Who We Are
The Hill Center plan is the work of the Old Naval Hospital Foundation, a broad coalition of Capitol Hill neighbors committed to seeing this landmark property fully restored and kept in community use. Since 2002 we’ve met and talked with hundreds of fellow Hill residents, soliciting their ideas for what the Center should become. Please give us your ideas too by completing our online survey.
Our Board of Directors
Our board members have deep and longstanding ties to the Capitol Hill community. All serve on a volunteer basis.
Rev. Paul Abernathy has served as Rector of St. Mark's Episcopal Church on Capitol Hill since 1998.
Sharon Ambrose served as Ward 6 Councilmember from 1997 until her retirement in 2007. She has lived on Capitol Hill since 1969.
Nicky Cymrot, our foundation president, also heads the Capitol Hill Community Foundation. She has been engaged in residential and commercial real estate investment, construction and management on Capitol Hill for more than thirty years.
Steve Cymrot is the founding president and a current board member of the Capitol Hill Community Foundation. He also is the founding president of the Capitol Hill Association of Merchants and Professionals (CHAMPS).
John Franzén is president of Franzén & Company, a media and strategic consulting firm, and has lived on Capitol Hill since 1973. He is the founding chairman of the Ruth Ann Overbeck Capitol Hill History Project.
Mark Gitenstein is a longtime Hill resident and a partner in the Washington firm of Mayer, Brown, Rowe and Maw. He served as chief counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee and as counsel to the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Betty Ann Kane served our community for twelve years as a member of the D.C. City Council and for four years on the D.C. Board of Education. She served as Executive Director of the D.C. Retirement Board and is now a member of the D.C. Public Service Commission.
William Malley is a partner in the Project and Infrastructure Development department of the Washington law firm of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld. He has expertise in historic preservation, environmental, transportation and land use law.
Guy Martin has been an active member of our community for more than thirty years, heading fundraising efforts for Peabody School, Capitol Hill Day School and the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop. A former Assistant Secretary of the Interior, he is now a partner at Perkins Coie.
John Pfeiffer has lived on Capitol Hill since 1977, working throughout that time for the Office of Management and Budget. He has served as parish council president and renovation campaign chair at St. Peter’s Church, treasurer of the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop, president of the Capitol Hill Cluster School PTA, chairman of Parents United for the DC Public Schools, and chairman of Capitol Hill Scouts.
David B. Ray is Director of Community Outreach Programs for the United Negro College Fund and a national authority on diversity and service-learning. He is also a board member of the Capitol Hill Community Foundation.
Donna Scheeder heads the Law Library at the Library of Congress and is a widely respected expert on libraries and information systems. A longtime Capitol Hill resident, she also has served as an Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner
Jennifer Smith is the director of the Equity Audit for Senior High Schools at the Education Trust. Formerly, she was director of the D.C. Public Schools New Principals
Leadership Institute.
Bonny Wolf is a Capitol Hill writer and editor. She was chief speechwriter for former Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman and does commentaries now for National Public Radio. |
