National Music Festival Announces Two New Board Members

The National Music Festival welcomes two new members to its Board of Directors, Susan Baisley and Mark Schulman.

“Susan and Mark bring a wealth of relevant experience to the National Music Festival,” said Caitlin Patton, the festival’s executive director. “As we celebrate our 10th Anniversary this year, we look forward to our new board members helping to ensure our success into the next decade and beyond.” This year’s festival is scheduled for Aug. 1-14, 2021 in Chestertown, Md.

Susan Baisley is Associate Vice President for Strategic Projects in Development and Alumni Relations at Johns Hopkins University. In this role, she manages key new initiatives that range from the development of a university-wide alumni organization to the creation of a program to recruit and retain entry-level professionals.

Prior to that, she was the Associate Vice President for Constituent Engagement where her portfolio included Annual Giving, Alumni Relations, Donor and Volunteer Engagement, and Fundraising for the School of Education and the Center for Talented Youth. Baisley has also served as associate dean at JHU’s Peabody Institute.

She previously was a founding partner of Alpha Capital Financial Group, a private equity fund. Before that, she was a Managing Director and Global Chief Marketing Officer for Citigroup Private Bank, where she was responsible for providing strategic marketing planning as well as marketing for business operations in 34 countries. Prior to that, she held a number of senior management positions for Goldman Sachs’ Private Wealth Management Group and J.P. Morgan’s U.S. Private Bank.

Baisley resides in Chestertown and holds an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School and a B.A. in Natural Sciences (biochemistry concentration) from Johns Hopkins University.

Mark Schulman, Ph.D., a longtime festival supporter and Washington College alumnus, is an award-winning pollster and was co-founder/CEO of one of the nation’s largest survey research/polling firms, SRBI, now part of Abt Associates. He has worked extensively with the news media, major corporations, foundations, and government.

For news organizations Schulman has tracked presidential job ratings, political campaigns, analyzed election results, and probed policy issues. He served as Time magazine’s pollster for almost 10 years and was also on the ABC News Election Decision Desk for many years. He has been interviewed in the news media, including Timemagazine, CNN, Fox News, the BBC, Vice Media/HBO, and many public radio stations.

He was 2002-03 president of the American Association for Public Opinion Research and is a past president of the New York Chapter. He was on the editorial board of Public Opinion Quarterly, the leading academic journal in its field. He is currently Senior Research Consultant for SSRS Research.

Schulman received his B.A. from Washington College, Chestertown, Md., where he is member emeritus of the Board of Visitors and Governors. He holds a M.A. from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and a Ph.D. from Rutgers University. He also serves on the Board of Governors of the New School University College of Performing Arts in New York City.

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~ National Music Festival
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