WOOLLY MAMMOTH STAFF AND BOARD

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Board Of Directors

Pete Miller(President) became an enthusiastic playgoer after a high school class brought him to the Folger Library to see a production of Love’s Labours Lost. He volunteered as a stage manager while an undergraduate at the University of Chicago. During his seven years in the Air Force, theater availability varied – pretty good in Austin, Texas, not so easy to find English language plays in Kaiserslautern, Germany, great DC theater available during his final tour at the Pentagon. Continued to see a lot of DC theater while working for KPMG for four years, during which time he moved into the District. Worked for AOL for eleven years, mostly in network operations, at the same time working his way up within Woolly Mammoth from volunteer usher to board member. With his long time partner Sara, co-chaired the Breaking New Ground capital campaign. Took a brief hiatus from board membership while living in Portland, Oregon then rejoined upon his return to DC. While resident in DC, Pete averages around 100 evenings of theater per year.

J. Chris Babb, The Group Tour Company (Vice President) Born and raised in Washington, DC, Chris is a graduate of Bethesda - Chevy Chase High School and James Madison University.  He has served on the Board of Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company for six years and is currently serving as the co-chair of Major Gifts on the "Free the Beast" Campaign.  Since 1993 he has worked at The Group Tour Company, a family travel business founded by his father in 1974.  He resides downtown in the Shaw neighborhood with his partner Jim Martin and is a member of Leadership Greater Washington.  Any free time left from work and volunteering is spent traveling and socializing with friends.

Linette S. Hwu, Networks/Travel Channel Media, (Vice President) is the Vice President, Business Affairs at Travel Channel, where she recently co-chaired the network's integration with Scripps Networks Interactive and is responsible for negotiating and managing the network's agreements with its talent, as well as with its production company, home video and international syndication partners.  She joined the Board at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in 2005 and is currently both serving as a Vice President and leading the Company Task Force; she was also a co-chair of the annual benefit bash from 2006 to 2008.  She received her BA in History and German Studies from Yale University and her JD from the University of Chicago Law School.

Gerry Widdicombe, Downtown DC Business Improvement District, (Treasurer) has been a Woolly Mammoth Board member since summer 2007, is serving as Treasurer for the period June 2010-July 2011 and is a member of the Executive, Finance and Compensation Committees.  He currently works as the Director of Economic Development for the Downtown DC Business Improvement District (since 2000).  Other jobs held by Gerry include:  (1) DC government (98-00), (2) self-employed financial consultant (93 –98), (3) RTC and FDIC in DC (1991-1993) and (4) Goldman, Sachs & Co. in New York City (1978-1979 and 1981-1989).  Gerry graduated from Harvard Business School (1981), Dartmouth College (1978) and Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School (1974).   Gerry also serves on the boards of Directors of the National Cherry Blossom Festival (Treasurer), the Mount Vernon Triangle Community Improvement District, the Nora School in Silver Spring (Chair 96-04), and Septima Clark Public Charter School in DC.

Melissa L. Galetto, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, (Secretary) is a tax lawyer at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP in Washington, D.C., where she also devotes significant pro bono time to serving as a court-appointed guardian ad litem to children in the District.  A native of New York, Melissa worked as an actuarial analyst and a weather derivatives broker prior to relocating to Washington, D.C. to attend Georgetown Law, where she acted in several productions of the Georgetown Gilbert & Sullivan Society.  She is an occasional runner and has completed three marathons.  Prior to joining Woolly, Melissa served on the board of directors of the Washington Improv Theater.

Donna Ari presently works as a consultant for non-profits, especially in financial development, strategic planning and management—most recently with the Washington National Opera and the Textile Museum.   Previously Donna held full time positions with the Smithsonian, the Phillips Collection, and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, among others.  This transition to consulting allows flexibility to travel internationally, to summer in Maine, and to volunteer.   A native of Massachusetts, Donna and her husband, Ewing Miller, an architect and Penn Quarter activist, live a block from their favorite theater, Woolly Mammoth.

William Caldwell, Caldwell & Company, CPA’s, has been a Woolly subscriber since 2006.  He recently joined the Board in January, 2010 and sits on the finance committee.  He is a CPA and owns his own company, Caldwell & Company, CPA’s.  He received his BS in Accounting from the University of Minnesota.

Lorraine Chickering, Chickering Photo Gallery, has been a member of Woolly’s Board since 2007 and has been attending shows at the theatre since the 80s.  She describes herself as a photographer, investor, and dedicated volunteer.  Lorraine spent eight years in non-profit management, mostly in university administration and development.  She then spent the next eighteen years in telecommunications at COMSAT and Bell Atlantic.  Additionally, she started two new unregulated businesses and spent her final seven years as President of two vertical lines of business.  She also lived in England and Brazil in the 1970’s.  She graduated from Harvard University, was ABD from Cornell University in Educational Administration and Organizational Behavior, and obtained her MBA from Harvard Business School.

Joe Dunne, Rolls-Royce North America, Joe is the Senior Vice President of Services Strategy & Business Development for Rolls-Royce Plc.  Joe joined the Board of Woolly Mammoth in 2009 after he relocated to the Washington DC metro area 2008. He also serves on the Board of Greater DC Cares. Joe is originally from Derbyshire, England. He has travelled extensively and has lived in several countries as result of his profession. He now calls Arlington, VA home and lives with his life partner Elena and their newborn daughter Nina.  He has a BSc Hons in Engineering and received his MBA from Loughborough University in the United Kingdom.

Elizabeth Friedman spent 34 years directing continuing education programs for lawyers, accountants and other professionals, most prominently for the District of Columbia Bar and for The Institute for Professional and Executive Development. At the same time, she has been a board member for a number of non-profits, including the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington Project for the Arts, the Abramson Foundation, the Center for Dispute Settlement, and the AntiDefamation League. Liz's activities within the Woolly family include founding and chairing the annual Dinner on Stage event. She and her husband Paul live in the District of Columbia and are lifelong lovers of the theatre.

Wendy Hagen, hagen inc, is a communications strategist who lives and works in Dupont Circle. After a 25-year career in advertising, public relations and corporate communications, Wendy now works with nonprofits, trade associations and corporate clients on brand development, research, communications strategy and integration. A graduate of Georgetown University, Wendy is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. She joined the Woolly Mammoth Board in 2009 and serves on the Governance Committee and Marketing Task Force.

Nancy A. Hartsock, The Hasenberg Hartsock Group at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, Nancy is a Financial Advisor and Financial Planning Specialist with The Hasenberg Hartsock Group at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney in Washington D.C. She specializes in Wealth Management, Financial Planning, and multi-generational family work. Prior to her career as a Financial Advisor, she worked for 25 years in the health care industry with the last 10 years in senior management as a business owner. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology and English from Southern Illinois University and her Master of Science degree in Rehabilitation Counseling from the Rehabilitation Institute at Southern Illinois.

Lisa Martinez, AARP Services, Inc., is Director, Strategy & Planning for AARP Services, Inc., the for-profit subsidiary of AARP responsible for managing licensing relationships with leading health, financial, travel and retail companies. She specializes in strategy development, product development, program management and marketing. A dancer since childhood, Lisa began her career in arts administration in a variety of roles including development/fund raising, marketing communications, and box office management. Lisa grew up in New England where she earned her BA from Brown University and MBA from Clark University.

Victoria Isley, Destination Marketing Association International, is the Executive Vice President/Chief Operating Officer for Destination Marketing Association International, an association representing 600 tourism offices worldwide that command $1.5 billion in annual budgets. She brings nearly 18 years of destination marketing experience to the association. For nearly 10 years, she served as Destination DC’s Senior Vice President of Marketing & Communications, creating the new brand strategy for the nation's capital, building research and strategy for organizational advocacy, and spearheading crisis communications following 9/11/01. Isley holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and has earned her Professional in Destination Management certificate. She is currently a member of the Public Relations Society of America and Society of American Travel Writers.

Jeffrey Herrmann, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, is the Managing Director of Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company.  He arrived in Washington DC in Sept. 2007, after spending eight years as Producing Director at Perseverance Theatre in Juneau, Alaska.  A native of West Hartford, CT, Jeff received his BA in English from Vassar College and an MFA in Theatre Management at the Yale School of Drama.

Karen Lefkowitz, Pepco Holdings, Inc., Karen is the Director of Customer Relations at Pepco Holdings, Inc., a regional energy holding company providing utility service to Washington, D.C., and areas of Maryland, Delaware, and New Jersey.  In this role, Ms. Lefkowitz works to enhance customer service and administer energy efficiency programs.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from George Washington University and a Master of Business Administration from Marymount University. Karen is a lifelong fan of theater and has been on the board of directors of the Woolly Mammoth Theater Company since 2004. She enjoys spending time with her husband, Allen and her dogs, Paddy and Rocky, ballroom dancing, reading, and quilting.

Anthony V. Lupo, Arent Fox LLP, Anthony is Partner at Arent Fox LLP and practices in the areas of entertainment and intellectual property law and represents Pixar, Discovery Channel, Google, and Apple. Anthony joined the Board of Woolly Mammoth in 2009.  Anthony, for work and in his free time spends a great deal of time traveling the globe.  In his free time he is an avid painter and photographer. Anthony is also on the board of the Smithsonian National Zoo and Discovery Channel Global Education Fund.   Anthony lives in Alexandria, Virginia with his wife Jean and their children Giovanni and Sophia. 

Julie Rios has been a Woolly fan since the late 1980s. Now retired, Julie enjoys all forms of performing arts and attends over 100 performances a year. In her 34 year career with the U.S. Postal Service, she had responsibility for key marketing, IT, web, operations, strategy, and energy initiatives. A California native, she has lived on Capitol Hill for the last 28 years. She received her BA in Studio Art from the University of California and attended the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School.

Jeremy Rissi, Project Performance Corporation, has been a Woolly subscriber for eight years and joined the Board in January, 2010.  A native of Deer Isle, Maine, he got his BA in History at Yale University and performs locally as a cellist with Gracenotes Chamber Music and the Kenyon Quartet.  He works in sales and strategy at Triton Federal Solutions.

Scott B. Schreiber, Arnold & Porter, LLP, sees the playwright and theater as an agent for social change and building community in our pluralistic society.  He is particularly keen on the playwright’s ability to communicate with the audience and move the audience by creating empathy. He is a Partner at Arnold & Porter LLP and joined the Board at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in May of 2009.  He was born and raised through Junior High School in the Lower East Side of Manhattan before he moved to Washington, D.C.  He is a graduate of Bates College, received his JD from The Columbia University School of Law and remains an avid theater attendee.

Howard Shalwitz, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, is the co-founder of Woolly Mammoth and for 30 years has led the company on a unique path, focused on new plays that ask hard questions, introduced fresh voices, and challenged theatrical convention. As a result of his vision, Woolly is recognized as a major force in the creation of new kinds of plays for the American stage. Howard was selected as a “Washingtonian of the Year” in 1998 and received the prestigious “Founders Award” from the Cultural Alliance in 2006. Both a director and an actor, he is one of the few artists to receive multiple Helen Hayes Award nominations in both categories. He has directed for Playwrights Horizons, New York Theatre Workshop, Arena Stage, Milwaukee Rep, and many others. At Woolly Mammoth he has directed over thirty plays including Clybourne Park, Fever/Dream, and She Stoops to Comedy, and appeared in Full Circle, The Gigli Concert, and Lenny & Lou, to mention just a few. A native of Buffalo, NY, Howard studied philosophy at Wesleyan University and received a Masters in Teaching from Brown before launching his theatre career in New York in 1975.

Ted Walker, Accenture, Ted has spent the bulk of his career in management consulting, currently a part of Accenture’s Utilities Strategy practice. Ted specializes in corporate strategy development, business transformation, and operations improvement initiatives with clients across multiple industries. Ted earned his MBA from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business and his Bachelor of Industrial and Systems Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Ted lives with his wife Amanda in Capitol Hill, DC, and enjoys golf, flying (he’s a private pilot), traveling, scuba diving, and home renovations in his free time.

Artistic Director
Howard Shalwitz

Managing Director
Jeffrey Herrmann