Board of Directors

CCS's Board of Directors possess the business acumen, vision, and experience that will allow CCS to thrive for decades to come. They have built nationally recognized non-profits, managed art schools, and spearheaded ambitious real estate ventures.

Warren Bingham was educated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University and served for nine years on the research staff at the Harvard College Observatory and the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics before straying from the rich groves of academe for the siren call of publishing and entrepreneurship. Mr. Bingham's business career has been largely in the publishing and creative sector where he has international experience as: a business founder; in senior management, including CEO, of several publicly traded companies. He currently serves as CEO of The Stinehour Press in Lunenburg, Vermont.

Harry Bliss is an award-winning cartoonist and cover artist for The New Yorker magazine. He studied painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and illustration at The University of the Arts (BFA) and Syracuse University (MA). Bliss is the New York Times bestselling illustrator of Diary of a Worm and Diary of a Spider by Doreen Cronin, A Fine, Fine School by Sharon Creech, and Which Would You Rather Be? by William Steig. He is also an award-winning, internationally syndicated cartoonist and a cover artist for The New Yorker magazine.

Roger E. Bloomfield counsels family-owned businesses, nonprofit and charitable organizations, and individuals in Vermont and Ohio. In 2003, he completed 25 years as general counsel to Wittenberg University, and he continues a 25 year engagement as special counsel for gift planning and estate administration to a statewide foundation supporting senior services and residential communities. Bloomfield has served as a trustee and officer of a community hospital, a dialysis facility, a symphony orchestra, a mental health foundation, and his church. He was elected to a public school board of education and served as its president and subsequently served as a director and chair of the district's education foundation. Bloomfield currently leads his residential community's homeowners' association in Wilder, Vermont. He is a graduate of Wittenberg University, Case Western Reserve University Law School and is licensed to practice law in Arizona, Ohio and Vermont. With assistance from his wife, Susan, he conducts his private law practice in White River Junction, Vermont, and Dayton, Ohio. Their daughter, Amy, is a community relations director for a senior living company in Los Angeles, and their daughter, Nancy, is active in the Upper Valley and directs The Junction, a program of Listen Community Services, in White River Junction.

Martin Butler is currently the Business Manager for the retail store, The J List, in Norwich, Vermont. A former educator in both private and public k-8 schools, Martin holds a graduate degree in education. He is involved in the local community serving on the boards of the Montessori School in Hanover, NH, and The Norwich Public Library. Martin lives in Norwich, Vermont, with his wife Jill and two children, Lillie and Henry.

Bayle Drubel (Chair) is a commercial real estate developer focusing her efforts on White River Junction, Vermont. She is a graduate of Simmons College and Hofstra Law School. Prior to attending law school she worked at the Brookings Institution in Washington DC. In the early eighties she was an attorney in the Regulatory Litigation Section of the Department of Energy, Washington, DC. Drubel is an active member of the community and has served as President of four nonprofit organizations.

Byron Hathorn is a real estate investor and developer with 30 years experience in the Upper Valley market. Most recently he has focused on investment in commercial real estate projects from the Upper Valley to Boston. He has been an active part of the community serving on the Board of Northern Stage and as a member of the Vermont Transportation Authority. In addition, Byron is a master alpine competitor.

Peggy Kannenstine is a Vermont painter and printmaker. She is currently a Board member of the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies and of the New England Creative Economy Council. She serves on the Arts Initiative Committee of the Upper Valley Community Foundation Advisory Board, the Pentangle Council of the Arts, the Norman Williams Public Library (as incorporator and former Board member), and North Universalist Chapel Society (as Board chair). Past affiliations include board membership on the New England Foundation, and chair of the boards of both the Vermont Studio Center and the Vermont Arts Council.

Tom Ketteridge (Treasurer) is the Managing Director of the Upper Valley Haven, a private, non-profit human services organization located in White River Junction, Vermont, offering emergency shelter for families, a food shelf, clothing room, and educational programming to those struggling to meet their basic needs. Before coming to The Haven in 2000, Tom worked for White Mountains Insurance Group in Hanover for 6 years. Prior to that he worked in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical fields. Tom grew up on Long Island, and served in the Army for 3 years. He has a BS from SUNY at Stony Brook, an MBA from Rivier College, and is a CPA. He has lived in the Upper Valley since 1985, and currently lives in Lyme Center with his wife, Darlene, and Arrow. An avid runner, Tom ran the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D.C. in 1999.

Charles G. Lief is a co-founder of the Hartland Group, a Burlington, VT based company engaged in developing stimulating places for people to live and work in downtowns and emerging New Urbanist Communtiies. The Hartland Group also partners with nonprofits involved in affordable housing and community economic development. He is the Chair of the Board of the Social Enterprise Alliance, the premier international association supporting organizations that advance their social missions through entrepreneurial earned income activities. Lief served as President of Greyston Foundation from 1992 to 2003 developing $45 million of affordable housing and community development projects. During his tenure as Greyston's President the organization grew from a small non-profit with a handful of employees into a multi-entity organization with 180 employees and an annual operating budget of $14 million. He is a founding member of the Board of Trustees of the Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. Lief received a BA from Brandeis University and a JD from the University of Colorado School of Law.

Ana Merino is Assistant Professor of Latin American and Spanish Literature and Culture at Dartmouth College. She has published a scholarly work on comics titled El Cómic Hispánico (Cátedra, 2003) and four books of poetry. She has won the Adonais and Fray Luis de Leon awards for poetry. She is a member of the executive committee for the International Comics Art Festival and member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Comic Art. Her articles on comics-now numbering over 40- have appeared in Leer, DDLV, The Comics Journal, International Journal of Comic Art, and Hispanic Issues. She has served as curator for two comics exhibitions, one in the US titled Comics Release, and another in Spain dedicated to Fantagraphics for La Semana Negra (she was the author of the bilingual catalogue entitled Fantagraphics creadores del canon). Ana Merino has also published five books of poetry: Preparativos para un viaje (1995), Los días gemelos (1997), La voz de los relojes (2000), Juegos de niños (2003), and Compañera de Celda (2006). Cell Mate (translated by Elizabeth Polli), Harbor Mountain Press, 2007.

John Slorp is Professor Emeritus, Minneapolis College of Art and Design and served as president of Minneapolis College of Art and Design from 1990 to 2002: previously he served for eight years as president of Memphis College of Art. An artist by training, he has taught painting, calligraphy and computer design courses. Prior to moving to Memphis, Prof. Slorp served on the faculty of the Maryland Institute, College of Art, where he held the Chair of the Foundation Studies Department for eight years. Prof. Slorp has been on the Board of Trustees ART Today (Memphis Brooks Museum) and Opera Memphis and has served as a trustee of the BRAVO Scholarship Fund for Performing Arts. He was the initial planner for the program in Visual Arts of the Baltimore High School for the Arts, where he initiated the first instructional program. He served on the Committee for Advanced Placement: Visual Arts, The College Board, which established the current standards for advanced placement portfolios in art. Prof. Slorp has served on the Commission for Accreditation of the National Association of Schools of Art and Design as well as being part of and leading accreditation and certification teams for several regional and State entities.

James Sturm (CCS Director) is an internationally recognized cartoonist. He is cofounder and Director of The National Association of Comics Art Educators. His writings and illustrations have appeared in scores of national and regional publications including The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Onion, The New York Times and on the cover of the The New Yorker. He is also a co-founder of The Stranger, a Seattle arts and news weekly. His book, The Golem's Mighty Swing, was named the 2001 Comic of the Year by Time Magazine and has been translated into three languages.

Administration

Michelle Ollie (CCS President) is cofounder of The Center for Cartoon Studies. She is experienced in management and marketing in higher education, nonprofit, and corporate settings. She most recently was a director at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD). Prior to MCAD, she was the development manager for Banta Corporation. She has an MBA from the University of St. Thomas and has taught for both MCAD and New York Institute of Technology's MBA degree program. She has served on several college academic advisory boards, lectured and presented at colleges and schools across the United States and internationally. She is the associate editor of Mechademia, a new academic annual on anime, manga, and design, published by the University of Minnesota Press and formed Ollie and Company, Inc., a Twin Cities based marketing and design firm.