First Friday Networking: former Lieutenant Governor Kim Guadagno,

Former Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno is the President and Executive
Director of Mercy Center in Asbury Park. She is also a partner in litigation
at Connell Foley. Mercy Center’s vision is to end generational poverty in
the greater Asbury Park area and does so by providing crisis services such
as food, long term counseling to stabilize families as well as an
independent, faith-based, tuition-free school for 4th to 8th grade girls.
In the last year, the Mercy Center, a four star navigator rated charity, has
seen an increase in need at the pantry of more than 150%. The Family
Resource Center has experienced more than a 30 percent increase in the
number of people it serves especially in the area of domestic violence and
sexual assault. Indeed, the Family Resource Center has a waiting list of
potential clients who are served by licensed social workers and advocates
who speak Korean, Spanish, Arabic, Creole and English. The agency also
recently added a fourth grade to its middle school and has seen the new
classes test scores move from first and second grade level to fourth.
From 2010 through 2018, Guadagno was New Jersey’s first Lieutenant
Governor and its 33rd Secretary of State. As Lieutenant Governor, Kim was
advocated for businesses statewide. As Secretary of State, she was also
responsible for Elections, Travel and Tourism and roughly 300 other
programs and commissions.
Guadagno has been a criminal lawyer and a federal and state prosecutor
for more than three decades. She also taught at Rutgers Law School in
Newark for six years. Guadagno was the first woman Sheriff of Monmouth
County, New Jersey supervising a law enforcement agency of 650 men and
women. She is married to Judge Michael Guadagno, retired, and the
mother of three grown sons - all gainfully employed.