SENIOR STAFF BIOS

Jaime Bard
Chief of Staff
Jaime joined the Senior Staff at Longy in 2007.  At The University of Pennsylvania, Jaime designed her own undergraduate major in Environmental Studies and Non-Fiction writing and completed her Masters in Education at The University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education. Jaime is currently pursuing a MBA in public and nonprofit management as a part-time student at Boston University. Jaime was a classroom teacher in urban schools prior and has experience in educational management at The Advent School and The Steppingstone Foundation. Jaime writes and plays folk music on her guitar.  

Anna Kuwabara
Executive Vice President
Anna has been a member of the Senior Staff since 1999, though  her connection to Longy began long ago when she  started violin  lessons at age five. As an undergraduate at Yale University, Anna studied English literature . She  later received her MBA in marketing and non-profit management from the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley. Anna served as the Director of Operations for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and was a  fellow in the Orchestra Management Fellowship Program of the League of American Orchestras. In 2007, Anna served on the National Endowment for the Arts “Access to Artistic Excellence” grant review panel.  Anna  was a member  of  and currently serves as an agent for the LeadBoston class of 2006, a program of the Boston Center for Community and Justice. 

Mark Lakirovich
Dean of Preparatory and Continuing Studies
Mark has been a part of the Senior Staff since 2004. Mark received a Graduate Diploma in Performance and Teaching in violin at Baku State College of Music and a Graduate Diploma in Performance from the Music Academy in Jerusalem.  Previously, Mark was the Associate Director of Education and the Music Director of Special Music at the Kaufman Center in New York. Mark was the Executive Director of the Ann Arbor School for the Performing Arts in Michigan and the Co-Founder and Principal of the Stoliarsky School of Music Australia in Brisbane and Sydney. Mark has performed and taught all over the world – from Australia and Germany to Israel and Mexico.

Christine Paul
Director of Communications
Christine has been a member of the Senior Staff since 2007. She studied English and biology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and has previously worked in public relations and development at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Tufts University, and the University of Wisconsin. She also was a magazine editor for Harcourt Brace Jovanovich and a features writers for Knight Ridder Newspapers. Christine has done public relations consulting for nonprofit organizations such as Harvard University, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Massachusetts General Hospital. She also has been an adjunct professor of communications at Pine Manor College and plays the piano, cello and organ.

Robert Shay                                                                                                    
Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Conservatory
Robert has been a member of the Senior Staff since 2000.  He studied voice as an undergraduate at Wheaton College (Illinois) and subsequently received the M.M. in choral conducting at the New England Conservatory, and the Ph.D. in musicology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Robert has served on the faculties of Lyon College, directing the Lyon Concert Choir from 1991-1999, and Duke University.  His publications include articles in Early Music, Music & Letters, and the book Purcell Manuscripts (co-authored with Robert Thompson), which received the Music Library Association’s Vincent H. Duckles Award, given annually to “the best book-length bibliography or other research tool in music.”

Elizabeth (Betsy) Davidson Sloane
Vice President for Institutional Advancement
Betsy has been a member of Longy’s senior staff since 2006.  As an undergraduate, Betsy studied Religion and Philosophy at Wheaton College (MA) and pursued a Masters of Divinity in Ethics and Economics at Yale Divinity School. Previously, Betsy was the Associate Dean of Harvard Divinity School and the President of the University of Hawaii Foundation.  Betsy was the Founder and Managing Partner of k@tapult, Inc., and was the Associate Vice President of Trinity College (CT). Immediately following graduate school Betsy was a Senior Consultant for the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation and founder of Davidson, Sloane and Associates. She and her family now reside in Cambridge.

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