BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Marybeth Nelson, BFA, President
Marybeth Nelson is a 25-year resident and small business owner on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from The School of Visual Arts and operates her own graphic design and illustration studio. With her sister Janet she opened the acclaimed restaurant 71 Clinton Fresh Food in 1999 and is current owner of Alias Restaurant open since 2001. She served on the Board of Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural and Educational Center from 2000 to 2003, and is a member of the Clinton Street Area Merchants Association. She has worked with local merchants, artists and not-for-profit organizations on numerous community projects including The Taste of The Lower East Side, Three Farms Music Festival, Grand Street Settlement Summer Jobs Program, and the Clinton Street Winter Lights Festival. She lives on Rivington Street with family and friends in a building they purchased and renovated in 1980. She is honored to serve on the Board of Mark DeGarmo & Dancers/Dynamic Forms Inc. and contribute to their efforts to enhance the Lower East Side cultural community.
Mario Baez, MA, Treasurer
Mario Baez is Director, United Nations Office of the Under-Secretary General, Department of Management.
Jan M. Hanvik, MA, Secretary
Jan Hanvik is Executive Director of the Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural & Educational Center, a Puerto Rican/Latino intentionally multicultural and inclusive multiarts center on Manhattan's Lower East Side. He was Executive Director of Columbia County Council on the Arts 2002-08. He and Columbia County Council on the Arts helped create the Sculpture and Nature Contemporary Art Tour with an array of private, public, state, and federal funds. A former teaching artist with schools in the New York metropolitan area, Mr. Hanvik launched the Hudson Valley Roundtable, an arts in education resource center. He earned a MA from New York University in Latin American and Caribbean Affairs and a BFA from the Harlem campus of the City University of New York. Mr. Hanvik serves on the boards of New York State Folklore Society and Partners for Arts Education, a New York State arts education service organization. He is active with Americans for the Arts, the Alliance of NYS Arts Organizations, and the Alliance for the Arts. With the Alliance, he was involved in a survey of cultural facilities and the impact of "the creative economy" in Columbia, Greene, and Dutchess counties.
Mark DeGarmo, PhD, Executive Director
Dancer-choreographer, educator, and scholar Mark DeGarmo is the Founder and Executive Director of Mark DeGarmo & Dancers. Honors and awards include: recognition by the National Endowment for the Arts-supported Millennium Artist Program, an Official Project of the White House Millennium Council 2000; American Cultural Specialist to Ecuador through the U.S. Department of State 2000; and Fulbright Senior Scholar Fellowship to Peru in Dance Choreography, Performance, and Pedagogy 1998-99. He has created 100 works and led his not-for-profit dance company on 25 performance, teaching, and research tours to 12 countries in Latin America and Europe, including Russia. He has developed an arts and dance education institute serving 2,025 New York City public school students and 12,000 individuals annually. Public and private funding support for his work includes: The Center for Arts Education; The Dana Foundation; Lower Manhattan Cultural Council; National Endowment for the Arts; New York City Departments of Cultural Affairs, Education, and Youth and Community Development; and New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.
Credits as a dancer and movement-theater performer include: a) Bill Cratty Dance Theatre (soloist), b) Laura Dean Dancers and Musicians (one of ten dancers selected from 600), c) Molissa Fenley & Dancers, d) Hanya Holm Dance Ensemble, e) Saeko Ichinohe and Company, f) Constance Miller Dance Company (soloist), g) Charles Moulton's All-Star 24-Person Ball Passing (Lincoln Center's Serious Fun Festival), h) The New York Historical Dance Company (soloist), i) Anna Sokolow (soloist), j) Jean Taylor (clown duo), and k) Marilyn Wood and the Celebrations Group. DeGarmo was performer of improvisational movement composition (soloist) in the Quiché Mayan Traditional Dance and Music Festival and International Dance Festival of Chichicastenango, Guatemala (2002 & 2003).
Teaching credits include Teaching Artist in Dance and Aesthetic Education at Lincoln Center Institute for the Arts in Education at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts 1986-2000. DeGarmo was a faculty member on intentionally multicultural leadership teams at Ghost Ranch Conference and Retreat Center, Abiquiu, New Mexico 1997-2000. He was a course guest lecturer in Dance Choreography, Creativity, Improvisation, Performance, and Technique at the graduate and undergraduate levels in the U.S. at: a) City College of New York; b) County College of Morris, NJ; c) El Camino College, CA; d) Hofstra University; e) Hunter College; f) New York University Steinhardt School of Education; g) Old Dominion University; and h) Queensborough Community College and in Mexico at: Escuela Nacional de Danza Clásica y Contemporánea, Centro Nacional de las Artes (Mexico City); Facultades de Danza y Teatro de la Universidad Veracruzana (Xalapa); and University of Puebla. Dr. DeGarmo was appointed as peer reader on three interdisciplinary PhD committees for Union Institute & University doctoral learners whose specializations were in American Studies, Psychology, and Religion. He is director and lead facilitator of MDDF's Teaching Artist Training Institute since 2006.
In service to the field of dance, DeGarmo participated on the Honorary Committee of The Martha Hill Award for Leadership in Dance honoring Alfredo Corvino, Juilliard School faculty and Ballet Master, Pina Bausch/Tanztheater Wuppertal (2001). He served on The Martha Hill Award Committee 2008. DeGarmo served as U.S. lecturer for the Volgograd (Russia) International Contemporary Dance Festival funded by The Trust for Mutual Understanding (2001). He served on peer advisory panels for The Center for Arts Education Partnership Grants (2002 & 2004), New York City Department of Cultural Affairs Manhattan Dance Panels (2007 & 2008), and New York State Council on the Arts Decentralization Grant Program for Columbia County (1997-98 & 1999-2000). DeGarmo was consultant with the New York City Department of Education task force leading to the 2005 publication of Blueprint for Teaching and Learning in the Arts, Dance: Grades PreK-12. He served as 2007 Field Council Member for the Empire State Partnerships Professional Development and Research Program. Since 2006, DeGarmo has been a member of New York State Council on the Arts Arts-in-Education Working Group.
He was a founding Board member of A Room of Her Own Foundation (2000-07). Since 2001, his company has been a resident member organization—and DeGarmo has served two terms on the Board of Directors—of the Puerto Rican and Latino multicultural Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural and Educational Center, Inc., located on New York's Lower East Side. In 2007, six elected city and state officials appointed him ex officio member of the Soto Vélez Board. In August of 2008, he began his third term, as a peer-elected Board member of the Soto Vélez Center. DeGarmo serves on the Board of the Greater New York Chapter of the Fulbright Association and the Arts Advisory Council of Northfield Mount Hermon School (Laura Linney, Chair).
He graduated from Northfield Mount Hermon School, attended Ohio Wesleyan University and Oberlin College, and earned a BFA in Dance from Juilliard School and a PhD with a concentration in Arts and Sciences and a specialization in Experiential Education and The Arts from Union Institute & University. The title of his transdisciplinary doctoral dissertation is Accessing Embodied Imagination: An Approach to Experiential Learning through Movement Improvisation. Since 1990, his biography has appeared in 21 biographical reference books in the U.S. and England.
Catherine Thompson Gross, MLS, MA, Immediate Past President of MDDF (2000-08)
Catherine Thompson Gross has been a development professional since 1987. As Associate Director of Corporate Relations at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer, she managed a corporate donor group of over 800 midsize companies. Most recently, Ms. Gross was Research Director, Major Gifts, at Hadassah's New York National Headquarters. From 2001-03, she worked with the Avodah Dance Ensemble as a participant and grant writer. Ms. Gross received a Master's degree in History/Archives from New York University, and a Library Science Degree from Pratt Institute. Her current focus is grant writing and international fundraising research. Ms. Gross is a certified teacher of NIA, a form of exercise and body awareness based on the joy of movement.
Margaret Lauber, BA
Ms. Lauber has been involved in the Long Island wine business since 1993, when she and her first husband purchased a 30-acre vineyard in Southold, New York, where they developed and marketed wines under the Corey Creek Vineyards label. She has worked for Billington Imports, a national importing company specializing in wines from South America, and is currently National Sales Manager at Wolffer Estate in Sagaponack, New York. She is also a sommelier, holding certificates from the Wine & Spirits Education Trust as well as the Sommelier Society of America. She has served on the Board of Directors of the Long Island Wine Council, as well as the New York Wine & Grape foundation. Ms. Lauber is a graduate of Skidmore College with a BA in English, where she studied dance under Melissa Hayden, a former principal dancer of the New York City Ballet. She is currently a member of the Advisory Board of the Stony Brook Center for Wine, Food & Culture, as well as Manitoga, the Russel Wright Foundation in Garrison, New York.
ADVISORY COUNCIL
Channing C. Ahn, PhD
Dr. Ahn is Senior Research Associate in Materials Science and Lecturer in Materials Science at California Institute of Technology. He holds a BS from the University of California (1979), MS (1981) and PhD from the University of Bristol (1985). At Caltech he has served as Senior Research Fellow (1987-92), Senior Research Associate (1992-), and Lecturer (1988, 1990-2007).
Miles M. Borden, JD
Miles M. Borden is Partner, Troutman Sanders LLP.
Jose Hilario Cedillos, PhD
I am a practitioner of the Bricolage Arts, a folk model of universal creativity utilizing whatever is at hand to fashion, repair and invent. I learned naïve Bricolage by being born into a Mexican American migrant fieldworking family. I have used a "Bricolage Theory of Improvisational Composition" in some form all my life. As an educator, I am committed to a pedagogic model that includes non-discursive methods of learning and instructional strategies that challenge institutional definitions of Education and Consciousness. To facilitate this orientation I place the capacities for direct perception and improvisational learning at the core of my working model. I took this approach in earning a doctorate in Education at the University of California at Santa Barbara. I also used this working model as the executive officer of a job training CBO, as a Residential Director at a Job Corps Center, as a community college instructor and as a Graduate Assistant Dean at The Union Institute. The last 20 years as a professor in two adult graduate programs, the Vermont College Graduate Program and the interdisciplinary Graduate College of Union Institute and University, have provided me with a wealth of experience in higher education.
Daniel C. Cochran, MPIA, Past President of MDDF Board
Senior Vice President, Chief Administrative Officer, Global Private Client, Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc.
Mr. Cochran joined Merrill Lynch in 1989 as First Vice President and Deputy Treasurer of Finance. In 1995 he became Chief Administrative Officer for the Asia Pacific Region based in Hong Kong. In 1998, Mr. Cochran was named Chief Financial Officer for Global Markets and Investment Banking (GMI). In January 2000, he was appointed Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the International Private Client Group. In 2001, Mr. Cochran was named a Senior Vice President of Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc. From mid-2003 until January 2004, Mr. Cochran served in Merrill Lynch Bank (Suisse). Mr. Cochran was appointed COO of GPC's EMEA Pacific Region in January 2004. In November 2005, Mr. Cochran also was named Chief Administrative Officer of Global Private Client. Mr. Cochran serves on the Boards of Merrill Lynch Bank (Suisse), and Merrill Lynch Bank & Trust (Cayman). He is a member of the Executive Leadership Council and is a Trustee of the Winthrop H. Smith Memorial Foundation. Mr. Cochran also is Senior Advisor to the LGBT Professional Network. Mr. Cochran graduated cum laude from Amherst College in 1968. He served in the US Foreign Service before receiving his MPIA degree in 1974 from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University. For the next 15 years, Mr. Cochran worked in Exxon Corporation's Treasurer's Department.
Andra Corvino
Andra Corvino has been on the dance faculty of The Juilliard School since 1995 and directed the Juilliard Summer Dance Intensive from 1998 to 2006. She has taught ballet at Sarah Lawrence College and Steps in New York City, The Martha Graham School, The Jose LimÛn Dance Company, Montclair State College, The New Jersey Dance Theater Guild, Randolph-Macon Womans College in Virginia, York University in Toronto, Canada and Mills College and Dancespace in Oakland, California. She co-directed the Dance Circle in New York City with her father Alfredo and sister Ernesta from 1968 to 1993. Her performing credits include the Metropolitan Opera Ballet Company under the direction of Dame Alicia Markova, principal dancer with the Baltimore City Ballet (later to become the Maryland Ballet) and many guest appearances with ballet companies throughout the United States, Canada and the Far East. She has also appeared with the companies of Roberto Cartagena, Ruby Shang and Matteo and the New York Baroque Dance Company. Ms. Corvino has staged productions ranging from concert pieces to full-length ballets for companies and universities around the world. In addition to her experience in dance, Ms. Corvino has had dramatic roles on television as well as off-Broadway and musical theater. She is a charter member as well as Associate Artistic Director of Ernesta Corvino's Dance Circle Company, with whom she still performs. Ms. Corvino often guest teaches open classes in New York City.
Joseph R. DeLeo
Mr. DeLeo is President of Joseph R. DeLeo Enterprises and former member of the Advisory Board of Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival.
Len Detlor, BA
A former jazz musician, Len Detlor has been painting for the past ten years, and has recently begun to exhibit his work. His paintings have been exhibited at the Chocolate Factory in Long Island City, in open studio exhibits and in organizational spaces. As a painter, Detlor is primarily self-taught. The paintings are influenced primarily by mid-20th century American painters. For many years, Detlor worked as a musician and composer, performing on saxophones and flute in contemporary improvised music---both jazz and new music---and creating music for dance. Following his performing career, he worked for New York State's Natural Heritage Trust and New York City's Department of Cultural Affairs, administering grants to the city's cultural community. Detlor studied music at the Berklee College of Music in Boston; he received a BA in Literature and Philosophy from American University in Washington, DC. Len Detlor lives in New York City.
Dianne Dulicai, PhD, ADTR
Education:
1995, Doctoral Degree, Developmental Neuroscience Research, Union Institute
1976, Masters Degree, Nonverbal Communications, Goddard College
1974, Bachelors Degree, Dance Therapy, Goddard College
Clinical experience:
Bronx State Hospital 1970-74; Therapeutic Nursery, Washington D.C. 1997-2000; Consultant to the Southern School Districts of Vermont 1989-present; private practice with children and families.
Academic experience:
1974-1990: Asst. Professor, Hahnemann Medical School and University
1974-1990: Director of Dance/Movement Therapy Department, served as acting Director of the Creative Arts Therapy Department 1988-89 during the sabbatical of Dr. Myra Levick.
1990-present: Senior Consultant, Hahnemann Creative Arts Therapy department within Drexel University.
1985-1990: Director, Dance/movement therapy graduate program, Laban Centre at the University of Goldsmiths' College, London.
Additional CAT experience:
1990-2003: President: American Dance Therapy Association.
2005-2007: Chair, National Alliance of Creative Arts Therapy Associations.
Published numerous articles on the use of the arts in therapy as well as serving on CAT Journals.
Provided federal advocacy for CAT in collaboration with art, music, psychodrama and drama colleagues.
Presented dance/movement therapy workshops around the world.
Elinor Ann Finlayson, MBA, CPA
Ann has more than 30 years of experience in the accounting and auditing and financial controls fields. She worked for Deloitte LLP for 24 years; 12 were as a partner. Since leaving Deloitte she has been the interim Chief Financial Officer for two technology spin-outs from IBM and the Chief Financial Officer for Goddard Riverside Community Center. She currently has her own business providing financial consulting services to non-profit agencies. She graduated from the University of Michigan with an MBA (with distinction in Operations Research and Accounting) and a BS (with honors in Chemistry). She has served on various boards including: Manhattan Montessori (as Treasurer); The University of Michigan College of Literature, Science and the Arts, Honors Program Advisory Board and the Ross School of Business Administration (Michigan)'s Information Systems Executive Partners. She is a long-time enthusiastic supporter of Mark DeGarmo & Dancers.
Anita Gonzalez, PhD
Anita Gonzalez is an Associate Professor of Theater at the State University of New York — New Paltz where she teaches directing, movement, and theater history courses. Her research interests are in African American theater, Latin American and Caribbean theater, and popular culture. Gonzalez earned her PhD in Theater/Performance Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1997). Gonzalez is also a director and choreographer whose work has appeared on PBS national television and at Lincoln Center Out-of Doors, Dance Theater Workshop, Tribeca Performing Arts Center, and other national and international venues. She has choreographed for Ballet Hispanico, taught theater in Central America, given professional and educational workshops in Caribbean and African American dance and lectured about the process of developing new plays. The National Endowment for the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Mid Atlantic Arts Association, and the FIDEOCOMISO for United States/ Mexico Arts exchange have all funded her work. For her individual scholarship and teaching, she has been awarded a residency at Rockefeller's Bellagio Center (2003) and three Senior Scholar Fulbright grants, one for research in Mexico (1987), one for teaching in Honduras (1992), and one for Modern Dance pedagogy in Guatemala (2004). Gonzalez is an Associate Member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographer
Maxine Greene, PhD
Lorna Harris
Lorna Harris' expertise and knowledge of arts and culture has been gained through many collaborative global projects. Her relationships with cultural institutions, facilities and funders in the public/private sectors bring an expansive viewpoint, perspective and valuable additional insights to every project. For over two decades she has done much to bring about an awareness of the significance of cause-related and legacy based projects by working to help artists and organizations of varying cultures and backgrounds showcase their mission through artistic productions, exhibits, publicity, and events that feature some of the most prominent musicians, scholars and artists in the world. In addition to her extensive experience with strategic planning, organizational development and fundraising, her intention is to always empower others to reach their goals. She has facilitated the publishing of important journals, papers and media products that feature best practices in international collaborations and has planned, organized and managed countless events, as well as having served financial and philanthropic clients. Recent projects include: Project Manger/Producer for the Romare Bearden Homecoming Celebration; Event Producer and Media Strategist for 17 City-wide Sustainable Living projects for Clean Air Communities; Event Producer for the Malcolm X 80th Birthday Commemoration and Producer/Media Coordinator for Been Rich All My Life, the Documentary Screening and Tribute Event to the Silver Belles, the legendary Harlem Showgirls, at the Apollo Theater and conducting a feasibility study for a Native American service organization, Amerinda. Among various professional affiliations, she was the Board President, Council on the Arts & Humanities of Staten Island (COAHSI).
Diane Lennard, PhD
Diane Lennard, PhD is a Clinical Associate Professor of Management Communication at NYU Stern School of Business and the founder of Lennard & Company, an international consulting firm specializing in theatre-based experiential learning programs for leadership and professional development. Dr. Lennard coaches executives, educators, business consultants and other professionals who want to expand their communication skills and abilities for functioning in diverse work settings. She leads workshops for groups in the United States and in Japan, and brings years of experience as a performer/theatre director, business owner, and educator to her work in corporate and educational settings. Client companies include: A&E Television, American Express, Barclays Bank, Bausch & Lomb, Bayer Diagnostics, Berlitz International, Boston Consulting Group, Bozell, British Telecom, Bravo, Cablevision, Carat, Citigroup, Colgate Palmolive, Dentsu, Discovery Communications, Exxon, FGI, Frank N. Magid Associates, Goldman Sachs, Guede Films, HBO, Honeywell, JAL International Services, Japan Airlines, Japan Society, JC Penney, L'Oreal, McGraw Hill Publishing, Merck, Monsanto, Motorola, MTV Networks, New York Times Company, News Corporation, Nikko Hotels, Pfizer International, Pittard Sullivan, Polaroid, Procter & Gamble, Seagram, Sesame Workshop, Sony Corporation, Starz Encore, The Actors Institute, Thomson Media, Time Warner, TNT Latin America, TV Guide, USA Network, WNYC Radio. She received her PhD in Education and Performance Studies from Union Institute & University, her MS in Education from Bank Street College of Education, and her BA in Communication from Bard College. She is a member of the Society of International Education, Training and Research. Dr. Lennard's research interests include coaching and performance, teaching and intercultural communication, and the relationship between improvised action and learning.
Kipp Lynch, PhD
Kipp Lynch holds a doctorate in cognitive psychology, specializing in visual perception. In his dissertation he examined the optical information for the perception of social interaction, movement qualities and event boundaries. His focus was on turning the tacit knowledge of the artist into the explicit knowledge of the scientist. In order to bridge the gap between theoretician and practitioner, Kipp studied dance and Labanotation in New York City, as well as animation and drawing at the Museum School in Boston. His post-doctoral work focused on psychology and the arts, with a particular interest in the perception of dance and how artists depict movement in static representations. Dr. Lynch has taught courses in perception, cognitive psychology, psychology of comics and social psychology at Northeastern University, Boston University and Bard College at Simon's Rock. After leaving academia, he worked for several international consulting companies, helping clients create useful, usable and innovative products. He has headed research and development laboratories in human-computer interaction, data visualization, and ergonomics for several international consulting firms. Dr. Lynch is a speaker at user experience and perception conferences and publishes on related subjects.
Sandra Moore, MD
Dr. Moore is Assistant Professor, Department of Radiology at New York University Medical Center.
Barbara Niemczyk, PhD
Dr. Niemczyk is an intercultural specialist and Russian and Slavic languages scholar, translator, and educator.
Leticia Rodriguez, MA Candidate
Leticia Rodriguez is the Executive Director of La Casa de la Herencia Cultural Puertorriqueña, Inc. in New York City's El Barrio. La Casa is a nonprofit community-based cultural institution. Its mission is to promote the development of the Puerto Rican culture and to preserve, enrich, and disseminate cultural and literary heritage to the Puerto Rican community and others
Igor Roussanoff
Igor Roussanoff is an internationally acclaimed artist who has worked professionally around the world for more than 25 years as a costume and set designer, producer, and art director. His work has been praised by theatre critics such as Anna Kissenlgoff and Jack Anderson of the New York Times, and James R. Nelson of the Birmingham News. Since 1997, Igor has been working as a costume designer for California University of Pennsylvania. He is a member of the costume committee of the United States Institute for Theatre Technology. Igor is the founding president of the Costumers Guild of Western Pennsylvania, and a representative on the board of directors of the International Costumers Guild. He is the executive director of The Pittsburgh Fashion Academy, where he also teaches design. Igor has designed costumes for the Stars of Bolshoi, and the principal dancers of The American Ballet Theatre. He has worked with legendary directors such as Dame Sonia Arova and Thor Sutowski, Mark DeGarmo, Victor Lytvynov, and John Gage. Mr. Roussanoff has had solo exhibitions in California, New York, Alabama, Tennessee, and Pennsylvania. His costumes are on permanent exhibition at the Theatre Museum and Museum of History and Reconstruction in Moscow.
Robert Stanton, MFA
Robert Stanton. BFA, 1984; MFA, 1985, New York University Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Acting Program. For over two decades Robert Stanton has acted extensively on and off-Broadway, in regional theatres, and in films and television. Work includes new plays by established playwrights Tom Stoppard ("The Coast of Utopia" trilogy), A.R. Gurney, Jr. ("A Cheever Evening") and Jeffrey Hatcher ("Compleat Female Stage Beauty"); premieres of plays by emerging playwrights David Lindsay-Abaire ("Fuddy Meers"), David Ives ("All in the Timing") and Keith Reddin ("Rum and Coke"); and major revivals of works Caryl Churchill ("Owners" and "Traps") and Harold Pinter ("The Homecoming"). He has worked under some of the world's finest directors in theatre (including Jack O'Brien, Simon McBurney, Andrei Serban and Anne Bogart) and film (including Woody Allen, Luc Besson, Agnieszka Holland and Sidney Lumet). With Daniel Jenkins he wrote "Love Child," a free adaptation of Euripides' "Ion." Mr. Stanton received a 1994 Obie Award for Distinguished Performance and the Clarence Derwent Award for his work in "All in the Timing."
Jean E. Taylor, MFA
Jean E. Taylor, (Performer/Teaching Artist) has worked as a teaching artist for Lincoln Center Institute for the Arts in Education for over sixteen years, working with teachers and students from elementary grades through graduate school. She also teaches theatrical clown for The New School for Drama, The Barrow Group Theatre and has been a guest instructor at Fordham University and Marymount College, among others. Jean completed a successful tour of Snatches, a play based on the verbatim conversations between Monica Lewinsky and Linda Tripp, to The Edinburgh Fringe Festival and London's New End Theatre. The play was also presented on BBC Radio 4 and had its beginnings at the 78th Street Theatre Lab. Additional performances for the 78th Street Theatre Lab include Beckett's Rockaby, Naomi Wallace's One Flea Spare, and Arlene Hutton's See Rock City. Regional credits include: The Tempest, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Merry Wives of Windsor, Taming of the Shrew, Cymbeline, Measure for Measure, Hamlet, and The Three Sisters. Jean's most recent collaboration, Wild Hair, was awarded a grant from The Maxine Greene Foundation for Social Imagination, the Arts, and Education to create a "Wild Hair Living Room Tour" of New York City and beyond. She studied clown with Philippe Gaulier, David Shiner, Ronlin Foreman, and Christopher Bayes. Her approach to theatrical clown work as it relates to actor training has been published in Movement for Actors, Allworth Press. She is a member of The Teaching Artist Journal's editorial board.
Allison Tolman, BA, Past President of MDDF Board
Ms. Tolman was introduced to the artistic world by her parents, collectors of contemporary Japanese prints while they were posted at the US Embassy in Tokyo, Japan. The Tolmans subsequently opened a gallery in Tokyo specializing in limited-edition contemporary Japanese works on paper. Today, Allison works as a private art dealer in New York. She lectures frequently on Japanese contemporary prints to museum and arts groups around the US. She is also a regular contributor to the Japanese arts quarterly DARUMA and is currently serving a second term as President of the Japanese Art Society of America. Ms. Tolman is proud to have been a past board member of MDDF.
Ellen Wallach, MSW
Ellen Wallach is Director of Constituent Services in the District Office of Congressman Jerrold Nadler (8th CD, New York). Her role involves helping individuals and families access a range of public benefits and assuring agency compliance with the complex eligibility rules. For those applying for permanent resident status and US citizenship, a Congressional inquiry may be the only alternative to an unexplained impasse. Arts presenters often turn to Ellen when performers from many different countries face delays associated with their visa applications as performance dates draw near. Ellen received a BA in Sociology and Psychology from City College and a Masters in Social Work from the Columbia University School of Social Work.
Patrick R. Williams, PhD
Patrick R. Williams is one of the nation's leading experts on corporate communications. After receiving his PhD in English Language and Literature from The University of Michigan, he taught at several Mid-west universities, including Bowling Green State University, Marquette University, The University of Michigan and Loyola University. Translating his education in language and literature to a business career, he is recognized as one of the profession's leading experts on investor relations, management communications, employee communications, and public relations. A prolific author, he has published a dozen books and thousands of articles on communications. More than 10,000 practitioners have attended his seminars, workshops, and conferences speeches. He has consulted internationally for 20 years; his clients are a "Who's Who" of American business: Motorola, Allstate Insurance, Pepsi, Quaker Oats, Intuit, Cardinal Health, Eli Lilly, and many others. Based in Chicago, he maintains an active interest in the performing and visual arts, through his support of the Chicago Shakespeare Theater, and the writing, publishing, modeling and collecting interests of his wife, Rebecca, in the American Classical Realism movement. He supports his four adult children's interests in performance arts, and endorses the Yiddish aphorism: "My life begins when I plant an olive tree under which I will never sit."
