Laurie Branch is CEO and President of Ironpeak, one of nation’s oldest and largest networks of independent property and casualty insurance agencies. Holding three master’s degrees and a Ph.D., she also teaches at the undergraduate and graduate level at St. Bonaventure University. She is a fourth-generation Chautauquan and a lifelong resident of upper Peck Avenue.

Rick Evans is an attorney with a five-generation family history at Chautauqua. In his 65 summers at Chautauqua, he has been intimately involved in the community, from attending Children’s School and Boys’ and Girls’ Club to serving as co-President of the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra League and now co-running the Grapevine community message board.

Jill is the chief people and company services officer at The J.M. Smucker Company. She has 25 years of professional experience across corporate strategy, mergers & acquisitions, human resources, corporate communications, government relations, information technology and philanthropy/community engagement. 

Her family has visited Chautauqua for 15 years. She recently became a property owner on the grounds with her husband and children in 2017.

Michelle Adelman is the founder of Accite Holdings, an impact investment firm focused on food and agriculture technology, including ventures such as a hydroponic farm in Botswana and a U.S. protein market start-up. With 22 years at Accenture in global managing director roles, she has deep expertise in human resources, technology, and operations. She also served as CEO of a start-up in the home healthcare sector and cofounded the Impact Fund, a nonprofit aiding women and children in northern Botswana. Recognized with numerous awards, including Africa’s Most Influential Woman (2017) and Forbes Africa’s “20 New Wealth Creators” (2019), she holds a degree in engineering from Cornell University and resides in Chautauqua with her partner, Earl Miller.

Matthew (Matt) Benson is a partner at the Charlotte, N.C., architectural firm Meyer Greeson Paullin Benson, specializing in single-family residential architecture and historic preservation since 1998. His work, featured in publications like Southern Living and House Beautiful, spans the East Coast in various historical styles. Matt holds a bachelor’s degree in Studio Art from Denison University and a Master of Architecture from Georgia Tech. He is a licensed member of the American Institute of Architects, a LEED Accredited Professional, and has served on multiple boards, including the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art. A third-generation Chautauquan, Matt and his spouse, Barrie, are Chautauqua property owners with two children. 

Veronica Biggins is Managing Partner of the Board of Directors Practice at Diversified Search Group and a member of the Board of Directors of Southwest Airlines. Previously, she served as Assistant to the President under William Jefferson Clinton and Chairwoman of the Slovak Enterprise Develop Fund for 10 years, following earlier service as an executive with what is now Bank of America. She and her husband first came to Chautauqua in 2017 and have visited frequently since.

Nancy Gibbs is the director of the Shorenstein Center and the Edward R. Murrow Professor at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and formerly was Editor in Chief of Time magazine. She is a lifelong Chautauquan, thanks to her mother Janet Gibbs, who made her concert debut as a pianist with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra. Nancy and her brother Christopher grew up at Club and both worked for the Daily; he is a former trustee and their father Howard a former chair of the Board of Trustees.

Karen Goodell is a licensed associate broker with ERA Team VP. A top-selling realtor, she has earned the Chautauqua County Board of Realtors Presidential Award since 1999 and ERA Team VP’s Diamond Presidential Award multiple times, including in 2022. She cofounded ERA Team VP in 1982 and was the top agent for sales volume in 2021. Karen serves on the Chautauqua Hotel Corporation Board and has been active in the Chautauqua Dance Circle and Chautauqua Foundation. She holds a bachelor’s degree from SUNY Cortland and, with her husband Tim, owns property in Chautauqua, where they spend summers with their three daughters. 

After studying architecture and urban design in Florence, Italy, and Cleveland, Ohio, Paul Hagman became the founder of RBF Colab Architecture, a heritage preservation firm providing design and consulting throughout the Northeast. He has been attending Chautauqua for nearly a decade and is looking forward to increasing his family’s time spent at the Institution in the coming years.

Izumi Hara is a retired corporate attorney in the life sciences industry, most recently at Warner Chilcott PLC (now part of Abbvie), where she was Senior Vice President and General Counsel. She serves as board chair of the American Red Cross, Northern New Jersey Chapter and serves on the board of the CSU Long Beach 49er Foundation. Three generations of Hara’s family began coming to Chautauqua in 2003. She and her husband purchased a home here in 2006.

Terry Horner is Director of Continuous Process Improvement and Product Owner for Engagement Systems at the U.S. Government Accountability Office, the Congressional watchdog agency. He serves as convener of the Cornell Alumni Advisory Board and chairs the DC Annual Fund Committee, among other roles. As a native of nearby Jamestown, New York, Horner has regularly attended Chautauqua since childhood. Since college, he has spent parts of every season on the grounds and looks forward to many more.

Steve is currently retired. He is the former president of ECG Management Consultants. He grew up in nearby Lakewood, and in 1976 his parents purchased a cottage on the grounds. He in turn purchased it from them in 2004 and his family has been enjoying their summers and some of the shoulder season at Chautauqua for several generations.

Bob is a founding principal of Businessolutions LLC, a boutique consulting firm established in 2008, focused on profit improvement through effective application of business analytics, primarily in the transportation industry. Previously he was an executive officer with Roadway Corporation in Akron, Ohio, leading mergers & acquisitions, information technology, and operations planning and engineering. Robert earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees in business administration, concentrating in operations research and computer science. 

For over 45 years, four generations of his family have assembled each summer at Chautauqua. Prior generations included Board of Trustee and Foundation Board members. He is a Chautauqua property owner, committed to supporting the Arts and all four pillars of the Institution. 

Rich Osborne is retired from Duke Energy Corp, where he worked for 31 years, including service as Chief Financial Officer, Chief Risk Officer and Group Vice President-Public & Regulatory Policy. Having started visiting Chautauqua in 2012, he purchased a home on the grounds in 2014 and has spent each season here since then.

David Peckinpaugh is president and CEO of Maritz Holdings and president of Maritz Global Events. He is a founding co-chair of the Meetings Means Business Coalition in conjunction with the U.S. Travel Association, past chairman of the PCMA Education Foundation and past PCMA trustee and was recently inducted into the Event Industry Councils Hall of Leaders. A native of Cleveland, Peckinpaugh is a lifelong Chautauquan and Boys’ and Girls’ Club alum. He ran the Chautauqua Sports Club for six years and introduced the beloved Old First Night Run.

Dave Pelton is a retired software industry leader with expertise in strategic planning, product management, marketing, and general management. He retired in 2020 as product line leader for Vertex Inc., which went public during his tenure. Previously, he held leadership roles at Logitech, Software Publishing, Entigo, and InvestorForce, and consulted for companies like Intuit and Xerox. As an entrepreneur, Dave founded and sold two businesses: QPS Marketing and AutoQual of Delaware. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Bucknell and an MBA from UCLA, and currently serves on the Chester Charter Scholars Academy Foundation board. Dave and his wife, Cindy, split their time between Wayne, Pennsylvania, and Chautauqua, where they spend summers with their three adult children. 

Sara Ponkow is an emergency medicine physician and owner/proprietor of the Dragonfly Inn at Chautauqua Institution. In addition to being an on-grounds small business owner, she is a multiple-generation Chautauquan who attended Boys’ and Girls’ Club and worked at Chautauqua as a teen, as well as at area hospitals as a resident physician. Her two children are also lifelong Chautauquans. Most recently she served as Health Director at Boys’ and Girls’ Club during the 2021 and ’22 summers, and as Area 2 Rep for the Chautauqua Property Owners Association in 2021.

Ronn Richard is the recently retired CEO of the Cleveland Foundation, where he served for over 20 years. Under his leadership, the Foundation’s annual philanthropy grew tenfold and its endowment more than doubled. He spearheaded transformative initiatives, including relocating the Foundation’s offices to Cleveland’s Hough neighborhood to stimulate economic development. Ronn previously served as a foreign service officer in Japan and as a senior executive with Panasonic North America. He also served on the board of Spelman College alongside Veronica Biggins and is a member of 100 Black Men of Greater Cleveland.

Sherry Sanger is Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Strategist at Penske Transportation, a $13 billion private company with 44,000 employees. She leads innovation in digital and emerging technologies, launching new growth initiatives. Sherry holds two master’s degrees and a doctorate, with research focused on leadership and openness to new ideas. She also brings deep expertise in public relations, media relations, and crisis communication.

Mamie Kanfer Stewart is an executive coach and founder of Meeteor, a firm dedicated to building high-performing teams through effective meetings. She is the author of Momentum: Creating Effective, Engaging and Enjoyable Meetings and hosts The Modern Manager podcast. Mamie holds an MBA from NYU’s Stern School of Business and a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute. She lives in Brooklyn, NY, with her husband and two children.

Howard Teibel is the founder and president of Teibel Education, a national consulting firm serving colleges and universities in leadership, financial strategy, and organizational health. With over 35 years of experience, he hosts the Navigating Change podcast and speaks widely on higher education transformation. A lifelong Chautauquan, Howard grew up in Buffalo, NY, and now spends summers on the grounds with his wife, Pam, and their two sons.

Larry Thompson, former U.S. Deputy Attorney General, retired as Executive Vice President for Government Affairs, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary at PepsiCo in 2014 and recently served as the U.S. Department of Justice’s Independent Compliance Monitor & Auditor for Volkswagen AG. His first Chautauqua experience was in 2004 when he was a Chautauqua Lecture Series speaker. Larry and his wife Brenda are art collectors and have been coming to Chautauqua yearly since 2004.

Lisa Turbessi is a former executive at Bank of America, where she specialized in audit, compliance, and risk management. She played a key role in implementing post-financial crisis regulations and was the inaugural member of the Strategic Targeted Analysis Team, focused on preventing financial crimes. Now semi-retired, Lisa continues to consult in these areas. Raised in nearby Warren, PA, she brings a valuable regional perspective to Chautauqua’s board.

Steve is a retired mechanical engineer and business owner. He is a former director of the Chautauqua Foundation 2007–2023. His family has been coming to Chautauqua since 1991 and they raised three daughters on the grounds. They have been Chautauqua property owners since 1998.