BMA Appoints Six New Members to its Board of Trustees

BALTIMORE, MD (July 30, 2020)—The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) announced today the addition of six new trustees to its board. They include Denise Galambos, Lisa Harris Jones, Elizabeth Hurwitz, Sherrilyn Ifill, Stuart O. Simms, and James D. Thornton. The new trustees join Clair Zamoiski Segal, the BMA’s Board Chair, Christopher Bedford, the Dorothy Wagner Wallis Director, and 40 other active trustees in leading the BMA and ensuring its long-term success. The Board of Trustees is responsible for the governance and oversight of the museum and fostering ongoing support for the BMA’s ambitious mission and vision.

“Our new trustees bring incredible vision and expertise from across the fields of art, philanthropy, law, and business. I know that their commitment to excellence and to the strength of The Baltimore Museum of Art will help ensure our institution’s continued growth and success,” said Zamoiski Segal. “I am delighted to welcome them to the Board and very much look forward to collaborating with them, and our other wonderful trustees, on the museum’s upcoming initiatives.”

“In this unprecedented moment, it is essential that we continue to diversify the BMA’s board leadership and to bring new voices, perspectives, and ideas to the table. The exceptional range of knowledge and experience of our new trustees is invaluable to our continued work in enacting our strategic vision and further developing our role as a truly civic-minded institution,” said Bedford. “I am grateful for their commitment to and passion for the BMA and am excited to work with them and all of our trustees in service to our community in Baltimore.”

Denise Galambos
Denise Galambos, Vice President of Human Resources at Baltimore Gas and Electric Company (BGE), has worked closely with BGE’s human resources and executive leadership teams since 2003 as the company’s associate general counsel for labor and employment. In this role, she was responsible for labor and employment litigation, labor relations negotiations, merger and acquisition labor activities, as well as training and counseling for parent company Exelon’s human resources professionals. Prior to joining BGE, Galambos was of counsel for eight years in the labor and employment practice group of Morgan Lewis & Bockius in Washington, D.C., and spent five years as a litigation attorney in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Labor. She is a 1990 graduate of the University of Wisconsin Law School and received her bachelor’s degree from Princeton University. Galambos is active in the Baltimore community, serving on the boards of Young Audiences and SquashWise and volunteering with the Women’s Law Center’s Employment Law Hotline.

Lisa Harris Jones
Lisa Harris Jones is founder and managing partner of the Harris Jones & Malone LLC law firm, where she focuses on government relations and procurement for municipalities, quasi-public agencies, nonprofits, and publicly held and private enterprises of all sizes. She is a board member of three publicly traded companies: Industrial Logistics Properties Trust, Senior Housing Properties Trust, and TravelCenters of America, LLC, and serves on the City of Baltimore MBE/WBE Certification Appeals Board and the boards of Everyman Theatre and The Odyssey School. Harris Jones has been recognized internationally by Savoy magazine as one of the Most Influential Black Corporate Directors. Among the numerous awards she has received are the Current Leader Award from the Alliance of Black Women Attorneys of Maryland, Inc. (2019), Friend of Dyslexia Award for Outstanding Dyslexia Advocacy (2016), Maryland Government Relations Association’s Community Service Award (2016), as well as the YWCA Greater Baltimore’s Special Leader Award, The Daily Record’s Leadership in Law Award, The Baltimore Sun’s 50 Women to Watch, and the Maryland Coalition for Responsive Government’s 21st Century Woman distinction. Prior to founding her company in 2000, Harris Jones was an associate with the law firms Gordon, Feinblatt, Rothman, Hoffberger & Hollander, LLC (1997-1999) and Shapiro and Olander (1993-1997). She holds degrees from the University of Pittsburgh and the American University Washington College of Law in Washington, DC.

Elizabeth Hurwitz
Elizabeth Hurwitz has been an active supporter of the BMA since 2012, serving on the Marketing Advisory Committee (2016-present), Arts of Africa, Asia, and Pacific Islands Accessions Committee (2014- present), and the Planning Committee for the Party of the Century (2014). She is also very active in the wider Baltimore community as a board member of Center Stage (2013-present) and chair of the Center Stage Education (2015-2018) and Family Engagement (2018-present) committees, board member of the Citizens Planning and Housing Association (2012-2014), executive board member of the Parents Association of Bryn Mawr School (2012-2013 and 2018-present), and a docent at the American Visionary Art Museum (2012-2013). Her professional life has been in the area of public health, at Jhpiego as Senior Technical Development Officer and Program Officer, Innovation (2014-2016) and at John Snow Inc. and the JSI Research and Training Institute in Boston (2005-2011) working in the field of HIV/AIDS. She graduated from Yale and earned an MPH from Boston University School of Public Health.

Sherrilyn Ifill
Sherrilyn Ifill is the President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF), the nation’s premier civil rights law organization fighting for racial justice and equality. The second woman to lead the LDF, Ifill has increased the organization’s engagement with urgent civil rights issues and continued its leadership role in the fight against voter suppression, inequity in education, and racial discrimination in the application of the death penalty. Ifill also taught for more than 20 years at University of Maryland School of Law in Baltimore, where in addition to nurturing thousands of students, she pioneered a series of law clinics, including one of the earliest in the country to focus on challenging the legal barriers to the reentry of ex-offenders. Ifill is a prolific scholar and the author of the much-acclaimed book, On the Courthouse Lawn: Confronting the Legacy of Lynching in the 21st Century (2008). She serves on the board of the National Women’s Law Center, the National Constitution Center, and on the Advisory board for the Profiles in Courage Award. She also previously served as the chair of the U.S. board of the Open Society Foundations. Ifill graduated from Vassar College in 1984 with a B.A. in English and earned her J.D. from New York University School of Law in 1987. She has received honorary doctorates from New York University, Bard College, Fordham University Law School, and CUNY Law School.

 Stuart O. Simms
Stu Simms has over 30 years of experience as a respected prosecutor and trial lawyer, as well as more than a decade of experience heading large government agencies. He has been a partner at Brown, Goldstein & Levy since 2003, specializing in civil litigation, criminal defense, civil rights, and employment law and government relations. His public service positions include Secretary, Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services (1997-2003); Secretary, Maryland Department of Juvenile Services (1995-1997), State’s Attorney for Baltimore City (1990-1995) and Assistant United States Attorney, 1978-1982. In 1987, he co-founded the Baltimore Child Abuse Center, which continues to serve child victims of sexual abuse. He was also staff counsel in the Office of U.S. Senator Paul Sarbanes (1976-1978). Throughout his illustrious career, he has received numerous honors and accolades, including being selected as a Thurgood Marshall Honoree by the NAACP (2013) and for The Daily Record’s Leadership in Law Award (2013). Simms served on the board of the Baltimore Community Foundation for many years. He graduated from Gilman School, Dartmouth and Harvard Law School.

James D. Thornton
James D. Thornton previously served as the co-founder and principal of Thorwood Real Estate Group, LLC, based in Bel Air, Maryland, where he was responsible for the redevelopment of properties into multi-family units in the Baltimore region. Thornton has many years in senior management positions with two major Fortune 100 companies, most recently as Senior Executive Vice President of MBNA America Bank, N.A. (prior to being acquired by Bank of America), the largest independent credit card lender in the world. He also worked as Vice President and General Manager of the Sears Tire Group and Sears Automotive. Thornton currently serves on the Harford County Planning Advisory Board; is a member of the Trial Courts Judicial Nominating Commission for Harford County; the Chair of Harford Caucus of African American Leaders; and the Education Chair of Harford County Branch of NAACP. He also previously sat on the BMA’s Board of Trustees (2004-2019), holding numerous leadership positions including Chair of the Governance and Finance Committees, Vice Chair of the Board and Chair of the Strategic Planning Committee, and Co-Chair of the Major Gifts Committee for the most successful philanthropic campaign in the museum’s history. Thornton received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Talladega College.

About the Baltimore Museum of Art

Founded in 1914, the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) inspires people of all ages and backgrounds through exhibitions, programs, and collections that tell an expansive story of art—challenging long-held narratives and embracing new voices. Our outstanding collection of more than 97,000 objects spans many eras and cultures and includes the world’s largest public holding of works by Henri Matisse; one of the nation’s finest collections of prints, drawings, and photographs; and a rapidly growing number of works by contemporary artists of diverse backgrounds. The museum is also distinguished by a neoclassical building designed by American architect John Russell Pope and two beautifully landscaped gardens featuring an array of modern and contemporary sculpture. The BMA is located three miles north of the Inner Harbor, adjacent to the main campus of Johns Hopkins University, and has a community branch at Lexington Market. General admission is free so that everyone can enjoy the power of art.