Board of Directors and Staff

Board of Directors

Board members are charged with presenting programs that promote the arts, sciences and humanities to the public in novel, engaging and affordable ways. The goals for any event must be to edify the public, showcase artistic expression, promote empathy and strengthen St. Louis’s intellectual community.

Brian Elsesser, Ph.D

President

Frances Dickey, Ph.D

Vice President

Frances Dickey is Professor of English at the University of Missouri-Columbia and author of scholarship on T. S. Eliot and other poets. Her most recent book, Prelude in St. Louis: T. S. Eliot’s First City, looks closely at the midtown St. Louis neighborhood where Eliot grew up and how it shaped his worldview and poetry. She was fascinated to discover the former Wednesday Club building just steps away from the house where T. S. Eliot’s parents lived after their youngest child went to college. On the Link Board, Frances serves as Vice-President, helping with day-to-day operations, publicity, and long-term planning.

Paul Brady

Treasurer

Scott Intagliata

Secretary

Scott Intagliata is a native of St. Louis, MO, who graduated from Tulane University in 1983 with a degree in Philosophy, and then taught at and attended graduate school at the University of Missouri St. Louis. Mr. Intagliata has worked as a freelance journalist and spent 11 years consulting on political campaigns. For the past 25 years, he has been an owner and operator of Unico, Inc., a manufacturer of heating and air conditioning equipment. He also owns stakes in five other businesses as well as serving as an investor and board observer for the SixThirty venture capital fund. He and his family live in the Central West End.

Tim Hirzel, Ph.D

Board Member

Bill Seibert

Board Member

Jonathan Allen

Board Member

Sarah Carmody

Art Committee Director

Alicia La Chance

Art Curator

Mark Musumba

Data Scientist

Mark Musumba is a data scientist and research scientist with more than a decade of experience turning data into pricing, product, and policy decisions for Fortune 500 organizations, development, and philanthropic organizations. He began his career as a researcher, holding Research Scientist positions at Columbia University and the University of Florida, where he studied sustainability, agricultural systems, market dynamics, and supply chains across Sub-Saharan Africa. He went on to specialize in machine learning, agentic AI, and time-series forecasting, building a customer-level pricing engine that has supported sales across North America. Most recently, as Senior Data Scientist at Bunge, he developed predictive pricing and freight-cost models that improved forecasting accuracy for the company’s specialty oils business. Mark holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in Applied and Agricultural Economics and a B.S. in Economics, all from Texas A&M University. He serves on the Board of Directors, advising on data and digital strategies to grow patron engagement, including audience analytics, content initiatives, and funding.

Staff

Thomas McGrath

Program Coordinator

Thomas McGrath graduated from Washington University in St. Louis with a B.A. in art history in 2025. In November 2025, he joined the Link Auditorium as an intern and has since become the Program Coordinator for all events in the building, including art gallery events, concerts, fundraising initiatives, and more. He also directs all social media for the organization, including Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn, and manages and updates the Link Auditorium’s website. He takes great joy in developing the first internship program in the organization’s history. Thomas has expanded the Link Auditorium’s community presence by forming relationships with local organizations such as the Central West End Association. Thomas is passionate about historic art and architecture and has found his calling working in development at the Link Auditorium. Some of his other hobbies include speaking Italian, visiting museums, playing tennis, and playing the french horn. 

Lea Lu

Social Media Intern

Lea Lu is an incoming sophomore at Washington University in St. Louis, where she studies Economics and Communication Design. She is passionate about brand design, content creation, literature, and visual art. As social media intern at the Link Auditorium, Lea creates engaging content for Instagram and LinkedIn. She designs graphics and produces videos, sharing stories from the Link’s history, community performances and art exhibitions.