New members join the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum Board of Trustees and Leadership Team

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE—May 21, 2021 (Santa Fe, NM)—The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum is
proud to announce the arrival of eight new members to its Board of Trustees and two new members to its Leadership Team.

“We are very excited to have new members on our Board of Trustees and Leadership Team,” says Cody Hartley, Director of The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum. “As we look towards the future, they bring invaluable expertise and knowledge to the organization. I look forward to working with this dynamic group.”

Ric E. Abel joins the Board of Trustees after a career as Managing Director and
Dedicated Principal at Prudential Capital Energy Partners. Abel is currently a member
of the Energy, Development, and Global Environment Advisory Board of Duke
University’s Fuqua School. Abel was a professional ballet dancer for 15 years with the
San Francisco Opera Ballet, Irish Ballet, Eglevsky Ballet, and many others.

Val Alonzo is Executive Director of the Regional Development Corporation, in
Española, New Mexico. Alonzo has been involved in providing community and
business development in Northern New Mexico. Alonzo is also a member of the Rural
Economic Development Council, and board member of the New Mexico IDEA
Statewide Economic Development Organization, and the New Mexico Student Loan
Guarantee Corporation.

Windi Grimes is owner of Windfohr Design, which she started in 2004 after a career in
retail management, fine art galleries, auctions, and finance. Grimes currently serves as a
Trustee on the boards of The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Modern Art Museum
of Fort Worth; The Burnett Foundation, Fort Worth; and the Washington International
Horse Show.

Donna Kinzer recently retired as the Executive Director of the Maryland Health
Services Cost Review Commission. She is a former Managing Director of Navigant
Consulting and Berkeley Research Group, LLC, and Partner at Arthur Anderson.
Kinzer has served on the boards of the Marjorie Cook Foundation, Baltimore Theater
Project, and the House of Ruth.

Nicole Namingha is from the Tewa tribe from Northern New Mexico, the Pueblo of
Ohkay Owingeh. For 25 years, Nicole has managed Niman Fine Art in Santa Fe, along
with being the in-house photographer. In 2008, she served as an honorary board
member for Futures for Children.

Glenn Ramsdell is Director of Worldwide Recovery (Reverse Logistics) at Amazon.
His experience also includes leadership roles with McKinsey & Co, Target
Corporation, Levi Strauss & Co., and Accenture. From 2005 – 2014, Ramsdell was a
Trustee of San Francisco’s Asian Art Museum Foundation.

Anita Webber Smith, owner of Webb Design Interiors, currently serves on the
advisory board of Memorial Park Conservancy and the board of Project Row Houses,
and is a member of the Missouri Chapter of The Links, Inc. She is a founding donor of
the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture.

Jock Soto joins the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum’s Board of Trustees as a former
principal ballet dancer at the School of American Ballet (SAB) and a member of
SAB’s permanent faculty. Soto retired from dancing in 2005 after a performance
career of 24 years. Soto’s extensive repertory includes featured roles in over 40 ballets,
of which 35 were created for him.

The O’Keeffe is also pleased to welcome Jennifer Foley, Deputy Director for Collections and
Engagement and Judy Scharmer, CFO, to the Leadership Team.

Jennifer Foley joins the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum as the Deputy Director for
Collections and Engagement after five years as the Director of Education and
Community Engagement for the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York
where she worked with a team of educators to lead the museum’s public programming,
community engagement, and interpretation. Previously, she was the Director of
Interpretation at the Cleveland Museum of Art and began her career at the Virginia
Museum of Fine Arts. She holds a Ph.D. and MA in art history from Cornell
University, and a BA from Brooklyn College, the City University of New York.

As CFO, Judy Scharmer has more than 30 years of experience in accounting, finance,
and business operations. Scharmer served for the last 13+ years as CFO for the New
Mexico Military Institute. Scharmer brings with her a wide range of accounting
experience and business acumen to successfully oversee the management of the
Museum’s financial system. Scharmer holds a Master of Business Administration from
Eastern New Mexico University and is a Certified Public Accountant.

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ABOUT THE GEORGIA O’KEEFFE MUSEUM
Since 1997, the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum has shared the art, life, and story of Georgia O’Keeffe to visitors from around the world. Located in New Mexico, where Georgia O’Keeffe lived the final decades of her life, the O’Keeffe has sites and experiences in two historic destinations, Santa Fe and Abiquiú. For more information, please visit okeeffemuseum.org.

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