Board of Directors
Jeannie Baliles may have only served as the First Lady of Virginia for four years, but she has served the state as First Lady of Literacy for much longer. The Virginia Literacy Foundation, an organization Baliles created when her husband former Virginia Governor Gerald L. Baliles campaigned for office, celebrated 20 years of service and honored its founder. Barbara Bush met Baliles in the mid '80s and read the audience an excerpt from her diary in which she called Baliles a "ball of fire. " She's done a great job in her state and is a real leader . . . She rolled up her sleeves and went to work and hasn't stopped since," Bush said. The Virginia Literacy Foundation, which helps support adult literacy groups throughout the state with community grants, served 34 private literacy organizations when it began. Today the foundation oversees more than 120 groups who tutor 14,000 adults each year, thanks to the support of more than 10,000 volunteer tutors.
Gary Anderson, M.Ed. has 30 years experience as a school psychologist is Virginia’s public school systems. Presently, he is the lead school psychologist in Virginia’s Dept. of Correctional Education. While serving as Judicial Council of Virginia certified mediator, he practiced in court ordered custody mediation. Gary initiated and chaired the largest one-day workshop (1500) organized by The Virginia Academy of School Psychologist to promote a statewide initiative of parents reading aloud to their children. Read Aloud Virginia came into being from this conference with Jim Trelease as the keynote. Gary is Coordinator of the National Association of School Psychologist special interest group (200 members) for reading. He recently celebrated his 30th wedding anniversary and has four grown children and two daughter-in-laws. Gary completed his second full Iron Man race on November 7, 2005.
Barry Brigman has over 25 years of experience in assessing, acquiring and managing global businesses in a variety of industry segments. Mr. Brigman has worked for both publicly and privately held companies and currently provides consulting, search and due diligent services for private equity groups and individual companies. He has industry experience in automotive, bulk chemicals, electronic components, computer/datacom, distribution services, telecommunications, textiles, gas and oil field services, contract manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, medical diagnostics and instrumentation.
From March 2003 to May 2005, Mr. Brigman was the Managing Partner for Hanley Partners Asia a global consulting group that assisted North American and European middle market businesses to access the market opportunities; material and product sourcing supply chains; and the manufacturing potential available in China.
Mr. Brigman was employed by Viasystems Group, Inc. from January 1997 to December 2002 as President of the Telecom Division, President of the Global PCB business, President of the Americas and Executive Vice President responsible for global business functions within Viasystems Group, Inc. Viasystems is a global printed circuit board and contract manufacturing company serving major OEM customers and suppliers in the telecom, datacom, automotive, computer, instrumentation, medical and consumer industries.
Mr. Brigman is a director and Chairman of Conner Steel Products Holdings, which supplies products to the oil and gas industry; the President and majority owner of Beech Tree Networks which provides inside and outside installation of RF, fiber optic and standard cabling networks for companies in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States and a Partner at Transact Capital Partners which provides strategic and financial services to small and middle market businesses.
Robert Foreman, Senior Information
Technology Specialist at International Business Machines (IBM) assisting
in the identification and selection of Key Performance Indicators,
business measures, service level metrics. Nine years experience
developing, creating, and maintaining service management reports,
performance metrics and statistical models. Five years experience
conducting data, marketing and financial analysis, customer segmentation
and project management. Four years of experience developing surveys,
conducting and analyzing market research data for customer service and
call center departments.
• Six Sigma - Black Belt
• Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL)
• IT Service Management Essentials – Certification
Philip Goodpasture is a partner with Williams Mullen’s Business Section. His practice is focused on business issues related to internet commerce businesses, music entertainment industry matters and corporate and personal investment strategies. Mr. Goodpasture serves as general counsel for businesses and careers, offering advice on legal and business issues, including deal structure, transactions strategy and strategic planning issues. He often coordinates his clients’ interaction with other specialists in the firm. He works regularly in trademark, copyright and related intellectual property matters and has extensive experience with mergers and acquisitions, venture capital transactions and executive employment arrangements. He has assisted a number of clients on matters related to charitable giving structures and issues. Mr. Goodpasture received a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics, with high distinction, from the University of Virginia in 1982. He received a law degree from the University of Virginia in 1985. Mr. Goodpasture is a member of the Virginia State Bar, the Richmond Bar Association and the Greater Richmond Intellectual Property Law Association. He is a 1994 graduate of Leadership Metro Richmond and a 1995 graduate of America’s Red Cross Leadership Development Council. He is a former board member of Planned Parenthood of Virginia, City Celebrations and Virginia Emergency Families for Children. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Institute for Actual Innocence at the University of Richmond School of Law.
Mary Hirschbiel has been the Executive Director of Read Aloud Delaware since July 1995. Prior to that she served as one of the three County Coordinators in Delaware. She created new systems to allow the program to triple in size in her first three years as the part-time coordinator. Mary has worked for Read Aloud since October 1988. Her prior work experience was in the field of fund raising for a small museum and opera festival in Charlottesville, VA. She has also run a variety of volunteer programs in Vermont, Virginia and Delaware. Her expertise is in Volunteer Administration. She is a graduate of Goddard College in Vermont where she wrote a senior study entitled, History in the Attic: The American Windsor Chair from 1750 to 1825. Mary still loves history and American material culture. Her great escapes are organizing closets and drawers, reading mysteries, and framing pictures. Mary lives in Wilmington Delaware with her husband of 32 years, Henry, who is also a nonprofit administrator and an historianCcurrently for the Kalmar Nyckel Foundation. They have one daughter, Cate, who will soon be graduating from Smith College in Medieval Studies and is looking forward to library school! (How's that for proof that environment really does influence our children!)
Kathleen Maccio Holman is a Senior Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer of Davenport & Company LLC, an independent financial services company headquartered in Richmond. She has been with the Davenport since 1994 and in her capacity is a member of the firm’s board of directors, serves on its management committee, and oversees all administrative functions. Prior to joining Davenport, Mrs. Holman was Director of Operations for Richmond Ballet, the State Ballet of Virginia, where she worked for 7 years. A native of Detroit, Michigan she holds a bachelor of arts from Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Indiana.
Bruce Kelley is Vice-Chairman of the prestigious The Martin Agency, an advertising agency located in Richmond, Virginia. As Vice Chairman, Bruce serves as Director of Account Management, oversees New Business Development, and the Sports/Event Marketing Division, and is responsible for overall general agency management. He is currently a participating member of Leadership Metro Richmond. Bruce is a graduate of Lafayette University and holds an MBA in Marketing from the University of Chicago. His advertising background includes positions with Olgivy & Mather, Wells Rich Greene, J. Walter Thompson, and Lowe Lintas & Partners. Bruce has helped steward some of the largest and most valuable advertising accounts in the world, including General Motors, Kodak, Mercedes-Benz, Perdue, Lipton, Time, and Clairol, to name a few. Bruce and his wife, Ella, have four children. His recreational interests include golf, tennis, poker, and fitness.
Sally Snyder is Coordinator of Children and Young Adult Library Services at the Nebraska Library Commission, a state agency with the mission of statewide promotion, development, and coordination of library services. She has worked at the Library Commission in various capacities for 20 years, during which time she has assisted with children’s programs and book reviews. Sally has served on the Board of Read Aloud Nebraska since March 2003. She holds a Master’s in Public Administration from the University of Nebraska at Omaha and is currently pursuing a Master’s in Library Science (MA) from the University of Missouri – Columbia. Sally taught children with physical handicaps at J.P. Lord School in Omaha from 1974-1976. She then moved to Estes Park, Colorado, and worked for nearly eight years at the Estes Park Public Library, the last three years as Children's Librarian. She returned to Nebraska in fall of 1984. Sally is one of four main programmers for a weekly half-hour show, BookTalk, on low-wattage local radio station KZUM. She selects the topic and locates a guest speaker for one show a month. The catch phrase for BookTalk is, “a show for people who like to read and like to talk about what they read.” Discussion of the selected book includes reading excerpts on the air. Her interests outside work include spending time with her husband, Dennis, and their cat, Spats, going to the movies, storytelling and reading.
Kirk E. Spitzer, Senior
Advisor, Alfa Laval AB
Kirk Spitzer retired as President & CEO of Alfa Laval Inc. on September 1,
2005. Kirk had overall responsibility for the USA operations, reporting to
the President and CEO of the worldwide Alfa Laval Group based in Lund,
Sweden. Alfa Laval is a global company with sales in excess of $1.8Billion
and 9,500 employees, and is a publicly held company listed on the
Stockholm Exchange in Stockholm, Sweden. Kirk joined Alfa Laval in 1983
as General Manager of Alfa Laval’s Thermal Division in Fort Lee, New
Jersey. He was appointed President when the company decentralized and
formed Business Areas beginning in 1987. Kirk served as President of
Thermal USA until the spring of 1998.