About Us

Board of Directors

In The Life Media's Board of Directors is comprised of community leaders, activists, philanthropists, and others who are committed to the production of independent media that produces change for the LGBT communities. The Board convenes for in-person meetings bimonthly in addition to participating in regular committee meetings. The Board provides crucial guidance and oversight for our organization and its programs, performs important fundraising duties, and supports the staff in their ongoing work.

If you are interested in joining In The Life Media's Board of Directors, please contact our Executive Director. You will be asked to fill out a short application and participate in an interview with one of our Board co-chairs.

Henry van Ameringen (Co-chair, Board of Directors) graduated from the Georgetown School of Foreign Service in the middle of the last century. He worked at International Flavors and Fragrances (IFF), ending up as Vice-President in charge of Fragrance marketing. In addition to his service with IN THE LIFE, Henry is on the board of Fountain House, a community of people with mental illnesses where they can find a job, a home and friends.

Henry is President of the van Ameringen Foundation, a family foundation that deals with mental health and mental illness in the New York and Philadelphia metropolitan area. He is also President of the H. van Ameringen Foundation, a personal foundation that concentrates on HIV/AIDS, and the problems of the Gay and Lesbian Community, mostly in New York City.

His partner is Eric Galloway.

Jayne Baron Sherman (Co-chair, Board of Directors) is an independent producer of film and theatre (most notably, "A Raisin in the Sun" on Broadway).  Prior to producing she was president and founder of Sagacious, Ltd., a marketing and communications consulting firm.  This grew from her experience in the corporate world where she was an officer of Marsh and McLennan Companies and worked for firms such as ATT and Morgan Guaranty.

A former co-chair of Lambda Legal, Jayne is active in the LGBT community with numerous organizations and has served on the boards of Stonewall Foundation and the American Cancer Society as well as others. She lives with her partner of 18 years, Deby Zum, and their two 17 1/2 year old poodles, Georgia and Mona.

Betsy Allen was born in Charlottesville, Virginia and spent her childhood living abroad in Haiti, Brazil, Peru, Ireland and later Venezuela, England and Mexico.

While living in Greenwich for twenty years with her husband and two children, she volunteered for numerous charities. Betsy was involved in the planning and overseeing of several of the towns largest fundraising efforts and events as well as volunteering for fundraising for her children's schools. She worked with the New York Public Library, Greenwich Red Cross, Breast Cancer Alliance, The Bruce Museum in Greenwich, Kids in Crisis, The Garden Education Center, Greenwich Land Trust, Greenwich Green and Clean, and Near & Far Aid in Fairfield, Ct to plan events and design the venues, catalogues and conceptual layouts for each cause. Betsy organized the only off site US Garden Statuary Sale for Sotheby's in Greenwich at the Garden Education Center. Betsy worked tirelessly for many years with the Greenwich Historical Society to improve historical landmarking in Greenwich through education. Betsy was president of the Greenwich Antiques Society for four years. She has also served on the national counsel board of The National Trust for Historic Preservation, the World Wildlife Fund, Greenwich Garden Education Center, Greenwich Women's Exchange.

Now that Betsy lives in Manhattan, she continues to share her beliefs that teaching is essential to eliminating ignorance and intolerance. She now spends a great deal of time volunteering for the Institute of Classical Architecture and is on the travel committee, which aims to teach the public about architecture and design by offering trips to various sites in the US and abroad. Betsy is bilingual and has been fluent in Spanish since she was a child.

Nan P. Bailey (Treasurer) has been in the financial services industry since 1986. She founded Nan P. Bailey in 1990 to serve clients in the Larchmont community. Previously, Nan had been vice president of finance for several closely held businesses.

Nan is a Certified Financial Planner™ practitioner and a member of the Financial Planning Association (www.fpanet.org). In striving to maintain the highest standards possible, she earned her AIF® (ACCREDITED INVESTMENT FIDUCIARY™) designation from the Center for Fiduciary Studies (www.fi360.com) in 2005. She earned a B.A. from New York University and an MBA from Baruch College, majoring in Accounting. Her past service includes having served as president of the trustees at Larchmont Avenue Church, treasurer of the Lambda Legal and Defense Education Fund (www.lambdalegal.org), and treasurer of In the Life Media, Inc.

As part of her commitment to excellence in providing services to her clients, Nan completed the curriculum and exam to become "Certified in Long-Term Care" in 2006. Additionally, she attends wealth management symposiums and additional conferences to maintain her skills and stay abreast of industy innovations. Nan has a 17-year-old son and a 12-year-old daughter. She enjoys sailing, spending her weekends between Montauk (taking long beach walks with her partner Maria) and Larchmont (enjoying her children's basketball, soccer, and baseball games).

Michelle V. Francis (Secretary) is a Principal at The Francis Company, an intellectual property advisory firm which provides a comprehensive set of domestic and global, industry leading, IP management and business strategy services to a wide variety of enterprises, including US, foreign and multi-national, companies, start-ups and entrepreneurs, as well as law firm IP practices.

Prior to founding The Francis Company in 2009, Michelle spent 12 of her 19 years as a lawyer working as the lead in-house IP counsel at the Fortune 100 global media company, News Corporation. Beginning in 1997, her first 4 years with the News Corp family were spent at Fox Entertainment Group in Los Angeles handling worldwide film and television intellectual property enforcement matters. In 2001, Michelle moved to New York to join News Corp's General Counsel's Office. As Senior Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, Michelle headed up the global intellectual property practice charged with the worldwide management and protection of the intellectual property and Internet assets of News Corporation and many of its operating and joint venture companies, such as HarperCollins, STAR TV in Asia, the New York Post, and various satellite platforms such as Sky in Italy and Tata Sky in India. Prior to her in-house experience, Michelle was a litigator in private practice in Los Angeles, focusing on general litigation and entertainment and intellectual property law at Knapp, Petersen and Clarke (1990-1994), and subsequently at Kulik, Gottesman and Mouton (1994-1997).

Born in San Francisco, Michelle grew up in southern California, Singapore, Japan and Greece. She received a BA in English from UCLA in 1986 and a JD from Pepperdine University School of Law in 1990. Michelle is an avid tennis player and student of yoga and loves riding horses and surfing. She has studied genres of non-fiction expression and oral history at The New School and Columbia University, respectively, and is a recipient of the 2006 YWCA Academy of Women Leaders Award.

Michael Ridgway Jones is an attorney who practices advanced media, technology and intellectual property law at Loeb & Loeb LLP in New York City, where he represents clients ranging from Fortune 100 media, financial services and technology companies to startup emerging media companies. Before becoming an attorney, Michael taught Greek and Latin at universities in Georgia and North Carolina. He has been active in LGBT advocacy since his college days at Emory, where he fought for protection of LGBT students, faculty and staff in Emory’s nondiscrimination policy, and he organized gay and lesbian studies conferences at Yale and UNC-Asheville.

Michael received his B.A. from Emory University, where he was a Robert W. Woodruff Scholar and graduated with highest honors, and his M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. in Classical Languages and Literatures from Yale University, where he was a Sterling Prize Fellow and winner of the Mary Cady Tew Prize in the Humanities. His J.D. is from Emory University School of Law, where he graduated with honors, was a member of the Order of the Coif, and was Executive Managing Editor of the Emory Law Journal.

He was born in Mississippi and grew up in Loganville, Georgia, a small town outside Atlanta. He lives in the West Village with his long-time partner, Jonathan Parris, and their beloved dog, Prince, both of whom are also Georgia natives. He enjoys early music, old movies and traveling.

Rob Pritchard spent ten years with the organization founded by the entertainer and entrepreneur Merv Griffin, most recently serving as President of The Griffin Group of Companies, the conglomeration of Griffin’s varied businesses, having primary strategic and operational responsibility for the organization and its constituent companies, and as Trustee of The Merv Griffin Living Trust, owner of the Griffin assets. Rob previously served the organization as its Vice President and General Counsel. The Griffin Group, Inc., based in Beverly Hills, California, is the management company charged with overseeing and operating the vast personal and business interests of Merv Griffin, including television and feature film development and production; real estate development, investment banking and brokerage services; hospitality (with properties in California; Florida; Arizona; New Mexico; and Galway, Ireland); and private equity investment with investments and operations throughout the United States.

Rob was introduced to the Griffin companies while practicing law jn New York with the firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher as a corporate attorney, where he had a broad-based corporate practice encompassing mergers and acquisitions; bank finance; general corporate counseling; and real estate transactions and finance.

Rob previously served as a member of the Board of The Foundation for Small Voices, a New York-based organization that strives to bring music education and awareness to public schools throughout the United States. Rob is a frequent traveler, an avid reader and enjoys playing tennis and swimming.

Rob received a BS in Accounting from the University of Delaware in 1992 and a JD from The Harvard Law School in 1995.

Jonathan Raiola (Development Chair) is a founding partner at D and R Events, a full-servicespecial event design, production and management firm, based in New York City and supporting clients across the globe. Jonathan and business partner, Regina Dejana, founded D and R Events in 2006 and provides comprehensive event design and meeting management and to flawlessly deliver best-in-class, effective and memorable special events and meetings to small and large institutions in financial services, legal, pharmaceutical and entertainment sectors, and high net worth individuals. Based in New York, D and R regularly works throughout the US and in EU on high profile client events, Board of Directors and Shareholders Meetings, Reward and Recognition Programs and Weddings and other Social Gatherings.

Past work experience includes Director of Gracie Mansion and the Gracie Mansion Conservancy, where Jonathan was an integral part of events and protocol administration for Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. Additionally, oversaw the Conservancy’s $8 million restoration project. Prior to working for the Mayor’s Office, Jonathan served as the Director of Operations for a boutique event management company. As Director of Operations, Jonathan had responsibility for managing high profile events including: corporate sponsor hospitality at the 2000 and 2002 Olympic Games, and Wimbeldon, 2001-2003, and the opening of Mamma Mia in Los Angeles, CA, New York, NY and Melbourne, AU. Adding to the depth of Jonathan’s experience is the ten years he spent in fine dining restaurants and off premise catering in New York City, where created and managed events of varying types and sizes – from events with as few as five guests to as many as 5,000 guests. Client highlights include: Bryant Park Fashion Shows, NBA and Ford Models. Jonathan also has significant supervisory experience, overseeing a staff of 300, while working for a major restaurantgroup with five restaurants in New York City.

Jonathan has a degree in hotel and restaurant management from New York University. He frequently performs charity work and volunteers with the Gracie Mansion Conservancy. He also frequently volunteers for major Mayor’s office events, with highlights including: the Republican National Convention and the Anniversaries of September 11.

Michael Sennott (Chair, Catalyst Committee) is an Illinois native, and a graduate of the University of Notre Dame, in South Bend, Indiana, where he received a BA in History. After relocating to New York City in 1965, he joined the Interpublic Group of Companies as a trainee; retiring in 2002 as Vice-Chairman. During his 37 years at IPG, Michael held a variety of posts principally at McCann-Erickson, including Director of the New York office, and Regional Director Europe/Middle East/Africa for 8 years. He returned to New York in 1998 as Vice Chairman of McCann World Group, and in 1999, he was called upon to engineer the merger of Lintas Worldwide into The Lowe Group. After successfully completing that merger, he became Vice Chairman of The Interpublic Group of Companies.
 
Michael now devotes his time to volunteering and fundraising. He is Chairman of the Board of God's Love We Deliver, and is also a director of The Grand Street Settlement.  Formerly, he was a director at IES, a consortium of American Colleges and Universities providing overseas education with 24 campuses around the world.  A grandfather and avid traveler, Michael enjoys reading and boosting the virtues of Martha's Vineyard.

Pearl Zuchlewski is a partner in Kraus & Zuchlewski LLP where she primarily represents individual employees.

She is a former Chair of the New York State Bar Assoeiation ("NYSBA") Labor and Employment Law Section and presently serves on the Section's Executive Committee. She also is aSection representative to the NYSBA House of Delegates. In addition, Ms. Zuchlewski is a member of the American Bar Association ("ABA") Labor and Employment Law Section's Employee Rights and Responsibilities Committee, the National Employment Lawyers Association and the Association of the Bar in the City of New York ("ABCNY"). As a former member of the ABCNY's Labor and Employment Law Committee, she participated in the drafting of the Model Rules for the Arbitration of Employment Disputes.

She has conducted training programs on employment issues for the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority ("FINRA") arbitrators, has served on the FINRA's Form U-4 advisory committee, the FINRA task force which drafted the FINRA Code of Arbitration provisions for statutory discrimination claims and is former Chair of the FINRA's National Arbitration and Mediation Committee. Ms. Zuchlewski most recently served as Chair of a FINRA employment task force which reviewed and consolidated the former NASD and NYSE Codes of Arbitration Procedure.

Ms. Zuchlewski has been recognized for several years as among the Best Lawyers in New York and in Superlawyers. She is a Fellow in the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers and is Chair of the College's Second Circuit credentials committee. She is a member of the advisory boards of the New York University Law School Center for Labor and Employment, the Hofstra Law School, CPR Employment Disputes Committee and the New York City Chapter of the Labor and Employment Relations Association. She has served on the Second Circuit's Task Force on Gender, Racial and Ethnic Fairness. Her other professional activities include membership in the Public Investors Arbitration BarAssociation and an adjunct faculty position at St. John's School of Law where she teaches Labor & Employment Arbitration.

Ms. Zuchlewski is a frequent speaker on alternative dispute resolution, sexual harassment and other employment related issues at various organizations including the ABA, NYSBA, ABCNY, Practicing Law Institute and New York University Judicial Conferences. Her articles have appeared in the New York Law Journal, various proceedings of the New York University's Annual Conferences on Labor, ABA, NYSBA and other publications.