Benjamin F. Bailar
Former Postmaster General
Joined CSAC in 2007
Member of CSAC subject subcommittee
Bailar began working for the U.S. Postal Service in 1972 as a senior assistant postmaster general. In 1975, he became the 64th Postmaster General and helped the fledgling organization strengthen its economic base before retiring in 1978. Bailar — the first former postmaster general to serve on the committee — believes that stamps have the power “to educate, entertain and inspire.” An avid postal history collector, he maintains one of the most comprehensive collections of Benjamin Franklin postal history in the country.
Cary R. Brick
Retired U.S. congressional staff, adjunct professor of government and history
Joined CSAC in 2002
Member of CSAC subject subcommittee, chair of ad hoc military subject subcommittee
A veteran of more than 31 years in the federal government, Brick was one of the longest-serving executives of the U.S. House of Representatives. He was chief of staff to three successive U.S. Congressmen from upstate New York, handling and supervising more than 30,000 cases on behalf of individuals and institutions encountering problems with federal and state agencies and departments. He participated in the introduction of the first major legislative reform of the U.S. Postal Service in 25 years.
Donna de Varona
TV sports commentator, Olympic swimming champion, select director of the board of the U.S. Soccer Foundation
Joined CSAC in 2007
Member of CSAC subject subcommittee
From 1960 to 1964, de Varona won 37 national swimming championships and two Olympic gold medals. In 1965, she joined ABC Sports and has since covered 17 Olympics as a reporter. In her 1976-1978 role as consultant to the U.S. Senate on the Amateur Sports Act, she was a proponent of the landmark Title IX legislation. “I will always be an activist,” she once said. In October 2004, de Varona was inducted into the Women’s Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, NY.
Jean Picker Firstenberg
President emeritus, American Film Institute
Joined CSAC in 2002
CSAC chair
Under Firstenberg’s leadership, the American Film Institute received increased recognition as one of the country’s greatest cultural and educational resources. She was one of the longest-serving chief executives of any nonprofit organization in the United States. Prior to joining AFI, Firstenberg worked on media projects at the John and Mary R. Markle Foundation and earlier served as director of Princeton University’s publications office. She has received numerous awards over the years for her passionate belief in the role and value of the moving-image arts in our culture, our nation and our world.
Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Alphonse Fletcher University Professor, W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African-American Research, Harvard University
Joined CSAC in 2005
Member of CSAC subject subcommittee
Named one of Time magazine’s “25 Most Influential Americans” in 1997, Gates is also editor-in-chief of the Oxford African American Studies Center. “I want to restore the important contribution of our ancestors to the history books,” he says, “but also to your living room, parlor and kitchen.” Gates wrote and produced the award-winning PBS documentary “African American Lives,” the first to examine African American history using genealogical data and DNA. He is co-founder of AfricanDNA, a DNA testing service geared specifically toward African American genealogy.
Sylvia Harris
Information design strategist and graphic designer
Joined CSAC in 2001
Member of CSAC subject subcommittee
Harris works in the public realm, specializing in developing effective communications plans for large public audiences. She uses her knowledge to help institutions find new ways of presenting their cultural resources, information and instructions to the nation’s diverse population. Harris realized early on that she “preferred working on projects that would affect thousands” and focused her work on nonprofit organizations and large public agencies, including New York Presbyterian Hospital, the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission, and the Ford Foundation.
Jessica Helfand
Graphic designer; senior critic, Yale School of Art; partner, Winterhouse Studio
Joined CSAC in 2006
Chair of CSAC design subcommittee
Helfand is one of four founding editors of Design Observer, currently the largest international blog of design and cultural criticism. A former contributing editor and columnist for Print, Communications Arts and Eye magazines, she has written for numerous national publications. A member of the Writers Guild of America for more than two decades, Helfand was previously part of the CBS-TV “Guiding Light” writing team that won an Emmy Award for best writing in 1985.
I. Michael Heyman
Chancellor emeritus, University of California, Berkeley; Secretary emeritus, Smithsonian Institution
Joined CSAC in 1999
CSAC vice-chair; chair, CSAC subject subcommittee
Heyman began his career as a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, later serving as the school’s chancellor. Heyman returned to teaching in the early 1990s, then moved to Washington, DC, as counselor to the Secretary and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy, U.S. Department of the Interior (1993-1994). In 1994, the Smithsonian Institution inducted Heyman as its chief executive officer, and a year later he launched the Smithsonian’s first Web site. He continues to serve on advisory groups to nongovernmental organizations in environmental planning, museum administration and higher education.
John M. Hotchner
Department of State-Consular Affairs Representative; past president, American Philatelic Society
Joined CSAC in 1998
Member of CSAC subject subcommittee
Hotchner has been involved in foreign or civil service since 1966. He is currently a consultant to the Human Smuggling and Trafficking Center, an interagency intelligence organization created by Congress in 2004. A stamp collector since age 5, Hotchner is an active philatelic writer, editor, researcher, exhibitor and lecturer. A member of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Postal Museum’s Council of Philatelists, Hotchner also contributes his time and materials to “Stamps for the Wounded,” an organization serving patients at Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals.
Joan A. Mondale
Wife of the former Vice President of the United States; patron of the arts
Joined CSAC in 2005
Member of CSAC design subcommittee
Mondale has been a noted advocate of the arts for more than 40 years. After President Jimmy Carter named her an honorary chairperson of the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities, she was affectionately named the nation's "Joan of Art" for her work in supporting the arts and cultural life across the country. In May 2004, the Textile Center of Minneapolis — which Mondale helped establish — dedicated a gallery in her honor.
B. Martin Pedersen
Chief executive officer and creative director, Graphis magazine
Joined CSAC in 2006
Member of CSAC design subcommittee
Since 1986, Pedersen has been owner and creative director of Graphis Inc., an internationally acclaimed publishing firm. Each year, the company produces annuals and books that present the best work produced internationally in graphic design, advertising and photography. Pedersen’s uncompromising desire for excellence has garnered him more than 300 awards during his 40-year career. He was accepted into Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI) in 1987, inducted into the Art Directors Hall of Fame in 1997, and honored in 2003 with the American Institute of Graphic Arts Gold Medal.
Clara E. Rodríguez
Professor of sociology, Fordham University; author
Joined CSAC in 2008
Member of CSAC subject subcommittee
Selected in 2007 as one of the “100 most influential Hispanics in America” by Hispanic Business magazine, Rodríguez has written more than 50 articles and reviews and authored 10 books on numerous topics, including ethnicity, the media and labor issues. She has focused much of her work on understanding the place of Latinos in modern American life. In 2007, she was elected to a three-year term on the governing board of the American Sociological Association. A consultant to popular children’s television programs “Dora the Explorer” and “Sesame Street,” Rodríguez grew up in New York City.