Board of Directors

Theodore Aronson
Treasurer Theodore R. Aronson is the managing principal of Aronson+Johnson+Ortiz, LP (formerly Aronson + Partners) and a portfolio manager for the Quaker Small-Cap Value Fund. He began his investment career with the Quantitative Equities Group of Drexel Burnham Investment Advisors. He then co-founded Addison Capital Management in 1981 and left three years later to form the predecessor to Aronson+Johnson+Ortiz. Ted holds a BS and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He is a CFA charterholder and a Chartered Investment Counselor. His firm now manages approximately $20 billion in domestic equities for institutional clients.

Angie Kim
Angie Kim is Program Officer at the Getty Foundation, where she is responsible for local Los Angeles county funding initiatives, professional development grants, and the Multicultural Undergraduate Internship program. Previously, she was Director of Programs, Arts and Conservation at the Flintridge Foundation in Pasadena, California, where she worked from 1999 to 2006. There, she implemented the Foundation's Theatre and Visual Arts programs, which served the California, Oregon, and Washington region with grants to ensemble theatre companies and awards to individual artists, and supervised the environmental Conservation program of the Pacific Northwest. In addition, she has served on a number of grantmaking panels throughout the west coast. Prior to working in philanthropy, she worked in exhibiting institutions at the Portland Art Museum, Oregon, and as a manager of two Los Angeles-area galleries. She received her B.A. in Art History and English Literature from Linfield College in McMinnville, Oregon and holds an M.A. in Art History from University of Southern California, where she conducted cross-sector research on the intersecting developments of contemporary art and environmentalism in the Pacific Northwest. She is a board member of Grantmakers in the Arts (GIA) and Leveraging Investments in Creativity (LINC) - a ten-year initiative to improve the systems of support for individual artists nationally. In addition to her board work, she is a member of Art Table, active in Los Angeles Arts Funders, and has written articles for the GIA Reader. Her areas of professional focus are on strengthening the field of arts philanthropy, inter-generational transfer of knowledge, and fostering multicultural arts leadership.

Samuel A. Miller (ex oficio)
Sam Miller is the president of Leveraging Investments in Creativity (LINC). Building on an Urban Institute report that examined existing support structures for artists, LINC's efforts are centered on effecting broad-based change to increase direct support for artists, enhance artist/public interaction and improve the policy environment for creative work.

Previously, Mr. Miller served as Executive Director of the New England Foundation for the Arts for ten years. Under his leadership NEFA launched important new projects in New England like the Creative Economy Initiative and Expeditions (a program which supports regional touring of interdisciplinary arts projects). Mr. Miller also pioneered a number of nationally significant programs at NEFA, including the National Dance Project and the Cambodian Artists Project, in partnership with Asia Society and the Royal University of Fine Arts in Phnom Penh. Prior to NEFA, Mr. Miller was at Jacob’s Pillow where he served as Executive Director and President. He has also worked with Pilobolus Dance Theater, Pennsylvania Ballet, and managed various theater renovation projects in New England.

John Plukas
John Plukas is currently co-Chairman and one of the original founders of Wainwright Bank & Trust Company. After receiving an AB from Wesleyan University and an MBA from Harvard Business School, John worked at various investment banking firms eventually becoming President of HCW Inc. He has established the John M. Plukas Fund and the Plukas Prize for Outstanding Economics Majors at Wesleyan and has also endowed a scholarship at the Harvard Business School. John is a Board Member of the Massachusetts Cultural Facilities Project, Chairman of the Board of the New England Foundation for the Arts, Board of Directors of Leveraging Investments in Creativity, and serves on the Board of Trillium Asset Management Corporation, the largest socially responsible investment management firm in the United States.

Samina Quraeshi
Samina Quraeshi, the Henry R. Luce Professor in Family and Community at the University of Miami, is an award-winning artist, designer and author. Quraeshi previously served as the Director of Design at the National Endowment for the Arts, where she advocated design and the arts as essential to the country’s cultural and economic wellbeing. She has also been deeply involved in an urban design workshop in Oklahoma City, which facilitates rebuilding efforts after the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building.

Sandra Smith
Sandra Smith is a Community Research and Grants Management Officers with The Columbus Foundation in Columbus, Ohio with a focus on the arts and humanities, integration of immigrants and refugees, and nonprofit capacity building. She is formerly the President and CEO of the Madame Walker Theatre Center and previous to that was deputy director of The King Arts Complex. Before working in the nonprofit sector she spent 15 years working in financial services. Ms. Smith is a member of the national board of the Fund for Folk Culture, and Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees. She also serves on the community development board for the King-Lincoln Development District. In addition she is a training consultant for the Foundation Center and provides consulting services to the nonprofit sector in organizational development. She is a graduate of Capital University and pursued post-graduate studies in Arts Administration at The Ohio State University.

Lisa Versaci
Lisa Versaci is the Vice President of FLX Communications, a consulting firm that specializes in planning, program design and fundraising for nonprofit organizations and foundations. Clients include the Nonprofit Finance Fund, the Anaphiel Foundation, and the Democracy Alliance. From 2001-5, she served as Director of the National Venture Fund at the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and was responsible for developing investment strategies in the areas of community and economic development, civic engagement, the well-being of families and children, and the arts. Under her leadership, the fund distributed over $50 million in long-term grants. Previously, Ms. Versaci served as Vice President and Florida Director for People For the American Way Foundation and the Florida Development Coordinator for EMILY's List. She currently serves on the board of the Rhode Island School of Design, the National Immigration Forum in Washington, DC, and is affiliated with a range of political and arts organizations in Miami. Versaci earned a bachelor's degree in art history from Brown University in 1976. She and her husband, Alan Farago, have three sons and live in Coral Gables, Florida.