ALCA BOARD OF TRUSTEES
PRESIDENT
Joanna Pine
In May of 1993, Joanna Pine moved from Vermont to Indian Lake with her husband Tim, making it their permanent home. The family has owned and operated Pine’s Country Store since 1984 and has been an ongoing strong financial local supporter of the AC. Her children, Colleen and Noah first started attending preschool at ALCA in 1998 and her entire family are avid volunteers, donors and patrons. Her daughter took an acting class back in 2008 and thanks to ALCA found her true calling. Her first performance of many with ALCA, was the title role in the musical Annie. She received her BFA in theater performance, and continues to act professionally with various theater companies in the Buffalo Theater District.Joanna works at Indian Lake Central School, and has been part of the Guidance and Special Education departments since 2002. She also joined the Indian Lake Chamber of Commerce Board in January 2022. She has been a member of ALCA’s Board of Trustees since 2010, and has held an officer’s position, as President since 2015. Joanna has proudly chaired ALCA’s annual Great Arts/Great Camps Benefit for over a decade. Her goal is to grow the endowment to ensure the organization thrives for another 57 years and beyond, as it continues to provide a place in the Adirondacks where all can thrive through access to artistic opportunities.
VICE PRESIDENT
Mary Leach
Mary Leach has been a proud a member of ALCA since 1989, when her husband accepted the position of Program Director. Her entire family became enthusiastic participants in all aspects of the arts center, including workshops, the preschool program, Little ALCA Players children’s theater, Forever Wild, square dances, and many more wonderful family programs offered by ALCA. Mary is a retired public school music teacher, having spent her professional career at Indian Lake Central School and Johnsburg Central School, where she continues to accompany the choral programs. Mary is the founder and director of the Indian Lake community-theater group Cabin Fever Players. Mary has served on the ALCA Board of Trustees off and on since 1989, and she currently serves as vice president. She has supported the arts center as it adapted to many changes through those years, including not only surviving but thriving through the uncertain years of Covid. Mary is excited to be part of the changes ahead as ALCA continues to grow and evolve to bring the arts to our community.
TREASURER
Todd Friebel
SECRETARY
Deborah Marriott
TRUSTEES
Frances Armstrong
Pat Benton
Pat Benton moved to Blue Mountain Lake with her husband Rip in 2000, then moved to Long Lake in 2002. She’s been a proud supporter of ALCA since she moved to the Adirondacks, and has been on the Board of Trustees for almost as long as she’s lived in Long Lake. She’s seen ALCA through many changes over the years. She continues to provide her great business sense, as well as deep love and support of ALCA, its staff and fellow Board members. Pat truly cares about the positive growth in Hamilton County, and she is very involved in her Long Lake, Raquette Lake and Blue Mountain Lake community. She helps wherever and whenever she can. Pat owned and operated The Hedges Camp in Blue Mountain Lake for 18 years, and sold it to 63 devoted Hedges camping families in 2018. Since the sale of Hedges, Pat has enjoyed one of her most favorite hobbies, collecting Antiques and Uniques. Pat currently owns two antique shops, Wide River Antiques in Long Lake, NY and most recently Wide River Too: Antiques and Uniques in Blue Mountain Lake, NY. Pat is also on the Board of Great Camp Sagamore, in Raquette Lake, and works as a consultant in the Hospitality and Historical Renovation/Restoration fields. Pat is enthusiastic and excited to be a part of establishing The Adirondack Lakes Center for the Arts in its new surroundings, at the intersection of Route 28 & 30 in Blue Mountain Lake, NY. She is very happy our organization now has room to expand its offerings in programming (concerts, plays, lectures, educational classes, children’s workshops, etc.), and provide a welcoming community wide gathering place for all to enjoy!
Monica Bills
Monica was introduced to Blue Mountain Lake and the Adirondacks in 2020 which she immediately fell in love with! After making it through the isolation of that year she started to participate in productions at the Arts Center. Forever Wild was her introduction into performing followed by Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. Next in 2022 came A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, and finally in The Tempest playing Alonsa, the queen. It’s an honor and privilege to work with the Arts Center Board to participate in its expansion of programs for the joy and benefit of our community!
Karen Butters
Mike Corey
Mike Corey has been involved in the arts in the greater Hamilton/Warren/Essex County area for many years, first getting involved with the Out Town Theater Group in 1999. He’s been a backstage as well as frontstage guy over those years, especially in North Creek; currently he serves as the interim President and Vice President of Administration of OTTG. He’s enjoyed a number of activities at ALCA over the years, having acted in Forever Wild, watching his daughter act in Forever Wild, and being an actor with ALCA’s Shakespeare in the Park several times. Recently he’s gotten involved with various Gem Radio Theater productions (based in North River, NY), including History Teas, Graveyard Walks, and historical radio plays. He is excited to be on the Board at ALCA and recognizes how dynamic and passionate the Board and the ALCA staff are about their organization and its impact on the region. It has already been a great experience, after less than a year of Board membership. Mike lives in the exotic land of Minerva, in southwestern Essex County, where he is involved in a number of community activities. He is semi-retired, maintaining several part-time jobs.
Peter Gibson
Karen Kirkham
Karen Lordi-Kirkham has been directing for and performing in the ALCA Shakespeare Festival for the past three years. She is particularly interested in strategic and programming planning as well as education and sustainability. She worked for Pendragon Theatre in Saranac Lake for close to 20 years, serving on the Board and then taking over from the company's founders as the organization’s Executive Director for almost 8 years. From her work at Pendragon, she brings expertise in management of a small arts organization in the Adirondacks, which included spearheading the team planning a move into a new building. She has been a summer resident of Long Lake since childhood. Since her 2006 marriage to Ted Kirkham, she calls Blue Mountain Lake her summer home. She has enjoyed collaborating on the Shakespeare show with Ted and her three teen children. During the school year, she teaches theater at Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA.
Audrey Patrone Peartree
Kathleen Peartree
Ardie Russell
Doug Stinson
New board member Douglas W. Stinson has had New York's North Country and the Adirondacks in his blood since attending St. Lawrence University (class of 1988) – and antiques, and the decorative arts in his blood since around the age of ten, when he began assisting his father, legendary Massachusetts antiques auctioneer and fine arts expert Carl Stinson at approximately 40 New England auctions annually. Doug's appreciation of Adirondack life and the arts, and his familiarity with the history of Adirondack decorative arts, deepens on every visit to the region. Since about 2010, he has served on the board at Great Camp Sagamore, where, among other congenial tasks, he runs their annual Gala Benefit Auction. For roughly the past 10 years, Doug has also served as emcee and auctioneer at the Adirondack Experience (ADKX) annual Benefit Gala & Harold Hochschild Award Dinner. During the Covid-19 era, Doug conducted live feed Internet benefit auctions for Great Camp Sagamore, ADKX and Pendragon Theater (lights, camera, action!!!) He recognizes and enjoys the performing arts' importance to his auction appearances. Before helping these Adirondack institutions, Doug served as a Trustee of his boarding school and Alma Mater; Kents Hill School, Readfield, Maine, for 15 years and for a portion of that time, as head of their Development Committee. He is a strong advocate of mutually beneficial cooperation among Adirondack cultural institutions, and feels that all the Adirondack institutions that we love, are stronger for coordinating their programs, patronage, and fundraising outreach. Gala Benefit auctions became a sideline for Doug about 25 years ago. Doug's primary work revolves around appraisals and auctions and the outright purchase of antiques and fine art and tangibles of every description, working with families, trust and estate attorneys and fiduciaries navigating the estate settlement process. Doug lives in Needham, MA. He has a son who is a college junior.
Sally Coney Wheeler
Sally Coney Wheeler has vacationed at her family’s camp in Blue Mountain Lake since 1960. Her parents, Joe & Rita Coney, were long-time supporters of ALCA and she has fond memories of taking classes at the art center in the 60’s and 70’s; bringing her children to events in the 90’s; and more recently, enjoying ALCA performances, Great Camps events, yoga classes and gallery exhibitions. A resident of South Carolina, Sally began spending 4 months a year in Blue Mountain Lake in 2023. She recently assumed the position of Treasurer of the Church of the Transfiguration on Route 30. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of her community in Spring Island, SC and headed the community’s Architectural Review Board for 2 terms. Previously, Sally chaired the Board of Directors for her homeowners’ association in Waccabuc, NY; was a founding member and Treasurer of the Bedford Community Theatre in Bedford, NY; and served multiple terms as Senior Warden of the St. Mark’s Episcopal Church Vestry in Mt. Kisco, NY. Sally is a graduate of Williams College and Northwestern University’s business school. She began her career in banking and then spent twenty years with PepsiCo in Finance, Marketing, and General Management roles. In 2005, she founded a public policy and communications consultancy, with PepsiCo as its primary client. She continues to serve as its President, in a part time capacity. Sally has two children, six step-children and 11 step-grandchildren many of whom enjoy vacation visits to Blue Mountain Lake.
Mark Chamberlain
Mark Chamberlain has been an active supporter of ALCA for almost 25 years, from making annual fund contributions, attending many exhibits, fundraisers and concerts and sponsoring artists to come and perform in Blue Mountain from all over the world. He is very interested in bringing a wide range of artists to ALCA and having artists in residence where they can create art and share their artistic skills with the broader Adirondacks community. He has been a long time patron of the arts, and an enthusiastic attendee of mainstream performances (Lincoln Center, Broadway) and avant-garde performances (Public Theater, Symphony Space). He has a long track record working in finance for the last 25 years, and also has worked on several entrepreneurial endeavors. Mark has had significant success raising capital in private industry and securing donations for not-for-profits like ALCA. He wants to help strengthen ALCA's finances by creating and expanding the permanent endowment to ensure ALCA's long term viability. Mark lives in New York City full time and has enjoyed calling Blue Mountain Lake his summer home since 2002.
Sherry Nemmers
As Executive Creative Director, Executive Vice President and Global Creative Director at Publicis Worldwide, D'Arcy, and Saatchi & Saatchi, all based in NYC, Sherry Nemmers blends over three decades of strategic vision and creative talent, partnering with and building the world’s best brands for companies such as Mars Foods, Procter & Gamble, Toyota, Coke, General Mills, Ad Council, among many others. Her work has been chosen and shown in exhibits by Jeff Koons. With over 500 industry awards (including the coveted Art Directors, INSPIRE and Pinnacle awards), Sherry created the first Superbowl spot for P&G. And, by creating an unprecedented branding breakthrough for P&G with the iconic Charmin Bear, along with innovative Mars chocolate and pet campaigns, Sherry took national brands to global status. In earliest days at Dancer she created McGruff for the Ad Council. Interviewed on Dateline, CBS Sunday Morning, and written up in books and publications, Sherry also taught at Stearns School. Whether the brand is a global leader or a local hero, Sherry puts her heart into everything she does. A native of Blue Mountain Lake, first writer for Dan's Papers, graduate of Vassar College and Dartmouth College, Sherry has loved the Arts Center since its inception.
TRUSTEES EMERITI:
Donna Pohl, Jamie Strader, Tony Zazula
ADVISORY BOARD:
Peter Goutos, Cheryl Smith, Sally Coney Wheeler
