NJ Managing Partner, PwC
Vice Chair, JLL
Please join us for a “sterling” evening to celebrate a 25-year legacy of hope for tens of thousands of individuals and families facing cancer. The evening will feature immersive and illuminating opportunities to reflect on the past, honor our friends, and lay a path for the future of personalized, comprehensive supportive cancer care to ensure no one ever has to face cancer alone.
Tickets are limited. If you are unable to join in person, but you still wish to play a meaningful part in this incredible milestone event, please consider making a donation, as every dollar raised will have an immediate impact and provide critical emotional, mental, and physical support to anyone facing cancer, at no charge.
Founder, Chairman and CEO, SJP Properties
Honoree | 2026 Nancy and Marty Dowd Spirit of Hope Award Recipient
In recognition of his leadership, philanthropy, and commitment to strengthening communities.
A vision may spark an organization but bringing it to life takes many hands—visionaries and connectors, organizers and stewards—each contributing something no one person could provide alone.
Our 2026 Founders Circle Award honorees brought the leadership, expertise, relationships, and resources needed to transform an ambitious vision into a lasting institution. They built the operations, governance, infrastructure, and community support that enabled the organization to take root and grow.
Together, they gave the organization its shape, its footing, and its future.
Founding Trustee and Secretary,
Board of Trustees
Founders Circle Inductee
(In Memoriam)
Founding Trustee and Chair Emeritus, Board of Trustees;
Private Practice Psychologist
Founders Circle Inductee
Founding Trustee, Board of Trustees;
Private Practice Social Work Therapist
Founders Circle Inductee
Founding Trustee, Chair Emeritus, Board of Trustees;
Managing Director, Wealth Advisor, Osaic Advisors
Founders Circle Inductee
Sponsorship Opportunities are selling fast! If you are interested in sponsoring this gala, please contact Ann Kent at akent@crossroads4hope.org.
For more information, contact Jen Bruner
jbruner@crossroads4hope.org | 908-705-4990
As founder, Chairman and CEO of SJP Properties, Steven J. Pozycki has revolutionized real estate development on the eastern seaboard, setting new standards for excellence. Since its establishment in 1981, SJP has become one of the foremost names in real estate, known for delivering top-tier office, mixed-use, industrial and luxury residential properties that enhance their communities.
Under Mr. Pozycki’s decades of leadership, SJP has developed over 25 million square feet of premier real estate, earning a stellar reputation among corporations, institutional investors, and lenders. Notable projects include Morris Corporate Center, Somerset Corporate Center, Waterfront Corporate Center and the iconic 11 Times Square.
Mr. Pozycki’s commitment to innovation is evident in SJP’s pioneering developments, such as urban properties integrated with regional transportation infrastructure. He has also led the expansion of luxury residential offerings in Manhattan with buildings like Platinum, 45 Park Avenue and 200 Amsterdam.
Beyond real estate, Mr. Pozycki is actively involved in civic and charitable endeavors, serving on various boards and supporting organizations dedicated to community improvement and combating substance abuse.
An alumnus of Monmouth University, Mr. Pozycki is recognized for his leadership and contributions, having received accolades such as the Leadership Excellence Award from Monmouth’s Real Estate Institute and Cor Jesu Award from St. Joseph’s High School.
Susan brought an editor’s eye—the detail, diligence, clarity, and determination that helped keep the organization’s work consistent and true to its purpose.
Susan was a gifted editor by profession. She spent many years working with the Princeton-based publisher of the well-known Peterson’s college guides, where she developed an exacting eye for language, clarity, and detail. In the early days, when nearly everything had to be created from the ground up, Susan reviewed every document and communication the organization produced. She edited, clarified, and refined its earliest materials, helping establish a voice that was credible, professional, and consistent with its mission.
Susan simply knew how to get things done right—an instinct of tremendous value when an organization is still defining its identity and establishing the standards by which it will operate.
As the first Secretary of the Board, a role she held for many years, Susan had the ability to distill complex discussions into what truly mattered. She was extraordinarily thorough and deeply committed to accuracy, consistency, and doing things correctly.
Susan held firm to the organization’s principles and never hesitated to advocate for its integrity. Her careful thinking helped the founding trustees examine every side of an issue, while her conviction strengthened their determination to ensure the organization would endure.
Susan often worked quietly behind the scenes and never sought recognition. Although she did not come from the nonprofit sector. She found personal ways to advance the mission, including hosting gatherings and participating in fundraising activities. While she had never run a marathon, she ended up participating in every half marathon through our Strides for Hope event raising awareness and over $120,000 for our cause.
Her belief in the mission was deeply personal, shaped by watching her sister face cancer. When the idea for the organization began to take form, Susan became one of its most fervent supporters.
Susan passed away in November 2021. She is an enduring example of what it means to serve with quiet strength, unwavering integrity, and a commitment to excellence. We are honored to celebrate her legacy.
Marc was the organization’s internal and external champion, giving the founding group the confidence to move forward while opening doors and rallying others to the cause.
Marc had been a volunteer support group facilitator for cancer patients and understood the importance of the mission we were embarking on. When the vision of creating a special place for people facing cancer—a warm, home-like setting where individuals and families could find support of every kind—was still only a hope, the founders were understandably uncertain about how such an ambitious idea could be brought to life. Marc was the person who urged them forward. He encouraged them to pursue the vision and told them to be sure to call him when they were ready.
That call came in 2001, when a small group of friends began meeting to give the vision structure. Marc joined without hesitation and became one of the organization’s early advocates.
Marc had a remarkable ability to speak passionately about a model of supportive cancer care that was unfamiliar to many people at the time. His confidence helped the founding group believe that the vision was possible, while his enthusiasm inspired others to step forward, open doors, and provide the early support needed to establish the organization’s first home.
Marc was our first board of trustee chairman. He and his late wife Marjorie opened his home to host the very first Chairman’s Reception in honor of the organization’s earliest supporters. He helped cultivate a community around the emerging organization. Because of Marc’s leadership, countless individuals and families have walked through our doors and found hope, peace, connection, and support while facing enormous challenges.
His commitment has never ended. Marc participated in our Leadership Council, and he remains actively involved as an ambassador, trusted advisor, supporter, and facilitator of our men’s support group. Year after year, he continues to help ensure that no one faces cancer alone.
Marc is an inspiration and an enduring example of what it means to give fully of oneself to help others professionally and personally. We are honored to celebrate the contributions he has made to our mission and our community.
Diane brought nonprofit leadership, programmatic and operational expertise. As a social worker and cancer survivor, she also helped ensure that the experiences and needs of people facing cancer remained at the center of the mission.
Diane brought a distinguished career in human services, nonprofit leadership, and public service to a group with ambitious aspirations but limited experience in formal nonprofit operations and fundraising. Her expertise was shaped by her years with the Jewish Federation of Somerset, Hunterdon and Warren Counties; her work in government with the City of New York and the State of New Jersey; her role as an adjunct faculty member at the Rutgers University School of Social Work; and her experience working with foundations, grant development, and fundraising. She drew on this broad background to help establish the organizational structure, resources, and credibility needed to turn an ambitious vision into a sustainable nonprofit organization.
She had a rare ability to look beyond the immediate demands of a start-up organization and ask what would come next. She helped us consider what plans needed to be in place, what consequences might follow a particular decision, and what contingencies would help the organization remain steady as it grew and changed.
Diane often stood at the whiteboard, mapping decisions to their potential outcomes and developing plans that would continue to serve the organization as it evolved. She encouraged the group to consider not
only what was necessary to open the organization, but what would be needed to sustain it and contingencies when we faced headwinds against our strategy.
That forward-looking discipline proved invaluable as the programs, governance, and operating structure was developed. Just as important was the way Diane worked with people. She had a quiet gift for encouraging and affirming the founding group, helping them recognize their strengths, and drew out the best in each person at the table. During a time filled with uncertainty, Diane helped others feel confident in what they were setting out to accomplish.
Diane’s commitment has never ended. She participated in our Leadership Council, and within our program area.
Her connection to the mission was also deeply personal. As a cancer survivor, Diane understood firsthand how difficult it could be to find the support, education, assistance, and understanding that she and her family needed. She recognized that these resources were not secondary to the cancer experience; they were fundamental to it. Diane transformed her experience into our organization to ensure that others had access to the supportive cancer care that everyone facing cancer deserves.
Diane is an inspiration and an enduring example of what it means to transform professional expertise and personal experience into compassionate leadership that creates a better path for others. We are honored to celebrate the contributions he has made to our mission and our community.
On September 11, 2001, Tom was in his office being asked to join our Board of Trustees when the tragedy of that day unfolded. He did not hesitate to commit himself to making a difference in his community by helping bring this new organization to life.
Cancer had touched Tom’s family, and the personal loss he experienced shaped his understanding of the importance of supportive care. It also strengthened his desire to ensure that no individual or family would have to navigate cancer alone.
Tom brought operational excellence, financial acumen, critical resources, and a deeply personal passion for the mission. From the very beginning, he gave the organization something every nonprofit start-up needs, a sound financial footing.
Tom helped establish the financial systems, discipline, internal controls, and credibility needed to transform an idea into a sustainable nonprofit. For approximately 20 years, Tom, supported by his partner Al Russo, who later joined the Board, and Jenny Bloodworth provided the organization’s bookkeeping and accounting services on a pro-bono basis. An extraordinary contribution to the organization and its strong financial footing.
This also meant that in the organization’s earliest years, Tom signed the checks, giving him firsthand knowledge of how carefully its limited resources were managed. His financial expertise, integrity, and personal credibility helped the founding Board plan responsibly and assured prospective supporters that their contributions would be managed with care.
When Tom spoke about the mission, he did so with both passion and confidence in the organization’s accountability, helping others believe in a new nonprofit and an unfamiliar model of supportive cancer care before it had an established record of success.
Tom was our organization’s second Board Chair. He remains an active member of the Board of Trustees, and a trusted ambassador, continuing to champion the organization’s mission and inspiring others to become involved.
Tom is an inspiration and an enduring example of what it means to care so deeply about one’s community that you devote your time, talent, resources, and whole self to making life better for others. We are honored to celebrate the contributions he has made to our mission and our community.
