Governance
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Board of Directors
Executive Board

Bruce Rosenblum
Board Chairman
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Bruce Rosenblum is a Managing Director and a member of Carlyle’s Management Committee. He is based in Washington, DC. and serves as the firm’s Chief Risk Officer. From 2000 through 2008, Mr. Rosenblum was an investment professional in the U.S. Buyout group, focusing on the telecommunications and media sectors. In 2008, he joined Carlyle’s Executive Group, where he has been involved in various aspects of the firm’s operations, including corporate finance, strategic transactions and risk management. Prior to joining Carlyle in 2000, Mr. Rosenblum was a Partner and Executive Committee member at the law firm of Latham & Watkins, where he practiced for 18 years, specializing in mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance. Before joining Latham, Mr. Rosenblum served as a law clerk to Chief Justice Warren E. Burger on the U.S. Supreme Court. Bruce currently serves as a trustee of American Jewish World Service; Vice Chair of the Board of the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty; and Chair of the Advisory Board for the National Capital Region of Year Up. Prior nonprofit Board memberships include Washington Performing Arts (1992-2004, 2006-2008; Board Chair 2002-2004) and the Baltimore Symphony (2005-2014), serving on the executive committees and chairing the education committees of both organizations. Bruce is a graduate of Yale University and Columbia Law School, and is married to Lori Laitman, a composer of vocal music and opera. They live in Potomac, MD, and have three children and one grandchild. Bruce is a “serious amateur” musician, performing on double bass, and has made several appearances on the Heifetz stage.

Mark D. Biegel
Treasurer
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Mark is a member of the Maryland Bar and a Certified Public Accountant. Prior to establishing the firm, he honed his knowledge of derivatives at Prudential. Additionally, Mark worked at Deloitte & Touche and KPMG Peat Marwick. A cum laude graduate of the University of Maryland at College Park, he holds a J.D. from the University of Baltimore School of Law. Mark is the father of two medically fragile children. Consequently, Mark supports philanthropic organizations that address the needs of medically challenged children. In addition to the Heifetz Institute, Mark serves on several nonprofit boards.

Geoffrey Menin, Esq.
Secretary
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Geoffrey D. Menin graduated from Yale College (B.A. summa cum laude, 1974) and Harvard Law School (J.D. 1977). A founding partner of Levine Plotkin & Menin, LLP, Mr. Menin has, for over thirty years, represented individual artists and entrepreneurs in film, television, music, fashion and new media, as well as high profile executives in their employment matters across a broad range of industries. An accomplished composer and performer in the rock, jazz and classical genres, Mr. Menin brings to his law practice the ability to understand the creative artist and to guide the development of the artist’s professional activities. Mr. Menin has performed with the likes of Buddy Miles, Stanley Jordan, Odetta, Charlie Daniels and Keith Richards. His original compositions range from a classical song cycle based upon the poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke for tenor (voice) and piano to the celebrated “Hymn for Her,” composed for Jennifer Muller’s Mullerworks Dance Company and recorded by Mr. Menin with Paul Winter and Eugene Friesen.

Peter Kreeger
Chairman Emeritus
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Mr. Kreeger serves on the Board of Directors of the The Kreeger Museum, Kreeger Foundation, the Washington Performing Arts Society, and the Great Waters Music Festival.

Gary M. Abramson
Chairman Emeritus
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Gary Abramson is a partner in The Tower Companies, a three-generation, family-owned real estate development company and the largest builder of LEED® certified properties in the DC metro area. Gary began his career in the family business in 1969. Since then, his major accomplishments include designing new office buildings, shopping centers, and mixed-use developments. He is responsible for leasing, management, development, architecture, design, construction, and aesthetics. His passion for architectural and design elements are evidenced throughout Tower’s portfolio. He is Chairman Emeritus and Trustee on the Board of American University and Chairman of the Heifetz International School of Music. Gary is a member of the SunTrust Bank Washington Advisory Board and for the past 34 years served on the American Committee and the International Boards of Governors of the Weizmann Institute of Science. Gary received his BA in Government and Public Administration from American University. He and his wife Pennie are proud grandparents and enjoy spending time with their family.
Full Board

Pennie Abramson
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Ms. Abramson, in addition to her position on the Heifetz board, is currently on the Board of Trustees for Friends of Cancer Research, Operations Embrace, Project Medishare and the MCPS Educational Foundation. She is President Emeritus of the American Committee of the Weizmann Institute of Science.

Laurence Cafritz
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Laurence M. Cafritz, President and Owner of Laurence Cafritz Builders and Legend Construction, Inc., in Bethesda, MD, is a graduate of Sidwell Friends School and Lafayette College (BS Civil Engineering, Cum Laude and Honors). Larry has over 30 years experience building and remodeling hundreds of homes throughout the Washington, DC region. He served as President of the Custom Builders Council of the Maryland Building Industry Association (MBIA) from 2008-2021, and is a member of the MBIA Board of Directors. Larry resides with his wife, Sherri, in Bethesda, MD, where they raised their three boys.

Susan Duprey
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Ms. Duprey is an attorney for the Northern New England law firm of Bernstein Shur. Previously she was a shareholder at Devine Millimet Attorneys at Law. During her time at the firm, she has specialized in zoning and planning issues, municipal law, and commercial real estate. In 1998, Mrs. Duprey served as President of the firm and has been instrumental in the firm’s continued growth throughout the region. Mrs. Duprey’s leadership activities extend well into the local and national community. She currently serves on the Board of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Inc. and the Advisory Board of Ocean Bank. Her numerous awards include inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America ® 2011 and being named as an “Ideal Lawyer” in the Town Lawyer category in New Hampshire Magazine in 2003. Duprey earned her JD from Northeastern University School of Law School and her BA from the Maxwell School of Political Science at Syracuse University. She is admitted to practice in the State of New Hampshire and Massachusetts. She resides in Concord, New Hampshire with her husband, Steve. They have three grown sons, Sam, Thad and Luke.

Diana Epstein
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Diana Ely Epstein is a native Washingtonian with a BA from Tufts University and Masters work in speech and drama at the University of Maryland. For the past 30 years she has been a radio and television personality in the Washington/Baltimore region. She does commercial voice-overs and narrations for local, regional and national clients. For six years, she was co-host of the award winning cable TV talk show, “Diana, Mike and the Rabbi.” She is active in local and national organizations such as Aish Hatorah, the National Gaucher Foundation, United Jewish Communities, Israel Bonds (twice co-chair of the annual prestigious Ambassadors Ball), Beth Sholom Congregation, Chabad Lubavitch, and the Melvin J. Berman Hebrew Academy, where she is a past president of the board of directors and current development chair.

Dr. Pamela R. Fox
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Dr. Pamela R. Fox is President Emerita of Mary Baldwin University and a recognized higher education leader with 40 years of experience spanning large public universities and small private colleges. Over her two decades serving as President, she led Mary Baldwin’s transformation to a coeducation university, doubling enrollment, adding more than 30 new programs at the baccalaureate through doctoral levels, and envisioning and building the Murphy Deming College of Health Sciences on a new branch campus in Fishersville, Virginia.
Currently Dr. Fox is working with colleges and universities nationally through her consulting firm Altius Higher Ed Strategies, LLC and as a Senior Advisor in WittKieffer’s Leadership Advisory Services. She specializes in strategic innovation in residential undergraduate education, online, and medical/health sciences programs, including feasibility study, market research, implementation, and fundraising as well as leadership advisory for presidents, presidential transitions, and governing boards. She is committed to student access and success, diversity, equity and inclusion, and pathways to life skills and professional success.
Dr. Fox is a passionate fundraiser, with a record of collaboration and fostering community partnerships, change management, organizational structure and realignment, and workforce development. She received her PhD in Musicology from the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music and has published and presented extensively as a musicologist. Her board experience includes elected services of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU), the American Council on Education (ACE), the Council of Independent Colleges in Virginia, the Virginia Foundation of Independent Colleges (VFIC), the Frontier Culture Museum of Virginia, the American Shakespeare Center, Augusta Health, and the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library. She received the Staunton NAACP Community Image Award in 2024, the Martin Luther King Beloved Community Citizenship Award in 2023, and was named Augusta County Citizen of the Year in 2011.

Keith Hill
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Keith Hill is a 25-year veteran of the U.S. Secret Service, who led the nationally recognized Johns Hopkins security team in the vital role of vice president, corporate security. From 2014 to 2019, Keith oversaw security for the health system and university, and was empowered to strengthen and better integrate safety and security practices and procedures across Johns Hopkins.
In addition to leading efforts to ensure the safety of faculty, staff, students, trainees, patients and visitors, Keith maintained close relationships with federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. He also had responsibility for transportation and parking services at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions campus in East Baltimore.
Keith brought with him to Johns Hopkins the perspective gained in 13 years of leadership experience at the agency responsible for the security of the president and vice president of the United States. He joined the service in 1987 as a special agent for the Baltimore and New York field offices and has had a number of roles within its investigative, intelligence and protection branches. Prior to his retirement from the Secret Service, he was the assistant director of the agency, in charge of its Office of Human Resources and Training. In that role, Keith has coordinated and implemented all policies, programs and strategic planning related to the recruitment, development, retention, and training of the Secret Service workforce.
Keith is a graduate of the University of Maryland, with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice, and a graduate of the Senior Executive Service Candidate Development Program. He served on the board of directors for the Federal Law Enforcement Training Accreditation and was a member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police and the National Organization for Black Law Enforcement Executives.
Keith retired from the Hopkins System in 2019 and devotes most of his time to his family, traveling and playing saxophone. Keith lives in Montgomery County, Maryland with his wife Wendy.

Robin Miller
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With over 30 years of experience in the real estate business, Robin Miller specializes in identifying creative approaches to the rehabilitation and adaptive reuse of historic buildings. He has transformed the urban landscape of Richmond, Petersburg, and Staunton with a variety of development projects including numerous apartment and condominium projects, “green” urban in-fill projects, and large scale, new urbanist projects involving several buildings and numerous city blocks.

Neal Naito
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A proud parent of two Heifetz alumni, Dr. Neal Naito is the Chief Medical Officer, Director of Business Development, and Co-Founder of MVK Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Naito received both his medical and master in public health degrees from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, Maryland. He retired as a Captain and Director of Public Health from the United States Navy Medical Corps in 2011 after almost 30 years of service. He is an experienced biotech and healthcare entrepreneur who has worked with Dr. Kubek over the past several years to commercialize intranasal delivered nanoparticles containing thyrotropin releasing hormone to treat neuropsychological disorders associated with military combat. Previously he sold a cord blood stem cell harvesting company he started to a major pharmaceutical company. His background in public health, occupational medicine, military medicine and internal medicine allows him to push innovation in all areas of medicine, from drug R&D to healthcare delivery. He has senior-level experience in executive decision-making, policy development, strategic business planning, Congressional relations, financial and personnel management, research and development, and military healthcare.

Roberta (Birdie) Pieczenik, Ph.D.
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Dr. Pieczenik is the Founder of S & R Literary, a company that publishes Surfless Guides, topic-specific guides to the best sites on the Internet. She is a sociologist with extensive background in evaluating criminal justice programs nationwide.

Dr. Jie Shen
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Dr. Jie Shen is Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School. She received her Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of Virginia in 1995 studying the mechanisms of alternative splicing in Drosophila. As a postdoctoral fellow at MIT, she began the investigation of the molecular basis of Alzheimer’s disease using mouse genetic approaches. Since 1998, she has directed a molecular neurobiology laboratory whose major research interests focus on the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. Her genetic studies have led to the proposal of the Presenilin Hypothesis, which posits that loss of presenilin function underlies neurodegeneration and dementia in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease. Her genetic analysis of gene products involved in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases unexpectedly revealed that presynaptic defects in neurotransmitter release might underlie age-related neurodegeneration in these neurological disorders. Jie was the Director of the Udall Center of Excellence for Parkinson’s Disease at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, which focused on the role of LRRK2 and alpha-synuclein on the pathogenesis of Parkinson’s disease.

Amy Tang Seto
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Amy Tang Seto is a partner and Endowments & Foundations senior advisor at Brown Advisory, and she serves as a resource to client teams in leading an acclaimed service model for endowments and foundations clients. Prior to joining the firm, Amy was the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at the Baltimore Community Foundation, where she held various executive, operations and financial management roles during her 13 years of tenure. In addition to her role at the Heifetz Institute, where she chairs the Nomination & Governance Committee, Amy serves as the President of the Baltimore-based Creative Alliance. She is also a Director of BGE, an ExcelonCompany, a Trustee of the Leonard & Helen R. Stulman Charitable Foundation, and a Past Trustee of the Calvert School.

Beverly White-Seals
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Dr. Beverly White-Seals has served as President and CEO of the Community Foundation of Howard County since May 2012, bringing broad experience in the public, private, and philanthropic sectors. She positioned the organization as a hub for connecting philanthropic residents with local nonprofits to improve the lives of those living in Howard County, while also building a new leadership team and investing in better processes and systems. Born and raised in Washington, DC, Beverly earned a B.A. from Ohio Wesleyan University and a J.D. from Columbia University School of Law. Beverly also donated her time and talent to serve on over 30 nonprofit boards while pursuing a career as a practicing attorney. Beverly enjoys spending time with her husband, daughter, son-in-law and grandson as well as with her large and exceedingly close extended family.
Community Advisory Council
Founded in 2015, the Heifetz International Music Institute’s Community Advisory Council was created to ensure that the Heifetz Institute’s programming, administration, and policies are meeting the civic, educational, and cultural needs of the local community, e.g., the City of Staunton, Augusta County, and the Shenandoah Valley region of Virginia. The Advisory Council, made up of civic, business, political, and philanthropic leaders in the community, also assists in seeking the necessary support and providing counsel to ensure that the Heifetz International Music Institute continues to be a high quality, vital asset to the community as it carries out its mission.
Cheri Johnson Moran
Chair
Retired Senior VP, Union First Bank
Chair, Augusta Health Foundation
Staunton, VA
Carolyn Dull
Vice Chair
City Council Member; Former Mayor of City of Staunton
Staunton, VA
Kristina Arbogast
Director of Sales and Marketing · Hotel 24 South
Staunton, VA
Scott Ballin
Scholar, collector, curator, philanthropist
Staunton – Deerfield, VA
Col. James Butt
USAF (Ret) Mt
Sidney, VA
Greg Beam
Executive Director, Staunton Downtown Development Association
Staunton, VA
Lee Beam
President, Staunton Steam Laundry
Staunton, VA
Matt Bingay
WMRA Executive Director
Harrisonburg, VA
Maricia “Rish” Capps
President Emeritus, American Frontier Culture
Foundation; Board of Directors, Historic Staunton Foundation
Staunton, VA
Lionel Tony Davenport
Chief Probation and Parole Officer for Virginia
Staunton, VA
Angela Higgs
Barren Ridge Vineyards
Fishersville, VA
Jonathan Kern
Business Consultant
Middlebrook, VA
Lisa Moore
Former Vice-Regent, Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association
Staunton, VA
Davidson Perry-Miller
Owner and Founder at Dave Perry-Miller Real Estate
Staunton, VA
H. Roller Shipplett, Jr.
Financial Advisor
Staunton, VA
Rev. Won Un
Pastor, Central United Methodist Church
Staunton, VA
Mame Warren
Editor, Writer
Lexington, VA
Ex Officio
Dr. Jeffrey Stein
President, Mary Baldwin University
Staunton, VA
Lora Hamp
Community Foundation of the
Central Blue Ridge
Alice Woods
Staunton City Council