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

  • Julia Cooke

    President and General Director

  • Catrin Davies

    Vice President of Advancement

  • Megan Ihnen

    Director of External Communications

  • Tina O'Malley

    Company Manager

  • Michael Manganiello

    Operations Manager

  • Tara Dougherty

    Patron Services Manager and Board Liaison

  • Courtney Kalbacker

    Director of Education

  • Aaron Ziegel, Ph.D.

    Scholar-in-Residence

Board of directors

  • Francis Mondimore, CHAIR

    Community Roles: Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Michael Brown

    Community Roles: Attorney with Miles & Stockbridge, P.C.

  • Bart Debicki

    Community Roles: Associate Professor in the Department of Management and International Business in the College of Business and Economics at Towson University

  • 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

  • Elizabeth Futral

    Community Roles: Distinguished Chair of Vocal Studies at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University

  • John Harris

    West Baltimore Reimagining and Redevelopment Project, Black Arts District, HARBEL Community Organization.

  • Erin Rada

    Community Roles: Assistant Professor of Plastic Surgery at the University of Maryland Medical Center and St. Joseph Medical Center

  • 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