job training and pathways to financial security. Clean energy and mobility. Environmental restoration. And the Social Profit Center, where organizations working toward the same goals share space, strategy, and momentum. These aren’t separate programs. They’re what forty-five years of listening, learning, testing, and building solutions looks like.
The work has been recognized by the U.S. EPA, the White House, and the United Nations. But the measure that matters most is whether families are more effectively operating on their own, and whether the neighborhoods they live in are healthier, safer, and more hopeful than they were before.
Today, Isles remains deeply rooted in Trenton while extending its reach across New Jersey — working alongside neighbors, friends, and community leaders to build something better, together.
The challenges have changed over 45 years. The commitment has not.
Leadership
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Sean Jackson
Chief Executive Officer
Sean Jackson is the CEO of Isles. Sean previously served as a Trustee of Isles, and Chair of the Real Estate Development Committee. In early 2019, Sean stepped off Isles’ Board of Trustees to oversee the completion of the Social Profit Center at Mill One, a 75k sq ft redevelopment project that is converting a formerly vacant historic mill into office, studio, and flex space.
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Sean was Senior VP of Rosemont Associates, where he assisted a wide variety of clients with government relations issues before federal, state, and local government officials and agencies. He worked with hospital systems, real estate development firms, environmental remediation specialists, an electric vehicle charging firm, and several Fortune 500 companies, and assisted in managing the remediation of a 35 acre industrial site in Jersey City.
In addition, Sean managed development of properties in the City of Trenton on behalf of Woodrose Properties and served as Of Counsel at the Murphy Orlando Law Firm in Jersey City.
Prior to that, Sean served for four years as U.S. Senator Robert Torricelli’s Chief of Staff in New Jersey. Sean was responsible for relations with the state and local elected officials, aiding municipalities with federally funded projects, overseeing New Jersey media relations, and managing a twenty-five person staff.
Sean received his BA in history and political science from the University of Michigan and his J.D. from Rutgers Newark School of Law.
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Laura Fenster Rothschild
Chief Operating Officer
Dr. Laura Fenster Rothschild currently serves as the Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Isles where she leads our mission to ensure healthy, sustainable communities where all can thrive. Previously, Laura served as the Founding Managing Director of Isles’ Johnson Center for Learning and Policy, making strides in both policy and inter-sector practices. Prior to Isles, Laura worked as an Impact Consultant supporting CBOs, Universities, and Impact Investment Funds in their mission-driven work. Her career began in the nonprofit sector and evolved to serve as the Director of Education and Training at Rutgers Center of Alcohol Studies.
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Throughout this time, she designed and implemented alternative structures and strategies for urban and rural communities to enhance the success of young people in schools and beyond. While she had a formal education at Lafayette College and Rutgers, The State University of NJ, Laura gives credit to mentors, partners, and colleagues at the Center for Supportive Schools for helping to set the foundation for all her professional work. Laura grounds her practice in building and nurturing deep relationships that honor each other’s narratives, allow all to show up as their authentic selves, and provide space for growth and laughter.
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Chantea Hobson
Executive Director
Isles Youth InstituteChantea Hobson is the Executive Director of Isles Youth Institute, where she leads a YouthBuild-inspired program that integrates education, workforce development, leadership training, community service, supportive services, and postsecondary pathways. She is committed to helping young people build the skills, credentials, and confidence needed to pursue meaningful careers and become active, engaged leaders in their communities.
Her work is rooted in expanding opportunities for young adults, especially those who have faced barriers to traditional education and employment. Chantea creates a supportive and structured learning environment where students are encouraged to grow academically, develop leadership capacity, and gain real-world experience that prepares them for long-term success.
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Before her role at Isles Youth Institute, Chantea served at the New Jersey Training School for Boys in Monroe, New Jersey, where she supported justice-involved youth in their rehabilitation and personal development. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice with a minor in Public Administration from Kean University. Chantea is guided by a deep belief in second chances, service, and skill-building as pathways to transformation. Through her leadership, she is dedicated to ensuring every student has the opportunity, support, and resources to succeed, lead, and make a positive impact in their community.
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Chris Benson
Managing Director
Workforce DevelopmentChris Benson is the inaugural Managing Director of Workforce Development at Isles, where he leads the effort to bring together the Financial Opportunity Center (FOC) and the Center for Energy and Environmental Training (CEET). Since joining Isles in 2024, Chris has been focused on using the organization’s resources to help Trenton residents build financial stability and create stronger career pathways through improved training opportunities and access to supportive services.
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A graduate of Thomas Edison State University and American University, Chris has spent his career serving others. Before joining Isles, he developed dual enrollment and career and technical education programs to help high school students get a head start on their futures. Earlier in his career, he worked with the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency (NJHMFA), providing support and training across the state for homelessness prevention and affordable housing programs.
A proud Trenton resident for many years, Chris lives in the city with his wife, Samantha, and their son, Lennox.
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Jason Allen
Managing Director
Community Planning and DevelopmentJason Allen is Managing Director of Community Planning and Development at Isles, where he manages the Urban Agriculture program, Neighborhood Revitalization Tax Credit (NRTC) funded programs, which includes the East Trenton Collaborative, Trenton’s Creative Arts District activities, homeowner improvements, and small business supports. Jason also handles low-income housing and tenant supports.
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A graduate of Montclair State University, Jason has spent his career engaging community stakeholders and funders. Before joining Isles, he was Director of Community Engagement at the New Jersey Council for the Humanities, Executive Director at the Camden County Historical Society, and Director of Education and Interpretation at Cliveden of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Jason is the proud father of a daughter, Sofia, and dog parent to Brody.
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Peter Rose
Managing Director
Community EnterprisesAs Isles Managing Director since 2006, Peter Rose is responsible for a broad range of services to provide energy efficiency, healthy housing and community-based transportation. Under Peter’s leadership, Isles has created or expanded leading-edge services for Trenton Area residents, such as financial capability for low wage workers, lead safe housing rehab, and NJ’s only all-electric rideshare service GoTrenton!
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Peter’s creativity and leadership skills were honed in Seattle, WA through his founding of an award-winning nonprofit (Ventures) that provides business training and lending for low income women and people with disabilities. Prior to starting Ventures, Mr. Rose was the Managing Director of RESULTS and RESULTS Educational Fund, the organizing agency for the Microcredit Summit — a 9-year coordinated effort to bring microcredit to 100 million of the world’s poorest families by 2005. He has a B.A. from The Evergreen State College and a teaching certificate from the University of Puget Sound.
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Founder
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Martin Johnson
Founder/Advisor
Martin Johnson is the Founder/Advisor of Isles, Inc., an urban sustainable development organization that fosters self-reliance and healthy neighborhoods. Founded in 1981, Isles arose from a student-initiated seminar and thesis at Princeton University. Isles went on to receive awards from the U.S. EPA, the White House, the United Nations, and numerous other organizations.
Isles’ work includes community planning and green real estate development, wealth creation, environmental health, urban agriculture, education for under-served high school drop-outs and job-training. Increasingly, Isles provides technical and organizing assistance to policymakers and groups across the state and beyond.
Marty co-founded other development organizations and projects, including: New Jersey Community Capital, Housing and Community Development Network of NJ, Building One New Jersey and the Success Measures Project, a national effort to develop impact measures for community-building work.
Born and raised in Akron, Ohio, Marty is a 1981 graduate and former trustee of Princeton University, where he played football and baseball. In 1996, he taught “Rethinking Poverty: Community Development Research and Policy” at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.
From 2015-2019, Marty developed and taught social entrepreneurship courses at Princeton University, titled, “Rethinking Social Profit Organizations” and “So, You Want to Change the World?” He is now Entrepreneur-in-Residence and Teacher at Lafayette College’s Dyer Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
Board of Trustees
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Adrienne King
Chair
Adrienne King is a Senior Litigation Insurance Adjuster for NJM Insurance Group with 18 years experience in the insurance industry. She previously worked as a Legislative Aide in the office of NJ State Assemblywoman Shirley Turner. Adrienne has extensive leadership in national education and sorority organizations and as a board member of Village Charter School.
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Adrienne graduated from Bowie State University with a B.A in communications and joined the Isles Board in May 2022.
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Bobbi Rentko
Vice Chair
Bobbi joined the Isles Board of Trustees in 2025 and currently serves as Vice Chair. Her professional career spans more than 40 years in telecommunications engineering, including a range of leadership roles and most recently serving as Director of Engineering at T-Mobile.
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Throughout her career, she benefited from generous mentors whose guidance made a lasting difference in her life. She is committed to offering that same level of support to others in their personal and professional pursuits.
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Pam Walker
Trustee
Pam Walker is a seasoned, impactful leader with 20+ years of nonprofit leadership, including a stint as a president of the Junior League of Greater Princeton (JLGP). She also served on the JLGP Board for six years leading transformative reorganizations, community needs assessments, strategic planning, and impactful fundraising.
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Additionally, Pam serves on the Princeton Blairstown Center Advisory Council. Outside of the non-profit world, Pam has an extensive background in B2B commercial leadership. Before retirement, she worked at UL Solutions, a safety science company, as a General Manager and Director for the software division focused on chemical data management. She joined Isles’ Board in August 2025.
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Yolanda Marrero-Lopez
Trustee
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Richard Schkolnick
Trustee
Richard Schkolnick is a real estate lawyer with over thirty years’ experience in complex land use matters. Heading his own law firm, Richard also litigates land use and real estate cases, bringing the practical problem-solving skills he has honed in dealing with public entities to bear in the litigation process.
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He is a past Chair of the State Bar Association’s Land Use Law Section and is the creator and moderator of its widely acclaimed “Advanced Topics in Zoning” webinar series, which regularly gathers the leaders of the State Bar’s Land Use Law section to tackle cutting edge legal issues facing the development community. Richard has been selected for inclusion for fourteen straight years (2012 to 2025) on the New Jersey Super Lawyers list. Passionate about land use law, Richard has presented his entertaining “New Jersey Land Use Law 101” course over twenty times to groups of engineers, architects and brokers. He joined Isles’ Board in August 2025.
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Dave Briggs
Trustee
Dave Briggs is a Financial Advisor at Merrill Lynch in Princeton. Over the last 40 years Dave has held many sales and executive roles across multiple industries including Global Shipping, Financial Printing, Advertising, Publishing and Financial Services.
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Most of his career was spent as senior executive with The Wall Street Journal in Advertising Sales and Marketing helping companies of all sizes brand and build their businesses. Dave double majored in Business Administration and English Literature at Rutgers College and holds Series 7, 63, 65, Life and Health Insurance licenses.
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Erinn Hansen
Trustee
Erinn Hansen, a resident of Yardley in Bucks County, PA, is a Director in Corporate Accounting at NRG based in Princeton, NJ where she has held many positions and roles since joining NRG in 2008. Prior to that Erinn worked at PriceWaterhouseCoopers in audit and tax for 17 years in two locations.
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Erinn is a graduate from William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA. Erinn serves as board member for her neighborhood Palmer Farms, member of the Lower Makefield Township Golf committee, and volunteer Bowman’s Wildflower Preserve. Erinn holds her CPA in New Jersey and Pennsylvania and is a member of LPGA Amateur Golf Association in the Central New Jersey chapter.
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Austin Edwards
Trustee
Austin Edwards is a proud born-and-raised Trentonian. With humble childhood beginnings in his home on Rutherford Avenue and second home at the Little Light True Gospel Church, he learned the value of caring for his community and its people. His professional experience includes positions at Capitol Hill, the United States Coast Guard, the Federal Judiciary, multiple federal agencies, and Ernst & Young.
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Austin returned to Trenton to work with the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office to reform police/community relations as well as state financial laws. He holds a law degree from Howard University and a Masters of Domestic and Public Policy from Princeton University.
Austin actively volunteers with numerous organizations including the Howard University Alumni Club of Metropolitan Trenton (Go Bison!), Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc., Lambda Lambda Sigma Chapter, and the Trenton Urban League Guild. He serves as the President of the Trenton NAACP working to protect the civic, societal, and civil rights of all of Mercer County residents. He was also recently appointed to the Trenton School Board where he ensures the educational outcomes of our Trenton children! He is most proud to provide scholarships to local kids to help them achieve their full academic potential, to create and celebrate diverse spaces for youth of all ages to excel, to produce life-changing alternatives to the school/drug/prison pipeline, and to illustrate to the community the young scholars we have in our very midst.
He moved back to and still lives in Trenton with his wife Natalie and their greyhound Grace, and loves to throw the best backyard BBQs!
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Carolyn Hoenisch
Trustee
Carolyn Hoenisch is the Senior Finance Director for Benefit Investment Operations at Johnson & Johnson. Carolyn has held many financial leadership roles across multiple disciplines in her 25-year career at Johnson & Johnson including roles supporting R&D, Marketing, Supply Chain, Acquisitions, and Consolidations.
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Prior to joining Johnson & Johnson, she held various finance roles at IBM and Schering-Plough. Carolyn is a graduate of The Pennsylvania State University with a degree in Finance and a minor in Economics and is a Certified Management Accountant (CMA). She also serves on the Advisory Board for Best Buddies of New Jersey, an organization that promotes inclusion for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
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Michael McGuinness
Trustee
Michael McGuinness has had a 40-year successful career with the private and public sector in association management, government relations, economic development, strategic planning, and public policy formation on business, environmental, land use and real estate issues. He has published numerous research articles and written opinions on these topics.
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Mike retired in September 2023 after 26 years as CEO for NAIOP NJ, as chief spokesman for the commercial real estate industry, where he directed state operations for the 800 plus member organization, overseeing government affairs, education, fundraising, membership development and public relations. From 1994 to 1997, he was acting director for Governor Whitman’s Office of Business Ombudsman. He currently serves as a member of the Greater Trenton Advisory Committee, Our Lady of Sorrows School Board, NOFA NJ and is completing his Master Gardeners certification from the Mercer County Agricultural Extension Service (Rutgers University). Mike received his Masters in Forestry & Environmental Studies from Yale University and joined the Isles Board in December 2023.
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Hemanshu Pandya
Trustee
Hem Pandya is an experienced pharmaceutical executive with a broad spectrum of commercial, operational, strategic and corporate development experience. Hem is the co-founder and President of Exchange Health, LLC., a healthcare service company providing solutions to pharmaceutical companies for commercializing products.
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Hem serves on the Board of Directors for several pharmaceutical and start-up biotech organizations.
Hem attended Elizabeth High School and graduated from Rutgers University. He currently serves on the Board of Advisors for the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University. Hem has demonstrated interest in supporting education and is active in various non-profit organizations including serving on the Board of Directors for the Boys and Girls Club of Mercer which supports Trenton-area youth.
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Manish Shah
Trustee
Manish H. Shah is Managing Partner of Rivers Watch Capital Planning and has been a financial planner since 2003. He is a Certified Pension Consultant and Certified Estate Planner. Manish first served on the Isles Board from 2004 to 2010 and rejoined in July 2022.
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Ross Wishnick
Trustee
For 25 years, Ross Wishnick was a homebuilder specializing in the development of active adult communities. He was a senior executive with Crestwood Village, Inc. (1978-1997), a New Jersey developer and a pioneer in that segment of the homebuilding industry.
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Ross was a founding director of First Washington State Bank (HQ in Windsor, NJ) from 1988 to 2005 helping to grow the bank from one branch to 15 and assets from $3M to $500M. For the past twelve years, Mr. Wishnick has been a member of and now chairs the Princeton Human Services Commission (2009-present), which provides services to youths and seniors in general assistance and advocacy for this segment of the local population. As part of this Commission, Mr. Wishnick took the lead on founding Send Hunger Packing Princeton (2013-present), which provides supplemental weekend food packages for students receiving free and reduced lunches. Mr. Wishnick is also a member of the advisory board of the Princeton Education Foundation (PEF) (2010-present). PEF supports excellence in Princeton Regional Schools by contributing raised funds for capital improvements, educational programs and teacher support.
Mr. Wishnick is also a member and treasurer of the Princeton Democratic Municipal Committee (PDMC) (2008-present) which is an elected position representing District 2. Ross Wishnick serves on the Bank of Princeton Board of Directors since 2007 and currently serves as Vice Chairman.
Financials & Filings
Annual Audited Financial Reports
Annual Form 990
501(c)(3) IRS Tax Exemption Letter
Grantors and Corporate Funding Partners
Isles is grateful for the generous support of the foundations and corporations that share our commitment to building thriving communities in Trenton and beyond.
