Councilwoman Barbara Hood Benz

Councilwoman Benz is the chair of the Environmental Commission.  She is also a member of the following council committees:  

Chairwoman, Administration and Legal Committee 2023, Recreation Committee 2023 

Land Use Committee 2021, Recreation Committee 2021, Recreation Committee Chairwoman 2022 and Administration and Legal Committee 2022. 

Councilwoman Benz, along with her husband, Charles W. Benz, Jr, raised their two sons, Chad and Justin in Branchburg and Toms River, NJ.  In 2018, she and her husband moved full-time to Mantoloking and soon after, she joined the Women’s Republican Club of Mantoloking and Bay Head (WRCMBH) and was appointed as a member of the  Mantoloking Environmental Commission (MEC).  She was appointed Chair of the MEC in January 2019 and became an officer in the WRCMBH that same year. 

During 2019, she also joined the Regular Republican Organization of Mantoloking as the Recording Secretary.  Councilwoman Benz is also a Barnegat Bay Volunteer Master Naturalist and member of the Mantoloking Welcome Committee. 

Ms. Benz earned a BS in Computer Science from Douglass College and an MBA in the management of technological innovation from Rutgers Graduate School of Business.  She worked for AT&T and AT&T Wireless for 17 years and then transitioned into education where she taught mathematics at Hunterdon Central Regional High School in Flemington, NJ for 12 years.  Ms. Benz then retired from teaching full-time and was hired as an Adjunct Professor of Mathematics at Raritan Valley Community College where she taught for 3 ½ years prior to moving to Mantoloking.  Since 2015, she has worked as a contractor for The Institute for Citizens & Scholars, formerly known as the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. 

Ms. Benz, her husband Chuck, and their two goldendoodles, Murphy and Lina, reside on East Ave.