Board
LISA TIMMEL, Chairperson
Prior to joining the Central Park Conservancy as a native plant & landscape restoration technician, Lisa Timmel was a freelance dramaturg specializing in new play development and production. She is the creator and co-director of Theater-19, an oral history project documenting the experiences of theater workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Formerly she was the director of new work at The Huntington Theatre Company in Boston. Other previous positions include director of new play development at Playwrights Horizons, interim dramaturg and advisor to the Emerging Writers Group at the Public Theater, artistic producer at Carole Shorenstein Hayes Productions. Trained in dramaturgy and dramatic criticism at Columbia University (MFA), she has worked with various theater companies and developmental organizations including New York Theatre Workshop, Sundance Theater Institute, New Dramatists, Actors Theatre of Louisville, INTAR, Classic Stage Company, and New Georges. Ms. Timmel served as an adjunct professor at Columbia University School of the Arts, NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, and as the staff dramaturg at The Juilliard School. Ms. Timmel holds a BA in English Literature from Kenyon College.
SERRA EKEN, VICE-CHAIRPERSON
Serra is a Director of Development at The Pink Agenda at the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF), a nonprofit organization committed to achieving prevention and a cure for breast cancer; providing critical funding for cancer research worldwide to fuel advances in tumor biology, genetics, prevention, treatment, metastasis and survivorship. In her role, Serra manages The Pink Agenda (TPA), a separate nonprofit organization, who shares a strategic partnership with BCRF, committed to raising money for breast cancer care and research and awareness of the disease among young professionals. She oversees the financial health, development strategies, operational management, and organizational growth of TPA. Serra has served in volunteer leadership roles and board of directors of organization such as the New York Junior League and American Ballet Theatre’s Junior Council. She is a graduate of Boston University with a BS in Communications.
DAVID W. SINGLETON, Treasurer
David W. Singleton has divided his professional life fairly evenly between the public sector and the private sector. In the private sector, he served as a managing director of J.P. Morgan & Co., with responsibility for corporate real estate matters in the U.S. and worldwide. In the public sector, he has held positions in city, county and state government in Delaware and served on a federal advisory commission. He most recently served as vice president of the University of Delaware. His current board service includes Swarthmore College, the American Friends Service Committee and the Delaware Performing Arts Center. Past board service includes the Downtown Lower Manhattan Association, the Lower Manhattan Business Improvement District, the Lower Eastside Tenement Museum and the Delaware Theatre Company. He began his career working in the theatre, serving as lighting designer for an Equity summer stock theatre in Hyde Park, New York and producer for another summer theatre in Larchmont, New York. He received his bachelor of arts degree from Swarthmore College and then received a National Institutes of Mental Health fellowship to study at the University of Pennsylvania. He was born in Manhattan and is married to Elaine Hughes Singleton. They have two daughters and four grandchildren.
MICHELLE S. RILEY, Secretary
Michelle S. Riley is General Counsel & Chief Compliance Officer—Americas of Bregal Investments, a private equity group headquartered in New York and London. Prior to joining Bregal, Michelle was Vice President and Co-General Counsel of ICON Capital Corp., a global asset manager and specialty finance company based in New York. Before joining ICON, Michelle spent eight years as a mergers & acquisitions attorney at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, and Debevoise & Plimpton LLP. She also spent a year serving as In-House Counsel to a 2004 U.S. Presidential Primary Campaign. Michelle has served on the national board of directors and executive committee of Lambda Legal since 2019 and is currently Vice Chairman of the Board. Michelle is a Broadway theatre producer and a two-time Tony Winner for 2018 Best Musical Revival Once on this Island and 2019 Best Musical Hadestown. She produced Funny Girl, Fat Ham and New York, New York on Broadway and also produced Be More Chill on and off Broadway and Broadway Bounty Hunter off Broadway. Michelle received her JD from Yale Law School, where she was Editor-in-Chief of the Yale Journal on Regulation. She also holds a BA in Political Communication from The George Washington University and an MA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Oxford University, where she was a Shapiro Scholar. Michelle splits her time between NYC, Harlem, Netherlands, and West Palm Beach, Florida, where she lives with her partner Susanne Kandel.
SANDY ASHENDORF
Sandy Ashendorf has been a leader in the media industry for over 30 years. She is a skilled negotiator who has represented a variety of organizations in many aspects of media and entertainment. She currently serves as an independent consultant and was previously Executive Vice President of Content Distribution for EPIX (now MGM+) and EVP Network Distribution for BBC Worldwide America. Prior to those roles, Sandy held several positions at MTV Networks (Viacom / Paramount), ultimately becoming EVP Affiliate Sales and Marketing. She began her career as a Corporate Associate with the law firm of Rubin Baum Levin Constant & Friedman. She has been named as one of CableFax’s “Most Powerful Women in Cable” numerous times and as a Multichannel News “Woman to Watch.” Sandy sat on the Board of Directors of the T. Howard Foundation for approximately 15 years and was an advisor to the NY chapter of Women in Cable and Telecommunications. She received her bachelor’s degree from New York University and her J.D. from Cardozo Law School.
CODY COWAN
Cody is a seasoned product manager, startup advisor, and entrepreneur with a passion for turning problems into solutions. A former founder and early stage employee, Cody is currently a strategic advisor, helping founders, CTOs, and project leads turn their vision into reality. Cody has built web, mobile, and API products for healthcare, media, and SaaS companies. He’s worked with diverse clients including large corporations such as Goldman Sachs and smaller organizations such as Radish Health and The Audubon Society. Cody also enjoys using his knowledge to help non-profits on a pro-bono basis, including helping a theater company in D.C. set up their data and analytics processes.
Cody is a born and raised New Yorker, with fond memories of seeing shows on and off Broadway and performing in high school theater. He is passionate about supporting new and innovative developments in the arts. Cody graduated from Georgetown University, and currently lives in the West Village with his wife Amy and their rescue dog Theo.
BRANDILYN DUMAS, ESQ.
Brandilyn is originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and resides in Harlem, where she started her career as a Teach for America middle school social studies teacher. She is currently a Real Estate Shareholder at Greenberg Traurig, LLP, where she focuses her practice on commercial real estate transactions, including acquisitions and dispositions, financing, joint ventures, and development with respect to a variety of assets, including shopping centers, office buildings, hotels and resorts, multi-use developments, industrial properties, and multi-family developments.
She received her B.A. from Duke University in 2003, where she was a Reginal Howard Scholar (full-tuition scholarship recipient); her M.S.T. from Fordham University in 2005; and her J.D. from New York University Law School in 2008, where she was an AnBryce Scholar ( full-tuition scholarship recipient). In 2022, she was listed within The Best Lawyers in America, “Ones to Watch”. In addition, from 2017-2022 she was listed in Super Lawyers magazine and New York Metro Super Lawyers” as a “Rising Star.” Finally, in 2020 she was listed in City & State New York, as part of The Responsible 100 and selected by the New York Law Journal as a rising star.
LAURA EASON
LAURA EASON is an award-winning playwright and an Emmy-nominated producer and screenwriter.
She is currently executive producer and showrunner of the Starz drama series Three Women. Based on the blockbuster nonfiction bestseller, the show stars Shailene Woodley, Betty Gilpin, DeWanda Wise and Gabrielle Creevy.
Her other writing and producing credits for TV include the Showtime drama The Loudest Voice (WGA nomination; Golden Globe nomination, limited series) and four seasons of Netflix’s five-time Emmy-nominated best drama series House of Cards (Emmy and WGA nominations, drama series.) Laura’s feature film debut, Here and Now, produced by and starring Sarah Jessica Parker, premiered at Tribeca Film Festival (then titled Blue Night) and is available on demand. Past and present TV development includes pilot scripts for Amazon, Apple, BBC, Fox 21, Fox Network, Peacock and Starz. She is currently writing a feature film for Rachel Brosnahan’s Scrap Paper Pictures.
An award-winning playwright, her more than twenty produced original plays include the original SEX WITH STRANGERS which began at Steppenwolf in Chicago before playing Second Stage in NYC (NYT Critic’s pick.) It was one of the most produced plays in the U.S. for several years with international productions in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, England, Finland, Greece, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Taiwan and Turkey. Laura’s celebrated adaptation of Jules Verne’s AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS began under her direction at Lookingglass Theatre in Chicago (seven Jeff Award nominations including Best Production and Best Adaptation) and went onto subsequent productions in London and eighteen other UK cities before transferring to the New Victory Theatre in NYC (NYT Critic’s pick.)
Laura is a long-time Ensemble Member of Lookingglass Theatre Company in Chicago, recipient of the 2011 Regional Theatre Tony Award, and served as the company’s Artistic Director for six years. She is a graduate of the Performance Studies Department of Northwestern University and an alumna of WP’s Playwrights Lab. Originally from Chicago, Laura lives with her husband and daughter in Brooklyn, NY.
MJ KAUFMAN
MJ Kaufman is a playwright and screenwriter from Portland, OR/Multnomah Territory currently living in New York City/Lenapehoking. Their plays have been seen at the Public Theater, WP Theater, National Asian American Theater Company, Clubbed Thumb, Colt Coeur, Williamstown Theater Festival, InterAct Theater, Yale School of Drama and numerous other theaters and schools around the country as well as in Russian in Moscow and in Australia. Their work has been developed by the Lark Play Development Center, the Playwrights Realm, Page73 and New York Theater Workshop among others.
MJ received a 2022 grant from the The NYC Women’s Fund for Media, Music and Theatre Fund. They have also received a Helen Merrill Emerging Writers Award, an ASCAP Cole Porter Prize in Playwriting, the Global Age Project Prize, and the Jane Chambers Prize in Feminist Theatre. MJ has held residencies at the New Museum, MacDowell Colony, and SPACE on Ryder Farm and is currently a resident playwright at New Dramatists.
MJ has been a member of the Public Theater’s Emerging Writers’ Group, WP Theater Lab, a core playwright at InterAct Theatre and a playwriting fellow at the Huntington Theater. An alum of Wesleyan University and Yale School of Drama, MJ has taught playwriting at Yale College, Fordham University, Wesleyan University, SUNY Purchase College and University of the Arts. MJ is currently an Assistant Professor of Dramatic Writing at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.
MJ curated the 2016 and 2017 seasons of Trans Theater Fest at The Brick and, along with Kit Yan and Cece Suazo, founded Trans Lab Fellowship, a program to support emerging transgender theater artists.
MJ has also written for Netflix and is currently developing a project with Anonymous Content.
DONNETTA LAVINA GRAYS
Raised in Columbia, South Carolina, is a Brooklyn-based Playwright and actor. Her plays include Where We Stand (WP Theater); Last Night And The Night Before (World Premiere – Denver Center for the Performing Arts Winter 2019. 2017 Kilroys List. 2017 Colorado New Play Summit. 2015 National New Play Network New Play Showcase. 2015 Todd McNerney National Playwriting Contest Winner. 2014 Eugene O’Neill Theater Center National Playwrights Conference Semifinalist.), LAID TO REST (2018 Playwrights Realm Writing Fellow Finalist, 2018 Eugene O’Neill Theater Center National Playwrights Conference Finalist. 2017 Kilroys – List Honorable Mention. 2017 Ground Floor at Berkeley Rep. 2017 Space on Ryder Farm Creative Residency.), The Review Or How To Eat Your Opposition (2018 WP Pipeline Festival. 2013 Eugene O’Neill Theater Center National Playwrights Conference Finalist.) The New Normal and The Cowboy Is Dying. She is a 2018 Space on Ryder Farm Working Farm Resident Playwright, a 2016-2018 Time Warner Foundation WP Playwrights Lab Member and is the inaugural recipient of the Doric Wilson Independent Playwright Award. She is also a Civilians R&D Group, an Actors Studio Playwright/Directors Unit and terraNova Collective Groundbreakers Playwright group alumna. Her work has been supported by The Public Theater, New Harmony Project, Berkeley Rep, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, The Labyrinth Theater Company, New York Theater Workshop, Orlando Shakespeare Theater, Portland Stage Company, Pure Theatre Company, [the claque], Naked Angels, Classical Theater of Harlem, Slant Theater Project, terraNova Collective, Theatre 4 the People, TOSOS, The Group Lab and Coyote REP. Donnetta is currently under commission from The Denver Center for the Performing Arts and WP Theater. She is a Staff Writer on the television show Manhunt: Lonewolf. www.gaptoothedgriot.com
JESSICA R. JENEN
Jessica R. Jenen has been a producer and theatrical manager for thirty years. She is a lead producer of the Olivier Award winning musical Get Up Stand Up! The Bob Marley Musical currently playing in London’s West End. Broadway credits: Into the Woods, Company (Tony Award), An Evening with Patti Lupone and Mandy Patinkin; Venus in Fur (Tony nomination), which was the most produced new play in America during the 2014 season. Upcoming Broadway productions opening Spring 2023: Life of Pi, winner of 5 Olivier Awards; New York, New York, Music & Lyrics by Kander & Ebb and Lin-Manuel Miranda, directed and choreographed by 5-time Tony winner Susan Stroman. Broadway credits as Executive Producer of THE BROADWAY COMPANY with producer Jon B. Platt: I’ll Eat You Last, The Heiress, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Death of a Salesman, Clybourne Park, and Nice Work If You Can Get It. As Vice President, Senior General Manager at Broadway International Group / Broadway Asia International, Jessica served as the Senior Executive for one of the largest production, management, touring and licensing companies of live entertainment in the global market. As President of JRJ Productions LLC clients include: Bertelsmann Music Group; Rosalind Productions Inc; Consulting Producer for Knight Blanc on Chuck Mee’s acclaimed play The Glory of the World presented at BAM; Consulting Producer at Maximum Entertainment. As Executive Director of Classic Stage Company (CSC), the award-winning Off-Broadway theatre company, Ms. Jenen orchestrated a dramatic financial turnaround, quadrupling the annual operating budget, retiring cumulative debt totaling 30% of operating budget and securing nearly $1.5 million in operating surplus. Select Producing Credits at CSC: Yasmina Reza’s A Spanish Play; David Ives’ New Jerusalem; Chekhov’s Three Sisters, Uncle Vanya and The Seagull; Unnatural Acts; The Tempest. Adjunct Assistant Professor at Columbia University’s Graduate Theatre Management and Producing Program and at Marymount Manhattan College. Co-Chair of the Broadway Salutes Committee for the Broadway League.
CASEY KEMPER
Casey Kemper has over 40 years of experience in the fields of real estate and finance, holding positions that include Chief Financial Officer of the Equitable Life Real Estate Group, Senior Vice President and Treasurer of Olympia & York (USA), and Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Deutsche Bank Capital Realty. He was most recently the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the Collegiate Church Corporation, where he was responsible for management of the church endowment, real estate and corporate operations. He is President of the New Amsterdam History Center, and has served as a Co-Chairman of the Board of WP Theater, as well as Vice Chair of Blanton-Peale. He is currently serving as Treasurer of the Saint Vincent de Paul Society of Brewster, MA. He also serves on the Executive Board of The Interchurch Center, and is past president of Habitat for Humanity of Westchester. Casey graduated with honors from Southern Illinois University, School of Business, and holds an MBA in Finance from Babson College, Wellesley, Massachusetts. He and his wife Mary are the proud parents of Michelle Kemper Verplaetse of San Francisco, California, Carin Moeder of Denver, Massachusetts, and Courtney Regan Kemper of New York. Casey is an avid sports fan, enjoys hiking, sailing on friends’ boats, and reading and relaxing on weekends at their home in Brewster on Cape Cod.
SAMANTHA SULLIVAN KINDLER
Sam is a Senior Consultant at Capacity Interactive, the premier digital marketing consulting firm for the arts. With over 10 years of arts management and marketing experience, Sam helps her clients realize all aspects of their digital advertising and audience development goals, from strategy to execution. While she has a particular passion for theater, she works with clients across the non-profit arts and cultural sector, in both the US and Canada. She also manages an internal team and has overseen business development for the firm. Prior to her time at Capacity Interactive, Sam was the Off-Broadway Company Manager for Manhattan Theatre Club at NY City Center. She graduated from Tufts University with a BA in Drama and now resides in Brooklyn with her husband and her dog Piper.
JOSEPH P. PETITO, ESQ.
Until his retirement in June, 2017 Mr. Petito had been with the global professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) for over 25 years, most recently serving as Lead Principal for the Firm’s state and local public policy practice in the United States. In this role, Mr. Petito had various responsibilities including overseeing the Firm’s relationships with state and local legislative, executive and regulatory bodies and accounting-related professional organizations, as well as for major engagements by the Firm with state and local government entities. Prior to leading the Firm’s state and local public policy area, Mr. Petito worked in other areas of practice within PwC, including on federal and state tax, securities law, and on legal liability and enforcement related issues. He is based in PwC’s Washington, DC and Sacramento, California offices.
Before joining PwC in the mid-1990s, Mr. Petito held senior positions at the American Institute of Certified Accountants (AICPA), the largest CPA professional association in the United States. He served as a senior aide to a New Jersey Member of Congress and a New Jersey Governor, and had been a senior executive for a major New Jersey-based energy and utility company.
During his career, Mr. Petito has been involved on cutting edge developments in accounting, law and public policy. He was involved in the creation and development of the original Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) and Limited Liability Company (LLC) laws, and with the enactment of such laws in nearly every state. He has led or been involved in numerous other legislative and regulatory campaigns, including on accounting, tax, legal liability, budget, finance, and other business-related issues. Most recently, Mr. Petito has been engaged across the United States on research and in discussions over the reform of state tax systems, including proposals by states such as California to tax services.
While not an accountant, Mr. Petito has had significant experience in public accounting, and has often testified and has been an expert witness on accounting and accounting related matters. Most recently, Mr. Petito initiated a nationwide program to enhance the quality of continuing professional education in ethics for accountants and other professionals by developing and raising funding for innovative ethics continuing education research, material and programs. He serves on the Board of Directors of the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) Center for the Public Trust. He continues to lecture at the University of Delaware on Ethical Leadership.
Mr. Petito has had a significant amount of experience working on legal, liability and judicial-related issues. He recently served on the Board of Trustees of The National Judicial College, has been the Chair and is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the American Tort Reform Association, serves on the Boards of numerous state law related coalitions, and is a current member and immediate past co-chair of the Civil Justice Reform Group.
Mr. Petito has a BA in Political Science from Rutgers University (1978) and a J.D. from Seton Hall School of Law (1983). He is admitted to practice law in New Jersey and is a member of the New Jersey and the American Bar Associations. He is married with two grown children.
RACHEL SUSSMAN
Rachel Sussman (she/her) is a Tony Award-nominated producer, educator, and entrepreneur committed to cultivating collaborative theatrical work built on trust and transparency. A producer with Plate Spinner Productions, she is also a co-founder of The MITTEN Lab, an emerging theatre artist residency program in her native state of Michigan and The Business of Broadway, an educational initiative to democratize knowledge about the commercial theatre industry. Broadway and national tour: Co-producer on Heidi Schreck’s Pulitzer Prize finalist and Tony Award-nominated play, What the Constitution Means to Me. Other producing credits include the Obie Award-winning production of The Woodsman (New World Stages/59E59), Saturday Night Seder (Story Course), The Peculiar Patriot (Audible Theater at The Minetta Lane), and Eh Dah? Questions for My Father (Next Door at NYTW). In development: Suffs by Shaina Taub, now premiering at The Public Theater. A past Women’s Project Lab Time Warner Foundation Fellow, Rachel was the recipient of the 2018-2019 Prince Fellowship in Creative Producing. She is a graduate of the Commercial Theater Institute and a University Honors Scholar alumna of NYU Tisch. She is an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University’s School of the Arts and New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. www.rachel-sussman.com
TAMILLA WOODARD
Tamilla was recently named one of 50 Women to Watch on Broadway, she is the co-artistic director of Working Theater in New York; the founder of the site specific international partnership, PopUP Theatrics; and the associate director of Tony Award-winning Hadestown on Broadway. Prior to joining Working Theater, she served as the BOLD associate artistic director at WP Theater. She has directed at theaters nationally and internationally, including at WP Theater, Baltimore Center Stage, American Conservatory Theater, Classical Theater of Harlem, The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts with TheaterWorksUSA, and The Cleveland Public Theatre, among others. Recent highlights include the world premiere of Donnetta Lavinia Gray’s award-winning Where We Stand at WP Theatre, Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls at A.C.T.’s Geary Theater, and the critically acclaimed immersive off-Broadway production of 3/Fifths, by James Scruggs. Currently, she is represented online with the visionary, interactive digital tour of American Dreams, which she directs and developed with Leila Buck. Her work has been recognized with an Off-Broadway Alliance Award and Lucille Lortel Nomination. She is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama, where she also teaches.
LISA McNULTY, Producing Artistic Director
Lisa McNulty (she/her/hers) is an award-winning Broadway, off-Broadway and regional theater producer in her sixth season as the Producing Artistic Director of WP Theater. Lisa comes to WP from Manhattan Theatre Club, where she served as Artistic Line Producer for eight seasons, working on more than 30 productions both on and off Broadway, including plays by Lynn Nottage, Sarah Treem, Harvey Fierstein, and Tarell Alvin McCraney, among many, many others. Lisa has a long history with WP Theater. She was originally hired by the company’s founder, Julia Miles, as the Literary Manager from 1997-2000, where she dramaturged work by María Irene Fornés, Julie Hébert, and Karen Hartman, among others, and in 2004, she returned to WP as its Associate Artistic Director, working on projects with artists including Diane Paulus and Dierdre Murray, Rinne Groff, and Lisa D’Amour. From 2000-2004 she was McCarter Theater’s Producing Associate, and her independent producing career includes projects with Sarah Ruhl, Todd Almond, Lucy Thurber and Lear Debessonet. Lisa’s leadership is underwritten by the BOLD Theater Women’s Leadership Circle, an initiative to support and promote women’s theater leadership funded by The Pussycat Foundation.
MICHAEL SAG, Managing Director
Michael (he/him/his), in his 3rd season at WP, was most recently the general manager for Williamstown Theatre Festival’s 62nd season (2016) which included four world premieres (one of which, Martyna Majok’s Cost of Living, won the Pulitzer prize for Drama), one American premiere and two revivals (including Broadway transfer with Marisa Tomei The Rose Tattoo). Prior to that, Michael worked in commercial general management on and off Broadway since 2001 including production of: It’s Only A Play; Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella (Broadway/Tour), The Visit; Blithe Spirit (Broadway/Tour), You Can’t Take It With You, All The Way, Bullets Over Broadway, Under My Skin; The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess (Broadway/Tour), The Glass Menagerie; Anything Goes (Tour), Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Glengarry Glen Ross, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, La Bete, The Mountaintop, The Pee-wee Herman Show, The Scottsboro Boys, Relatively Speaking, Chinglish, Driving Miss Daisy, Gore Vidal’s The Best Man, Race, August: Osage County (Broadway/Tour), The Producers, Hairspray, Little Shop of Horrors, Sweeney Todd, and Stomp. In addition, from 2006 to 2009, Michael headed a representative office in Shanghai out of which several Asian touring projects were launched including I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella, The King and I, The Sound of Music, and SpongeBob Square Pants Live!
Michael is currently an adjunct professor at Montclair State University and serves as both the President of the Association for Non-Profit Theater Companies and of Congregation Shomrei Emunah in Montclair, NJ.
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Julia Miles
Founder and Artistic Director Emerita
Interested in joining WP’s Board of Directors? CLICK HERE for more information!
