2009 Board Members
Stephen Silverman, AICP – President, is Director of Policy Planning for the architectural/ planning firm of M.W. Steele Group. He has been a land use and policy planner for over 30 years and works with clients in both the public and private sectors. As part of his work, he was Project Manager for the reuse plan that allowed conversion of the San Diego Naval Training Center from military to civilian use. Mr. Silverman is a trained mediator and formerly served as Board Chair of the National Conflict Resolution Center. He continues to serve on that organization’s Executive Committee. He was Director of the San Diego Section of the American Planning Association and Vice President for Public Information for the California Chapter of the American Planning Association. Mr. Silverman served on the Rancho Bernardo Planning Board, the Long Range Planning Committee of the Girl Scouts of San Diego and Imperial Counties, the City of San Diego’s City of Villages subcommittee, and the Board of Trustees of Temple Adat Shalom. He teaches land use planning and planning presentation skills at UCSD Extension. As an avocation, Mr. Silverman is a food-writer and his restaurant reviews have been appearing in local publications for more than 20 years. Mr. Silverman joined the Board in 2007.
Indra Gardiner, Vice President, is Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Bailey Gardiner a creative agency that provides strategy, social media, public relations, branding, design and advertising services to clients in the consumer category. Ms. Gardiner has been a public relations and marketing professional for more than 20 years. Before finding her calling in public relations, Ms. Gardiner worked in the hospitality industry for the Marriott Corporation in food & beverage and sales. Ms. Gardiner is Vice Chair of the National Conflict Resolution Center. She is also actively involved in the Public Relations Society of America’s Counselors Academy and Pinnacle Worldwide, a global consortium of independent agencies, of which her agency is a member. Ms. Gardiner joined the Board in 2008.
Ed Koijane, Treasurer, is a Senior Tax Manager for Ernst & Young. He is a Certified Public Accountant with a BS in Accounting from Pepperdine University and has partially completed his Masters in Taxation from Portland State University. Mr. Koijane has 14 years experience with big four public accounting and previously served two years as Tax Director and Corporate Controller for an educational software company. He has studied for one year in Heidelberg, Germany and spent 2 years in Sydney, Australia, managing the US Tax Desk for Deloitte. Mr. Koijane is the Chair of the Finance Committee and has been on the Board since 2004.
Barbara Measelle, Secretary, earned her BA from the University of Michigan and taught secondary English in Michigan, Illinois and Rhode Island. Upon earning a Masters in Counseling from Rhode Island College, she taught there in a combined counseling/sociology program for ten years. Her experience in the nonprofit sector, includes several years as an administrator for the International House at Brown University and as manager of two major city festivals in Providence. She joined the corporate world as a trainer and organizational development specialist for the Navy Exchange, a worldwide retail organization. Ms. Measelle joined the Sushi Board in 2003 and is a member of the Nominating Committee.
Vernon Franck owns Metropolitan Mapping, a Land Surveying practice which focuses on development projects that enhance the core metropolitan communities of San Diego. He is a devout city-dweller and advocate of revitalizing San Diego’s urban neighborhoods and is a member of the Greater North Park Community Association Urban Design/Project Review Committee. His advocacy of arts and culture includes serving on the AIA Orchids & Onions design awards committee and as an advisor to the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego’s monthly TNT event. Mr. Franck is the past President and joined the Sushi Board in 2003.
Michael Horvat is a development professional with UC San Diego. For the past 12 years, he has worked with leading nonprofit and public agencies, including The San Diego LGBT Community Center, The Literacy Network of Greater Los Angeles, and the Corporation for National Service’s AmeriCorps Programs. Mr. Horvat was raised in Western Canada, and received a BA from the University of Calgary and an MA from Chapman University. He is an active member of the International Association for Volunteer Effort and Association of Fundraising Professionals. His volunteer work includes ESL tutoring and HIV/AIDS prevention education. Mr. Horvat is the Chair of Development Committee and has been a Board Member since 2006.
Steven B. Johnson is the Vice President of Public Affairs at the San Diego Convention Center Corporation. He has over 17 years of professional leadership experience in marketing, public and government affairs. Before joining the San Diego Convention Center Corporation, Mr. Johnson worked as an Independent Consultant providing strategic advice, communications and public affairs consulting to companies and organizations including Hewlett Packard, Inc., Levi Strauss Foundation; National Minority AIDS Council; Kaiser Family Foundation; San Francisco AIDS Foundation; Alliance Healthcare Foundation; African American AIDS Policy and Training Institute; and California Department of Health Service.
Mr. Johnson received his B.A. in Marketing from the University of Oregon, Eugene and his Master’s in Public Administration from San Diego State University. He is the former Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Stepping Stone of San Diego. He has also served on the Grant Allocations Committee for the San Diego HIV Funding Collaborative.
Zlatan Vukosavljevic is a sculptor and installation artist. Born in Serbia, he studied architecture in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. He has collaborated with Los Angeles artist Jason Rhoades and Franz West at the Kunsthause, Graz. Mr. Vukosavljevic, Franz West, and Heimo Zobernig created the installation Studiolo during the Venice Biennale 2005, which was presented by Thrust Projects, New York. He was Production Manager for inSITE 2005 and 2000. His recent residencies include the MAK Center for Art And architecture, Los Angeles (2004) and Quartier 21, Museums Quartier, Vienna (2006). His San Diego projects include installations for the Children’s Museum and the Flux Gallery. Mr. Vukosavjevic has been a Board Member since 2006.
HONORARY BOARD MEMBERS
Guillermo Gomez-Pena an interdisciplinary artist/writer was born in Mexico City. He came to the US in 1978, exploring cross-cultural issues with the use of performance, multilingual poetry, journalism, video, radio, and installation art. Mr. Gomez-Pena is the recipient of a 1991 MacArthur Fellowship and a 1989 Bessie Award; his work has been featured at the 1992 Sydney Biennale, as well as the 1993 Whitney Biennale and the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave Festival. He was founding member of the Border Arts Workshop/Taller de Arte Fronterizo, a contributor to the national radio program Crossroads, and the editor of the experimental arts magazine The Broken Line/La Lunea Quebrada. Mr. Gomez-Pena has a rich history with Sushi performing in seven shows since 1985. Sushi co-produced his award-winning video Border Brujo in 1990, which was filmed at the original Eighth Avenue Sushi space.
Rhodessa Jones is Co-Artistic Director of the San Francisco acclaimed performance company Cultural Odyssey. She is an actress, teacher, singer, and writer. She has been honored with an Honorary Doctorate Degree from California College of the Arts and awarded the “GOLDIE Lifetime Achievement Award” presented by the San Francisco Bay Guardian; the Non-Profit Arts Excellence Award by the San Francisco Business Arts Council; the Otto Rene Castillo Award for Political Theater; and honored as Working Woman of the Year by the Working Women’s Theater Festival. Ms. Jones creates autobiographical and provocative material that integrates inter-disciplinary performance utilizing film, comedy, theater and movement. As an actress she was featured in Eve Ensler’s award hit play, “The Vagina Monologues” and as a writer, her film collaboration “We Just Telling Stories” won “Best Documentary” at the San Francisco Black Film Festival. Ms. Jones has graced Sushi’s stages on many occasions beginning in 1983.
Bonnie Wright is the Executive Director of Henceforth Records, which she founded in 2004. Based in New York City, Henceforth produces CDs by international soloists and groups whose vision crosses the boundaries and expands definitions of improvisational, electronic, experimental, and contemporary classical music. From1995 to 2002, she founded and directed Spruce Street Forum in San Diego, which presented interdisciplinary/ multicultural art exhibits; musical programs featuring jazz, improvisation and contemporary classical music; and forums discussing social and cultural issues. In 2004, she collaborated with the San Diego Museum of Art in presenting Spruce Street Forum’s Fresh Sound Concert Series. Ms. Wright was recognized in 1997 and 1998, as “An Outstanding Woman of the Year” by Women Together, a coalition of Catholic Charities, Episcopal Community Services, and the YWCA. She served as a Board Member for Sushi from 1987-1993.
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Patrick Stewart rejoins the San Diego arts community after finishing his tenure as the Executive Director of the Atlas Performing Arts Center, a large, multi-faceted center whose development, program, performance, and education accomplishments have served as the leading catalytic factor in the dramatic economic and social redevelopment of a major section of Washington, DC’s Northeast quadrant. Mr. Stewart brings with him extensive regional management and production experience in San Diego, Seattle, and Washington, DC, including work with many of San Diego’s arts organizations, The Source Theatre and the National Summer Theatre Festival in Washington, and the San Diego Center for Jewish Culture, as well as positions in television on such shows as NBC’s Will & Grace and Good Morning Miami.
A student of jazz performance and classical French horn, Mr. Stewart holds a BA with honors, and extensive graduate work, both in the Philosophy of Art/Aesthetics, and a post-graduate Executive Certificate in Non-Profit Management from Georgetown University’s Public Policy Institute. He serves on the planning committee for the Embassy of France’s Kids Euro Festival, and has successfully collaborated on and presented cultural programs from the Czech Republic, Australia, South Africa, Great Britain and France. This international cultural exchange experience has allowed him to serve as host specialist to international arts and culture professionals visiting the United States via programs administered by the U.S. Department of State, the Meridian International Center and the Phelps Stokes Fund.
In addition to his institutional leadership roles, Mr. Stewart extends organization, management and curriculum development assistance to performing arts organizations. Mr. Stewart currently serves as a management consulting mentor to arts organizations via the Kennedy Center’s Office of the President, and lends expertise as a board or committee member to several organizations, most notably as an advisory committee member to the Capital Fringe Festival and service on the Board of Directors of the Takoma Park Arts and Humanities Council.
