Board of Trustees and Officers Biographies
Board of Trustees
Ellen S. Abramowitz (Chairman)
Ellen received her BFA with an emphasis on photography from the University of Arizona and worked as a professional photographer before receiving her real estate certificate from NYU and entering the world of corporate real estate. She remains active in the arts community as a collector of contemporary art and as a member of PWP - Professional Women Photographers. Ellen joined MoCCA's board of advisors in 2002 before becoming a trustee in 2004. She is active in a number of other civic and charitable organizations including Women's American ORT, The Real Estate Board of New York and NYCREW (New York Commercial Real Estate of Women).
Lawrence Klein, Esq. (Chairman Emeritus and Founder)
Lawrence founded MoCCA in the summer of 2001. In New York City he worked
as in house counsel for high-technology companies. Currently, Lawrence
lives in Berkshire County, Massachusetts with his wife and son. Since his
retirement from active leadership of MoCCA, Lawrence has joined the board
of the Storefront Artist Project (SAP) in Pittsfield, MA. At SAP Lawrence
created the successful Comic Book and Cartoon Art Comes Alive programming.
As part of this programming he curated “The Art of Joe Staton” in August
of 2008 and “The Art of Scott Hanna” in August 2009. He serves on the
boards of several local non-profits. Lawrence is proud of MoCCA's success
under its current leadership and still enjoys his visits to MoCCA.
Steven Brezzo
Steve Brezzo is a museum specialist, lecturer, writer on topics of popular culture, and an arts administrator with an extensive background in the visual and performing arts.
He served as Director of the San Diego Museum of Art for twenty years and subsequently served as an international museum and non-profit consultant. He has been Director of the Laguna Beach Festival of the Arts / Pageant of the Masters and was Director of Sotheby’s Institute of Art in New York.
His writing has appeared in publications as diverse as The Atlantic Monthly, Apollo, and Ring Magazine.
In addition, he has worked in a variety of mediums including television and radio, and has organized exhibitions on topics of art and popular culture ranging from Dr. Seuss, the Muppets, Maurice Sendak, Laurent de Brunhoff, Star Trek, Star Wars and Hollywood Movie Posters.
He resides in New York and Connecticut.
Ken Fisher (Trustee, Financial Committee)
Ken is the creator of the weekly comic strip Tom the Dancing Bug, which he
creates under the pseudonym Ruben Bolling. Tom the Dancing Bug is
distributed by Universal Press Syndicate to over fifty newspapers, and also
appears on Salon.com. In addition to producing the comic strip, Fisher has
worked as an attorney and a banker.
Mark J. Lerner (Trustee, Financial Committee)
Mark is the President of Morgan, Evan and Company an investment banking
group created in 1992. In addition, he is currently the vice president of
the Asia-Pacific region of M&A International. A collector of contemporary
art, Mark has served on the board of directors of the Vassar College Art
Museum for five years and has been the chairman for the past two.
Keith Mayerson (Trustee)
Roger Reed (Trustee, Collections Committee)
Roger is president of Illustration House, America's foremost gallery
dedicated to illustration and cartoon art. He has written many articles and
papers on the subject and edited the definitive reference work by his
father, Illustration House founder Walt Reed, The Illustrator in America,
1860-2000. In addition he has been curator to exhibitions of such artists
as J.C. Leyendecker, Joseph Clement Coll, and John Held, Jr.
Jim Salicrup (Trustee, Public Relations Committee)
Jim is editor-in-chief at Papercutz, publishers of the new Nancy Drew,
Classics Illustrated and Tales From The Crypt graphic novels. Jim began his
career at Marvel, where he edited X-Men, Fantastic Four; Avengers, the best
selling Spider-Man # 1. As editor-in-chief of Topps Comics, Jim edited Bram
Stoker's Dracula, The X-Files, and a line of Jack Kirby super-hero titles.
At Stan Lee Media, Jim was senior writer/editor and the writer and voice of
Stan Lee's Evil Clone.
Fred Van Lente (Trustee, Collections Committee, Fundraising Committees)
FRED VAN LENTE is the New York Times bestselling author of Incredible Hercules (with Greg Pak) and Marvel Zombies 3 & 4, as well as the American Library Association award-winning Action Philosophers. His other comics incldue Comic Book Comics, MODOK's 11, X Men Noir and Amazing Spider-Man.
Wizard magazine nominated him for 2008 Breakout Talent (Writer). Comics Should Be Good named Fred one of the 365 Reasons to Love Comics. He's been called "one of the most idiosyncratic and insightful new voices in comics." |
