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Click
here for a printable PDF document with full details about our Community Advisory
Board.
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Lower Merion & Narberth PATV Community Advisory Board
(Click photos or names of members for full bios.)
Community Advisory Board - Bios
F. Scott Addis, CPUP(President - The Addis Group) Scott Addis, President and CEO of The Addis Group, has extensive background in coordinating the risk management needs of middle market and large sophisticated commercial accounts. He chairs the firm’s Strategic Planning & Quality Assurance Unit. Addis was recently honored as Man of the Year by The Mustang Scholars Foundation at the Valley Forge Military Academy. He is active in community affairs having served as Chairman of the Main Line Chamber of Commerce and on the Boards of The Haverford School, GVA Smith Mack, Bryn Mawr Rehab, Camp Tecumseh, the Starfinder Foundation, and Cabrini College. He has been a key campaigner for United Way and is also a member of the Sunday Breakfast Club. He was appointed to a Review Committee of the Labor & Industry Task Force for the State Workmen’s Insurance Fund (SWIF). Addis was recognized by the Philadelphia Business Journal as one of the region’s most influential business professionals through its Book of Leaders. He has been inducted into The Haverford School “Athletic Hall of Fame”. In 1993 and 1994, Addis was a Philadelphia finalist for Inc. Magazine’s “Entrepreneur of the Year Award”, sponsored by Inc. Magazine, Ernst & Young and Merrill Lynch. The Philadelphia Business Journal described the award as “the nation’s most prestigious recognition of successful business owners. In August 1999, he was featured on the cover of Rough Notes Magazine in an article entitled “Extreme Service”. Most recently, Scott was recognized as one of the “25 Most Innovative Agents in America” by The National Alliance for Insurance Education & Research as well as The Franklin Award for outstanding achievement and contribution to the insurance industry in the Delaware Valley. The Addis Group has received significant recognition including National Underwriter Magazine’s 2003 Agency of the Year Award, the highest distinction in the industry. In 2001 and 2006, it received the PINacle Award as the top performer of more than 100 premiere insurance brokerage firms who are members of the Agency Peak Performance Exchange (APPEX). In 1997, it was also recognized as Business of the Year for its “customer service excellence” by the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce. In 1994, 1995 and 1996, it was listed as a “Philadelphia 100” Company, one of the fastest growing private-held firms in the region. In 2004, The Addis Group was honored as The Main Line Chamber of Commerce Business of the Year. Scott Addis was formerly Vice President and Senior Account Manager with Johnson & Higgins in Philadelphia. While there, he handled the insurance placements for many of Philadelphia’s most prestigious companies and institutions including Comcast Corporation, Philadelphia Suburban Corporation, Temple University, Lukens Steel and U.S. Healthcare. He also played a key role in the growth of Johnson & Higgins’ Middle Market Division. Addis resides in Bryn Mawr, PA with his wife Bobbie. They have three sons, Andrew, Jeffrey and Will. _____________________________________________ Casey Ford Alexander(Student – Actor - Producer) A Lower Merion High School graduate in 2005, Casey Ford Alexander currently attends Princeton University. A sophomore and professional actor, Alexander hopes to develop his career as a film director and producer. He has recently released "GAMEFISH", which marks Alexander's short-film directorial debut. After performing on stage as a child, Alexander began traveling solo from Pennsylvania to audition for television and film in New York City at age 13. Since then he has appeared in commercials for Hershey's, Sprite, and MTV, among others. As a junior at Lower Merion High School in PA, he guest starred on "Queens Supreme" (CBS) opposite Oliver Platt and Kyra Sedgwick. In 2005, Alexander took a year off, before starting college, to star in the San Francisco run of a Broadway-bound production, and subsequently, directed music videos for Pollock ("I can see our house from here") and 3ten ("Rock the Casbah"). He currently produces content for the Princeton Student Television Network, and has appeared on "The Freshmen" (mtvU) as a co-host, and, in February 2007, has appeared as a guest star on the NBC series Law & Order as Bobby in the episode titled “Talking Points.” When not at Princeton, Alexander resides with his mother Dr. Pat Sandiford, in Narberth. They are members of All Saints Church in Wynnewood. Alexander was one of the early supporters of Public Access Television and contributed heavily in the production and editing of PATV’s promotional DVD. _____________________________________________ Karen Ash(Bala Cynwyd) Karen Ash is active in several volunteer organizations and is the elected Republican Committee woman for Ward9-3 in Lower Merion Township. Ash is the Finance Chair of the Republican Committee of Lower Merion and Narberth. She has participated in many fundraising events, for National, state and local election campaigns. She is currently a member of the development committee for the Montgomery Child Advocacy Project (MCAP). She served recently as a member of the Lower Merion Tax Study Commission. She is an active member of St. Matthias Parish. Ash is the Aid for Friends General Food Coordinator, an ecumenical outreach program that serves the elderly shut-ins in the tri-county area. She also volunteers for HOPE by providing services to senior parishioners. At St. Margaret School in Narberth, she has participated in fundraising as solicitor in the annual Blue Fest Auction and Dinner. She currently works with the J. Camiel Fundraising firm. She resides in Bala Cynwyd with her husband Bill and their five children. Her husband is a general building contractor in Lower Merion. She is co-owner of B.A.C.B. Construction. _____________________________________________ Margaret ‘Margot’ Chew Barringer(Founder and Chairman - American Insight) As Founder of both American INSIGHT and its predecessor, the American Poetry Center, Barringer developed programs that served the needs of writers across Pennsylvania, raising over one million dollars to create public awareness for the literary arts in the 1980s. During the next decade, she worked in conjunction with The Soviet Writers’ Union in Moscow and St. Petersburg on numerous reciprocal literary exchanges between poets, editors, and scholars. As a producer, director, videographer, photographer, and digital video editor, Barringer initiated the following programs: Arthur B. Carles: Philadelphia Artist, the first in a series of historical documentary featuring the spoken word; a decade of long-statewide Poetry Festivals; eight major symposia with New York Times and Radio Free Europe coverage; a seven-year exchange with the Soviet Writer’s Union; an annual Poetry Extravaganza, uniting corporate leaders with students; a Poets-in-the-Schools program for inner-city youth; and statewide Poetry Contest for school children. She served on Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland Arts Councils’ Literature panels, on the Board of Advisors to American Poetry Review, Pew Fellowship’s Regional Council, Mayor’s Cultural Advisory Committee for Philadelphia, and Governor’s Awards for Excellence in the Arts in Pennsylvania. American INSIGHT’s Make History Everyday! video production services specializing in the preservation of institutional and individual histories are now available at www.americaninsight.org. _____________________________________________ Kenneth ‘Ken’ Lewis Brier(President - First Sealord Surety, Inc.) Ken Brier is Chairman, President and Founder of Sealord LLC, and Sealord Holdings Inc., of Villanova. The company was a publicly traded company (symbol MTBN) listed on the NASDAQ market. On August 5, 1998, it merged with The Zurich Group of Companies, Zurich, Switzerland. On April 4, 2003, a management-led team repurchased the company. A Colonel in the United States Army Reserve, Brier graduated Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Arts from the Honors College of Ohio University. He has subsequently earned a Master of Business Administration in Marketing and Organizational Behavior from Southern Methodist University, a Master of Public Administration in Management and Negotiation from Harvard University and a Diploma in Strategic Studies from The United States Army War College. Among his many honors and awards, he is a Pierre Andre Scholar, an Honors College Fellow, and Ohio Fellow, and he has received both the Bronze Star and the Legion of Merit Medals from the US Army. Brier serves on the Board of Trustees of The Haverford School, Fairleigh Dickinson University, and the Lankenau Hospital Foundation, the Board of Directors of Pennsylvanians for Effective Government, and The Neighborhood Club of Bala Cynwyd of which he is also a Past President. He was also a member of the Board of Directors of the Civic Affairs Association. He served the Office of the US Secretary of Defense as a Counterterrorism Officer, was a Judge of Elections in Bala Cynwyd, and has served as Co-Chairman of the Planning Commission for the Township of Lower Merion. A 1968 graduate of The Haverford School, he lives in Bala Cynwyd with his wife Leslie and three children. _____________________________________________ Barbara Carlin, CPA, Vice Chair(Belmont Hills) Barb Carlin is a Certified Public Accountant who is currently serving as the
Director of Corporate Project Management of Topaz Pharmaceuticals,
a biopharmaceutical company in Horsham, PA. Carlin grew up in the Somerton section of Northeast Philadelphia and graduated from Archbishop Ryan High School. She received her degree in Accounting from St. Joseph’s University in 1996. In college, Barb held positions of leadership including Vice President of Finance for Student Government, President of Tri Sigma Sorority, President of the Accounting Society and Resident Assistant. Upon graduating, she was elected as Co-Chair of the Young Alumni from 1996 to 1998. While at St. Joe’s University, Barb found Lower Merion to feel like home and decided to stay after graduating. Shortly thereafter, she met her husband Kevin, a 20+year veteran with Lower Merion’s Public Works-Highway Department. They live in Belmont Hills with their son Ryan, a student at Belmont Hills Elementary and their daughter Paige. They are members of St. John Vianney Catholic Church in Gladwyne. Carlin's civic involvement includes serving as Treasurer for the Delaware County chapter of Habitat for Humanity from 1997 to 1999 and currently as the President of the Belmont Hills Civic Association, a position she has held since 2007. In 2010, as President of the Belmont Hills Civic Association, Carlin worked with members of the Belmont Hills Library in planning a fundraising event that contributed to reducing the library’s deficit as a result of the cutbacks in state funding. She also serves on the planning committee for Belmont Hills Elementary Home & School Association’s Annual Martin Luther King Day of Service where 250+ students, families and faculty members participate in a day of helping others- both locally and abroad. In 2011, she will serve for the third year as site leader for St. Joseph’s University National Community Day at Northern Home for Children in the Roxborough section of Philadelphia. _________________________________________ Loraine Carter(Chair - Programming Development and Scheduling) Although Loraine Carter relocated to the Lower Merion community in 2002 when her husband took a position with WPHL-TV, her active involvement with the community has become recognized as a staple of our neighborhoods. Carter is the co-president of Concerned Black Parents, a parent-led organization of folks from all walks of life, ethnic and racial backgrounds who are passionate about closing the prevalent academic achievement gaps facing Lower Merion’s African American, Hispanic, low-income and learning disabled students. CBP’s documentary, The Main Line Education Monologues: Dreams Deferred or Realized, used the visual arts to outreach to the entire Main Line community to increase awareness of the persistent poor academic outcomes for Blacks in a school district highly esteemed as world-class, high achieving, and blue-ribbon award winning. CBP sponsors numerous parent forums, workshops and seminars to enable them to advocate for their children in areas ranging from academic tracking, to understanding the No Child Left Behind law’s focus on academic standards, assessments, accountability, and to special education. One of the greatest points of pride for all CBP members occurred during Main Line weekend long visit by a most extraordinary educator, Marva Collins. Collins has received innumerable awards of honor and recognition for educating children to high levels of excellence and academic achievement; even children the public school system identified as uneducable or as hailing from “dysfunctional families.” Collins proved to CBP members that reversing underachievement is absolutely achievable, even in short-order time. Reversing this trend takes the willful determination of school leaders, teachers, parents and the students. Collins publicly introduced Lower Merion’s second through fifth grade students to Shakespeare’s King Richard III to demonstrate what is possible, even to the most diehard unbeliever. She admits one of the greatest challenges facing public schools today is that, “teachers can’t teach what they don’t know.” When you witness a Master Educator like Marva Collins educate children, you realize what it takes to expel underachievement, disengagement, and misbehavior in a classroom where there is no room for low expectation or failure. Given what is possible for all children, CBP stands firm in its charge to unite the Lower Merion community to collectively address the issue of raising academic achievement, success, and equity for all of its children. Loraine Carter is member of the Lower Merion School District’s Committee to Address Race in Education (CARE), a former board member of the Committee for Special Education, another parent-led organization that focuses on advocating for both gifted and special education students within the district, and an assistant Girl Scout leader of Troop 24. Carter serves as a founding and executive member of COMPAS, the Coalition of Organized and Mobilized Parents for Academic Success, a collection of African American community grassroots groups from the greater eastern Pennsylvania region that focus on closing the achievement gap and raising achievement for students. She is the proud wife of Charles and mother of Leah, Christopher and Jacquianna. _____________________________________________ Cynthia ‘Cindy’ Connors(Executive Producer – Nancy Glass Productions) Cindy Connors is a veteran television producer with an impressive list of accomplishments:
Awards B.S. degree from The University of Vermont, Graduated 1981 Connors resides in Gladwyne with her husband Paul and three teenage children. _____________________________________________ Kathryn 'Kit' Levy Feldman(Award winning freelance writer) Kit Feldman is a Main Line native who grew up in Bryn Mawr and now lives in the same town. An award winning freelance writer, she writes for family business publications as well as alumni magazines and counts among her clients, Family Business Magazine, Family Business Advisor Newsletter, the University of Pennsylvania Gazette, Princeton Alumni Weekly, Dartmouth Alumni Magazine, Kenyon College Alumni Bulletin, and Haverford College Alumni Magazine. In addition, Feldman has authored four books for Heritage Publishers including A Spirit Apart: Elizabeth Atwood Laurence: Staten Island University Hospital: A History of Service; Southern New Hampshire Medical Center: A History of Care; Lebanon Pennsylvania Veteran's Administration Hospital: The first Sixty Years. A graduate of The Baldwin School and Princeton University, and the University of Pennsylvania, Feldman is a recipient of the Simon Rockower Award for Excellence in Jewish Journalism, The David Frank Award for Excellence in Personality Profiles, Magazine Division, Honorable Mention. A former trustee of the Baldwin School, the Gladwyne Montessori School and Children's Seashore House, Feldman is a past chair of the National Organization for Hearing Research Annual Tea, the Academy of Music Program Book Committee, a charter member of the Lower Merion and Narberth Public Access Television Board of Directors and currently on its Community Advisory Board. She resides with her husband, David and three children, Alex, Peter and Caroline in Bryn Mawr. _____________________________________________ Judy Herman(Director - Main Line Art Center) Judy Herman is the Director of the Main Line Art Center; she has held that position since 1988. In that role, she works with the Board and staff of Art Center to make the arts more accessible and important to the community. Under her leadership, the Art Center has successfully completed a $2.2 million dollar renovation that included the expansion of classroom and gallery spaces as well as a $1.4 million dollar endowment campaign. She oversaw the art initiative Points of Departure: Art on the Line, which placed original contemporary works of art in the train stations along the R-5 SEPTA commuter rail line. Under her guidance, the Center also sponsored Art Unleashed, which placed 50 decorated, larger-than-life dogs and Kites: Art Takes Flight which placed 40 kites displayed on 12 foot poles throughout the local communities. Prior to taking on the leadership role at the Main Line Art Center, Ms. Herman was the Director of Education at the Please Touch Museum and also worked in the Education Departments at the Franklin Institute and at the National Zoological Park in Washington D.C. She received a B.A. in Art History from Smith College and her M.A.T. from George Washington University. _____________________________________________ Bonnie Kauffman(Steering Committee - League of Women Voters) Bonnie Kauffman has been a resident of Lower Merion for more than forty years. She was an elementary school teacher for the Lower Merion School District for over thirty years as a kindergarten, pre- first and first grade teacher. In addition she was a substitute teacher for several years while her children were young. Kauffman worked on a committee to create and develop the Pre- First program for the Lower Merion School District for which she became the Pre-First teacher. The importance of children’s having a positive and successful start to school and the desire for children to love learning were, and still are, paramount for Bonnie. In 1969 while she was home raising her children Kauffman joined the League of Women Voters of Lower Merion and Narberth. She was active in a variety of study groups for the League, especially one concerning the district schools. Presently she is the Legislative Action person on the Steering Committee for the League. Since retiring from the school district in 2003, Kauffman continues to take art courses at the Barnes Foundation and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Once a week she is a volunteer at an elementary school in Philadelphia with the West Philadelphia Alliance for Children. She enjoys playing tennis several times a week. Her greatest joys are spending time traveling with her husband and being with her grandchildren in Boston, Merion and Montana. _____________________________________________ Mary Jo Daley(President - Narberth Borough Council) Mary Jo Daley was first elected to Narberth Borough Council in 1991. President since 2002, she took an active role in Narberth’s Downtown Project, in writing both of Narberth’s Open Space Plans and the expansion of the Borough’s recycling program. Daley has served on the Council’s Building and Zoning, Health and Welfare, Highway and Finance Committees. She serves as the Co-Chair of the Lower Merion Narberth Democratic Committee and is a member of the Democratic State Committee (Southeast Region Caucus.) Community involvement has included chairing the Bert Bell Historic Marker Installation Committee, serving as a Narberth Community Library Trustee, Girl Scout leader, member of the Narberth Civic Association, Lower Merion Conservancy, Lower Merion Historical Society, and the Montgomery County Lands Trust. Pauxtis earned her M.G.A. from the Fels Institute of Government at the University of Pennsylvania and her B.B.A. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. _____________________________________________ Tom Murray(Managing Editor – Main Line Life) Tom Murray is the Managing Editor of Main Line Life, a weekly newspaper covering the Main Line towns along the axis of the Pennsylvania Railroad, from Bala to Malvern. A lifelong Delaware County native, Tom attended Penn State Delco and Temple University before starting his newspaper career in 1985 at a weekly newspaper on Long Beach Island. During his next 22 years in the newspaper business, Tom has worked as a college sports writer and then Sports Editor at the Gloucester County Times in Woodbury, N.J., before moving to the Burlington County Times in Willingboro, N.J., in 1999 as a sports writer and editor. In 2003, he was named news editor at Burlington County, running the night desk for the 45,000 circulation daily paper. In April of 2005, his newspaper career came full circle when he was named to his current position. In his two years with Main Line Life, the newspaper has received numerous awards from Suburban Newspapers of America and the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association. With increasing interaction of technology - whether it’s in the form of newspaper, web, television, internet, or phone – Tom believes each medium fills a need to provide easy access to information for all Mainliners. He participates in Public Access television programs along the Main Line. Tom and his wife Diane live in Drexel Hill with their two boys, Anthony, 22, and Ian, 16. _____________________________________________ David Rich(President - Main Line Films) David Rich, is President of Main Line Films, a production company that specializes in content for educational institutions and service organizations. His award winning films include "The Bard and the River", "Inglis House", "A Small Renaissance", featured on Lower Merion & Narberth Public Access Television as well as area film festivals. His most recent production "From Odessa, With Love", was previewed at a Nelly Berman School of Music 25th anniversary event. He is now developing video content for streaming on the web as vehicles for fund raising, recruitment, and development. He strongly believes that nothing is more powerful than a good story clearly told, the goal being to clearly identify the stories that are unique to the institution and transform them into visual narratives that compel the viewer to participate fully in their vision. _____________________________________________ Carl Watson, PE(Principal - Applied Energy Solutions) Carl Watson has been actively involved in leadership roles in Lower Merion Township
volunteer organizations for nearly three decades. First, Watson
participated as a board member of his local Civic Association,
the Shortridge Civic Association of Wynnewood, one of the seventeen
Civic Associations in the Township. Shortridge Civic is known for
its high level of community advocacy and neighborhood participation.
Later, he served that organization in various capacities, eventually
becoming its President for several years. |
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