Board of Directors 2026-2027

  • Jeffrey received his Ph.D. in Comparative Literature (English, French, and German) at Yale. In effect, most of his publications and the slant of much of his teaching was intellectual history. Professor Barnouw taught at UCSD 1969-77, with two years off from 1972-74 for a Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Tuebingen. He has also held year-long fellowships from ACLS (American Council of Learned Societies), John Dewey Foundation, NEH (National Endowment for the Humanities), and the Getty Grant Program. He taught at Boston University, the University of Michigan, and finally from 1985-2011 at the University of Texas at Austin, where he is an Emeritus Professor of English and Comparative Literature. Jeffrey was a guest professor at the University of Paris X – Nanterre, the University of Paris III – Nouvelle Sorbonne (twice), the University of Toulouse (twice), the Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich (twice), and finally the Ecole Normale Superieure in Lyon. He is on the editorial board of Hobbes Studies and still involved in scholarship as an evaluating reader and reviewer.

  • Susan’s love for music started early, with the Spanish guitar, when she was a child in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Her father was a United States Naval Officer stationed there and their family listened to music of the region. Susan began studying guitar at age 5, when she moved back to the United States. At age 9, she heard another beautiful instrument courtesy of the Honolulu Symphony, the flute, and she wanted to learn to play that as well. Ever since, Susan has continued playing and performing flute music. Susan believes music can heal our souls and create a better world, and she enjoys supporting professional ensembles to help foster beautiful music for the community. Susan and her husband, Gary, have been married for 33 years and live in Poway. They have one daughter, Alana, who is in college. Gary is a physician, a Neuroradiologist, and one of partners at Imaging Healthcare Specialists. Together, they have cheerfully catered The Spoto Dinner for Camarada for the last eight years. Susan has been a supporter of Camarada since its inception over twenty years ago. A retired Clinical Laboratory Scientist, she continues to follow the latest medical discoveries and enjoys food, wine, travel, art, skiing, opera, theater, and an occasional sports car.

  • Robert J. Hughes is a longtime arts advocate, award-winning broadcaster, and strategic consultant whose career spans radio, music, and storytelling. As Vice President and on-stage host for Camarada, he brings warmth, context, and a deep love of music to every performance. In San Diego, Hughes is well-known for his years at KPRI, helping to build one of the city’s most beloved independent radio stations. He continues to guide professionals and arts organizations in clarifying and sharing their stories through his firm, Navigator Digital Media.

    In addition to his work with Camarada, Hughes collaborates with the band Back to the Garden, serving as writer, host, and narrator for their Story Concert series. He continues to host the pre-show artist interviews for La Jolla Music Society’s jazz series. He is an accomplished record producer whose San Diego studio has hosted sessions with artists including Willie Nelson, Melissa Etheridge, John Mayer, and Sarah McLachlan. He also produced the cast album for Songs from the Collected Works of Billy the Kid with Tony Award–winning director Des McAnuff. As creator and host of The Magic Radio Box podcast, Hughes explores the intersection of music, memory, and storytelling, continuing his commitment to bringing people closer to music and to each other.

  • Kathy has worked for the Marine Corps University Office of Distance Education and Training at the Miramar Campus since 1998, providing student support for both the Command and Staff and the Expeditionary Warfare School. She also manages the College of Distance Education and Training office spaces and classrooms, coordinating for organizations and units aboard MCAS Miramar as well as visiting units, such as the Blue Angels for the Miramar Air Show. Past professional experience includes serving as the business manager and sales representative for “Sew What” in Tampa, Florida, where she doubled sales volume at a small specialty interior design firm, and working as the office manager for Nurmil Pediatric Practice, where she provided operations oversight for a busy pediatric office. Earlier in her career, Kathryn worked for the Marine Officer’s Gift Shop in Okinawa, Japan, a non-profit organization supporting military and Japanese charities. Kathryn also served as shop decorator, managing incoming shipments from China, mainland Japan, Thailand, the Philippines, and local island artisans. She ended her service as the shop manager and buyer, working with vendors from the far east and gaining an understanding of business practices in each country. She traveled to China, Korea, Thailand and mainland Japan along with the jewelry and stockroom managers to procure furniture, textiles, pottery, antiquates, jewelry, and various gifts. The position also entailed sitting on a joint board of military and Japanese personnel who managed the disbursement of the shop’s profits to the charities.

  • Elaine Baldwin is a retired elementary school teacher whose career spanned almost 40 years in public and private, rural and urban schools in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and California. Lainie worked tirelessly to include musical and artistic instruction, always going above and beyond to provide experiences that would broaden her students’ horizons, especially since most of her jobs were with underserved and underprivileged children. She is a proud native of a small dairy farming town in northeastern Pennsylvania. Lainie loves to tell the story that she made her debut at age five, singing “Suzy Snowflake” at her dear grandmother’s music club meeting. Her school district provided a high level of music instruction at all grade levels.  She played the piano and violin early on, then added clarinet and alto sax, and took part in competitions and festivals at the district, regional and state level. A lifetime of singing in church choirs and community choruses has brought her enormous joy and satisfaction. Lainie has served on many committees and boards for organizations which present wonderful musical experiences, including the Spreckels Organ Society and the Musical Merit Foundation.  Since 2013, she has loved doing frequent volunteer work at the Mingei International Museum, the place where she and her husband Carl learned to love Camarada as well!

  • Chris Berg is a strategic and creative marketing executive with over 20 years of experience delivering brand growth, consumer engagement, and revenue through large-scale campaigns, integrated messaging, and high-performing teams. He has proven success across global brands, civic innovation, and national retail channels. Chris’ exceptional ability to create symbiotic partnerships that elevate brand reach while delivering measurable value for stakeholders makes him adept at unifying creative vision with performance strategy across diverse sectors—from biotech and lifestyle to public initiatives and experiential retail.

  • Born as the third oldest of seven children to Elisabeth Steinemann and Robert Sidner on October 19, 1943 in Bexley, Ohio, a suburb of Columbus, Rob grew up after World War II in his mother’s home town of Sandusky, Ohio on Lake Erie. His earliest musical memories are of Roman Catholic Church hymns, learning Christmas Carols which his oldest sister Anne drilled into the siblings for Christmas Eve performance annually and concerts by the highly respected Sandusky High School Acapella Choir.


    After completing a bachelor’s degree in English at Saint Meinrad College, a Benedictine run seminary in southern Indiana, Rob completed a degree in theology at the 400 year-old Jesuit run Gregorian University in Rome and was ordained a priest in Saint Peter’s Basilica in December 1969. He served in four parishes as an associate pastor and then pastor in northwest Ohio until leaving ministry in 1991.


    Coming west to San Diego, Rob opened and ran a contemporary art gallery for just a year, then in 1993 joined the staff of Mingei International Museum as Membership Coordinator while also handling its public relations. He was named Director of Public Relations a year later and Assistant Director after that. He became the second Director of the Museum in 2005 soon after the retirement of Founder Martha Longenecker. In this capacity he oversaw all aspects of the Museum’s operations and curated 24 exhibitions and wrote three Mingei publications in his own right. He retired at the end of June, 2022, a year after completing a comprehensive, $55 million dollar renovation and expansion of the Museum. A further satisfying achievement during his final years was establishing Camarada as Artists in Residence at the Museum.

  • Zoraida is originally from Argentina and came to the United States in 1997 with Gary - her American husband - and their first child, Sebastian. Later, they had two more girls, Michelle and Mercedes. While bilingually raising their three kids, Zoraida worked as a Spanish and Latino Culture teacher at elementary and middle schools, as well as in private language institutes in San Diego. Zoraida’s love for music was ignited in her home country at a very young age, when she attended operas, zarzuelas, and flamenco events with her father. She feels very fortunate to share this passion for music with her husband of 26 years, as Gary is a photographer and musician - he plays the mandolin and the violin. Both Gary and Zoraida are avid supporters of the arts and music scene in San Diego. They have been hosting concerts at their home since 2004 and have ran the Kensington concert series since 2017. In following her longtime passion for understanding the roots and expressions of her adopted country, Zoraida recently went back to school and earned her Master’s in American History at San Diego State University. Since 2015, she has worked as a docent, researcher, and writer for the Coronado Historical Association, and has recently begun to collaborate with the Kensington Community Journal as a public historian. Zoraida is also a volunteer bilingual community educator for the Alzheimer’s Association. Her hobbies include traveling, improving her French, cooking and baking for family and friends, gardening, and kayaking in the bay. Zoraida thinks that there is so much to learn and joyfully concentrate on in life, and she strongly believes that music is an ubiquitous way to do so.

  • Jeanne Simmons graduated with honors from San Diego State University with a degree in journalism. Following a lifelong dream, Jeanne attended law school and graduated in 1982 with honors from California Western School of Law. She then began her career in law at HIggs, Fletcher, and Mack where she represented clients involved in civil litigation disputes. Jeanne is also an experienced mediator, arbitrator, and lecturer. Since retiring from the HIggs firm, Jeanne has enjoyed raising her daughter, Nicole, and supporting non-profit organizations, including Camarada. Her current interests include helping to solve the homeless crisis in San Diego. Jeanne is actively volunteering at the Monarch School in San Diego, a K-12 comprehensive school designed to educate approximately 450 homeless youth and provide additional support to their families. Jeanne and her husband, Roger, a retired professor at San Diego State University, have been married for 31 years and enjoy every wonderful opportunity to experience local cultural and outdoor activities.

  • Désirée Michelle is a provider of financial estate planning. She received her Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from Agnes Scott College, an all women’s liberal arts college in Atlanta. After completing her undergraduate degree, she pursued a law degree, at which time she interned with Elder Law and Advocacy, a non-profit San Diego-based organization focusing on the estate planning, tax, and health care needs of the senior community. She also worked with Luce Forward Hamilton & Scripps LLP in the Family Wealth and Exempt Organization practice group. This experience enlivened a desire to work with clients to protect their most valued assets, their families and businesses, while enabling them to keep the maximum amount of income and profits. This inspired her to obtain a Masters of Business Administration with an emphasis in Financial Planning and Taxation. In 2011, when a struggling construction company came to her asking for help before they had to close their doors, she was not afraid to take on the task to assess their financial and business affairs to determine the best road to recovery and success. After several months of work turning the company around, she decided this work was something she could see herself doing for the long term. Désirée went on to get her contractor’s license, allowing her to start an Iron Works and Fencing Company, which she operates out of her financial services office in Old Town. In August 2014 she was featured in the San Diego Reader cover story entitled “Babes in Boyland” focusing on her role as a woman in a mostly male-dominated field.

Our Advisory Board

Ann Craig

Jennifer Eve

Cathy Sigismonti
Volunteer Financial Consultant

Our Dedicated Staff

  • Beth is the Founder and Artistic Director of Camarada. For 28 years, Ms. Ross Buckley has produced groundbreaking chamber music events throughout San Diego, combining great music, cuisine, and art. Since Camarada’s inception, she has expanded the scope of the organization to include performances at diverse venues throughout greater San Diego, new commissions for concert repertoire, and an exciting roster of performing artists.

    Ms. Ross Buckley received her Bachelor of Music in Flute Performance from St. Olaf College and her Master of Music from the University of Minnesota. While she enjoys all genres of music, tango music is her passion. Currently on the music faculty at Cal State San Marcos, Ms. Ross Buckley boasts an extensive performance resume that includes a twenty-five-year tenure as principal flute of the former San Diego Chamber Orchestra/Orchestra Nova and engagements with a variety of musical theatre companies throughout Northern and Southern California. Ms. Ross Buckley also runs a portrait photography business, Beth Ross Buckley Photography.

  • Dana is currently Associate-Artistic Director of Camarada and has directed and performed with Camarada for over a decade. She has been on the faculties of the University of North Carolina, University of Wisconsin, and Vanderbilt University. Ms. Burnett was awarded the Alban Berg Fellowship at the Schubert Institute-Austria and received an Artist Diploma and accompanying prize from that institution. She has a Bachelor of Music from San Diego State University, a Master of Science in Piano Performance and Pedagogy from Vanderbilt University, and has competed post graduate work at Indiana University with Michel Block and John Ogdon. A soloist and chamber musician, Ms. Burnett has performed at Carnegie Hall, New York City; the Frick Collection, Pittsburgh; Dame Myra Hess Series, Chicago; Academy of Music, Philadelphia; and the Kennedy Center, Washington D.C. Dana has been fortunate to have collaborated with Leonard Rose, Hilary Hahn, Nathaniel Rosen, Martin Chalifour, Benita Valente, Paula Robison, and many more musicians in her chamber music career. She has premiered chamber works including those by Jean-Michel Damase, Richard Wernick, Judith Zaimont, Gunther Schuller, and the last chamber work of Stephen Albert. She was also a yearly concerto soloist during her eighteen-year tenure as a member of the piano faculty at the Eastern Music Festival in Greensboro, North Carolina. Other festivals include Hidden Valley Seminars Flute Camp, Virginia Arts Festival, and the Skaneateles Music Festival. She has recorded for the Naxos and Arabesque labels and has been featured on WHYY, Philadelphia's “Fresh Air,” and NPR. Dana performs with California Chamber Orchestra and Classics 4 kids and was the symphony pianist with the North Carolina and Virginia Symphonies. Ms. Burnett is on the music faculty at Cal State San Marcos and an active member of North San Diego MTAC, with a private piano studio in Carlsbad.

  • Sydney Roslin is a performer, stage director, and arts marketing professional originally from Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, currently based in New York City. She is passionate about expanding access to and visibility of the arts through digital media platforms and has worked in digital marketing at a variety of arts organizations including Central City Opera, Shakespeare Royal Oak, Parliament Studios, and the Berklee School of Music Career Center. She is also the Marketing Manager at Revels, Inc., a 55-year old cultural theatre organization best known for Boston’s Midwinter Revels. Sydney received her BFA in Vocal Performance and BA in Creative Writing from Carnegie Mellon University, as well as her MFA in Musical Theater Performance from The Boston Conservatory at Berklee School of Music.

  • Lisa Barnhouse’s career spans strategic marketing, non-profit leadership, and entrepreneurship. She currently serves as a consultant offering fund development and growth strategy planning for non-profit organizations. After 18 years in leadership positions on volunteer boards, Lisa saw the benefits of fund development expertise on staff. Most of the foundations and non-profits she worked with could not afford a full-time development officer or executive director, but needed help with fundraising and strategic growth planning. Lisa combined her passion for helping under-served communities with her business, marketing and fundraising experience to offer development and strategy consulting. Prior to her volunteer work, Lisa began her marketing career as one of the early team members at Suissa Miller Advertising, Inc. (acquired by Dailey & Associates) in Santa Monica, California. Lisa led innovative marketing campaigns and business development projects for publicly traded clients including Hollywood Video and Jenny Craig. At San Francisco’s Wells Marketing (acquired by Interpublic Group), Lisa managed the Visa U.S.A. account, continuing her representation of Fortune 500 companies. Lisa continued exploring business and leveraging her marketing background with her entrepreneurial endeavor, uberfood, a pilot project launched in San Diego, California. Lisa co-founded the start-up food-tech company with the goal of creating the most convenient way possible for customers to enjoy freshly-prepared local, organic meals. Lisa Barnhouse received her B.A. in Communications from the University of California at Santa Barbara and works from home in La Jolla, California.

Thank you to our dedicated and FUN Board of Directors!

Thank you to our dedicated and FUN Board of Directors!

“It takes a village…and dedication to keep our vision for Camarada going!”

Featured Past Performances

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