Board of Trustees

Heather Sannes
President

Brian Bryzinski
Member-At-Large

Ian McCutcheon
Vice President/Treasurer

Beth Boyd
Past President

Ignatius Valentine Aloysius
Writer, Poet, Literary Citizen

Lan Samantha Chang
Author, Director of Iowa Writers’ Workshop

John Cialone
Tom Stringer Design Partners

Dawn Cooke

Jacob (Jake) Goldberg
Goldberg General Contracting, Inc.

Jason Kalajainen
Co-Trustee, Holly Palmer Foundation

Rebecca Makkai
Novelist and Short Story Writer, Artistic Director of StoryStudio Chicago

Margot McMahon
Visual Artist and Sculptor

Victoria Medvec
CEO of Medvec & Associates, Adeline Barry Davee Professor of Management and Organizations at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University

Sue Shattock

Brett Taylor
Vice President, Lake Forest Bank & Trust

Scott (Sandy) Turner

Ann Walters
Book group facilitator at Between the Covers

Cindy Wilson
Clinical Professor of Law, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law


Roland Kulla
Life Trustee
Ragdale Cultural Historian

John Merritt
Life Trustee

Carol Newman
Life Trustee

Phoebe Turner
Life Trustee

Penny West
Life Trustee


 Ragdale Staff

Our staff can be reached by calling 847.234.1063 and then entering their individual extensions, which are listed below. Many of our staff members can also be reached directly via email below.

Paul Sacaridiz

Executive Director

847.234.1063 Ext. 22

paul@ragdale.org

Paul Sacaridiz has been widely recognized for his work as an artist, educator, administrator, and leader in higher education and the nonprofit sector. Most recently he was the Maxine and Stuart Frankel Director of Cranbrook Academy of Art and previously held the position of Executive Director of the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts. Earlier in his career, he served as Professor and Chair of the Department of Art at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Associate Director of the Wonsook Kim School of Art at Illinois State University. As a speaker, he has lectured nationally on art, education and leadership through the Artists Communities Alliance, American Craft Council, College Art Association, International Academy of Ceramics, and the Smithsonian Institution. In addition to organizational leadership, Sacaridiz is an accomplished sculptor, having shown his work at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Denver Art Museum, and the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, among others. He is also the recipient of numerous artist residencies including the Archie Bray Foundation, the Arts/Industry Program at Kohler Company, Ragdale, and the Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts.

Listen to a recent podcast interview with Paul Sacaridiz

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Hermelindo “Mele” Cruz
Property Associate

Alejandra Oliva
Development & Communications Associate
Ext. 29
alejandra@ragdale.org

Avery Grant
Resident Facilities Coordinator avery@ragdale.org

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Regin Igloria
Artistic Director Ext. 26
regin@ragdale.org

Deanna Miera
Residency Manager
deanna@ragdale.org

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Martha Quintanilla
Housekeeping Associate

Cathy Ramsay
Finance Director
Ext. 27
accountant@ragdale.org

Danna Blancas
Garden and Land Assistant

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David Rodriguez
Property Associate

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Marita Seaberg
Office & Development Manager
Ext. 21
marita@ragdale.org

Mary Beth Sova
Director of Funding Resources Ext. 24
marybeth@ragdale.org

Jess Sladek
Garden & Land Manager
Ext. 25
jess@ragdale.org

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Linda Williams
Chef linda@ragdale.org


Interns & Seasonal Staff

Curatorial Board

Xiandani Perez
Cristo Rey Corporate Work Study Program Intern

Cristo Rey St. Martin College Prep

Curatorial Board Co-Chair

Ignatius Valentine Aloysius is a naturalized U.S. citizen, born in India and raised in Mumbai by a Tamilian father and Anglo-Indian mother. He earned his MFA in Creative Writing from Northwestern University, where he won the Distinguished Thesis Award for fiction. He is a lecturer in writing at Northwestern’s Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and in the Writing Program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). Ignatius is the current host and curator of the long-running reading series Sunday Salon Chicago (sundaysalon-chicago.com). A resident of Evanston, he also serves as a mayor-appointed board member of the Evanston Arts Council. Twice Pushcart nominated, Ignatius is the author of the experimental novel Fishhead. Republic of Want, and his prose and poetry appear in several venues, including Cold Mountain Review, Another Chicago Magazine, Porter Gulch Review, Trampset, Olney Magazine, Roi Fainéant Press, and others. He is currently at work on his next book. Visit https://linktr.ee/ignatius.valentine.aloysius