Board Of Advisors
Bob Balaban is an actor, author, comedian, director and producer. He was one of the producers nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture for Gosford Park (2001), in which he also appeared.
Bob is best known for his appearances in the Christopher Guest comedies Waiting for Guffman (1996), Best in Show (2000), A Mighty Wind (2003), and For Your Consideration (2006) and in the Wes Anderson films Moonrise Kingdom (2012), The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), Isle of Dogs (2018) and The French Dispatch (2021). Some of Bob’s other film roles include the drama Midnight Cowboy (1969); the science fiction films Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Altered States (1980), 2010 (1984), the comedy Deconstructing Harry (1997), and the historical drama Capote (2005).
Bob has directed three feature films, in addition to numerous television episodes and films. He is also an author of children’s novels.
Christian Camargo is well known for his pivotal roles in such films as The Hurt Locker, Twilight and National Treasure: Book of Secrets as well TV shows such as Dexter, Penny Dreadful and Apple TV’s See.
Christian wrote and directed Days and Nights, a modern retelling of Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull, starring Allison Janney, Mark Rylance, Katie Holmes, William Hurt, Ben Whishaw and Jean Reno.
Christian’s New York theater work includes title roles in the Public Theater’s Kit Marlowe, Theater For A New Audience’s Coriolanus, Pericles and Hamlet, for which he received Obie and Drama League nominations. Other theater credits include Steve Martin’s Underpants at Classic Stage Company, and Arthur Miller’s All My Sons on Broadway.
Christian also portrayed Orlando in The Bridge Project’s presentation of Shakespeare’s As You Like It and The Tempest both directed by Sam Mendes.
He portrayed Mercutio in the 2013 Broadway revival of Romeo and Juliet, directed by David Leveaux.
Christian also portrayed a mid-career Robert Evans in Simon McBurney’s stage adaptation of The Kid Stays in the Picture, staged in London’s Royal Court
Theatre.
After receiving his commission at West Point, Jeff cut his teeth as a tank, scout, and support platoon leader in Baghdad and Germany. He then took command of the best damn tank outfit this side of the Imjin River- Demon Company, 2-9 Infantry. His last assignment was in the Asymmetric Warfare Group. He has a Master’s degree in Systems Engineering from the University of Virginia, and is currently the Deputy Director of the Operations Research Center (ORCEN) in the Department of Systems Engineering at West Point conducting research in support of the DoD and Army. His weekend passions are his family, his guitar, and his long trail run. To this day, Jeff remains a NY Mets fan, which says more about him than anything else.
Denver Dill is a member of the West Point Band and an instructor of American Politics at the United States Military Academy, West Point, New York. He has developed the course SS493 Music & Influence which he teaches in the Department of Social Sciences. He also serves as a co-founder and researcher in the West Point Music Research Center and as the Army Music Analytics Team Leader. He has taught and assisted in several departments including the Department of Mathematical Sciences, Department of Systems Engineering, Department of English and Philosophy as well as with the Army Cyber Institute. As a trumpet player, Denver has been a prize winner in several national and international competitions. Additionally, Denver has appeared as both a soloist and a principal trumpet player with the New York Philharmonic and has performed with the Metropolitan Opera Brass. Prior to coming to West Point Denver was a doctoral teaching assistant at the Eastman School of Music. He holds degrees from Juilliard and Eastern Kentucky University and holds certifications in: Lean Six Sigma, Security+, and Influence in Special Operations.
Denver is co-editor of the new book Ears of the Elephant – Sound, Music & Influence.
Jeremy Kareken was born and raised in Rochester, NY, and graduated from the University of Chicago and the Actors Studio Drama School. For almost 20 years he worked for Inside the Actors Studio, where he was the researcher, the Associate Producer and Producer. For two presidential campaigns he served as a writer and policy analyst for Gary Johnson. Jeremy also works as a writing teacher and consultant.
With David Murrell, Jeremy co-wrote the Broadway hit The Lifespan of a Fact starring Daniel Radcliffe, Cherry Jones and Bobby Cannavale and received the 2019 John Gassner Award for New Plays from the Outer Critics Circle. Jeremy’s awards include the EST Next Step Fellowship, the Walter Dakin Fellowship at the Sewanee Writers Conference, the Hamptons Film Festival’s screenwriting conference, the Playwrights Center/Guthrie Theater’s Two-Headed challenge, and the 25th Annual Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Awards.
Jonathan Leaf is a playwright, screenwriter, author and journalist based out of New York City. He is the writer of the off-Broadway play The Caterers, which was nominated for Best Full-Length Original Script of 2005-2006 in the Innovative Theater Awards. Jonathan’s The Germans In Paris was the highest rated show in New York according to audience surveys on the Theatermania website. Jonathan has written both about the arts and culture for such publications as The Weekly Standard, The New York Sun, The New Yorker, The New York Post, The New York Daily News, The American and National Review. Jonathan has also been a contributor and editor at the Web journal New Partisan, and he has written for The New York Press, where he served as the Arts editor. Jonathan’s recent dramatic play “Pushkin,” premiered at New York’s Sheen Center in the summer of 2018. The Wall Street Journal’s Terry Teachout called it ‘one of the best new plays to open in New York in recent memory.’ The National Association of Scholars President Peter Wood, in a review, wrote that it was ‘an extraordinary achievement…Leaf has created a work that will stand the test of time.’ Teachout subsequently named the play one of his four best new plays of 2018.
Wayne Martin retired from 38 years of public accounting, last being a partner with PKF O’Connor Davies. He obtained his degree from William Paterson College after four years of service in the United States Marine Corps mostly on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier, USS Independence. He is licensed to practice accounting in New York and New Jersey and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants as well as the New York and New Jersey State Societies of Certified Public Accountants.
Wayne’s local community involvement included being a member of the Board of Directors of The Community Foundation of Orange and Sullivan, Florida Union Free School District Audit Committee and the Big Brother Big Sister of Orange County as well as being part of other local organizations.