Board of Directors
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Margaret Ballard
President Margaret has been a Board member since 2022 and was acting treasurer until September 2024 when she was elected as Vice President of the Board. She was elected Board President in September 2026. She retired as Senior Project Manager at HDR, Engineering, Inc in 2008. Her 35-year career involved nearly every mode of transportation, alternatives analysis, project planning, public participation, and project management. She managed large environmental projects across the U.S. She began her career with more than a dozen years in the Maryland Department of Transportation, working on environmental issues of ports, highways, Metro and airports. Growing up in PA, her family regularly went to hear Eugene Ormandy conduct the Philadelphia Orchestra. An Alexandria resident since the 1990's, she started attending occasional Washington Metropolitan Philharmonic performances at Bishop Ireton in the 2000’s. She joined the WMPA Friends tour to Croatia in 2013 and subsequent tours as well. She received her B.A. from Goucher College and her M.S. in Urban Planning from The Johns Hopkins University. She had been active in various professional activities and boards. |
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Lawrence Ries
Treasurer Larry served as WMPA Board President from 2014 to 2024. He was elected Treasurer in September 2024. Associated with WMPA since 1986 as a patron and composer, he joined the Board in 2009 after he retired from the Federal Government as a Senior Project Manager. He specialized in managing information technology (IT) contracts supporting IT operations of entire agencies, including the FDIC and SEC. He also supported major software development contracts at the Department of Agriculture and the Census Bureau, and many IT contracts at other Federal agencies. He spent five years in private sector as a market researcher for a software company. Prior to these assignments, he spent ten years raising his two sons and composing classical music. He has a master’s degree in English literature and formal musical training at Montgomery College and Catholic University. He has performed as a chorus member in various choruses and church choirs. Self-taught as a pianist and composer, with several of his works performed by the WMP and as a Board member, he is committed to sharing the transformative power of classical music through his support of WMPA’s mission. |
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Donna Reuss
Secretary, Volunteer Coordinator Donna joined the WMPA Board in September 2022, serving as Volunteer Coordinator and recently-elected Board Secretary. She retired in 2010 from the Federal Government after thirty-seven years as a National Security Emergency Management senior manager with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Defense. She chaired an interagency advisory group of senior Federal planners; authored and coordinated interagency and Federal Executive Branch policy, strategy, plans, and guidance; built and resourced operational response capabilities; and trained and exercised teams of senior government officials to ensure readiness for a disaster with the potential to threaten continuity of the Federal government. She led part of the 9/11 attack response, securing Cabinet-level officials against further attacks. A Vietnam-era veteran and Cold Warrior, Donna also served 27 years active and US Army Reserve duty as a military intelligence linguist, commander, and staff officer. Donna has a BA in Bi-Lingual Business Administration and an MA in Geography and Regional Planning. She took piano lessons as a child, and despite no formal voice training, she is a choir member at her church, cantors Catholic Masses at the Alexandria Adult Detention Center, and has performed with other church choirs and choruses, including two performances at Carnegie Hall in New York City. An avid world traveler, Donna appreciates the impact of music and the arts on communities and cultures, and is enthusiastic about assisting in furtherance of the WMPA mission and vision. |
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Brittany Pemberton
Orchestra Representative Brittany Pemberton grew up in Ohio, where she was a member of the historic Squire's Junior Military Band and the Youngstown Symphony Youth Orchestra. Brittany holds a B.M. (Cincinnati CCM) and an M.M. (James Madison) in clarinet performance, and her principal teachers include Dennis Nygren, Ron deKant, and Janice Minor. Brittany is an active performer in the DC area and a practicing attorney. |
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John Suntherland Earle
Lyceum Chamber Series Co-Coordinator John Sutherland Earle enjoys dual careers as pianist and professor. Having trained at Oberlin, Stanford, and Vienna, he has won prizes in international competitions and concertized in more than a dozen US states, several countries of Europe, and in Russia and Japan. Since moving to the DC area in 2010, he has become a well-known collaborative and solo pianist on the local music scene. A Distinguished University Professor in the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University, where he is also a graduate music student, he is a widely cited scholar for his research on labor policies, entrepreneurship, and inequality. He previously taught and made music in Stanford, Prague, Stockholm, Budapest, and Paris. |
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Rachel Sheedy
Member Rachel L. Sheedy, CFP®, is an at-large Board Member of the Washington Metropolitan Philharmonic Association. A former personal finance journalist, Sheedy now works in communications for a financial services related nonprofit. As a longtime resident of the Washington, D.C. area, she has enjoyed the many cultural and arts opportunities the region has to offer. Having attended many WMPA concerts in recent years, she is excited to be supporting WMPA behind the scenes as a board member. |
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Clay Berry
Member Clay Berry has more than 25 years of experience managing complex global economic and financial sector policy initiatives across both the public and private sectors. She was most recently Managing Director and Head of Global Engagement for JPMorganChase, leading international government relations for the firm. Previously, she spent more than 15 years at the U.S. Treasury Department including as Acting Assistant Secretary for Financial Markets and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Europe & Eurasia. Clay grew up in Alexandria, playing the violin in the Alexandria City public schools and participating in regional youth orchestras. |
