Meet Our Board and Advisors
Dedicated to Honoring Women who have served - Committed to core American Values
Mary Ellen Scherl
Artist / Founder / Executive Producer
Ms. Scherl received her BFA from Washington University in St. Louis, MO. After a 17-year career as an award-winning art director at premier advertising agencies, Leo Burnet Company (Chicago) and Young & Rubicam (New York), Ms. Scherl began to pursue an inborn passion for painting, sculpting, photography and writing. She exhibits widely in the US and abroad and is in the permanent collection at Vanderbilt University, NYU Langone Medical Center and the Contemporary Museum of Sculpture in Datong, China.
Ms. Scherl gained national recognition for her first Social Art project, “Mamorial,” a non-profit breast cancer initiative that offered healing and awareness through art. Ms. Scherl frequently lectures on her art. She has been reviewed in The New York Times and featured on NBC Nightly News and in numerous local and national media. She served as President of the Sculptors Guild in New York, as a member of the Board of the International Sculpture Center (publisher of Sculpture Magazine), and on the Executive Board of the Bakehouse Art Complex.
Ms. Scherl is a Bakehouse Resident Artist, Wynwood Arts District, Miami, Florida
WEBSITE: maryellenscherl.com
Pamela Reingold Mayer
Board member
Pamela Reingold Mayer made a conscious decision upon retirement to devote her time to community involvement. Her personal mission statement: Take an active role in non-profit organizations involving the importance of the arts.
Currently, she holds positions on The Coconut Grove Arts Festival, Partners for Art + Design, and The Collins Park Neighborhood Association.
Ms. Mayer facilitates a Women’s Book Club and the Women Writers of South Beach writing group that has just released its second collection on Amazon. A recent successful effort to support Ukraine through a silent art auction donating all proceeds to the World Kitchen. She is a JCC Cultural Arts Committee member that is open to all interested parties to bring art, film, and literature to Miami Dade.
Taylor C. Pancake
Board Member
Taylor C. Pancake is a partner and business lawyer with Foley & Lardner LLP. Taylor is based in the firm’s Orlando office where he is a member of the Transactional & Securities Practice as well as a member of the Health Care Industry Team. He is also chair of the firm’s Veterans Affinity Group.
A former United States Marine, Taylor served in Iraq and Kuwait in 2003 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Connie Coopersmith
Advisor / Executive Producer.
Connie Coopersmith is an established writer, producer and event coordinator. She has traveled to five continents on behalf of The White House, State Department and the Clinton Foundation, producing or coordinating televised town halls, international summits, meetings with Heads of State and other events.
An award-winning magazine writer and editor, she also served on producing and directing teams for ABC Sports, ESPN, NFL Films and NBC, and as executive producer of the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts co-founded by Jimmy Smits, Esai Morales, Sonia Braga and Felix Sanchez.
She is a partner in White Chocolate Management and teamed with Shaquille O’Neal and the Safe Surfing Foundation to make the Internet safer for children.
Jason Korman
Advisor
Jason Korman is a top global expert in Organizational Culture.
His columns have been published in Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, MIT Sloan Management Review, the London School of Economics Business Review, and more. He is the co-founder and CEO of Gapingvoid Culture Design Group, based in Miami, Florida
Dr. Jill Kaplan
Advisor / Executive Director
Jill Kaplan has been in the field of Behavioral Medicine for over 30 years in various academic and passion projects in community health, HIV interventions and epidemiology as well as clinical trials in the academic and private sectors consulting statistics, clinical trials, curriculum development. She earned her PhD at the University of Miami where she did research and instruction and currently is an adjunct faculty at Purdue University’s Graduate Program in Behavioral Sciences mentoring master’s students and her passion, teaching. She has focused much of her career on the field of gender and neuroscience/behavior and personality.
She serves on the Florida Lawyer’s Assistance board, the Women’s Club of Coconut Grove, the Gifford Lane Art Stroll, the Friends of the Commodore Trail, and lectures for organizations such as Women 2.0 (international monthly educational series) and Women of Tomorrow. She is a passionate advocate for the magic of art and artists in our community and worldwide.
Rossie Cortes
Advisor / Media
Rossie Cortes is a marketing executive with 24 years of experience specializing in marketing communications, digital media, and digital advertising.
Cortes is the founder of Stack Marketing, servicing non-profit, technology, and healthcare organizations in the US and LATAM. Prior to Stack Marketing, Cortes worked as the Marketing Executive Director for Nicklaus Children’s Hospital Foundation, managing digital donations, advertising, events, and donor stewardship, assisting in raising millions to help patients and families. She currently also serves as a Board member for Partners for the Arts and Design (PFA+D).
Throughout her career, Cortes had the opportunity to work with Fortune 500 clients, including Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Cisco, EVERTEC, and SAS. She is also a published author and a former business journalist.
LIA YAFFAR-PENA
Advisor / Finance and Operations
Lia Yaffar-Pena (Board Treasurer) is an independent consultant in the areas of Strategic Thought Partnership and Execution. She is an entrepreneurial-minded, self-motivated, multilingual/cultural, strategic thinker and problem solver, focused on innovating and improving processes by thinking critically, strategically, and creatively.
Lia’s experience spans over 25 years in Financial Services, including positions of various levels of responsibility in the retail and private banking, brokerage, and investment advisor platforms including HSBC Securities, Espirito Santo Bank, and Charles Schwab. The positions she has held include responsibility for leading sales teams, managing P&L, as well as strategy design and implementation of products platforms, pricing, and execution. She has served on the Board of Directors of a Florida Chartered bank, Broker/dealer, and Investment Advisor. She currently serves as Director on the Board of the Salvadoran American Humanitarian Foundation (SAHF), a Florida non-profit organization whose mission is to help the underserved in El Salvador through human development programs.
Lia received a bachelor’s in business administration in Finance from the University of Miami and a MBA from George Washington University. She is a native speaker/writer in English and Spanish, fluent in French, and has working knowledge of Portuguese. She holds several FINRA Investments licenses as well as Agent Insurance License.