Board of Directors

Natasha Hoehn '90, president
Sabrina Adler ‘96
Lynne A. Carmichael
Dorian Kingman Chong
Charles Ferguson
Spencer B. Fulweiler
Daniel Gallisá
Carol Harris
Peter Kwan
Carol D. Martin
Peter Mierau
Sheila Schwartzburg

Honorary Board

 

 

 

 

 

Board of Directors - Biographies

Sabrina Adler

Sabrina Adler is a public health attorney doing policy work in the area of childhood obesity. A San Francisco native, she sang with the Girls Chorus from 1988 until 1998. She also worked as production manager for SFGC from 2002 until 2004. Sabrina currently sings with and is administrative director for the women's vocal ensemble Musae. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, running, cycling, and traveling around the Bay Area and beyond. She is a graduate of Brown University and Stanford Law School. 

 

 

 

 

Lynne Carmichael

Lynne Carmichael is a partner in the San Francisco law firm of Hinman & Carmichael LLP, practicing exclusively in the area of alcoholic beverage law.  She is the author of “Transferring Retail Liquor Licenses in California,” California Business Law Practitioner, Continuing Education of the Bar, Vol. XV, No. 3, Summer 2000; and contributed  to the “Urban Bars” land use chapter in Wine in America:  Law and Policy, by Richard Mendelson, Wolters Kluwer Law and Business, 2011.   She is a 1978 graduate of UC Berkeley School of Law and a 1965 graduate of Occidental College.

She has served on the Board of the San Francisco Girls Chorus from 1992-2006 and from 2008 to the present.  Lynne has been on practically every foreign tour the Chorus has taken since 1992, and the accompanying picture was taken while the girls were on tour in Estonia in 2003. 

 

Dorian Kingman Chong

Dorian Kingman Chong has worked in various capacities in the field of children’s literature.  This includes teaching Children’s Literature at San Jose State in the MLIS program, writing reviews of children’s books for School Library Journal and Kirkus Reviews, and working as a children’s librarian in the Oakland and Berkeley Public Library systems.  She served on the 2001 Caldecott jury selecting the award and honor books for that year in children’s book illustration.  Dorian has also served on the Board of the Bancroft Library at UC Berkeley.

Dorian, a lifetime music-lover, has served on the Board of the SFGC during most of the 1980’s, including a year as President.  Her daughter is Chorus alumna Phoenix Reed Feinbloom who laureated in 1987.  Dorian returned to the Board in 2006 and served as President from 2009 to 2011.  She has either chaired or participated in every Search Committee for new artistic leadership since the founding director retired from the Chorus in 1992.

Daniel Gallisá

Daniel has been a singer for most of his life. From church and symphonic choirs to college a capella to rock & roll bands, he traces all his musical experiences back to what he learned as a boy chorister. Professionally, after 15 years as an advertising account executive, Daniel changed career paths in 2009 and became a Financial Advisor with the Moxley/Kremer Group at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney. Born in Puerto Rico, raised in Connecticut, educated at Harvard, and a San Francisco resident since 1997, Daniel lives in the NOPA neighborhood with his wife Kitty, their young son Oscar, and their tennis-ball-obsessed dog, Cielo. 

 

 

 

Carol A. Harris 

Carol A. Harris is a San Francisco corporate attorney, civic leader, and mother of three San Francisco Girls Chorus alumnae, who sang with the Chorus from 1984 through1999.  Her husband Richard served on the Board from 1987 to 1991.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Natasha Hoehn

Natasha Hoehn is an educator and artist with a 30-year history with the San Francisco Girls Chorus. A graduate of Yale University and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Natasha joined SFGC in 1982. During her decade as a chorister, she sang for the Queen of England and in the Superbowl, toured to the Pacific Northwest, North Carolina, Austria and Hungary, and appeared on stages up and down California. She spent five years in Chorissima, four as a section leader, and three as a founding member of Virtuose, during which she took part in the Chorus’ full-scale production of Dido and Aeneas, in many SF Opera productions, including Carmen, La Boheme, Werther, and on the Chorus’ first recordings, including its first Grammy-winning collaboration with the SF Symphony, the 1988 recording of Carmina Burana. After laureation, Natasha’s subsequent involvement with SFGC has included the role of Director of Level II, Director of Level III, Chorissima Voice Teacher, Alumnae Chorus Director, Assistant Camp Director, and staff member.  Three decades later, Natasha is an accomplished vocalist and conductor, and has been a frequent soloist in opera, musical theater, and jazz in the Bay Area and throughout the US. Natasha is the founding artistic director of the SF-based Women’s vocal ensemble, Musae, and performed her original one woman show, “Learning to Breathe” at the Marsh Theater in San Francisco in 2010. She has collaborated with numerous prominent performers, writers, stage directors and conductors throughout the US, and was a student of Donna Peterson, Lili Chookasian, Ruth Falcon and Jane Randolph.

Natasha has also dedicated a substantial portion of her professional life as an educator and advocate for public education. A Teach for America Corps member and Coro Fellow, Natasha taught junior high school in the South Bronx, where she founded the school’s drama program and developed an early college English curriculum that emphasized inter-disciplinary writing and the arts.  After returning to San Francisco, Natasha played a leadership role in several local initiatives in support of public schools, including Prop A 2006, Prop A 2008 and Prop A 2010. She now serves as Executive Director of the Silver Giving Foundation and is a Senior Partner of California Education Partners. Natasha is currently the chair of San Francisco’s After School for All Council, the founding board chair of the Future Leaders’ Institute, and a Board Member of Children Now.

Carol D. Martin

Carol has a wealth of experience in the development and marketing of consumer, technology and business-to-business products. Prior to forming Martin & Stowe in 1991, Carol was a Vice President and senior research/planning executive at Foote, Cone & Belding, San Francisco. In her years at FCB, she directed the research on many accounts including The Clorox Company, SC Johnson, Epson, National Semiconductor and Levi Strauss.

Throughout her career, Carol has focused her energies on delving deeply into the minds of consumers, uncovering both the emotional as well as rational components of decision making. By merging keen consumer insights with her own creative vision, she has helped many Fortune 500 companies, smaller start-ups and non-profit organizations develop highly successful products, advertising, brand identities and marketing programs.

Carol holds an MBA in Marketing from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and a BA in Art History from the University of Michigan.

Peter Mierau

Peter Mierau has held leadership roles at various San Francisco Bay Area software firms, startups, and consultancies for the past 30 years, including 15 years at Adobe Systems.  He currently is a principal in a software startup specializing in content tuning for mobile and web applications, and also does consulting work.  Peter holds a BS in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Purdue University.

Peter has been a fan of choral music for many years and has made audio and video recordings of many singers and choirs.  His daughter has participated in several choirs since she was a little girl and is about to graduate with a Vocal Music degree from Utah Valley University.  Peter has held officer roles on the boards of directors of both the Contra Costa Childrens Chorus as well as the San Francisco Girls Chorus.

 

 

Honorary Board

Kurt Herbert Adler (In Memoriam)
Elizabeth Appling Bloch, Founder
Marie and George Hecksher
Maurice Kanbar
Paul A. Renne
Richard A. Rubin, ESQ
Sheila Schwartzburg
Michael Tilson Thomas
Frederica Von Stade
Diane B. Wilsey