The New Jersey Council for the Humanities (NJCH), a nonprofit organization serving the state through public humanities programming, announced that three new members have joined the NJCH Board of Trustees. Caroline Casagrande, J.D., Jan Lewis, Ph.D., and Jewel McGowan Watson, J.D. have all been elected to the Board to serve three-year terms.
These three newest members of the Board of Trustees join other accomplished civic, academic, and business leaders that broadly reflect the state’s cultural and geographic diversity. The NJCH Board of Trustees is responsible for overseeing fiduciary, governance, programmatic, and fundraising aspects of the organization, as well as promoting the mission of the organization to communities throughout the state.
Bios for the new members are provided below.
Caroline Casagrande, J.D., is a New Jersey General Assembly politician that represented the 11th Legislative District from January 10, 2012 to January 12, 2016. Prior to the 2011 legislative redistricting, she served in the Assembly from January 8, 2008 representing the 12th District. Caroline is the youngest woman assembly member ever elected in New Jersey. Prior to being an elected assemblywoman, she was a partner and attorney with the law firm of Menna, Supko & Casagrande. She has also served as municipal attorney to Manalapan Township and special counsel to Fair Haven.
Jan Lewis, Ph.D., is Dean of Faculty and Professor of History at Rutgers University, Newark, where she has taught American history since 1977. She received her A.B. from Bryn Mawr College; her A.M. in American Culture and A.M. in History from the University of Michigan; and a Ph.D. in History from the University of Michigan. A specialist in colonial and early national history, with a particular interest in gender, race, and politics, Jan is the author several books including (with Peter S. Onuf) Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson: History, Memory, and Civic Culture (1999); and (with James Horn and Peter S. Onuf) The Revolution of 1800: Democracy, Race, & the New Republic (2002.) She has served on many boards and is a past chair of the New Jersey Historical Commission.
Jewel McGowan Watson, J.D., is an associate in Lowenstein Sandler’s Litigation Department and a member of the firm’s Business, Class Action, and Derivative Litigation practice. Jewel is heavily involved in the Lowenstein Center for the Public Interest, where she represents children in immigration proceedings and domestic violence victims, and participates in impact litigation focused on education reform. Jewel also participated in an Essex-Newark Legal Services Fellowship, where she represented clients threatened with unjust eviction and homelessness. She is the Chair of the Scholarship and Education Committee of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated-Montclair Alumnae Chapter and serves on the Young Professionals Board of the New Jersey Law and Education Empowerment Project.
