Wardens and Vestry
2024 Vestry Cohort
Casey Jonathan Woodruff, Senior Warden
2023 - 2024
Casey Woodruff is a lifelong Diocese of New Jersey Episcopalian. He and his two sons, Calvin (16) and Miles (9), joined Trinity five years ago. Casey previously served as a member of the Vestry, and currently participates in a number of other ministries, including lay reader and lay preacher. Casey started and chairs Trinity’s Ministry for the Imprisoned, and helped form Trinity’s Greening Committee. He also served as chair of the Liturgical Committee of the 150th Anniversary Committee. Outside of church, Casey works as a Deputy Attorney General for the State of New Jersey, representing the Division of Child Protection in cases of child abuse and neglect. He enjoys playing bass and getting lost in the woods. He and his family live in Westfield.
Tom Kaercher, Junior Warden
2024-2026
Tom Kaercher started coming to Trinity Church in 2001 and joined the parish in 2002. Tom led the communications efforts for Trinity II. He has served as Junior Warden since January 2022. Tom served on the Vestry from 2008 to 2010 and from 2020 to 2022. He is a member of the Property and Finance Committee. Tom serves as a Eucharistic Minister, Lector, and Stephen Minister. Tom is in the choir and bell choir and is on the Altar Guild and the Outreach Committee. He is one of the planners of the Trinity Fellowship Luncheon program. He wrote and disseminated press releases to the local media for Trinity activities from 2006 to 2020. In 2016, Tom served on the Discernment Committee to search for Father Andy and worked with Nancy Noonan to plan and oversee the renovations to the Rectory. He served on the Operation Warm Heart team. Tom was the co-chair of the Trinity Green Team. He was a member of the 150th Anniversary Steering Committee serving as the chair of the Communications Team and was a member of the 150th Anniversary Events Committee. Tom is a regular participant in the Men’s Group and at Morning and Evening Prayer. Tom spent two decades at AT&T and Lucent Technologies and retired in 2001 as a Senior Manager in Strategic Marketing Communications. Blessedly, his early retirement enabled him to have the time to care for his mother after her stroke. Tom would be honored to serve again as Junior Warden.
Gerry Caprario
2022 - 2024
Gerry Caprario and his family have been at Trinity since 2019. He has supported outreach activities and assembled food deliveries for Sandwich Sunday. The Caprarios have two children, with one child in the Sunday School. Gerry is interested in learning about the history and current activities at Trinity and in future opportunities involving Outreach.
Kate Difonzo
2022-2024
Kate DiFonzo, a lifelong Episcopalian, has been a parishioner at Trinity since 2017. She and her husband Antonio deeply appreciated how warm and welcoming the parish was to young children and families. Kate has contributed to the Sunday School ministry as a teacher and has helped to prepare the children for the Christmas Pageant for several years. Her family were often heard as the family readers during online worship. Kate also began to contribute to the music ministry during the pandemic through the virtual choir. Kate and Antonio have three children, Michael (11 years), Leo (8 years) and Antonio (4 years). Her priorities for her church and spiritual life are to show her children the value in the love and service of God. Her hope as a vestry member is to help foster intergenerational relationships within the parish.
Holly Ives
2022-2024
Holly Ives was born and raised in Cranford as well as baptized and confirmed here at Trinity Church. She has been active with Breakfast with Santa, Coffee Hour, delegate/alternate to Diocesan Convention and Northern Convocation, ECW, and Vestry. Currently she is a Counter, ECW co-president, Fellowship hour co-chair, and Usher as well as a member of the Greening committee, Ministry for the Imprisoned , and TEDS board. Four years ago, she happily retired as an RN and moved to a retirement community. She serves as a columnist for their monthly newspaper and on her Section board.
Dr. Kathleen Annarelli
2023-2025
Dr. Kathleen (Katie) Annarelli moved to Cranford in Fall of 2020 and formally joined the Trinity congregation in 2021. Since joining Trinity, Katie has participated in planting the 150th anniversary trees, in donating supplies for sandwich Sundays, and in assessing post-Ida damage.
While a newcomer to Trinity and the Episcopal Church, Katie was raised deeply immersed in the Christian faith. A native of Florida, Katie was raised Roman Catholic and attended Catholic school from pre-school through 12th grade. During that time, Katie served as an altar-server, cantor, and religion tutor and participated in numerous outreach activities including days of service, donation drives for underserved populations, and service retreats. Katie earned her BA in Political Science with a minor in Economics from Drew University. In keeping with her orientation toward justice and service, she went on to pursue a PhD in Political Science, which she recently earned from Rutgers University. Katie’s research focuses on economic inequality, specifically by looking at the relationship between financial markets and social provision. Her research on the relationship between levels of social provision and types of household debt was recently published in the academic journal, New Political Economy. As an undergraduate at Drew, Katie served as an intern for Mercy Global Action at the UN, which worked to ensure that access to clean water and sanitation was named as a right, and as an intern for a refugee resettlement agency during which she developed a cultural orientation training, aided in job and housing searches for recently arrived families, and executed a micro-fundraiser.
Katie cites several reasons for wanting to serve Trinity. First, she has found in the Episcopal Church a community that nurtures her Christian faith while challenging her to critically reflect upon and apply that faith. Trinity is an active community that undertakes significant community outreach. Katie thinks that she could further support this work through her unique perspective as a social scientist and her experience with on-the-ground NGO work. She also seeks to bring a distinct viewpoint as she is a part of the very small group of persons between the ages of 18 and 29 that identifies as Episcopalian. Finally, Katie will be getting married in the church this year and hopes to raise her children here, so she feels a deep sense of investment in the Trinity community.
David L. Burnett
2023-2025
David L. Burnett was born in Toronto, Canada, and received his B.A. from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario in 1995. He graduated from Seton Hall Law School in 1999. David is employed as an in-house counsel attorney with Chubb NA. David’s legal practice includes a wide variety of insurance matters including commercial litigation, product liability, and subrogation defense. David and Heather Burnett became members of Trinity Church in 2007. Their daughter Sarah Abigail Courtney Burnett was born in February 2009, and she was baptized and confirmed at Trinity.
Jim Willix
2023-2025
Jim Willix is a lifelong parishioner of Trinity; he married Stephanie at Trinity in April 2004 and their daughter Emma is an acolyte. He is currently on the Vestry, as well as being a counter and usher; he has served on the Northern Convocation in the past. A firefighter and an EMT for over three decades, he is currently a Quality Manager and Associate Certified Entomologist with Bowco Laboratories in Woodbridge.
Dr. Patrick Milas
2024-2026
Dr. Patrick Milas joined Trinity Church in 2019. He enjoys Trinity’s worship, music, and fellowship with his wife Piper and daughter Maeve. Before coming to Trinity, Patrick served on the Vestry of Christ Episcopal Church in Bordentown, New Jersey, and as a Eucharistic Visitor in the Episcopal Diocese of Florida. He teaches research at New Brunswick Theological Seminary and directs the Sage Library & Archives. Patrick chairs the Episcopal Denominational Group of the American Theological Library Association. At Trinity, he now serves on the Vestry, as well as the Archives and History Task Force for the 150th Campaign.
Denise Alvarez
2024-2026
Denise Alvarez was raised in the Dutch Reformed Church, where she actively participated in that church’s many activities. She and Jim Behnke were married there in 2005. In 2012, their daughter, Abby, started attending TEDS, and Denise met Nancy Ditzel and other members of the church. Her family started regularly attending Trinity in 2014; since then Denise has served as a Sunday School teacher, Christmas Pageant leader, Handbell and Adult Choir member, Property & Finance Committee member and TEDS Board member. Denise also volunteers as a Girl Scout leader for her daughter’s troop and is the Treasurer for the Cranford Service Unit 48. She was recently appointed to the Shade Tree Commission of Cranford Township, which seeks to restore many of the town-owned trees and advise residents on tree care.
A 1994 Rutgers College graduate and Cap and Skull Member, Denise has worked in the banking industry for over 30 years. She currently works as a Director of Corporate Credit Underwriting and Portfolio Management at First Citizens Bank.
Peter Waldron
2024-2026
Peter Waldron has been a member of Trinity Church since 2017. During this time, he has served as a member and secretary of the Vestry and Property & Finance committees, as chairperson of the Stewardship committee, and as a Counter and Lector. A lifelong New Jersey resident, Peter lives in Cranford with his wife Christine and daughter AJ. He is employed as an actuary and in his spare time he enjoys spending time with family, jogging, learning guitar and studying languages.
