People

Dr. Krzysztof Biernacki is the newly appointed Director of Bower School of Music & the Arts.  Prior to FGCU, he has held the position of Professor of Voice and Director of Opera at the University of North Florida where he distinguished himself as an award-winning professor, international performer, opera stage director and academic administrator.  He is a frequent recitalist performing a wide range of art song repertoire in numerous European languages.  His recent engagements include solo recitals at international music festivals in Spain, Italy, Germany, Poland, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Serbia, France, Norway and Canada.  He is a researcher of vocal works by Polish composer Karol Szymanowski and his recording of Szymanowski’s art songs titled “In the Mists” is available on MSR Classic label.  As an opera singer he appeared in principal roles with Vancouver Opera, Manitoba Opera, Calgary Opera, Orchestra London Canada and Banff Center for Performing Arts. His concert appearances include Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, North Czech Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique du Nouveau Monde in Montreal and Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra. As an opera stage director, he directed over 30 opera productions at UNF, University of British Columbia, Jacksonville Symphony and European Music Academy in the Czech Republic.  In 2007 he established a highly successful UNF Opera Ensemble and UNF Opera Study Abroad Program in Europe where he directed full opera productions in professional opera theaters every summer.  Dr. Biernacki is a graduate of University of Manitoba, University of Western Ontario and University of British Columbia.  Since 2012 he has served as the Assistant director of UNF School of Music, Director of Graduate Studies and Artistic Director of Cummer Family Foundation Chamber Music Series.

Moira Fennessey was a special speech audiologist and Director of Special Gifted Education for the New Jersey State Department of Education.  Mrs. Fennessey is active in the Italian Cultural Society, the Italian American Foundation, Chaine des Rotisseurs, Legatus, and the Latchkey League.  She brings her skills in event planning and in governance to the Board.

Livio Ferrari is a co-founder of Opera Naples and the owner of Ferrari Fitness Center.

Elizabeth Harrington began her career in Brand Management at Procter and Gamble. Then she joined the J. Walter Thompson advertising firm as Vice President of Client Services. She was recruited to Quaker Oats as Vice President of Strategy & Marketing and CEO of their Adcom subsidiary. While at Quaker, she was a member of the team which conducted one of the first American joint ventures in China. She then joined A.T. Kearney as a Partner of their Global Strategy practice. Ms. Harrington was recruited to Pillsbury – GrandMet as Vice President and General Manager of Asia. Then she joined PricewaterhouseCoopers as a Partner of their Global Strategy and China practices. When she retired from PwC, she became North American Publisher of Hurun Report, Asia’s leading business media platform. She has been privileged to serve on the boards of directors of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, the Warranty Group, United Charities Chicago and the American Advertising Federation.

Eric Kalnins, TEP, J.D., LL.M., is Managing Partner of Ice Miller, LLP’s Naples law office.  He practices in the areas of business structuring, tax, estate planning and the family office market.  Prior to making his home in Naples, he was in Chicago for over 20 years and was a Governing Member with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and remains a member of the Chicago Yacht Club.  When not golfing, or spending time with his wife and three children, Mr. Kalnins teaches as an adjunct professor of law at Ave Maria School of Law in Naples, and acts as Honorary Consul for the Republic of Latvia. 

Susan Mullin retired from the investment business in Boston where she was a securities trader for Wellington Management and Lehman Brothers. Subsequently, she was a Guardian ad Litem in the Boston Juvenile Court and now is a panel member on the Citizens Foster Care Review Board in Naples. She is a member of the Royal Poinciana Golf Club Scholarship Committee and was a member of the Board there for 6 years.

Melody was raised in Cincinnati in a family that prized education, appreciated the arts, and instilled a core value that it is important always to support and give back to the community in which you live. She earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Cincinnati (magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa), a master’s degree in social work from Ohio State, and her MBA and law degrees from Rutgers University, where she was on the Law Review.

After a successful twenty-three-year career working in New York City as an attorney at a Wall Street law firm, Chase Manhattan Bank, and then as general counsel for a real estate developer in New Jersey, she returned to Cincinnati to restore her family home in Hyde Park, to work in real estate, and to devote her time to serving on arts, civic, and historic preservation boards.

From 2006 to 2010, Ms. Richardson served as Director, Commercial Division of the Comey & Shepherd City Office, and was named Industry Top Producer in 2007. She has served as a board member for George Washington’s Mount Vernon, the U.S. Department of State Diplomatic Reception Rooms Oversight Board in Washington, D.C. and Winterthur, the Henry Francis Dupont Estate in Wilmington, Delaware. She has served as board chair for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Ballet, and the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority. She has also volunteered on the boards of the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, Cincinnati Opera, May Festival, Contemporary Arts Center, and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. In 2020, she was honored as one of 100 Influential Women in the Arts by Cincinnati’s Arts and the Power of Her. From 2008 through 2014, she was named to Cincy
Business Magazine Power 100. She has one grown son, Peter Chabris, married to Lynn, and two grandchildren Sophie, 20 and Crisper, 15.

She became a property owner in Naples, Florida in 2008 and spends most of her time here in her condominium in the Venetian Village area of Naples. She also has a condominium in Cincinnati, Ohio. She currently serves on the Boards of Opera Naples and the Red Cross-Florida Gulf Coast to Heartland Chapter.