Board of Trustees

Dr. Alan Jabbour- Chairman of the Board – Folklorist, Musician and Retired Arts Administrator

Dr. Jabbour, a Duke University M.A. and Ph.D., taught at UCLA before becoming head of the Archive of Folk Song at the Library of Congress (1969-74), director of folk arts at the National Endowment for the Arts (1974-76), and is the retired Director of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress (1976-99). He now tours as a performing musician, carries out research as a folklorist, and lectures and publishes on various topics.

Scott Shanklin Peterson - Vice Chairman of the Board – Arts Administrator

Ms. Shanklin-Peterson is the Director of the Arts Management Program in the School of the Arts at the College of Charleston in Charleston, SC. Ms. Shanklin-Peterson served as the Senior Deputy Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts from (1994-2001). Previously, she was the Executive Director of the South Carolina Arts Commission.

Warren Lee Brown – Secretary of the Board – Planning Consultant

Mr. Brown served as Chief of Park Planning and Special Studies for the National Park Service from 1992-2005. He provided leadership for management planning in national parks throughout the nation and for studies of potential new parks, wild and scenic rivers, trails, and heritage areas. He served in various other park planning positions in the National Park Service and the Department of the Interior with responsibilities for land acquisition planning, resource conservation, and management of visitor use.

Prior to joining the National Park Service, he served as a project associate for the Environmental Law Institute, and as a legislative assistant in the US Senate, and the DC City Council. Mr. Brown holds a masters degree in City Planning from Harvard University and a BA in Public Affairs from the University of Chicago. He has been a board member of the Glen Echo Park Foundation and the Greater Sandy Spring Land Trust. Since retirement in 2005 he has been a consultant to the Bahamas National Trust, the Nature Conservancy, and the National Parks Conservation Association.

Paul Abrams – Treasurer of the Board - Author and Retired Real Estate Developer

Mr. Abrams was the Managing General Partner of Abrams and Associates, developers of industrial and office buildings in the D.C. Metropolitan area (1971-1996). He received his Doctor of Laws from University of Maryland, and his B.A. from Johns Hopkins University. In the past, Mr. Abrams has served on the Board of Trustees for Johns Hopkins University and the Washington Opera. More recently, Paul proudly published Wanderlust, a Photographic Journey (2008).

David Furchgott – President of International Arts & Artists

Mr. Furchgott is founder and president of IA&A. For over 16 years, he was the Executive Director of the International Sculpture Center, which he developed to become the largest organization for sculpture with 15,000 members in over 70 countries. It was there that he began Sculpture magazine. Previously, he was with the State Arts Commission, Spoleto Festival USA, and the Gibbes Museum in South Carolina.

Dr. Olin M. Hamrick, Jr. – Board Trustee and Chair Emeritus – Organizational Psychologist

Dr. Hamrick has practiced clinical psychology for over 30 years, and is the former owner of Southeastern Psychology Services in South Carolina. Dr. Hamrick is a specialist in organizational development and an instructor at Piedmont College and The Georgia School of Professional Psychology.

Fetneh Askari Fleischmann – Board Trustee - Program Manager for Workplace Mediation

Ms. Fleischmann has worked with the University of Pittsburgh Center for Alternative Dispute Resolution and Peacemaking and has been a training manager for the District of Columbia Superior Court’s Multi-Door Alternative Dispute Resolution Division as well as a mediator with the Federal Government and the World Bank.

Richard Hunt – Board Trustee – Artist

Mr. Hunt is an internationally known sculptor working in Chicago, IL. In 1968, he was one of the visual artists chosen by President Lyndon Johnson to serve on the National Council on the Arts, the advisory body of the National Endowment for the Arts. Hunt is among America’s most frequently commissioned sculptors. He has served on the boards of numerous museums and national cultural organizations.

Robert N. Rosen, Esq. – Board Trustee – Lawyer and Author

Mr. Rosen is a shareholder in the Rosen Law Firm in Charleston, South Carolina. He received his BA degree in history from the University of Virginia, his MA degree in History from Harvard University and his JD degree from the University of South Carolina School of Law.

Mr. Rosen has served as Assistant Corporation Counsel for the City of Charleston and General Counsel for the Charleston County School District, the Board of Editors of The Family Advocate and is a fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. Mr. Rosen has served on the boards of the South Carolina Historical Society, the Historic Charleston Foundation, and the American Jewish Historical Society. He was Chairman of the Arts and History Commission of the City of Charleston and President of the Jewish Historical Society of South Carolina.

He is the author of A Short History of Charleston; Confederate Charleston: An Illustrated History of the City and the People During the Civil War; The Jewish Confederates, A Crossroads of History with Isabella Leland; Saving the Jews: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Holocaust; and Straight Talk About South Carolina Divorce Law

Hugh Webster - Board Trustee – Lawyer and Author

Mr. Webster is a nationally recognized lawyer who has served as an advisor to associations and other non-profit organizations, association management companies, as well as individual executives, for almost 20 years. With special expertise in governance, strategic, and operational issues, Mr. Webster works regularly in such diverse areas as employment (including executive employment), taxation, antitrust, contracts, standards and certification, code of ethics, publishing, and fiduciary obligations of directors and officers. He earned his law degree from Duke Law School.

He is a frequent speaker for organizations such as the American Society of Association Executives, the International Association of Association Management Companies, and the Council of Engineering and Scientific Society Executives.

He is the author of the semi-annual updates to The Law of Associations, the only treatise in the association law field, and has written numerous articles and other publications on issues relevant to nonprofit organizations. Mr. Webster has authored: Fiduciary Obligations of Nonprofit Directors and Officers and Trade Associations. He hasCo-Authored: Lobbying and Political Expenditures; Association Lobbying and Regulatio; Law of Associations and is a Contributing Editor: Washington Non-Profit Legal & Tax Letter.

Barbara Karesh Stender - Board Trustee – Consultant and Business Owner

Mrs. Stender started her art consulting firm, Art for Business, in 1980 in Charleston, SC. Previously, she worked for twelve years at the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA and the Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, SC.