Our People
Our staff and board of directors can't wait to meet you!
Here is a picture of each of us so that you can be sure to pick us out in the crowd and come say "hello" at the next performance.
See you at the opera!
STAFF
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Julia Cooke
President and General Director
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Catrin Davies
Vice President of Advancement
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Megan Ihnen
Director of External Communications
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Tina O'Malley
Company Manager
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Michael Manganiello
Operations Manager
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Tara Dougherty
Patron Services Manager and Board Liaison
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Courtney Kalbacker
Director of Education
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Aaron Ziegel, Ph.D.
Scholar-in-Residence
Board of directors
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Francis Mondimore, CHAIR
Community Roles: Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
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David Paige, VICE-chair
Community roles: JHU Bloomber School of Public Health. Shaped the WIC nutrition program, focuses on clinical nutrition, health outcomes for low birthweight & premature infants, racial disparities in health.
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LEE BOOT, SECRETARY
Community Roles: Director of the Imaging Research Center, and Affiliate Associate Professor of Visual Arts and Computer Science & Engineering at UMBC. His practice involves bringing values, modes and methods from the arts into multidisciplinary teams addressing serious societal challenges such as substance misuse, low education achievement, healthcare and the epidemiology of pandemics.
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Suzanne Woods, treasurer
Community roles: Nationally-recognized soprano who has performed major roles across the country, in concert halls such as Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall, and on major recording labels.
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Michael Brown
Community Roles: Attorney with Miles & Stockbridge, P.C.
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Bart Debicki
Community Roles: Associate Professor in the Department of Management and International Business in the College of Business and Economics at Towson University
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Rosemary Eck
Community Roles: [retired] major gifts manager at Maryland Public Television [MPT], Director of Development at St. Mary’s Seminary, inaugural philanthropy director at Charlestown Retirement Community, fund raising consultant for the Baltimore Regional Burn Center at Hopkins Bayview Hospital
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Elizabeth Futral
Community Roles: Distinguished Chair of Vocal Studies at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University
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John Harris
West Baltimore Reimagining and Redevelopment Project, Black Arts District, HARBEL Community Organization.
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Erin Rada
Community Roles: Assistant Professor of Plastic Surgery at the University of Maryland Medical Center and St. Joseph Medical Center
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Kevin Short
Community Roles: Professor of Voice at the University of Maryland, Adjunct Voice teacher at the Curtis Institute of Music, Member of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, Member of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Inc.
Brendan Cooke - Founder, Director of artistic partnerships
Advisory Council Members
Suzanne Balaes-Blair (Archdiocese of Baltimore)
Michael Blair (Cummings & Co. Realtors)
David Dimmock (Northrup Grumman, Retired)
Dennis Ferguson (Social Security Administration)
Erika Juengst (Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health)
Lewis Noonberg (DLA Piper, Retired Partner)
Monica Reinagel (Nutritionist, Host of Nutrition Diva Podcast)
Maureen Ober Renner (College of Notre Dame, Loyola University)
Steven White (Metropolitan Opera)
Directors Emeriti
J Austin Bitner
Suzanne Balaes-Blair
Michael Blair
Lauren Brown
Jennifer Burdick, in memoriam
David Dimmock
Dennis Ferguson
Louis Gephardt
Jimmy Galdieri, in memoriam
Mimi Hatch
Megan Ihnen
Erika Juengst
Heather Kniotek DeSimone
Heather Lockard Wheeler
Dawn Luedtke
Elisabet Pujadas
Elizabeth Robinson
Ben Schuman
John Shields
Susan Yager
Joseph Zuccaro