Board of Directors
The Chicago Photography Center Board of Directors provides financial, strategic and operational oversight to the organization. More than just advisors, the CPC board donates valuable hands-on time and expertise to supplement the work of our staff, instructors and volunteers.
If you have questions or concerns about CPC or ideas to us serve our community members better, please email us at board@chicagophoto.org
Members
Tom Cantos
Tom took his first photography course in 1996, using his father’s manual Olympus OM-1. After upgrading to a Canon Elan IIe, he still felt a lack of style in his work. As Tom’s interests expanded to the arts, which began to influence his engineer’s eye for detail, his distinct photography style, highlighting the striking detail in familiar objects and architecture, began to emerge. Tom revived his passion for photography more than four years ago, motivating him to become one of the founding members of the Chicago Photography Center. In addition to his own work, Tom shared his experience and knowledge with CPC students through his volunteer work in the darkroom and the classroom. He has participated in six CPC shows, four of which he served as the show coordinator. With his prior experience as maintenance planner for Air Liquide, an industrial gas company, Tom was well suited to join the board in July 2008 to lead our Facility team. Today, Tom is a project manager for the system integration of toxic gas detection systems at Honeywell Analytics. He has a BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Chicago. You can reach Tom at tom.cantos@chicagophoto.org.
Darren DeJong
Darren became affiliated with CPC in the fall of 2007 when he took his first class at CPC. He joined the board in June of 2008, supporting our Volunteer structure. Darren became interested in photography in junior high when his family moved into a house with a darkroom in the basement. His parents gave him a camera and a family friend – an avid photographer – gave Darren enough equipment to complete his darkroom set up. Darren recently became interested in digital photography and decided to take a class after finding CPC on the internet. Darren is a lawyer with a previous criminal and civil practice, including advising government clients with oversight of non-profit organizations. Currently, he operates a small business that provides translation and interpretation services to individuals, corporations, not-for-profits and government agencies. Darren has extensive volunteer and fund raising experience. You can reach Darren at darren.dejong@chicagophoto.org.
Karen A. Egerer
Treasurer
Karen serves as the treasurer for the CPC board. Karen has always had an interest in photography, but when she received her father’s old Leica she knew it was time to get serious about this interest and so began taking photography classes at the “old place on Belmont” in 2001. Because her favorite paper is no longer being made for traditional photo-processing methods, she is now thinking about making the digital plunge. Some of her favorite photos were taken in Tunisia and Morocco while working with community leaders to strengthen civil society in each country. Karen is president and founder of Heartland International, a nonprofit organization that designs, manages and implements international training programs focusing on democracy and economic development. She is married to a Hoosier and has one college-age son. Karen can be contacted at karen.egerer@chicagophoto.org.
Angela Garbot
Angela has been involved with the CPC since its inception. She is a member of the Founders’ Circle and has been a student, volunteer, show participant and lab instructor. Angela joined the board in August 2004 and focuses her efforts on the website and writing the CPC’s e-newsletter, Snapshot (join the mailing list!). Angela began her career with Anderson Consulting/Accenture in Chicago, and now owns her own photography business. She holds an M.A./B.A. in Linguistics from the University of Chicago. You can reach Angela at angie.garbot@chicagophoto.org.
Elizabeth (Betsy) Lent
President
Betsy has served on the CPC board since August 2004, currently serving as co-president. She is a founding member, student and volunteer. Betsy coordinates CPC’s community partnership programs, providing low-cost photographic programs through collaboration with social services agencies for currently and formerly homeless adults. She studied literature and history at the University of Illinois-Chicago, and filmmaking at Columbia College. Betsy is a senior litigation paralegal with the firm McGuire Woods. You can reach Betsy at betsy.lent@chicagophoto.org.
Kristin Lingren
Secretary
Kristin has been on the CPC board since July 2006. She has been involved as a student, volunteer and guest lecturer at CPC since June of 2005. In particular, Kristin has been involved in the legal review of certain intellectual property, corporate and other legal matters at CPC, and is spearheading CPC’s efforts to establish periodic educational workshops to the community-at-large on legal topics relevant to photographers. Kristin is a partner at the law firm Mandell Menkes LLC, where she concentrates her practice in intellectual property, technology and media law. Kristin has a BA and JD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an LLM from the London School of Economics. Kristin can be contacted at kristin.lingren@chicagophoto.org.
Nicole Price
Nicole has been involved with CPC since its inception, is a founding member and has served on the board since August 2004. Nicole has oversight of CPC’s fundraising events and public relations. Her career has spanned not-for-profit development, marketing communications and dot-com. Currently, she works in event sales for a restaurant corporation. Nicole has an MBA in marketing from the University of Illinois at Urbana, a BA in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and has also studied at Tel Aviv University. Nicole can be contacted at nicole.price@chicagophoto.org.
Roger Rudich
Board member emeritus and advisor to the board
Roger is a founding board member of CPC. His other not-for-profit activities include currently serving on
the executive committees of the boards of directors of both Temple Sholom of Chicago and the Civil War
Roundtable of Chicago. He previously served on the board and as Assistant Commission of the Chicago Lakeshore
chapter of the American Youth Soccer Association, where he currently serves as auditor. Roger has been a
personal injury lawyer in Chicago since 1974. You can reach Roger at
roger.rudich@chicagophoto.org.
Photos on this page were taken by CPC Lighting III graduate Cathy Chouinard. To see more of her work, please visit www.chouinardphotography.com