GBCA Announces Election of Six New Board Members
The Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance (GBCA) today announced the appointment of Anne Allen, Amy Burke Friedman, Anita Kassof, Darci M. Smith, Esq., Jonathan Schwartz, and Tanya Jones Terrell to the Board of Directors. This brings the number of Board members to 24.
“As President of the GBCA Board of Directors, I am honored and excited to welcome our new members,” said Kevin Apperson, President of GBCA’s Board of Directors. “Each person brings special talents and perspectives essential to GBCA’s service for artists and organizations throughout the region.”
“I am excited to work with this new class of Board members for the benefit of our members and constituents, said Jeannie Howe, GBCA’s Executive Director. “They are joining and enhancing GBCA’s extraordinary leadership team at a time when the cultural sector, while facing many stressors, is essential to the wellbeing and economy of our region.”
Anne Allen is the Program Officer of Strategy, Evaluation and Learning at the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation. In this role, she supports strategic initiatives and assessments across grantmaking portfolios with a focus on scaling community-led, innovative solutions that advance economic mobility. Previously, Anne was Vice President of Workforce Services at Goodwill Central Coast where she oversaw employment and training programs for disadvantaged populations, including Adult and Dislocated Worker programs through the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act.
She created an economic mobility initiative, called the Prosperity Platform, for Goodwill and United Way organizations in California and Oregon resulting in cross-sector initiatives among workforce, education, human services, and the financial services industry to empower families to build long-term assets and reach their goals. Anne also served as a Community Impact Officer at the Central Indiana Community Foundation. There she oversaw the strategy for the Family Success Initiative focused on breaking the cycle of poverty through financial capability and workforce development programs.
Amy Burke Freeman has 20 years of experience developing and implementing successful communications and marketing programs for clients, including the Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore, National Aquarium, T. Rowe Price, Baltimore School for the Arts, Lord Baltimore Hotel, Your Public Radio and Hotel Revival. A seasoned strategic communications professional, she considers herself a partner with the agency's clients as she assists them in creating and telling their unique stories and helping them to achieve their goals.
Amy was named one of The Daily Record’s 2016 VIP Award and its 2013 Leading Women recipients. In 2010, Amy was recognized by PR News as one of its “15 to Watch.” Prior to joining PROFILES in 2003, Amy was a public relations associate for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. She worked at Baltimore magazine as a marketing assistant following internships in the editorial and fashion departments during college.
Amy was born and raised in Baltimore City and is now a resident of Towson, Md. She graduated from Western High School and the University of Maryland, College Park. While at the University of Maryland, Amy was initiated into Omicron Delta Kappa, a national leadership honors society.
Amy is incredibly proud to call Baltimore home and has donated her time over the years to organizations dedicated to supporting the community including The ASSOCIATED: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore, Baltimore School for the Arts, the Western High Scholl Foundation, Mt. Washington Pediatric Hospital, Towson Hillel, and the Saint Agnes Foundation.
Anita Kassof has served as Executive Director of the Baltimore Museum of Industry since February 2015. Ms. Kassof was formerly the Deputy Director of the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City. Previous to her work in New York, Ms. Kassof served as the Associate Director of the Jewish Museum of Maryland. She co-founded Historic Jonestown, Inc. a consortium of cultural and historic sites in East Baltimore, and she served as a curator at the Baltimore City Life Museums.
She was on the founding staff of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. Anita serves on the boards of the Regional Manufacturing Institute, the Greater Baltimore History Alliance, and the Jewish Museum of Maryland, and is a member of the 2019 class of GBC Leadership. She lives in the Mt. Washington area of Baltimore with her husband, Josh Neiman. They have two grown children.
Darci M. Smith, Esq. is an associate at Gordon Feinblatt, LLC, a local Baltimore firm that has been serving the community for over 60 years. While her focus is on regulatory health care law, Darci has provided counsel on government affairs, public policy, and legislative matters. Darci has experience testifying before the Maryland General Assembly and various state agencies. Darci spent time working for the state and private companies, where she initiated and assisted in projects to improve corporate governance, organizational structure and workflow and drafted and implemented policies and procedures to codify those improvements.
Darci served as a Judicial Clerk for the Hon. Andrea Leahy of the Maryland Court of Special Appeals after earning her J.D. from the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law in 2015. Darci is originally from Buffalo, NY, where she obtained her undergraduate degree at the University of Buffalo. Her family still lives there, and she visits her four nieces and nephews every chance she gets.
Darci has always enjoyed an interest in the arts, specifically design and painting. She played the flute, sang in chorus, and participated in the drama club throughout her grade school and high school years. In recent years she has spent time painting, interior decorating, and attending plays, musicals, and concerts. Darci is excited to strengthen her connection to the Baltimore Arts community and to have an opportunity to help foster the continued growth and impact of the arts in Baltimore.
Jonathan Schwartz, Lyric Foundation Executive Director assumed his role in January 2018. He is responsible for managing all aspects of the Lyric Foundation. His primary focus is ensuring that the Lyric Foundation fulfills its mission to bring a diverse collection of world class entertainment to the Lyric Theatre, provide meaningful education programs to Baltimore area youth and maintain the historic Lyric Theatre.
Prior to joining the Lyric Foundation, Jonathan worked in state and local government. Jonathan served for seven years as Chief of Staff to Baltimore County Councilwoman Vicki Almond. Prior to that he was the Legislative Aide to Delegate Jon Cardin. He currently serves on the Boards of the Baltimore Jewish Council, Baltimore Hebrew Congregation, the Central Baltimore County Democratic Club and the Fields of Sagamore HOA. Jonathan holds an M.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and a B.A. from Haverford College. He is a proud graduate of the Leadership class of 2019.
Tanya Jones Terrell is BGE’s Director of Corporate Community Impact and is responsible for overseeing BGE’s workforce development and corporate relations efforts throughout central Maryland with a renewed focus on enhancing the company’s impact on underserved communities. She works with the team to establish key external partnerships, such as those with community organizations, historically Black colleges and universities, and other anchor institutions in Baltimore and central Maryland.
Tanya works closely with Governmental & External Affairs and across BGE to establish key leading and lagging performance indicators using data analytics. This will help to ensure that BGE’s community impact strategy closely aligns with the needs and concerns of the communities we serve. Tanya will lead the Corporate Community Impact organization with a focus on substantive, long-term programs with community and business impact.
Tanya’s responsibilities include developing, leading, and executing strategic corporate giving programs, workforce development initiatives and developing and managing strategies that build goodwill, inform, educate, and influence external stakeholders’ views and perspectives. This includes a refinement of BGE’s local non-profit and business partnerships and the implementation of the company’s local non-profit board placement strategy. Tanya has a wealth of experience in the nonprofit and education sectors, most recently serving as chief operating officer of The Leadership. Additionally, she served as executive director of the South Baltimore Learning Center and in leadership roles with Associated Black Charities, Empower Baltimore Management Corp. and other nonprofit organizations focused on workforce development.
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