Board of Directors
Leticia Smith-Evans, Esq., President
Leticia Smith-Evans is a civil rights attorney at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. where she advocates for equal access to educational opportunities via impact litigation and policy advocacy. Prior to joining LDF, she was an associate at a large, international law firm, served as a federal judicial law clerk and as state policy advisor and agency liaison. She is also a former New York City public school teacher. Dr. Smith-Evans graduated from Williams College, and received a J.D., M.S. and Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is an avid fan of the arts, and believes they should be accessible to everyone.
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Kathleen G. Cully, Esq., Secretary
Kathleen has nearly 25 years’ experience as a transactional and corporate governance lawyer. She has been involved in all aspects of structured finance since working on the first private mortgage-backed securities in 1985. In January 2007, Kathleen opened her own law firm with a website at http://www.kgcully.com; until then, she was the General Counsel of the CIFG Group, a AAA-rated financial guaranty insurer. Prior to joining CIFG in 2003, Kathleen served for five years as General Counsel of the American Capital Access group. For the preceding five years, she was the deputy general counsel of the rating agency Fitch, Inc. Previously, she held various positions at Citicorp, including serving as an associate general counsel. She was an associate with Sullivan & Cromwell before joining Citicorp in 1985. Kathleen received her J.D. in 1982 from Yale Law School, where she was an editor of the Yale Law Journal.
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Vincent de Luise, M.D.
Vincent de Luise, M.D. is an ophthalmologist, clarinetist, author and educator. A resident of Connecticut, Vincent has had a 28-year career as an eye surgeon, and is assistant clinical professor of ophthalmology at Yale University School of Medicine and program chair of the Connecticut Society of Eye Physicians. Vincent is a phi beta kappa graduate of Princeton University and received his Doctor of Medicine degree from Weill Cornell Medical College, where he currently serves on the Humanities and Medicine Committee and the Music and Medicine Initiative. Vincent has had a lifelong passion for the Italian language and literature, music and the arts, and lectures frequently on these topics. He organized The Connecticut Mozart Festival and co-founded the noontime classical music recital at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology. His efforts as a Board member are to enhance and enrich audience experiences of opera with visual imagery and written materials before OCB productions.
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Cornelia Lévy-Bencheton
Cornelia is a business executive and consultant. Her work in marketing decision support, strategy, insights, and business intelligence enables companies to improve their revenue performance. While her professional focus is in diversified financial services, Ms. Lévy-Bencheton has also lived and worked overseas. Her personal interests are broad and range from international culture, art, and travel to opera, film, politics, and history. She has an MA from Stanford University, an MBA from Pace University and holds advanced certificates from New York University in Database Marketing/Direct Mail, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and Information Technology. Ms. Lévy-Bencheton was married to Dr. Maurice Lévy-Bencheton, deceased, who graduated with distinction from the Faculté de Médecine in Paris. They have one son, Elliot, a graduate of Stuyvesant High School and Stanford University.
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Nathan Lubow, Treasurer
A resident of Manhattan, Nathan is a graduate of the University of Chicago and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. An active member of the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, he has written articles, delivered lectures and conducted seminars on a wide range of accounting and financial topics. He is also a member of the Founders Leadership Council of the Commercial Finance Association’s Education Foundation. Lubow’s public service activities include being the past treasurer of the banking and finance unit of B’nai B’rith, and member of the Board of Directors of the Opera Company of Brooklyn and the New York Alliance Against Sexual Assault. He is also an advisory board member of the Valley National Bank.
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Jay Meetze, OCB Artistic and Music Director, Founder
Jay has conducted nearly fifty operas and is lauded for his “passionate and undeniably impressive command of performances” and “sympathetic leadership of the forces of the OCB.” (Opera News). His CD on Albany Records features Sheri Greenawald and Ashley Putnam in Thomas Pasatieri’s newly rewritten La Divina. Opera News named the CD Critic’s Choice and Top 10 of the Year. Meetze is featured in Classical Singer Magazine, CNN’s Tips from the Top, front-pages of Wall Street Journal and Crain’s NY Business. He is in two new arts administration books and has received rave reviews/articles in American Record Guide, NY Magazine and the NY Daily, Times and Post newspapers. He has landed OCB on the Jeopardy quiz show and Good Morning America with MythBusters.
