Biography

JENNIFER BIELSTEIN (Executive Director) joined A.C.T. in 2018. She serves on the board of Theatre Forward, is a member of the International Women’s Forum and the Advance SF Advisory Panel, was part of Mayor Breed’s Economic Recovery Task Force, and is the immediate past-president of the League of Resident Theatres (LORT)—an organization that represents 76 theaters nationwide—having previously served as LORT’s vice president; chair of its Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee; secretary; and on multiple union negotiating teams. She has been recognized as among the 25 Most Influential San Franciscans of 2020 by San Francisco Magazine, along with Pam MacKinnon, and as one of the Most Influential Women in Bay Area Business by the San Francisco Business Times in 2021. Before relocating to the Bay Area, Bielstein was the managing director of the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, managing director of Actors Theatre of Louisville, and executive director of Writers Theatre in Chicago. She has also worked for Steppenwolf Theatre Company, About Face Theatre, Northlight Theatre, and the Lincoln Park Zoo, as well as served on the boards of the League of Chicago Theatres, the Arts and Cultural Attractions Council, and other civic boards. She has received the Center for Nonprofit Excellence’s Pyramid Award of Excellence in Leadership, has been recognized as one of Louisville’s Business First’s 40 Under 40, was named by Twin Cities Business as a Person to Know, and a Minnesota Business magazine Real Power 50 member.  Bielstein is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, attended Stanford’s Graduate School of Business Executive Program for Nonprofit Leaders in the Arts, and received an MBA from Bellarmine University, where she received the MBA Faculty Merit Award, was inducted into Beta Gamma Sigma, the honor society for business programs and in 2021 was recognized as a Distinguished Alumna.

Biography

After graduating from Wellesley College in 1988, Jill Cowan launched her business career in New York City with the management consulting firm Jewell Jackson McCabe Associates. While there, Jill worked under founder Jewell Jackson McCabe and learned everything from fundraising, event planning, to how to develop and implement employee volunteer programs for major corporations. McCabe also made sure Jill knew a very important life lesson; your work does not end when you leave the office at the end of the day. Volunteering and always reaching out to improve your community was your civic duty. McCabe then introduced Jill to The National Coalition of 100 Black Women. While volunteering at NCBW, Jill developed a guiding life principle she continues to follow today; always work to improve the lives of those less fortunate.
Jill’s career path kept her in New York working in the development and special events fields for the New General Hospital and various other businesses over the next decade. At that time, Jill and her husband Stephen decided it was time to trade coasts. They moved across the country and started a family in San Francisco.
In addition to being a busy mother of three, Jill has continued to work hard on behalf of children and her community, and has been actively involved on many boards including: The San Francisco Boys and Girls Clubs, The Children’s Creativity Museum of San Francisco, The San Francisco YMCA, Pacific Primary Preschool and Slide Ranch. Jill is currently on the boards of Museum of African Diaspora, National Summer Search Board, San Francisco University High School and the American Conservatory Theater.
Additionally, she has been invited to participate on the following councils: The Wellesley College President's Advisory Council and The Whitney Museum Director’s Council. Whatever she puts her mind to, Jill remains dedicated to using her skills at outreach and fundraising to give back to the communities she holds dear.

Biography

Patrick Devlin completed his undergrad at UC Berkeley with a BA in English and received an MBA in Marketing from USF. He has worked in financial services for over 25 years and has held leadership roles in companies such as American Express, Chase, Visa, and more. Patrick is currently the Senior Vice President of Business Development and Strategic Planning Partnerships at Freedom Financial Network, located in San Mateo.  A second generation San Franciscan and fourth generation Californian, he lives in the Jordan Park neighborhood with his wife, Frances Epsen, an A.C.T graduate (1993) and A.C.T instructor for more than 20 years, and two daughters, Penny and Lillian. Penny is a former A.C.T intern and Lillian is a new member of A.C.T’s High School Cabaret Group.  Patrick has previous Board membership experience with the Laguna Honda Hospital Volunteers, where he was former Board President and active board member for over 10 years. In his free time, he enjoys swimming, acting, singing, and historic automobiles. He is fluent in Spanish. 

Biography

A longstanding A.C.T. subscriber, Kathleen Donohue is a clinical

psychologist with a private practice in San Mateo. For nearly a decade

she served on the faculty at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Education and Department of Psychology. After receiving her BA in English with Theater Studies at Yale, she went on to earn her MA and PhD in Clinical and Community Psychology at UC Berkeley. She is currently the Board Co-Chair at The Nueva School, where she helped lead the biennial Innovative Learning Conference and the Twenty-First Century Learning Task Force, which envisioned programming for the new high school. An Ambassador for KIPP Northern California, she served on the Transformation Fund Committee for Second Harvest of Silicon Valley.

Biography

Jesse Lee Eller is the Founder of Studio 5 - Learning and Development, a firm that has become a destination for leaders and organizations seeking guidance for how they can define and redefine what their people development experience looks like. Under Jesse’s leadership and guidance, his team partners with today’s visionary companies to build high-performing teams around the world. Studio 5 grows people that grow companies. In addition to Jesse’s professional life, he enjoys giving back to the communities in which he holds dear to his heart. Jesse is a six-time cyclist of the AIDS LifeCycle, a 545-mile bike ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles. He is among many who help fund the work of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and the Los Angeles LGBT Center to provide free HIV/AIDS medical care, testing, and prevention services. When he is not on a bike, he is actively involved on boards both here in San Francisco and around the state of California. Jesse is the Chair of the San Francisco StartOut Programming Board. StartOut connects and educates LGBT entrepreneurs to empower great leaders and businesses. Jesse is also a Superior Ag Board of Directors member for the College of Agriculture at California State University, Chico. They champion the mission to help find opportunities for the next generation of agriculturalists to stay in the food, fiber, and natural resources industries. Jesse’s roots lie deep within the agriculture industry and is proud to say that he is from a fifth-generation ranching family. In 2015, Jesse launched the Cultivating Change Foundation. The San Francisco based Foundation is the largest organization globally that focuses on valuing and elevating LGBT agriculturists through advocacy, education, and community. Annually, the Cultivating Change Foundation brings together over 500 agriculture LGBT employees, human resources and diversity and inclusion professionals, organizational leaders, and allies to grow and learn at the Cultivating Change Summit. Jesse has called San Francisco his home for the past ten years and cherishes the moments when he is enjoying the hum of the city or the tranquility of the surrounding outdoor opportunities the Bay Area offers. When not in the office, Jesse’s passion lies on the polo field. Jesse is in bliss when he gets to be out on the field with teammates or take his horse, Sasha, out for a ride to explore the Petaluma landscape.

Biography

Linda Jo Fitz, a former principal of Aspiriant, co-founded Kochis Fitz, a predecessor firm to Aspiriant, in 1991. As a wealth manager for over 30 years, she has worked with high net-worth families to help them define, plan for and achieve their financial objectives. Linda enjoyed teaching in the Personal Financial Planning Program of UC Berkeley. She served for nearly 20 years on the Board of Directors of San Francisco Heritage, where she was Board president, and she more recently chaired the Board of Directors of SPUR, where she continues to serve, promoting good government and civic involvement in the San Francisco region. In 2017, she received the Greenbelt Alliance Champion Award. In 2010 and 2011, Linda was named one of the Top 50 Women in Business by Wealth Manager Magazine. She was honored as one of The Most Influential Women in Business by the San Francisco Business Times, joining their Forever Influential list in 2011. She graduated from UC Berkeley and was awarded the Professional Designation in Personal Financial Planning from UCLA.As an avid theater-goer, she began subscribing to A.C.T. over 40 years ago when she moved to San Francisco. She joined the Board of Trustees and the Finance Committee in 2013, and in 2016 became Treasurer and chair of the Finance Committee. 

Biography

Frannie Fleishhacker has been actively involved with A.C.T. for over 21 years. She has chaired several season galas and, in recent years, she has served as co-chair of the Producers Circle and as a member of the Development Committee. She has also been a major financial supporter of A.C.T. She has funded an MFA Scholarship in Mort Fleishhacker's name for many years, and made additional contributions to support the refurbishment of the Garret in the Geary Theater. She is currently the co-chair of the Producers Circle and a major donor to the theater. She was the Treasurer of the Junior League of San Francisco for two years and the Treasurer, First Vice President and President of the Franciscan Club, and Co- Chair of the KQED Auction. Frannie is currently the Treasurer on the board of That Man May See. She enjoys travelling, skiing and hiking.

Biography

For more than 20 years, Ken Fulk has designed experiences large and small. Based in San Francisco and New York, he's become known for a portfolio of layered interiors, clever branding and over-the-top parties. Leading a team of architects, designers, branding and event specialists, Ken Fulk is responsible for some of the most celebrated homes and restaurants in the Bay Area. Whether it’s creating distinguished estates, collaborating with one of fashion’s greatest, or hosting a private Stevie Nicks concert for 400 costumed Halloween dinner guests, Ken imbues every project with timeless wit and effortless elegance.

Biography

Rachel Garlin is a performing singer-songwriter with eight independently-produced albums and an upcoming main-stage appearance at San Francisco's Pride in the Park. Rachel's work was recently featured in the SF Chronicle and Americana Highways. She lives in San Francisco with her wife and three kids.

Rachel grew up in Berkeley surrounded by music, and when she wasn't playing basketball, she was playing guitar and singing. After attending Harvard University, she pursued teaching and worked with third graders in an underserved school in Phoenix, AZ and later in her hometown at King Middle School. But her love of poetry and music eventually led her to pursue a career as a singer-songwriter. It started at open mies in cafes, but she soon amassed a catalogue of original songs and started performing and recording music professionally. By 2005 she was touring nationally and re-locating to Manhattan to record her fourth album. She toured to venues like Club Passim and the Freight and Salvage and ended up sharing the stage with some of her own songwriting heroes at the Newport Folk Festival and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Rachel met her wife during this time, and they moved back to the Bay Area to start a family.

Rachel became the music teacher at Live Oak School in SF and continued to record three more albums, collaborating with creators like Julie Wolf, Todd Sickafoose, Vicki Randle and Scott Amendola among others. In 2019 Rachel wrote the title track for the first-ever digital musical in augmented reality Out There that premiered in Paris and features the voice of Vanessa Williams.

Over the past two decades, Rachel has developed a perspective on the arts that comes from engaging with it from many angles. Running her own company, she has 'worn all the hats' while creating and overseeing the production of albums and videos, organizing international tours and collaborating with visual artists, choreographers, and youth emcees. Before COVID, she started a performance art-reach campaign on the SF MUNI where she collaborated with fellow passengers in the moment and co-wrote an extended suite of songs about the city. During the pandemic, she hosted a concert series from the edge of her garage in Noe Valley.

Biography

LARA HITCHCOCK is the Associate Vice President of People Strategy for the YMCA of San Francisco, focusing on culture, employee experience, organizational decision making, and internal communications. Prior to her current role, Hitchcock served as the Executive Director for YMCAs in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, partnering across sectors to provide community programs centering equity, wellness, and youth development. In addition to serving as a Trustee for A.C.T., Hitchcock is also a Board Member for Friends of the Urban Forest (FUF). She is a member of Chief (a private women’s leadership network), an Alumni Mentor for Boston College students, and a volunteer for the San Francisco Glens Soccer Club. Hitchcock holds a BS from Boston College and lives in the Sunset District of San Francisco with her husband and teen sons.

Biography

Jo Hurley has been a subscriber since 1970 and a donor since 1975. She is a member of the Prospero Society and the Producers Directors Circle. Besides her love of theater, Jo is a patron of the San Francisco Symphony and the San Francisco Opera; a member of the advisory board for WP4KU; serves on the Kansas University Endowment Association; and is a volunteer at Lima Center, a daytime center for the homeless near her Marina neighborhood. She is also active in her church, St. Dominic's Catholic Church in San Francisco.

Biography

Mary Hynes is a neuroscientist and Assistant Professor (Research) at Stanford University. She is a leading expert on the development of dopaminergic neurons, critical nerve cells whose degeneration causes the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. She has lived in the Bay Area for over 25 years and is active in community events from San Francisco to Palo Alto. 

Biography

Rodney Earl Jackson, Jr. is the Artistic Director & Co-Founder of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre (SFBATCO). He made his Broadway debut in “The Book of Mormon” and was last seen at American Conservatory Theatre in the West Coast premiere of “Toni Stone”. Prior to that he traveled North America in the first national tour of “Motown: The Musical.”

A San Francisco native who built his love and foundation for art and theatre in public city organizations such as SFartsEd, San Francisco Recreation and Park’s Young People’s Teen Musical Theater Company, and the Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts’ where he graduated from the theatre department. He holds a BFA from Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Drama.

Other theatre credits: Berkeley Repertory “Ain’t Too Proud: the life and times of the Temptations”, San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Company “I, Too, Sing America.”

Biography

Cristy Johnston Limon is the Executive Director at the Center for Social Sector Leadership at the Berkeley Haas School of Business where she leads social impact programs and partnership that train and empower leaders and nonprofit organizations to advance social change. Cristy is a serial social sector leader having most recently held executive director roles at national poetry and spoken word organization Youth Speaks, Oakland based performing arts organization Destiny Arts Center, and having founded and scaled an economic development nonprofit in San Francisco.  Her professional experience includes real estate and community development, public policy experience as a State Senate aide, and advancing nonprofit leadership and sustainability with a focus on organizational and systems change. Cristy grew up in San Francisco immersed in music as a youth cellist, theater performer, and youth sports. On the board of Oakland’s Bandaloop and former co-chair of the Haas Alumni Diversity Council, Cristy mentors and leads rising and established leaders in arts, culture, and business with a focus on mentoring rising women and leaders of color. Cristy speaks often about distributed leadership models, community engagement, diversity in recruitment, hiring, board engagement, and how to sustainably develop arts and cultural facilities and programming centered around connection and place keeping. Cristy is a UC Berkeley alum with an Executive MBA (2016) from Berkeley Haas and a BA with honors (2002) in Political Science.

Biography

Jascha Kaykas-Wolff is the president of Lytics and former Chief Marketing Officer for Mozilla, where he was responsible for leading the global non-for-profit technology organizations marketing strategy. Prior to joining Mozilla, Jascha served as Chief Marketing Officer for BitTorrent, Chief Marketing Officer for Mindjet, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Customer Success at Involver, and he previously headed Global Marketing for Webtrends along with executive experience at Microsoft and Yahoo!. Jascha’s marketing specialties include product positioning, marketing strategy, marketing technology, demand creation, brand building, brand re-positioning, organizational improvements, agile marketing, and sales enablement. Jascha received a B.A. in Psychology from Whittier College. Outside of work, Jascha is a passionate volunteer and mentor with TheLastMile.org, a Board Member at TEDx Marin, and a Trustee at Whittler College. He published Growing Up Fast: How New Agile Practices Can Move Marketing And Innovation Past The Old Business Stalemates with Kevin Fann in August 2014. Jascha calls Marin County home with his wife Rebecca (owner and founder of Petit Couture, a fashion-forward children’s brand, and VP of Product Marketing for IPG) and three children.

Biography

Heather Stallings Little is a CPA-turned-writer, who worked in investment banking and as the chief financial officer of a company that manages the affairs of professional athletes. She has incorporated her real life experiences at work and home into her works of fiction and has published two books and numerous articles in a range of print and electronic publications and literary journals. A frequent adventure traveler, she also writes travel stories. One of her children has participated in the Young Conservatory, and she and her husband, John, have supported several A.C.T. season galas as table sponsors and members of gala host committees.

Biography

Pam MacKinnon is in her fifth season as A.C.T.’s fourth artistic director. She is a Tony, Drama Desk, and Obie Award–winning director, having directed upwards of 75 productions around the country, off Broadway, and on Broadway. Her Broadway credits include Beau Willimon’s The Parisian Woman (with Uma Thurman), David Mamet’s China Doll (with Al Pacino), Wendy Wasserstein’s The Heidi Chronicles (with Elisabeth Moss), Edward Albee’s A Delicate Balance (with Glenn Close and John Lithgow), Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and Bruce Norris’s Clybourne Park. Her most recent credits include world premieres of Bruce Norris’s Downstate (Steppenwolf Theatre Company, London’s National Theatre), Lydia R. Diamond’s Toni Stone (Roundabout Theatre Company, A.C.T., and Arena Stage), Kate Attwell’s Testmatch (A.C.T.), Edward Albee’s Seascape (A.C.T.), and Christopher Chen’s Communion (A.C.T.). She has been recognized as among the 25 Most Influential San Franciscans of 2020 by San Francisco Magazine, along with Jennifer Bielstein. Pam is the most recent past president of SDC, the national union representing stage directors and choreographers, and remains on their board.

Biography

RODMAN MARYMOR - He started out as a professional shoe shiner and weed puller and went on to earn a Masters in Percussion Performance and worked in a diverse array of settings as a musician and composer (i.e., starving artist). Along the way, Rod shifted his focus to the business of music with a recording studio and entertainment production company. Somehow, after 15 years or so, this led to a software business where his company, Cardinal Communications, created and managed nearly one thousand hotel and conference center websites. Cardinal was instrumental in the pioneering development of web-based Online Registration and Attendee Management. In 2012 the focus was shifted to commercial real estate investment. Rod has served on numerous trade industry and nonprofit boards over the years. He lives in Sonoma with his wife, Ann. their Son (Miles) is a a hi-tech worker, and daughter (Michaela) is a graduate of A.C.T.'s Young Conservatory and now resided in NYC in pursuit of her passion for singing, acting and dancing. The Marymors are enthusiastic supporters of the performing arts...music and theatre. During the pandemic, Rod founded Music in Place, a non-profit that creates opportunities for musical performances to occur online and in nontraditional venues for diverse audiences.

Biography

Michele B. Miller is a labor and employment attorney for Cozen O’Connor, a law firm with 26 offices around the world. She joined Cozen O’Connor in August 2019. She has over 30 years of experience in law. She received her Bachelors of Arts from the University of Michigan in 1978 and her Juris Doctorate from the Hastings College of Law at UC Berkeley in 1982. She was a Trustee of A.C.T. until from 2003 until 2010. Michele has been member of the National Association of Women Lawyers since 2013, a member of the Federation of Defense & Corporate Counsel since 2012. She previously has been a member of the Defense Research Institute and a board member of the Marin Theatre Company, Ring Mountain Day School and Mark Day School.

Biography

Biography

Jomar Tagatac was most recently seen as Gordon Hirabayashi in Hold These Truths and Mark in Art at San Francisco Playhouse, as well as DJ Loki in Today is My Birthday (Theater Mu).  At American Conservatory Theater he played Mr. Botard in Rhinoceros, and Bob Cratchit in A Christmas Carol. Other credits at A.C.T include Playwright and others in Vietgone, Fortinbras in Hamlet, Fortunado in Monstress.  Bay Area credits include George in The Language Archive (Theatreworks), Actor 1 in King of the Yees, Actor 3 in Tiny Beautiful Things, Daniel in You Mean to Do Me Harm (San Francisco Playhouse); Quang in Vietgone, Gordon Hirabayashi in Hold These Truths (Capital Stage Company); Banquo in Macbeth, Jacques in As You Like It, Life is a Dream, and other roles in Everybody, and The War of the Roses (CalShakes) The Happy Ones, and Dogeaters (Magic Theatre). Jomar is a recipient of a Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award for Principle Actor in a Play, and TBA Award for Outstanding Performance in a Featured Role.  He earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from A.C.T.

Biography

Mark Townsley and his family relocated to San Francisco after almost 20 years in France to join Meraki, a division of Cisco located in San Francisco which focuses on simplifying complex technology. While in Paris, Mark co-founded Cisco’s Paris Innovation Research Laboratory, was nominated by industry peers to serve on the Internet Engineering Task Force Steering Group, and was an assistant professor at Ecole Polytechnique. Passionate about musical theater, Mark co-founded American Musical Theater Live! in Paris and has served as Vice President of its Board of Directors. 

Biography

Films include Bird Box, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Jurassic World, The Normal Heart, Focus, Mulan (1 & 2), The Salton Sea, Executive Decision, Seven Years In Tibet, Jurassic Park, Father of the Bride (1 & 2) and The Freshman. He received the Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Theater World, Clarence Derwent, and Tony Awards for his Broadway debut in M. Butterfly—an achievement not yet duplicated by another actor. Recent television includes Wally in Comedy Central’s Awkwafina is Nora From Queens, “Whiterose” in Mr. Robot (Emmy and Critic’s Choice nominations), Prof. Hugo Strange in Gotham, and Baldwin Pennypacker in American Horror Story. Other television includes Law & Order: SVU, All-American Girl, Oz, And the Band Played On, and Awake. Other Broadway includes You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown and Pacific Overtures. Regional theater includes The Orphan of Zhao (A.C.T., La Jolla Playhouse), Herringbone (Williamstown Theatre Festival, McCarter Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse). He is the author of the critically acclaimed memoir Following Foo: (the electronic adventures of the Chestnut Man) (Harper Entertainment). He has been honored by the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, Asian AIDS Project, GLAAD, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, The Anti-Violence Project, Lambda Legal, Museum of Chinese in America, and Marriage Equality New York. He is a board member of The Actors’ Fund, and Rosie’s Theater Kids. BD Wong is a proud San Francisco native, a graduate of Lincoln High School, and holds an honorary M.F.A. from American Conservatory Theatre.

Biography

John “Jay” Yamada is currently a Board Member of California Shakespeare Theater, where he chaired the Finance committee from 2010-2019. He previously has served on the Board of KQED from 1983-1989 and 2010-2018. He is currently an off-board member of KQED’s finance committee, and is the organization’s resident historian. Jay works as a Pro Bono Stage Photographer for many Bay Area Theaters, including A.C.T. He has photographed for Aurora Theater, Brava, California Shakespeare Theater, Campo Santo, Central Works, Custom Made Theatre, Diablo Actors Ensemble, Exit Theatre, Marin Shakespeare, The Magic Theater, Marin Theater, Oakland Technical High School Theater, San Francisco Shakespeare, Skyline High School Theater, Shotgun Players, Town Hall Theatre, The University of Santa Clara Theater Department, UC Berkeley Theater Department, and Woman’s Will. Previously, Jay was an Analyst in Economics, Planning, and Budgets for Standard Oil of Ohio and a Technical Representative and Western Technical Manager for CompuServe. He received his BS in Economics and MS in Structural Geology from Cornell University, and an MBA in Finance and Accounting from NYU.