Board of Directors

Stephen L. Marsh, President

Stephen Marsh is a partner at McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP, (formerly Luce Forward) attorneys at law, in San Diego. At the firm, he practices Environmental Law, specializing in hazardous waste and toxic tort litigation, and advising businesses and property owners on issues related to environmental law in connection with corporate and real estate purchasing, leasing and financing. He earned his JD at the University of Michigan, after receiving a bachelor's from Wayne State University in Chemistry and conducting graduate work at Florida State University Department of Oceanography in Sediment Geochemistry. Steve has served on numerous boards, both connected to his professional life and personal interests. He is a singer in the La Jolla Symphony Chorus.

Paul E. Symczak, Vice President

Paul E. Symczak, a resident of Del Mar, is currently co-founder and principal of Prism Strategic Consulting LLC, which provides advice to early and mid-stage companies interested in expanding their business through strategic alliances. Prior to Prism, Mr. Symczak held several senior management positions in business development and strategic alliances with Verizon Communications, Verizon Wireless, Qualcomm and GTE Corp. Mr. Symczak brings non-profit governance and board expertise from his 17 years with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) in Washington, DC. At CPB, he served as Senior Vice-President, General Counsel and Secretary to the Corporation’s Presidentially-appointed Board of Directors. Mr. Symczak has a BA degree in Economics from the University of Pittsburgh and a JD degree from the George Washington University Law School. He is a member of the bar of the District of Columbia and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Jennifer Smerud, Treasurer

Ms. Smerud joined the La Jolla Symphony in 2004 and has played second clarinet, bass clarinet, and Eb clarinet for the past several seasons. She received her undergraduate degree in clarinet performance from Indiana University in 2000 where she studied with Howard Klug and James Campbell. She received her master's degree in accounting from Indiana and began working as a CPA in Chicago in 2001. She has worked as an auditor for four big accounting firms and is currently a corporate controller in private industry.

Ida Houby, Secretary

Ida Houby, a native Dane, originally came to San Diego as a graduate student to study with renowned psychologists in the area, and earn her Ph.D. in clinical Psychology. She met and married her American husband soon after, and has returned to Denmark only for visits. Ida is a practicing psychologist in Del Mar and Solana Beach since 1990 with special interest in life-transitions and psycho-oncology, a subject she has taught, along with research methods, at universities in the area. She reconnected with her musical past (B.A. in Music Education from the University of Copenhagen) when she joined the La Jolla Symphony Chorus in 1997.

Evon Carpenter, Board Representative to the Orchestra

Ms. Carpenter, a native Californian, joined La Jolla Symphony in 1998. Previously she played violin with several Los Angeles area orchestras, including Palos Verdes Peninsula Symphony, Long Beach City Orchestra, and Cypress Pops, where she also served on the Board of Directors. She has also played chamber music throughout California and British Columbia. Evon holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration, a master’s degree in education, and a California CPA license. She began her career as a CPA with Coopers & Lybrand, Los Angeles, and has worked as a controller for a major medical manufacturing company and as CFO for a plastics manufacturer. She is currently a fifth grade teacher for Del Mar Union School District.

Gordon R. Clark

Gordon R. Clark serves as president and CEO of iProtean, the leading provider of e-learning courses for the boards of hospitals and health systems. Prior to iProtean, Mr. Clark was the president and CEO of Learner's Digest International, a provider of continuing medical education credits (CME) for physicians and web-based content management for medical and scientific societies. He was previously president and CEO of The Governance Institute, a firm serving the healthcare governance market. Prior to The Governance Institute, he led First American Records Management, a records and information management company headquartered in Silicon Valley. In addition to La Jolla Symphony & Chorus, he serves on the Board of Directors of Scripps Health and as chairman of MD Revolution, a company leveraging genomics and wireless technology to improve health and wellness. He is a graduate of Cornell University and the Fordham University Graduate School of Business.

Dr. Frank Dwinnell

Frank Dwinnell’s passion for music preceded a career in medicine. In high school he played in various jazz bands in the San Francisco Bay area. Following two years in college as a music major, he served for four years as the leader of the small jazz ensemble in the United States Air Force Band in Washington D.C. Following his enlistment, he studied medicine at the University of California Berkeley and the University of California San Francisco graduating in 1966 with an M.D. He did an internship and Pediatric Residency at the Oakland Naval Hospital. Mr. Dwinnell practiced medicine for twenty years in the United States Navy Medical Corps and following that, for twelve years with the San Diego County Health Department. He is married to the former Joan Widrig of Del Mar and has lived in San Diego for thirty-five years. Dr. Dwinnel is a long-time member of the San Diego Yacht Club. He enjoys travel, reading and listening to classical music.

Peter Gourevitch, Chorus Representative

Peter Gourevitch is a professor at UCSD's School of International Relations and Pacific Studies, of which he served as the Founding Dean from 1986-1996. He came to UCSD in 1979 from McGill University in Montreal and from Harvard where he taught from 1969-74 after receiving his Ph.D. in political science in 1969. He graduated from Oberlin College in 1963, and sang there in Musical Union choir and in some Gilbert and Sullivan productions. He joined the La Jolla Symphony Chorus in 2000 and went on the choir tour to the Czech Republic and Poland, as well as Mendocino. Mr. Gourevitch writes and teaches about policy responses to international economic crises, on corporate governance systems around the world, and on NGO engagement in social issues. He has served on various boards connected to his professional affiliations and his personal interests, including the board of the Preuss School at UCSD. Peter has two sons, Alex and Nick, now both married and living on the East Coast. In addition to singing and listening to opera, he loves to travel, to garden, and to speak French.

Eric McCall

Mr. McCall is a Staff Financial Analyst at Qualcomm, most recently with their FLO TV division. He has 10 years of telecom industry experience and holds a bachelor’s of science in business administration in finance and economics.

Mark Appelbaum

Mark Appelbaum is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Psychology at UCSD where he served as the founding Associate Vice Chancellor for Undergraduate Education. He remains active in research and publication. He is Interim Editor of Psychological Methods of which he was the founding editor and has been Editor of Psychological Bulletin. Prior to joining the faculty at UCSD in 1996, Mark was a Professor at Vanderbilt University and prior to that at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He holds a B.S. degree in chemistry from Carnegie-Mellon University and a Ph.D. in Quantitative Psychology from the University of Illinois.