Rachel Moore

Rachel S. Moore (1982, CA Scholar in the Arts) is president and CEO of The Music Center, Los Angeles’ premier performing arts center. In that capacity, she leads the $70 million company that manages The Music Center campus and operates and programs Grand Park on behalf of the County of Los Angeles. Moore also oversees The Music Center’s work as presenter and curator of programming, including its internationally acclaimed dance series, Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at The Music Center, as well as innovative programs, events and activities that are introducing new audiences to the performing arts. Additionally, she guides The Music Center’s multi-faceted arts education initiatives, which reach over 600,000 children and youth all over Southern California.

“The US Presidential Scholars Program and YoungArts program was transformational for me as a young artist. The imprimatur conferred was extraordinarily important to my sense of confidence and cemented my view that striving to become a professional dancer was an achievable dream. I have stayed connected with fellow alumni over the years and I cherish their continuing friendships. I am deeply honored to serve on the Presidential Scholars Foundation Board and look forward to helping the next generation of scholars thrive,” Moore said.

Moore joined The Music Center from American Ballet Theatre (ABT), one of the world’s great dance companies, where she served as CEO since 2011 and as its executive director since 2004. She is credited with transforming ABT’s brand, securing recognition for the company by the United States Congress as “America’s National Ballet Company” in 2005. Moore comes from the performing arts, having danced with ABT as a member of its corps de ballet from 1984-1988.

Prior to her appointment to lead ABT, Moore served as director of Boston Ballet’s Center for Dance Education (2001-2004). From 1998-2001, she served as executive director of Project STEP, a classical music school for students of color in Boston and managing director of Ballet Theatre of Boston. She has also held senior positions with Americans for the Arts and the National Cultural Alliance, both in Washington, D.C.

Moore served on the advisory committee for the Los Angeles County Equity and Inclusion Initiative, which developed recommendations to enhance the participation and leadership of individuals from underrepresented communities in the arts and served on the board of the LA 2028 Olympic Games Bid Committee. Currently, Moore serves on the board of the Los Angeles Tourism and Convention Board, on the Executive Committee of the Central City Association of Los Angeles, as an officer and trustee of the Economic Club of New York, as chair of the Performing Arts Centers Consortium, as a member of the Los Angeles Coalition for Jobs & Economy, on the Board of Advisors of Project STEP and on the Brown University Arts Advisory Council. She served as a member of the Child Performer Advisory Board for the New York State Department of Labor, on the Board of Trustees for Dance/USA from 2007-2012 and the National Dance Foundation of Bermuda from 2007-2012, and as a member of the United States National Commission for UNESCO from 2005-2009. She is the author of a book, The Artist’s Compass: The Complete Guide to Building a Life and a Living in the Performing Arts (May 2016).

She holds an AB in Ethics & Political Philosophy from Brown University, Phi Beta Kappa, Honors (1992); and an MA in arts management from Columbia University (1994).

A native of Davis, California, Moore spent much of her early childhood abroad with her family, living in India and Saudi Arabia. As a teenager, she spent summers in New York City and trained on scholarship at the School of American Ballet and the American Ballet Theatre School, before becoming a professional ballet dancer. She lives in Los Feliz, CA with her husband Rob Ryan.

Angela Zimmann

Rev. Angela Zimmann, Ph.D. CFRE, is a 1990 Presidential Scholar from Ohio. After obtaining a degree in Industrial Engineering, in 1999 Angela became an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America,serving in parishes in Michigan and Jerusalem, Israel/Palestine. A former congressional candidate from Ohio's 5th District, Angela now lives in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania where she is the Vice President for Institutional Advancement at Wilson College. Her passion is matching resources with need in order to build a better world, and she is delighted to serve on the Foundation Board for the US Presidential Scholars, co-chairing the fundraising committee. Angela has been married to Rev. Dr. Martin Otto Zimmann for 26 years and together they have two adult children, Seth and Chelsea, and a grand-dog, Aster Pigskin the Pomeranian.

Michael Weiss

Michael A. Weiss (1975, OH), MD, PhD is a Distinguished Professor at Indiana University and Robert A. Harris Chair of Biochemistry at the IU School of Medicine. A Presidential Scholar in 1975 (Ohio) and former member of the White House Commission on Presidential Scholars (under Pres. Jimmy Carter), Dr. Weiss has long investigated the structure and function of insulin, a body of work recognized in 2020 by the JDRF’s Gerold and Kayla Grodsky Basic Research Scientist Award. His laboratory also works in reproductive endocrinology to study children with differences in sexual development (DSD). Dr. Weiss is a graduate of Harvard College, the Harvard-MIT Program in Health Sciences & Technology (HST) and MD-PhD Program at Harvard Medical School. With clinical training at the Brigham & Women’s Hospital, he is Board Certified in Internal Medicine. Holding >20 patents in insulin technologies, Dr. Weiss is a founder and Chief Innovation Officer of Thermalin, Inc. Following Ph.D. research under Prof. Martin Karplus (Harvard Chemistry) and clinical training, Dr. Weiss joined the Endocrine Unit at the Massachusetts General Hospital (1988-1994). He was a member of the junior faculty of the Department of Biological Chemistry & Molecular Pharmacology at Harvard Medical School (1988-1994), Professor at the University of Chicago (1994-1999), and Cowan-Blum Professor and Department Chair at the CWRU School of Medicine (1999-2017). Dr. Weiss is a past chair of the NIDDK Board of Scientific Counselors at the National Institutes of Health. He is a member of American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI) and American Association of Physicians (AAP).

Martha Bergmark

Martha Bergmark is a 1966 U.S. Presidential Scholar from Mississippi and a member of the Presidential Scholars Foundation board of directors. She is executive director of Voices for Civil Justice, the national communications and media resource for advocates of civil justice reform. She believes America can deliver on its inspiring promise of equal justice under law, but right now we are in default. Most Americans – three out of four – go without legal help to navigate complicated civil court proceedings that put their families, homes and livelihoods at risk, and the human toll is high. Martha’s opinion pieces illuminating practical solutions to the civil justice crisis appear regularly in national outlets, and she is a frequent guest speaker, panelist and trainer. Martha previously served as founding president of the Mississippi Center for Justice, president of the Legal Services Corporation, and senior vice president of the National Legal Aid & Defender Association. She began her legal career as a civil rights and legal aid lawyer in her home state of Mississippi. She is a graduate of Oberlin College and University of Michigan Law School, and she holds honorary doctorates from Oberlin College and Millsaps College.

Thomas West

Named by President Obama as a Presidential Scholar in the Arts in 2014, Thomas West is a creative artist and entrepreneur making waves for his dual career as a renowned operatic baritone and as the founding Executive Director of The Peace Studio – a nonprofit that equips artists and journalists with opportunities and strengths-based tools to restore hope, challenge injustice, and bridge divides. Since taking on the role of Executive Director in January 2020, The Peace Studio has been able to offer funding, curricula, and other kinds of opportunities to over 250 young artists and journalists from 20 countries. Thomas was also responsible for establishing the organization’s first-ever virtual Peace Summit with an average attendance of 5,000 people per year, media partners including PBS - WNET and NowThis, and has featured special guest speakers and performers including Viola Davis, Common, Sandra Oh, Ted Danson, Yo-Yo Ma, Midori, and over 100 others. Additionally, he’s raised $1.2 million, doubled the size of the Board of Trustees, established the organization’s first-ever Creative Council to mentor their community of young artists and journalists, and built a Young Professionals Leadership Council made up of standout business leaders who support the organization in various ways.

Highlights from Thomas’s performance career include a Tanglewood Music Center fellowship, covering Silvio in Pagliacci with Opera San Jose, Morales in Carmen with the Chattanooga Symphony and Opera, Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem with the Mississippi Symphony, the Faure Requiem with Music on Norway Pond in Hancock, NH, An Evening of Bach Cantatas with the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra in Winnipeg, Canada, the world premiere of Wayne Oquin’s Meditation in Alice Tully Hall and multiple performances with The New York Festival of Song and the Chautauqua Institution. This November, Thomas makes his European debut as the Baritone soloist in Arias and Barcarolles by Leonard Bernstein at the Rome Chamber Music Festival in Rome, Italy.

As a curator and producer, he has led over 40 artists on tours to Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, New Hampshire, California, Connecticut, and most recently Kigali, Rwanda. Prior to coming to The Peace Studio, Thomas worked as a producer in the Office of the President at The Juilliard School and was the Founder and CEO of Collaborative Arts Ensemble, a collective of artists based in New York City that created innovative concert programming to address social issues like racial injustice and polarization.

In 2013, Thomas was named Youth Philanthropist of the year by the Chattanooga Times Free Press for his efforts in raising over $16,000 in support of arts education in his childhood hometown of Chattanooga, TN. He holds a BM in Vocal Performance from The Juilliard School. In his free time, Thomas enjoys movies, listening to podcasts, trying new restaurants, and spending time with his partner, Elaine, and their golden retriever puppy, Finn.