Westbeth Corporation
Board of Directors

Members of the Westbeth Corporation Board of Directors

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
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
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
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 and 2020 she 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.

Arvind Sohoni
Boardmember (elected 2024)
Arvind Sohoni joined NYCHA in February 2019. He leads the agency’s Transformation effort and oversees several reforms to reshape the agency’s operations to focus on resident needs and local control. He also oversees work with the agency’s federal oversight team, including the Federal Monitor, US Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
Prior to NYCHA, Arvind served a variety of public- and private-sector clients as a consultant with McKinsey & Company. He also served as a fellow at the McKinsey Global Institute, where he wrote “The US Economy: An Agenda for Inclusive Growth.”
Arvind holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan and a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School. He serves on the board of The Center for the Living City, a collection of activists, practitioners, and academics founded in collaboration with the late Jane Jacobs

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.

Merilyn Rovira
Boardmember (elected 2024)
Merilyn Rovira has 35 years of experience in affordable housing development and finance. Her most recent position was at the Community Development Trust where she was responsible for Capital and Strategic Initiatives. She led four capital raises that attracted more than $250 million in equity. She also managed the company’s investor relations, government affairs, and impact evaluation and reporting activities. Earlier in her career she worked for the NYC Department of Housing, the nonprofit Local Initiatives Managed Asset Corp, and Fannie Mae where she led community development for the mid-Atlantic region and as a national account manager for multifamily lenders. Ms. Rovira has a BA in Economics, Magna Cum Laude from the University of Colorado, Boulder and a Masters in City and Regional Planning from the University of California, Berkeley.

Ms. Rovira has been involved in various non-profit organizations as a board member and Chair. She chaired the boards of the National Association of Affordable Housing Lenders, Restored Homes- NYC and the Princeton Family YMCA. In addition to Westbeth, she currently serves on the boards of the Center for New York City Neighborhoods and Princeton Community Housing. She serves as the sole trustee of a fund in Colorado which focuses on children with developmental disabilities.

Erin Quinn Purcell
Boardmember
Erin Quinn Purcell was a mainstay in New York’s downtown theatre scene for over 20 years. She was one of the founding members of the critically acclaimed adobe theatre company, and participated as an actor, writer and/or director in countless productions. Credits include: Duet! A Romantic Fable (Broadway Play Publishing) The Fiona Apple Kwanzaa Explosion (PSNBC) the musical A Fish Story (recipient of a Jonathan Larson Foundation award) and the Russ Meyer inspired Go-Go Kitty, Go! (Outstanding Play, 2005 New York Fringe Festival).

Erin is currently working with the Tony award winning creators of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and Urinetown on a new musical, Iceboy!, starring Megan Mullally and Nick Offerman.

She serves as President of The Westbeth Artists Residents Council.

Aileen Gribbin
Boardmember (elected 2024)
Aileen Gribbin, a Partner at Forsyth since 2007, has over 25 years of experience in the affordable housing and community development field, including positions with government agencies, not-for-profit development organizations and the nation’s first affordable housing REIT. Since joining Forsyth, she has been a development and financial advisor on over $1 billion in affordable housing development and preservation transactions for a broad range of both for-profit and not-for-profit clients.

Prior to joining Forsyth, she was an Associate Commissioner with the NYC Department of Housing, Preservation & Development where she was responsible for the executive management of the agency’s Division of Housing Finance.

Aileen has a Master of Business Administration degree in Finance from the New York University Stern School of Business, a Master of Urban Planning degree in Housing Policy from Hunter College of the City University of New York and a Bachelor of Science degree in Resource Economics from Cornell University. Ms. Gribbin is currently on the Board of Citizen’s Housing and Planning Council, NYSAFAH and the Local Farms Fund.