Staff
-
Susan Ungaro
President -
Susan Ungaro was appointed president of the James Beard Foundation in April 2006. Since then, she has overseen the expansion of the Foundation’s culinary scholarship program, increased membership with an online enrollment program, and relocated the annual James Beard Foundation Awards Gala to Lincoln Center. Ungaro has also ushered in a new era of financial health for the Foundation. In September 2012 she collaborated with the U.S. Department of State to develop the “Diplomatic Culinary Partnership,” a new initiative to elevate the role of culinary engagement in America’s formal and public diplomacy efforts. Among her numerous honors, Ungaro was named one of the The Daily Meal’s 50 Most Powerful People in Food in 2011 and has received Irish America magazine’s Top Business 100 Award, the Muriel Fox Communications Award from the NOW Legal Defense & Education Fund, and the Hope Award from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. Ungaro’s frequent television appearances include Food Network’s Iron Chef and Dinner Impossible, Bravo’s Top Chef, Fox’s Kitchen Nightmares, NBC’s Today show, ABC’s Good Morning America, CBS’s Early Show, 20/20, CNN, and MSNBC’s Morning Joe.
-
Mitchell Davis
Executive Vice President -
Mitchell Davis is a cookbook author and food journalist with a Ph.D. in Food Studies from New York University. A graduate of Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration, Davis majored in Food and Beverage Management and spent two years cooking and eating in France and Italy before settling in New York City to write about food. He joined the staff of the James Beard Foundation in 1993. Davis’s most recent cookbook is Kitchen Sense (Clarkson Potter, 2006), he is the author of two other cookbooks, Cook Something (Macmillan, 1997) and The Mensch Chef (Clarkson Potter, 2002), and is the co-author with Michael Ginor of Foie Gras…A Passion (Wiley, 2000), which won the International Cookbook Review’s Prix la Mazille for Best International Cookbook of the Year. Davis’s articles about food, restaurants, and travel appear regularly in magazines such as GQ, Food & Wine, and the Art of Eating. His academic work focuses on the role of restaurant reviews and their influence on taste. Davis is a frequent guest lecturer and panelist on a variety of food-related topics, and has taught food and theory classes at New York University and Cornell University.
Marilyn Platzer
Chief Financial and Operating Officer
Nancy Kull
Executive Assistant to the President
Izabela Wojcik
Director of House Programming and Greenhouse Gallery Coordinator
Laura Rowett
Assistant to the Director of House Programming
Diane Harris Brown
Director of Educational and Community Programming
Claudia Karach
Director of House Events and Membership
Kris Moon
Director of Charitable Giving and Strategic Partnerships
Michelle Santoro
Project Manager
Victoria Jordan Rodriguez
Director of House Operations and House Events
Sandra Matias
Accounting Manager
Patricia Loyola
Financial Manager
Kimberly Bradley Osorio
Information Systems Manager
Colleen Vincent
Reservations Manager
Chevy Mondesir
Reservations Coordinator
Marie Mondesir
Receptionist
Clay Triplette
House Steward
Jose Lucio
Maître D’Hôtel
Behrim Mekuli
Service Captain
Albert Reyes
Night Kitchen Manager
Sanil Compere
Day Kitchen Manager
Communications and Publications
Alison Tozzi Liu
Director of Media
Scott Meola
Art Director
Anna Mowry
Senior Editor
Elena North-Kelly
Associate Editor
Anya Hoffman
Contributing Editor
Ashley Kosiak
Program Assistant
Special Events
Yvon Ros
Director of Sponsorship and Special Events
Julie Marshall
Director of Events and Marketing
Janie Schneider
Event Coordinator
Siobhan Flaherty Haber
Manager of Greens, Program Committee Chair
Shelley Menaged
Manager of Special Projects and Student Program
