Barbara Horl Joins Brookdale Community College Board of Trustees

Barbara Horl was sworn as the newest member of the Brookdale Board of Trustees by Freeholder Gerry Scharfenberger at the April 30, 2019 meeting.

Horl, a Spring Lake resident, served as a legislative liaison for the New Jersey Department of State and aide to the Lieutenant Governor. Previously, she worked in the New Jersey Department of Education as Director of the Office of Legislative Affairs acting as liaison to the legislature and other educational stakeholder groups in legislative and regulatory initiatives, as well as advocating for educational policies. Horl also performed Special Projects as well as researching consolidation, regionalization, and shared services for interested districts.

For several years, Horl was a lobbyist for the New Jersey School Boards Association, representing the interests of the 4800 members of local school boards of education to the legislature.  She provided legislative information on the progress of bills and other Trenton actions to school board members at county association meetings around the state. Prior to that, she worked for legislators in Middlesex County and was also Chief of Staff for Assemblyman Joe Azzolina.

Education was important in Horl’s family. “I promised my grandfather that I would be the first one in our family to graduate college,” Horl explained. She began college right after high school, but left to pursue full time employment after a year. When her daughters started school, she thought it was time to fulfill the promise made years earlier. “I was terrified at the thought of going back,” Horl recalled. She gathered her courage and registered for a class at Brookdale. “It gave me the confidence to sit in a classroom again,” she said of the college. After that, she applied to Douglass College at Rutgers University, graduating Phi Beta Kappa, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in American Studies and a certificate in Women’s Studies.

“Brookdale changed my life and I am just thrilled beyond measure to be able to contribute to helping students pursue higher education or other career paths. So much is available right here near their homes in beautiful Monmouth County,”Horl said.

Horl, who has lived in Monmouth County for over 40 years, said she has always felt education is a change agent. “I felt for my own children and for all children that to live a life of consequence they need a good foundation. Education leads them out of themselves into many wonderful opportunities,” she said. Horl served on both the Matawan-Aberdeen Regional and Red Bank Borough Boards of Education.

Horl and her husband, John, have two daughters, Kelly and Meghan, and five grandchildren, Ryan, Grace, Morgan, Abby, and Connor.

Photo caption:

New Board of Trustee member Barbara Horl, with two of her grandchildren, Ryan and Morgan, was sworn in by Freeholder Gerry Scharfenberger at the April 30 meeting of the Board of Trustees.