Our Board
Charles Gueli, President
Charles Gueli has lived in Laurel since 2003. He now takes on the position of President for the second time. With over 40 years in the construction industry he retired in 2018 as Property Manager for a 62-unit residential complex in East Marion. Charlie’s many hats for MLCA since he signed on in 2016 have included treasurer and (unofficial) recording secretary.
Under his presidency there have been marked aesthetic improvements in our community, to be seen at the Mattituck train station and in the Dean Municipal Parking lot, and he credits and thanks all those who were involved. Amongst other things, Charlie has brought an openness to the ideas of others and a marked ability to reach out to business members, municipal officials and residents in the interest of the MLCA’s mission.
Dr. Melvyn Morris, Vice President
Dr. Melvyn Morris is currently serving as the vice president of the Mattituck Laurel Civic Association.
Dr. Morris recently retired from Brookhaven National Laboratory where he was Special Projects Manager in the Office of Educational Programs. He had responsibility for undergraduate internship programs, pre-service teacher internships, teacher internships as well as BNL’s Green Institute’s Open Space Stewardship Program and Day In The Life of a River.
Dr. Morris has his BS in biology from SUNY Stony Brook, an MS in marine science from Long Island University, a M.Ed. and Ed.D. from the University of Florida in Science Education.
Dr. Morris has spent over 40 years in the field of education having taught at SUNY Stony Brook, Southampton College, and Suffolk County Community College as well as being a secondary
school science teacher/chairperson. Dr. Morris was instrumental in starting a local high school
and developing the science curriculum. He has conducted numerous teacher workshops on curriculum and environmental education.
Dr. Morris is a AAAS fellow and a member of many state and national science organizations.
He has been honored by the NY State Outdoor Education Association, the North Fork Environmental Council and the Long Island Pine Barrens Commission for his work with
teachers and students in environmental and outdoor education.
Chris Shashkin has served as Secretary of the Captain Kidd Estates Civic Association and now serves as Board Member-at-Large of same. He has a background in office management, serving
for over 3 decades as Department Administrator at Columbia University and is currently working for the Mattituck Park District. In his role as Secretary of MLCA he concentrates on working on MLCA social media platforms, as well as doing the layout for our quarterly newsletter.
Jim Underwood has lived in Laurel since 2000 but has been a member of the community
much longer, having taught health education in the Mattituck-Cutchogue School District for
33 years. His term as president of the Board of Trustees of the Mattituck Laurel Library
ended in November after a 6-year term. He is also on the Southold Town Aircraft Noise
Committee and has recently served on the Community Advisory Board for Gabreski Airport
as the North Fork representative. This past spring Jim served as the race director for the
MLCA 5K in honor of Bill Lynch which funded scholarships for deserving Mattituck students.
Katie Girandola recently joined the Mattituck-Laurel community as a full-time resident after moving here from West Windsor, New Jersey, and having been a part-time resident of the North Fork since 2008.
Over the past 30 years, she has been an active member in many organizations and community affairs in West Windsor. Katie is a certified Master Gardener, former Vice Chairwoman of West Windsor’s Shade Tree Commission, former Vice-President of GME Homeowner’s Association
for 25 years, and a religious education teacher. She enjoys spending time with her husband
and four children, sailing, gardening, and raising oysters at the Cornell Extension in Southold.
Katie spent her childhood summers with her grandparents here on the North Fork, admiring its bucolic beauty, vibrance, and American spirit. She is delighted to be part of MCLA and plans to devote her love of community and robust civic values to Mattituck/Laurel.
Originally hailing from Atlanta, GA, Aaron Bokros received a BA in Theatre from Wake Forest University. After working as a carpenter for several regional theaters in the Midwest, he settled in Houston TX to teach technical theatre to middle and high school students. Three years later saw a move to New York, where he was an adjunct faculty member and technical director at a university in New Jersey. A sideways career move into luxury brand event and store planning logistics precipitated the move to Long Island, and eventually the North Fork. Aaron has been politically active his entire adult life, with race and LGBTQ+ issues being a primary focus for activism. Aaron lives in Mattituck with his wife, Alison Delaney, and their two cats, Scout and Minna.
Mary Eisenstein is founder and president of Melmar Enterprises, a communications consulting firm which specializes in business strategy, conflict management and mediation for individuals, companies and civic organizations.
With over 25 years' experience in communications consulting, employee training and meeting facilitation, Mary has helped both companies and community organizations increase the quality and efficiency of their communication efforts in such areas as qualitative and quantitative communication effectiveness, organizational and team leadership, team building, and project definition and development. In addition to serving clients across the country, Mary has given back to her own community by founding and serving as the first president of the Mattituck-Laurel Civic Association, helping connect residents with local, county and state government on key commercial, residential and quality of life issues.
Mary holds a number of certifications, including Training in Mediation, Center for Dispute Resolution; Facilitating Team Development, Hofstra Law School; Workplace Conflict Management, New York State Dispute Resolution Association; and, National Leadership Training, Gamaliel Foundation.
In addition to her professional pursuits, Mary has volunteered her time to: facilitate community meetings; develop informational forums with community, business and government leaders; and, define protocols and develop programs to strengthen organizations and associations.
Jon Estreich has been visiting family on the North Fork for a decade or so but we finally bought a house here two years ago.
He currently serves Suffolk County as an Assistant District Attorney in the Appeals Bureau and the nation as a Trial Counsel for the Army's 333d Military Police Brigade. In his spare time, you can find him eating ice cream at Magic Fountain. If you want to play softball in Mattituck, or even if you want to just throw a softball around from time to time, please drop a line. He joined the MCLA to learn about the issues affecting our town.
A native Long Islander, Jean Schweibish became a Mattituck resident in 2011. Initially attracted to the MLCA by the high-caliber programs presented on issues respecting the preservation and enhancement of our environment and the opportunity for active participation in helping
shape the future of Mattituck and Laurel. She has served on the association’s board in
various capacities over the years and is currently serving as a director-at-large.
As the legal assistant to an East End attorney for over 20 years, Jean has a working knowledge
of planning, zoning and general municipal law. As a longtime proponent of environmental preservation, she sees the North Fork as one of the few remaining areas on Long Island that
has maintained much of its bucolic nature, but understands that this is being challenged in unprecedented ways. Jean believes that the Mattituck-Laurel Civic Association is an ever more valuable and necessary entity for Mattituck and Laurel residents.