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The Northeast Environmental Enforcement Training Fund, Inc.

A 501(c) (3) non-profit organization

The Northeast Environmental Enforcement Training Fund, Inc. (NEETFI) is a non-profit organization that works in partnership with the Northeast Environmental Enforcement Project (NEEP). Established in 2002, NEETFIs mission is to promote protection of the environment by encouraging compliance with legal norms, which it does by supporting compliance efforts of the environmental and enforcement agencies that are members of NEEP. The Fund accomplishes its mission by investing settlements provided by the members of the Project, by identifying and securing grants for innovative environmental programs, and by wisely managing and using these and other funds that are entrusted to it to advance the compliance and enforcement efforts of the members.

The NEEP and NEETFI governing boards work together to continuously improve, expand and fund NEEP’s training program. Through the work of both Boards, NEETFI has:

• administered state grants that provided training directly to NEEP members and member agencies, as well as educational materials for school age children;

• provided hundreds of training manuals and related hands-on training materials for training programs;

• sponsored numerous topical presentations on state of the art technology and information for NEEP members.

• managed a diverse portfolio of funds to ensure that training can be maintained for the future.

This important partnership will ensure that there is a lasting positive impact on the health and environment of the northeastern region of our continent.

NEETFI Board of Directors

The NEETFI Board is made up of NEEP alumni, including former NEEP officers and executives from across the northeast.

Chairman: Keith Welks of Pennsylvania is one of the original creators of the Northeast Environmental Enforcement Training Fund and has served as its Chairman since 2002 when the non-profit was established. Mr. Welks helped create and led the environmental crimes section of the Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General. He was Chief Counsel of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources from 1987 until 1994. He also served as NEEPs Chairman and a representative of Pennsylvania on NEEPs Steering Committee. Subsequently Mr. Welks created, secured funding for and served as President of the Phoenix Land Recycling Company, a nonprofit organization that facilitated the remediation and reuse of brownfield sites. He currently serves as Deputy Treasurer of Fiscal Operations for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania , where he oversees the receipt of the Commonwealth’s revenue and the disbursement of its payments. In addition, he is responsible for identifying investments for the Pennsylvania Treasurer, including investments that involve green or clean technologies. In that role, he coordinated the development of Pennsylvania ’s Keystone Green Investment Strategy. Mr. Welks is a member of the Pennsylvania bar.

Vice Chairman: John Haskins from the State of New York served with the Department of Environmental Conservation as a Lieutenant and intelligence officer for 16 years. Prior to that, he served for 10 years in uniform as an environmental conservation police officer for the Bureau of Environmental Conservation Investigations. Mr. Haskins served as New York ’s representative on the Northeast Environmental Enforcement Project’s Coordination and Steering Committees for over six years, prior to his appointment with the NEETFI Board of Directors. He served with the United States Coast Guard from 1968 – 1972 and is a Vietnam veteran. He is retired from New York state service and currently resides in North Carolina.

Secretary: Vince Matulewich began his career with a B.S. and M.S. in Environmental Science from Rutgers University in New Jersey . He continued his graduate work in Pollution Microbiology at Rutgers , and then joined the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice in 1980, becoming the first environmental scientist in the nation to become a sworn law enforcement officer, assigned to the nation’s first unit devoted solely to investigating and prosecuting environmental crimes. He was selected and attended the FBI National Academy in Quantico , Virginia . During his twenty five year career, he has investigated hundreds of environmental crime scenes, and has lectured extensively on the subject of crime scene processing and investigative methods for environmental crime. He served on the NEEP Steering Committee as New Jersey ’s representative and as the Information Chair for eleven years. He retired from New Jersey state service in 2005 as a Managing Deputy Chief State Investigator, and began his service on the NEETF Board of Directors. Mr. Matulewich is a Vietnam era veteran, having served four years in the U.S. Navy’s nuclear weapons program. He is an active scuba diver and travels the world photographing the ocean’s diminishing reefs.

Treasurer: Dean Albro served as Chief of the Rhode Island Office of Compliance and Inspection, in the Department of Environmental Management for twelve years. His office was responsible for the full array of civil enforcement programs including but not limited to air, water resources and solid and hazardous wastes, and in addition to freshwater wetlands protection, septic system enforcement, and medical waste regulation. During that time he also served as a representative on the USEPA/New England States Environmental Enforcement Committee; as well as holding the office of Chairman of NEEPs Board of Directors for two years. Mr. Albro has a B.S. degree in Natural Resources from the University of Rhode Island , is a certified professional wetlands scientist and served as Chief of Rhode Island’s Division of Freshwater Wetlands from 1991 – 1996. Prior to that time, he worked as a wetlands specialist and Deputy Chief of Freshwater Wetlands. Mr. Albro was awarded the Environmental Merit Award by USEPA Region I in 2008. Mr. Albro is also a Vietnam era veteran having served in the U.S. Navy Reserve including 2.5 years of active service. He joined the NEETF Board after his retirement from Rhode Island state service in 2008, and currently lives in Rhode Island.

President: Carmen Korleski was the co-creator of NEETFI in 2002, working with Chairman Welks and NEEP officers to establish a partnership focused on sustaining a thriving enforcement program. She serves as the President and CEO of NEETFIs operations in Ohio . She served as NEEPs Executive Director in New Jersey from 1990 to 1996, delivering and designing training programs for the fourteen states in the membership. Prior to NEEP work, she served as Chief of Strategic Planning in New Jersey’s Division of Hazardous Waste Management. She began her environmental career as Executive Assistant to the Director of Waste Programs in 1983. Her degree is in Environmental, Urban and Geographic Studies from Montclair State College in New Jersey.  She resides in Ohio with her husband and daughter.

You can ensure that the enforcement training program is sustained for future generations. State representatives can support this partnership through settlement funds or state grants. NEEP is currently seeking funding support for design and delivery of innovative, new training courses for the future of environmental enforcement. Projects needing funding include:

•  Multimedia training for state enforcement personnel

• Training Committee work on state training needs assessments and design of new courses

NEEP members should contact Executive Director Connie Morder for details about training proposals. For information about how to contribute to NEETFI, please contact us at:

Northeast Environmental Enforcement Training Fund, Inc.

Contact: President Carmen Korleski

408 Kingston Avenue