Westbeth Corporation
Board of Directors

Members of the Westbeth Corporation Board of Directors

J.P. Versace, Jr.

J.P. Versace, Jr.
Chair
Mr. Versace is a principal and senior advisor in the New York office of AB Bernstein, where he oversees a global investment management advisory practice. A graduate of Boston University, Mr. Versace currently serves as Chairman of the Board for Eyebeam, a not-for-profit collaborative arts and technology studio, and the Vice-Chair of the Board of Trustees for The SACI College of Arts & Design in Florence, Italy.
His deep civic involvement includes many arts, business, youth and social service organizations where he has served or is serving as a board member and volunteer including: ABNY, The Alliance for the Arts, The Association to Benefit Children, The American Council for Cultural Policy, Children for Children, Exploring the Arts, The Gordon Parks Foundation, Jazz at Lincoln Center, MOUSE, New York City Department of Education, TED Arts Fellows, One Laptop per Child, Pencil and The Partnership for New York City.
In addition to his role at AB, Mr. Versace has served as an assistant professor on the faculty of Columbia University’s Graduate School of International and Public Policy from 2011 – 2015.
In 2003-2004, Mr. Versace was a fellow in the Partnership for New York’s David Rockefeller Civic Fellowship program; prior to joining AB he held executive and management positions at IBM and Microsoft.

Judd Levy

Judd Levy
Vice Chair
For over 45 years, Judd has been active in financing affordable housing, working in state government and as an investment banker. In 1999 he created The Community Development Trust, the first REIT dedicated to financing affordable housing, charter schools and community facilities.From 2006-2011 Judd served under three governors as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the State of New York Mortgage Agency and the New York Housing Finance Agency. For over 15 years he served as the pro-bono advisor to Habitat for Humanity and assisted in securitizations that provided over $200 million for more than 270 local Habitat affiliates throughout the United States. He also served as an advisor to Habitat on an international micro-lending program for small business. Mr. Levy recently retired as a member of the Board of Directors of Enterprise Community Investment.

Alina Lundry

Alina Lundry
Treasurer (elected 2019)
Alina is a partner and founding member of Highline Stages, with over 25 years of experience in the photography-film studio and event industries. A graduate of L.I.U., C.W. Post, with a B.S. in Accounting, she began her auditing career as a Certified Public Accountant in NYC.

Prior to founding Highline Stages, Alina served as C.F.O. and C.O.O. of Industria Superstudio, where she spent 16 years leading the company’s operations: studio management, advertising and editorial photography production, event planning, catering and restaurant management. In 2010, she teamed with her industry colleagues to create the Meatpacking District’s Highline Stages, envisioning a place that would support the creative work of artists across several industries.

In 2015 Alina was appointed to the President’s Advisory Council of the New York Academy of Art (NYAA), and in 2016 became a member of the Board of Trustees.

Alina’s past philanthropic activities have included a two decade involvement with the Elizabeth Glazier Pediatric AIDS Foundation as Photography Captain, the Sponsoring of rookie mushers in the 1000 mile Iditarod Race, biking across Alaska to raise money and awareness for an AIDS vaccine, and the Sponsoring of emerging artists and alumni of the NYAA. Alina’s passions extend to the extreme outdoors, whether it is remote travel or remote travel for a cause.

Christina Maile

Christina Maile
Secretary
Christina is a printmaker and painter. As a landscape architect, she was the Deputy Director for Construction for the NYC Dept of Parks. As a playwright, she co-founded the Westbeth Playwrights Feminist Collective – one of the first feminist theater groups in the USA. Their work has been included in the archives of the New York Historical Society. Her landscape design work has appeared in Garden Design Magazine, and Landscape Architecture Magazine. In 2013 she received a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, and a Joan Mitchell Studio Grant for painting and printmaking. Her work, which explores her Dayak and West Indian heritage, has been featured at the International Print Center in New York City, included in the Feminist Artists Collection at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, NY, and in many private collections. In 2017 she co-won the Miriam Chaikin Foundation Writing Award. www.christinamaile.com.

George Cominskie
Boardmember
George Cominskie is the former VP of John Turner Photo, having worked in the
photography field for the past two decades. He stepped down as Executive Director of
Westbeth in May of 2023.
George has served intermittently on the Westbeth Board of Directors since 1989.
He has been Vice-Chair and Secretary of the Board.
George served on the Westbeth Artists Residents Council for 21 years, 17 of them as
President of WARC. For eight years he was the producer of the WestFest Dance Festival
and the PEN Literary Quest.
George served on advisory committees for The Whitney Museum of American Art and
Little Island. He has been a Wednesday morning volunteer at God’s Love We Deliver for
the past 27 years.

Samantha “Sam” Vincent

Samantha “Sam” Vincent
Boardmember
Sam is a film producer with One Race Films working on successful franchises such as THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS, XXX, and RIDDICK. Since 2001, she has also produced video games, television programming, as well as digital and social media projects for the company.
Previously, Vincent worked in the non-profit sector, building educational programs for low income students in NYC at the Fresh Air Fund through the Educational Alliance. Vincent has a Masters in Educational Policy from Harvard University. Her experience in growing up at Westbeth informs her presence on the Board and her efforts to advance Westbeth’s mission of art, community, and affordable housing.

Adam Davidson

Adam Davidson
Boardmember
Adam is an economics journalist. He writes the On Money column for the NY Times Magazine and is the co-founder of NPR’s Planet Money. Davidson’s work explaining economic and financial news to the general public has won many major awards including the Peabody, Dupont-Columbia, and Polk. Davidson grew up in Westbeth, where he lived from 1972 to 1988. His father, Jack Davidson, is an actor who still lives in the building.

Elsie McCabe Thompson
Boardmember (elected 2019)
Elsie is president of the NYC Mission Society – an anti-poverty organization that supports education and youth development programs in 12 locations throughout the city. For 15 years she was President/CEO of the Museum of African Art in which she oversaw the amassing of 5 parcels of land as well as the rezoning, planning, design, value- engineering, fundraising (some $75 million), financing and construction of a new building located at on the top of Museum Mile (Fifth Avenue) at 110th Street. She is an inaugural recipient of the Ford Foundation’s Visionaries Award for pioneering transformative social change. She previously served as Mayor David Dinkins Chief of Staff and was a litigator for Sherman & Sterling. She is currently on the boards of the NYS Council on the Arts, the National Recreation Foundation, and the National Parks of NY Harbor Conservancy and is on the steering committee for the Association for a Better New York. Her husband is a former NYC Comptroller and is Chair of the Board of CUNY.