Our Executive Team

Enid Borden

Founder and CEO, Chief Dreamer

A not-so-promising career as a folk singer in Greenwich Village in the 60’s led to a series of not-so-fulfilling jobs in the 70’s and 80’s until a stint as a journalist took me to Colorado. Mountains and clean air replaced the streets of New York City. So, that didn’t last long. Back to the grind of the City I went looking for something meaningful.

Then on to Washington DC and I finally got it right. It took some time, but I found that ending senior hunger was the perfect calling. It’s been well over 20 years and I’m still at it. I still dream that one day the mission will be complete.

Matt Levine

President

I was 30 years old, having dinner at a nice Italian restaurant when my friend, a homicide detective who obviously has a difficult job said to me, “anyone who doesn’t love their job is a fool.” Dinner tasted horrible that night. I knew what I had to do.

The next day, I put my resume online. It must have been fate that my phone rang and it was my soon to be mentor calling. She lit a fire inside of me. Not just about ending senior hunger. More about using my talent to change the world. She was selling the notion of working to improve the lives of others. I was buying.

No one’s life has improved more than mine. The passion I have for ending senior hunger springs me out of bed every morning, and the love this NFESH team shares keeps us all going. Hunger is a serious disease. The fact that so many of our seniors are going hungry is totally unacceptable. We are going to do something about it. We have to.

Life isn’t all work and no play though. I have the best wife, two great dogs and house we enjoy together. I have parents who are my role models, teachers and friends. I have a brother, in-laws and fantastic nieces and nephews. I have close friends to laugh with (and at). I have baseball, Washington DC sports and I have Syracuse University. I am lucky…and thankful. So now I give back. I work more than to pay the bills. I choose to work to improve the lives of others. Join me!

Peggy Ingraham

Executive Vice President, Chief Policy Wonk

I remember it as clearly as I remember yesterday. It was a typical, blisteringly hot and humid Mid-Atlantic afternoon. Or at least I thought it would be typical. But that was before I sat down to chat with Enid Borden. It only took an instant for me to realize that there is no such thing as a typical day if it includes Enid Borden and involves solving a big problem. By the time I left Enid’s office we’d agreed to collaborate “on a trial basis” on a project that a major national corporation had brought to her, because they needed an innovative solution. They knew Enid would have the ideas. She did, and she knew it too. But she also knew that she needed a partner in the endeavor who had a different, and complementary, skill set.

Our trial collaboration worked and now, 31 years later, we are still attacking big problems with big ideas– driven by Enid’s energetic leadership, uncanny wit, boundless vision, stubborn refusal to entertain the notion that any problem is intractable. Certainly not senior hunger. So here I am at NFESH, where no day is typical, and where I’ll be until the I have put in their last day in the workforce. But it won’t be soon. There is work to be done. Too many seniors are hungry.

Liz Doyle

Liz Doyle is a born and bred New Yorker who has over the years worked in business, publishing, politics and government, as well as the non-profit world. She cares nothing about titles and refuses to carry a business card, but always has a newspaper, magazine or book with her. When growing up in Brooklyn she never wanted to be president.

Tom Marullo

Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

My early career choices were governed by job security, raising a family and all that goes with it. For example, when people asked me why I chose to major in Foodservice Management for an undergraduate degree, I would answer, “Everyone has to eat!”

Later, I got a graduate degree in Finance so that I could get a nice “safe” job. As I’ve gotten older, the need for job security has been replaced by the need to make an impact. Hunger has always been a cause that I’ve wanted to tackle. That is what my work at NFESH has been all about.

Maribeth Bersani

Vice President of Programs/ Staff Gerontologist

My love of working with seniors started as a young child when my favorite grandmother had her leg amputated due to diabetes and ended up in a skilled nursing home for rehab. Visiting her and seeing the frail seniors made me realize I wanted to make the world a better place for our aging family and friends. I was introduced to aging courses at my alma mater Alfred University and went on to get a master’s degree in gerontology at the University of Southern California. Being an east coast girl at heart, I returned to New York State and worked for many years in the NYS Legislature and State Office for the Aging. I was fortunate to be there at a time when we could develop significant programs and services for seniors. I then discovered the world of assisted living.

Learning about the importance of treating all seniors with dignity and respect, and the perils of ageism made me a better advocate for seniors. Wanting to make a slight career change during COVID prompted me to contact the president of my alma mater Alfred University to see if there were any alums in my area interested in the field of aging. He told me I had to contact Enid Borden. We met for coffee and as the saying goes the rest is history.

Matthew David Roe

Throughout the past 15 years of my career, I’ve worn many hats. I taught digital filmmaking and screen acting to grade school students for six years at Imagination Stage in Bethesda, MD. I’ve written analytical columns, indie movie and DVD/Blu-ray reviews, and features articles for numerous publications. I’ve produced many documentary projects for political, corporate, news, and non-profit organizations – with some of my work being seen on national television networks such as CNN and Fox. I helped create the award-winning, socially-conscious indie films, Chemicals, Like God (2017) and The Forgiving (2020), as well as helming the 2021 showbiz documentary, Hideaki Anno: A Career Retrospective, for the Anime News Network – writing, directing, editing, and narrating the film – while serving as editor on the award-winning 2022 documentary on the American foster care system, Where’s Foster?

In addition to my role with NFESH, I continue to work as an essayist, author, script editor, and digital video editor.