You are here
Board of Trustees 2022-2023
Elisa Hamilton '07 BFA Painting, chair
Elisa H. Hamilton is a socially engaged multimedia artist who creates inclusive artworks that emphasize shared spaces and the hopeful examination of our everyday places, objects, and experiences. She holds a BFA in Painting from Massachusetts College of Art and Design, and an MA in Civic Media from Emerson College. Her work has been shown locally and nationally in solo and group exhibitions. She has been the recipient of four public art grants to create temporary public works in Boston's Fort Point neighborhood, and two public art grants from New England Foundation for the Arts. She has held artist residencies with Vermont Studio Center, Boston Center for the Arts, the Eliot School of Fine & Applied Arts, and the Fenway Alliance. Her interactive community projects include "Sound Lab," a special community sound project created for the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, "Community Legacy," a collaboration with the MIT List Visual Arts Center, "Slideshow," co-presented by HUBweek and Now+There, and "Jukebox," a percent-for-art public art commission for the City of Cambridge, MA.
Karen M. Keane, vice chair
As CEO of Skinner, Inc., Karen Keane oversees the operation of one of the world’s leading auction houses, the largest in New England and a viable player in the international art and antiques marketplace. Karen was instrumental in the establishment of Skinner as a world-class auction gallery in Boston, as well as the company’s expansion into specialty areas that include Fine Musical Instruments, Science & Technology, Rare Books & Manuscripts, Fine Wines, and Judaica.
Karen brings her lifelong passion for art, antiques and the study of material culture to bear for Skinner’s business. Along with running the company, she is also one of firm’s most versatile appraisers with a broad knowledge of furniture and fine and decorative arts. Her specialty areas include American furniture and decorative arts, Americana, and folk art. She is also a formidable presence at the auction podium, becoming the company’s first female auctioneer early in her career.
Karen is also a familiar face and leading appraiser on the PBS Emmy Award-winning TV series Antiques Roadshow. Sought-after by the media, Karen is a regular contributor to art and antiques publications, symposiums, web sites, and blogs. She lectures and conducts benefit auctions and appraisal events for non-profit and for-profit institutions nationwide. Karen holds a Master's degree in Art History from Boston University.
daren bascome '93 bfa graphic design
Daren Bascome is the founder and Managing Director/Creative Director of multidisciplinary branding agency Proverb, and the creative vision behind its unique approach to brand building. Under Daren’s leadership, Proverb has become a sought-after partner for brands seeking to apply design thinking to their businesses, products and communications. A native Bermudian who cut his teeth in exhibit design, Daren set out to create the type of agency that the industry tends to lack—dynamic, international and culturally relevant. Daren’s work has won numerous awards and drawn the attention of international media outlets, including Fortune, Fast Company, The New York Times, and The Boston Globe. He has served in various capacities on the boards of the Museum of Fine Arts, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, and Youth Design, among others.
Sunand Bhattacharya
Professor Sunand Bhattacharya is the Associate Vice Provost of Design & Innovation Strategy at Boston College (BC). As a learning architect, design educator and industrial designer, he spearheaded the design and development team to create BC’s first human-centered engineering program. He is also tasked to help build a culture of collaborative innovation across BC using design-driven methodologies to address real-world challenges. His professional experience covers management of education-related endeavors at various leadership levels, including curriculum research and development for new design-driven academic programs.
Before returning to academia, Sunand was the Global Learning Strategist for Autodesk, leading its Learning Futures team dedicated to Autodesk’s future influence advocacy in design related STEAM and engineering education. Prior to Autodesk, Sunand was the principal and co-founding partner of Arjuna Learning Designs LLC, a firm specializing in the creation of interactive learning objects to enhance quality of teaching and learning for leading publishing houses. He has also been a tenured professor and head of industrial design at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. Sunand is a recipient of the ‘Innovative Excellence in Teaching, Learning, and Technology’ award from The International Conference on College Teaching and Learning.
Bhattacharya holds advisory positions at Olin College of Engineering, Purdue University Polytechnic Institute, Cal State Northridge and Station1-MIT, and Nirma University, and he serves on the international boards of Global Minimum Inc (GMin) in Kenya and Agastya International Foundation (US) in India. He received his Master of Design (MDes) in Industrial Design from the National Institute of Design in India, and holds a terminal post-graduate MFA degree in Industrial Design and Human Factors from The Ohio State University.
denise korn
Denise Korn is the Founder and Principal of Yellow&, a dynamic creative consultancy working with impassioned leaders and fearless entrepreneurs – intertwining the power of a multi-disciplinary mindset with innovative human-centered design to realize brands with meaningful business and social impact.
Korn was previously Creative Director/Design Director for Lifestyle Brand at Gensler. Formerly, the founder + visionary behind Korn Design, an award-winning brand strategy and design firm known for its purposeful approach to creating memorable brands, experiences + iconic places for a wide range of clients in hospitality, real estate and culture.
A design industry speaker, mentor and activist, Denise is recipient of a Fellow Award from the American Institute for Graphic Arts (AIGA) for contributions as a design visionary and youth advocate; was awarded a James Beard Foundation medal for design; and her work has been honored by AIGA, Communication Arts, Graphis, Hospitality Design, and Interior Design magazines.
A champion of diversifying the creative economy, Denise founded Youth Design in 2003, mentoring the next generation of urban talent – fostering career opportunities in design. Honored by the Boston Business Journal as a 2015 Leader in Diversity, she currently serves as a Senior Fellow in Social Innovation at the Babson College Lewis Institute, on the Advisory Council for Cornell University’s School of Architecture, Art & Planning (AAP), and on the Advisory Boards for AIGA/Boston and the Boston Private Industry Council (PIC).
Peter Nessen
Peter is the founder and president of Nessen Associates. He is a public accountant who has served as Chief Executive Officer and on the governing Board of Advisors for national investment-banking firms. From 1987 to 1990, Peter was Assistant Secretary of Administration and Finance responsible for human and social service purchase reform. From 1991 to 1993, Peter was Secretary of the Executive Office for Administration and Finance for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. In that capacity, he was the senior cabinet member and the chief financial officer in Governor Weld’s cabinet. Peter has also been a partner in the accounting firms of BDO Seidman and Henry J. Bornhofft Company, and the Dean for Resources and Special Projects at Harvard Medical School. He chaired the Massachusetts Cultural Council and served on the Governor’s Commission evaluating school reform, as well as representing Massachusetts as the public commissioner on the New England accreditation commission.
Peter holds a BA degree from Dartmouth College and a Master’s in Business Administration from Dartmouth’s Amos Tuck Graduate School of Business Administration. He currently serves on the boards of numerous for-profit and non-profit organizations.
Janice M. Saragoni
Janice M. Saragoni is President of Saragoni & Company, a Boston-based communications consultancy specializing in media relations, relationship marketing, crisis communications and public affairs. Active in a variety of cultural and non-profit organizations, Jan is a member of the executive committee of Save Venice, Boston Chapter, and serves on the editorial advisory board of the John F. Kennedy School of Government Magazine. She is a committee member of UNICEF's "Children First Speakers Program" and sits on the advisory board of the Boston Public Market. On the digital front, Jan is managing editor of "styleboston.tv" a lifestyle website that first broadcast in Boston as an Emmy Award-winning television show.
Before launching her firm in 1996, Jan was director of marketing and public affairs for the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority/Hynes Convention Center, director of communications for the Massachusetts Department of Public Works and an assistant press secretary in the Mayor's Office of Communications, City of Boston. As a correspondent for the Associated Press, she covered local news and politics in Louisiana, Mississippi and Georgia.
Over the years Jan has served on the boards of the Massachusetts State Lottery Commission, the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority, the Massachusetts Women's' Political Caucus, the Cambridge Office of Tourism and was a founding planning board member of the Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy, responsible for the development of Boston's Greenway Parks.
A Brighton native who attended Boston public schools, Jan earned a B.A. in American Studies from Amherst College and holds a Master of Public Administration from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. She also attended Cape Cod Community College and completed a program of advanced studies at the University of Perugia, Italy.
Kelly Sherman '02 BFA Sculpture
Kelly Sherman is a non-profit strategist who helps advance innovation within organizations. Passionate about Design Thinking, she brings a user-centered approach with clients who span the sectors of arts and culture, higher education, and racial and social justice. Kelly was a participant in MassChallenge and a strategist at EPAM Continuum, where she served a broad range of Fortune 500 companies and received a Gold IDEA Award for design research from the IDSA. She has held leadership roles on numerous governance and advisory boards, including the BSA Foundation, MIT’s List Visual Art Center, MassArt’s Alumni Leadership Council, and the Mayor’s Arts Task Force in Cambridge. Kelly is also a visual artist whose work can be seen at the Krakow Witkin Gallery, Center Street Studio, in parks and neighborhoods, and in the collection of the ICA Boston, where she received the Foster Prize.
Linda L. Snyder
Linda Snyder is a retired executive with experience in managing organizations in higher education and the public sector involved in building and campus planning, financing, design, construction, facility management and operations. Ms. Snyder is currently consulting for the Commonwealth on matters related to space use and real estate in the wake of COVID-19.
From 2012 to 2017 Linda served as Tufts University Vice President for Operations, responsible for the Tufts campuses in Boston, Medford/Somerville and Grafton, Massachusetts. Linda was Dartmouth College Vice President of Campus Planning and Facilities from 2009 to 2012. From 2005 to 2009 Ms. Snyder was the Associate Executive Dean of Physical Resources and Planning for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) of Harvard University.
From 1997 to 2005 Ms. Snyder was the Executive Director of the Massachusetts State College Building Authority, where she pioneered an innovative harmony-based construction delivery process for public agencies, now written into Massachusetts law. From 1993 to 1997, she managed the construction of the Chelsea, Massachusetts school system. Ms. Snyder holds a 1981 Bachelor of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning from Utah State University and is a 1996-97 Harvard University Graduate School of Design Loeb Fellow. Ms. Snyder lives in the South End of Boston with her husband Steven Kadish.
GREG STONE
Greg Stone began his career as a writer at Time Inc. in New York and later worked as a TV reporter in Minneapolis, Boston, and on PBS. His professional honors include three Emmy nominations. Turning down an offer to anchor at CNN in New York, Greg founded Stone Communications in 1989. His company focuses on media consulting, marketing strategies, and executive coaching. He has worked with senior executives all across the US and in Europe and Asia, and has frequently guest-lectured at Harvard Business School. Greg has also directed hundreds of productions, ranging from 30-second commercials to corporate videos to a feature film. He has written two books on inspired management: Branding with Personal Stories: The Villains, Victims, and Heroes Model, outlining a novel approach to narrative techniques, and Artful Business: 50 Lessons from Creative Geniuses, featuring full-color masterpieces and thought-provoking prompts on facing pages. Ever curious about other cultures, Greg studied French, Italian and German as an undergraduate, earning an AB with honors from Harvard University, followed by two master’s degrees from Columbia University in journalism and business.
Nicholas "Nick" Thompson, ‘23 BFA Photography
Nick Thompson is a Massachusetts native and enjoys hiking through the forests and hills of the Bay State. Besides his studies, Nick has strong interests in the natural landscape, cartography, vexillology, and the stars – and because of these he often world-builds in his free time. While a student at Hingham High School, he was Head of Sound Tech for the school’s drama club, captain of his Model United Nations team, a member of the school’s Gay-Straight Alliance, and a recipient of a Scholastic Gold Key for Art & Writing. Nick is an active member of the MassArt community, participating in MassArt Votes in 2019, an organization aimed at increasing youth voting in the institution and local area. As Student Trustee, Nick is eager to work with his peers to help increase communication within the MassArt community.