Board

The Board of Directors is the governing body of the Mockingbird Foundation. Its twelve members represent various age groups and professional interests, but all share a common passion for the music of Phish.  (Show totals are through August 2011.)

 

  • Chris Bertolet (50 shows) is a 36-year old writer of teleplays, screenplays, short stories, not-so-short stories, music reviews, webzine columns, and assorted waste. He is currently working on a novel called Gabby Road: The Inner Adventures of Outstanding Man, but has had enough good ideas stolen to feel safe saying more. When not writing or otherwise occupied, Chris spends time strumming guitar and playing with his inhumanly cute daughter Lucy.
  • Charlie Dirksen, Vice President and Associate Counsel, is an antitrust and securities lawyer practicing with Gold, Bennett, Cera and Sidener in San Francisco. He has been assisting the Foundation with a wide variety of projects since 1996.
  • Herschel Gelman (31 shows) graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with bachelor’s degrees in computer science and electrical engineering in 1997, and currently does computer security work for the federal government. He has been involved in the online Phish community since 1993, and is a founding member of the Mockingbird Foundation.
  • Ellis GodardEllis Godard, Executive Director and Treasurer (116 shows) is Assistant Professor of Sociology at California State University-Northridge, where he teaches Criminology, Statistics, and Research Methods. He studies cross-cultural patterns of conflict management among those who know little about each other, and has published on reality shows among other topics. He saw his first show 10/10/90, has volunteered for the Phish.Net since 1991, and coordinated production of both The Phish Companion and Sharin’ in the Groove. He currently lives in Ventura County with his wife (Funding Director Kristen Godard; 105 shows) and two children (Noah and Maya; 3 shows), and he never for an instant believed that the breakup would be permanent.
  • Andrew Hitz (159 shows) plays tuba with Boston Brass and teaches at both George Mason University and Gettysburg College.  He has performed and given master classes in over 40 states and 25 countries.  Andrew’s first show, New Years ’93, changed his life and his career.  He lives with his wife Tiffany, his dog Izabella, and a whole lot of tubas in the Washington, DC area.
  • Jack Lebowitz, Secretary and General Counsel Jack Lebowitz(71 shows) is an environmental lawyer and law firm partner in Saratoga Springs, New York, specializing in the permitting of new industrial plants. A “Deadhead” since his college days in 1970, he has seen over 50 Phish shows since 1993 with his wife and fellow Mockingbird contributor Kathleen (“Kat”) Griffin. He and Kat have two teen-aged children, Gavin and Annie, who are following in their parents’ Phish-fan footsteps.
  • Jeremy D. Goodwin (93 shows) resides in Swampscott, Massachusetts. He graduated from George Washington University’s School of Media and Public Affairs in 1999, with a degree in Political Communication. He is a journalist, working mainly for the Swampscott Reporter and the Marblehead Reporter, on the North Shore of Massachusetts. He is also working towards completion of his first novel, a postmodern “adventure tale”. Jeremy is the editor or co-editor of several Companion sections, including Show Reviews, Venue Information, and the Travel Log. He first saw Phish in 1995.
  • Dan Purcell (75 shows) practices law in San Francisco. He first heard Phish in 1989 at the Zoo at Amherst College, but only became a serious fan after discovering the rec.music.phish Usenet group in early 1992. He is proud to have been a Mockingbird Foundation board member since the project’s inception in 1996.
  • Jim Raras, Jr. (190 shows) has been seeing Phish since 1994 and is grateful for the lessons learned and people met along the way as well as the opportunity to take a common passion for music and use it to help others.  Jim lives in Boston, MA with his fiance Leah and their dog Winnie where he works as a corporate strategist
  • Adam Scheinberg, Director of Technology (50 shows) is a technology executive in Florida. His first contributions to Phish.net were in the form of FAQ sources in the mid-90′s, followed by a random setlist generator in the early 2000′s. In 2009, Adam assumed full webmaster control of www.phish.net and introduced an entirely new dynamic site.  He serves as the primary architect of phish.net as well as the Director of Technology for The Mockingbird Foundation.
  • David Steinberg (241 shows) earned his Masters degree in Mathematics from New Mexico State University in 1994, and is currently a computer programmer in Seattle. He first saw Phish in his undergraduate days at Bard College, later created the Phish Stats web site, and used that knowledge to create the statistics for The Phish Companion.
  • Marcie Vogel-FrahmMarcie Vogel Frahm (169 shows) saw her first Phish show in 1989 in Baltimore, and graduated from the University of Maryland shortly thereafter. Her passion for music and dedication to artists, fans and the promotion of the Jamband scene for more than 15 years landed her work in Colorado in 2001. There she met her husband, who proposed to her with a 20-foot banner at Madison Square Garden during Phish’s show on New Year’s Eve 2002. She exemplifies the mission of The Mockingbird Foundation by teaching music at a non-profit pre-school and has taken her 4 year-old son to 2 Phish shows (which he loved).
  • Marco Walsh, President (86 shows) caught his first Phish show at the Warfield in 1992, and soon after dove headfirst into the strange subculture of the Phish.Net. A graduate of University of California-Santa Cruz with a degree in Language Studies, he enjoys traveling in South America with his wife Beatriz. Marco lives in Santa Cruz, where he produces GrooveTV, a jamband-focused live music television program.

Emeritus members of the board include:

  • Charlz Franz
  • Craig DeLucia (Founder)
  • Dan Hantman (Past President)
  • Dan Seideman
  • Dave Donohue
  • Eddie Dinel
  • Joe Rioux
  • John Wood
  • Mark Goldberg
  • Mark Toscano (Past President)