Who We Are
120 East State was formed in April 2022 to create The Steeple Center in the heart of Trenton.
Our purpose is to transform the First Presbyterian Church complex in the heart of Trenton into a community-centered performing arts venue, an engine of economic development, and an opportunity for local empowerment giving voice, space, and welcome to our neighbors. As the steeple of this historic church has stretched high above the downtown skyline signaling hope and mission, today we seek to redirect the path laid 300 years ago and create a symbol of shared vision in the community.
Our Values
Continuity
First Presbyterian Church, in the heart of Trenton, has served the community for 300 years. We envision a renovated multipurpose complex to continue and broaden the legacy of service to our current neighbors and to those we will meet at the Steeple Center in the years to come.
Community
The heart of Trenton is unique – a government center, but the home to thousands of people who seek a place to be safe and heard. The Steeple Center is a resource and a place that can welcome, serve, and enrich our community and in turn be broadened and enriched by our community.
Development
The Steeple Center will use its unique location and footprint to provide a home for non-profit and for-profit enterprises that will invest and be woven into the fabric of the community. Together, the Steeple Center and these enterprises will serve as vehicles to create economic opportunities for their neighbors and inspire new investment in downtown Trenton.
Inclusion
The community surrounding the Steeple Center has evolved over three centuries. The Steeple Center will be a place where all members of that evolving community are welcomed and empowered to build a relationship with us and a more vibrant and just city. There is much to do, and we welcome all voices, vision and partnership.
Belief and Hope
The Steeple Center is based on the belief that challenges should never stop us from imagining a better tomorrow, the “infinite hope” of which Dr. King spoke. From belief and hope come action and from action comes a transformed present and future. The steps we take today will change the arc of our community and, alongside our partners, we will challenge – and change – long-held perceptions of Trenton and what is possible by creating educational, economic, and artistic opportunities.
Meet Our Board
Cherry Oakley – Board President
Cherry chairs the 120 East State Board of Directors. She is the current Executive
Director of Support Coordination at Neighbours, Inc, where she leads a team of statewide facilitators that helps New Jerseyans with disabilities. She works closely with government systems, local communities, and service organizations towards values-driven transformation. She has been a founding board member of several nonprofits that focus on the health, healing, and wellness of those marginalized by society or living in urban communities.
Cynthia Vandenberg – Board Member
Cynthia is a long-time resident of Trenton who specializes in strategic grant writing and communications for non-profits. She currently works at TASK (Trenton Area Soup Kitchen). Cynthia also serves on the Board of Trustees at Princeton Friends School and on the Inclusion Oversight Committee at George School.
Danica Curcic – Board Member (On Leave)
Danica has spent over two decades as an professional Executive, managing
Operations, Human Resources and Business applications for Retail companies
across North America. She is entrepreneurial and results-driven, with an extensive
history in managing emerging businesses, and forging valuable relationships. She is
a respected leader with a talent for effectively uniting cross-functional teams across multiple organizational levels to drive profitability, productivity, and growth. She is
accomplished in implementing effective strategies to meet and exceed all goals and
objectives, while upholding corporate missions.
Ira Lackey – Board Member
Ira is a real estate professional affiliated with Callaway Henderson Sotheby’s International Realty in Princeton. Having majored in English at Wake Forest University, Ira previously worked in services and sales for an international software concern, in accounting for governmental reporting with a local financial services giant, and more recently with a Princeton-based architectural firm.
He’s passionate about community service and currently serves on the board of Housing Initiatives of Princeton, a provider of transitional housing and emergency rental assistance for families facing imminent homelessness; HIP provides financial and social services (counseling) which generally changes the trajectory of their clients’ lives. Ira has served as a trustee of Princeton Junior School for many years and his only daughter, Courtland, graduated from Princeton Day School, having attended since kindergarten. He has also served on the vestry of Trinity Church, Princeton.
Kenya Bullock – Board Treasurer
Kenya “Kenny Bee” Bullock is an interdisciplinary artistic and creative director and community advocate from Trenton, NJ.
Since 2018, Kenny has dedicated her studies and time to learning more about what it means to advocate for equity in her community while building consciousness and capacity to organize. Through this mission, Kenny has been able to develop a love language that includes theatre, community care and community building, and curation within the African Diaspora. In 2019, Kenny launched Tha Block Trenton, INC, a nonprofit committed to providing free and equitable arts education and healing programming to community members of Trenton.
Kenny’s goal as an artist and community advocate is to continue challenging mindsets through food, art, and education. Kenny’s studies focused on how different art forms are the language that connects the African Diaspora and how that understanding can be used to educate the communities of the Black and Brown. Now a labor Doula, Kenny hopes to incorporate artistic release into her holistic birthing support style.
Jean Bickal – Board Member
Jean graduated from Bryn Mawr College, received an MA in history from Emory
University and a law degree from Seton Hall Law School. She spent much of her career in the State of NJ Department of Banking & Insurance, retiring as the Assistant Director, Division of Insurance.
She is a long-time resident of Trenton’s Mill Hill neighborhood and is active with the Old Mill Hill Society (the neighborhood association). She serves on the City of Trenton’s Landmarks Commission. She is a member of the Capital Singers, a Community Chorus in Trenton and serves as a Trustee and Vice Chair for Finance on the Board of the chorus. She is also an Elder with the First Presbyterian Church of Trenton and is Co-Treasurer of the Church.
Jeffrey Vamos – Board Vice President
Jeff is currently the Pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Lawrenceville where he has served since April of 2005. He grew up in Elkhart, Indiana, received his BA from Duke University and his M.Div from Union Theological Seminary in New York City.
After serving two congregations in Brooklyn, NY, he served the First Presbyterian Church of Palo Alto, CA for eleven years. During his ministry there he was deeply immersed in community organizing, work culminating in the creation of a $24 million housing and services center for homeless persons. He received his Doctor of Ministry degree from Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC.
Latarsha Burke – Board Member
Since 2014 Latarsha Burke has served as CEO/Executive Director of the African American Cultural Collaborative of Mercer County formerly known as the Trenton African American Cultural Festival. The organization’s mission is to “Improve the quality of life for our community through arts, education, and culture.
To provide opportunities for diverse families to come together in a positive, safe environment to build communities through collaboration across cultures. Mrs. Burke is a proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. Epsilon Upsilon Omega Chapter and serves as Board Member to the New Jersey Black Women’s Collective.
Mark Herr – Board Member
Mark Herr provides strategic advice to CEOs and Fortune 100 companies. A lawyer by training and a former member of the Whitman Administration, he began his career as a reporter, before entering politics as a speechwriter for Gov. Thomas H. Kean.
Mr. Herr is a graduate of Colgate and Columbia Universities and the Seton Hall
University School of Law.
Mike Whittington – Board Secretary
Mike Whittington is the Program Manager for Planning & Placemaking on Isles’ Community Planning & Development Team, where they support projects centering development, community relations, grantor-grantee relations, beautification, and training.
Previously, Mike had been employed at Georgetown University and Center
for Supportive Schools in various roles supporting community engagement and organizing.
Currently, Mike is the Company Manager of Tha Block Trenton Inc. While attending Georgetown University, Mike studied Biochemistry with a Minor in Japanese Language & Culture.
Nancy Livingston – Board Member
Nancy has been a resident of Trenton since 1999 and currently serves as Vice-President of the Cadwalader Heights Civic Association. She graduated from UCLA with a degree in history and earned a Masters in Education from Syracuse University as a National Teacher Corps intern. She was an elementary educator for 33 years and retired in 2015 after teaching for 25 years at Littlebrook School in Princeton. She has worked for 29 years as a staff member with the National SEED Project, which prepares leaders to facilitate seminars that drive social change within their schools and institutions.
Ronald Zilinski – Board Treasurer
Ron has been involved in various aspects of municipal government since he graduated from Seton Hall University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting in 1971. Ron moved to the City of Trenton in 1979 to work for the City of Trenton. He has worked for various local governments and related businesses. He taught evening classes in government accounting for Rutgers from 1996 to 2012. Ron retired from the City of Trenton in 2023 after contracting Covid and then struggling with long covid.
Ron has been the Treasurer of several professional and community organizations. He is currently the treasurer of Trinity Cathedral, Trent House, St Luke’s church in Ewing and now 120 ESS.
Ron and his wife Regina Podhorin-Zilinski MBA have lived in the Hillcrest neighborhood of Trenton since 1981. Ron’s wife Regina has also been very active with community non-profits. She owned and operated The Leadership Group since 1994 dealing with various non-profit clients. Regina retired in December 2024.
Meet Our Staff
Molly Dykstra – Project Leader
The Rev. Molly Dykstra is the founding staff member of 120 East State. As Project Leader, Molly has been executing all aspects of the organization’s mission to preserve, steward and operate First Presbyterian Church of Trenton’s property for community benefit. Together with Historic Building Architects, Michael Goldstein, and other consultants, Molly leads the planning and development of the Steeple Center, writes and manages grants, supports the Board, engages with the community, collaborates and partners with other nonprofit organizations, and manages finances and property.
Beginning in 2019, Molly served in a transitional pastoral role with First Presbyterian Church, bridging between the church and the newly formed 120 East State in 2022. Molly was pastor at Covenant Presbyterian Church, Trenton from 2014-2019, previously serving congregations in Mexico City, Mexico; Dubuque, Iowa; and in various capacities across central New Jersey, including Moderator of the former Presbytery of New Brunswick.
A native of northern California, Molly has called Mercer County home since 1997, living in Princeton with her husband, the Rev. Dr. Robert Dykstra, professor in Pastoral Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary. For approximately 10 years, she was sole proprietor of Green Paper Cup, a small commercially compostable disposables company, seeking to elevate the local conversation around single-use plastics. She was a 2019 GreenFaith Fellow, and holds a M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary, and a B.A. from the University of California, Davis.
Molly currently chairs the Mercer County COAD (Community Organizations Active in Disaster), is a member of the Old Trenton Neighborhood Preservation Planning Stakeholder Team, participates in the United Mercer Interfaith Organization, and serves Coastlands Presbytery (PCUSA) where she is pastoral member of the Commission On Ministry.
The Hustle Lab LLC – Communications Consultant
The Hustle Lab LLC is a women-led creative agency specializing in branding, digital marketing, and communications. Guided by the motto “reach the world, touch da hood first,” The Hustle Lab helps businesses and nonprofits elevate their visibility, connect with their communities, and grow their impact.
120 East State has partnered with The Hustle Lab to lead our communications efforts, ensuring our message is clear, engaging, and reaches the people who matter most.