The Shakespeare Oxford Fellowship Board of Trustees
The current Trustees of the SOF are listed below, followed by all former Trustees. See also our Honorary Trustees here. Under the SOF Bylaws, regular Trustees may serve up to two consecutive three-year terms, plus any partial terms of less than three years to which they may be appointed or elected. Officers (the President, Vice President, Treasurer, and Secretary) must be Trustees and may serve up to three consecutive one-year terms in the same office, plus (with unanimous Board approval) a fourth consecutive one-year term. Trustees and Officers are eligible to serve additional terms after an interval of one year has elapsed.
Brent Evans, Trustee and President
Brent Evans has a graduate degree in Asian History from the University of Pennsylvania and two additional years of intensive Japanese language study at International Christian University in Tokyo. He is retired after a 40-year career in international trade. Brent and his wife Patty, lifelong devotees of Shakespeare, were thunderstruck when they stumbled upon a YouTube video of two of their favorite Shakespearean actors, Sir Derek Jacobi and Sir Mark Rylance, convincingly outlining their incredulity about “the man from Stratford.” For Brent, the traditional “genius” explanation quickly disintegrated. It was replaced by a passionate interest in the authorship question, which has prompted years of reading and study.
Brent was elected to a three-year term on the Board of Trustees at the Annual Meeting on September 28, 2024, served as Vice President (succeeding Dorothea Dickerman) from June 1 to July 31, 2025, and became the eighth person to serve as President of the unified SOF on August 1, 2025 (again following Dorothea). After completing the last in a series of rotating presidential terms during 2024–25, Brent was elected to a full-year term as President at the Annual Meeting on September 21, 2025. His current term as President expires at the Annual Meeting on September 27, 2026, and his current term as Trustee expires at the 2027 Annual Meeting (he is eligible for reelection to both).
Brent’s focus is outreach to high school teachers and students, playgoers, and “anyone who loves Shakespeare.” He supports efforts to increase membership and fundraising and to improve SOF internal operations. He chairs the Education and Outreach Committee and is the official SOF Liaison with the UK’s De Vere Society.
Bonner Miller Cutting, Trustee and Vice President
Bonner Miller Cutting earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in music from Tulane University and a Master of Music from McNeese State University in Lake Charles, Louisiana. An accomplished classical pianist, she studied under Jane Smisor Bastien and Sylvia Zaremba. She has taught and judged competitions for many years and has performed widely, including the Ravel Concerto in G with the New Orleans Symphony under the baton of Arthur Fiedler.
Bonner was honored in 2024 as Oxfordian of the Year. She lectures frequently on the Shakespeare authorship question at conferences, book clubs, and community groups. In her book Necessary Mischief: Exploring the Shakespeare Authorship Question (2018), she reveals new information on ten authorship-related subjects, including the Last Will and Testament of William Shakspere of Stratford-upon-Avon and the £1,000 annuity that Queen Elizabeth I gave to Edward de Vere (Earl of Oxford). Six of Bonner’s lectures are posted on the SOF YouTube channel, and interviews with her about the Stratford man’s will are available in podcasts on the “Shakespeare Underground” website. She was a featured speaker at the SOF celebration of the centennial of Looney’s 1920 book.
Bonner was a Trustee of the Shakespeare Fellowship before the 2013 merger creating the unified SOF. She has served the SOF in many capacities since then. She also serves on the Board of Directors and as Secretary of the Shakespeare Authorship Coalition, which sponsors the “Declaration of Reasonable Doubt.” Bonner was elected to the SOF Board of Trustees at the Annual Meeting on September 26, 2020. She was appointed Secretary on June 15, 2021 (succeeding Earl Showerman), and served in that role for four years. She was reelected to a second Board term at the Annual Meeting on November 11, 2023. On August 1, 2025, she succeeded Brent Evans as Vice President. Her current terms as Trustee and Vice President expire at the Annual Meeting on September 27, 2026 (she is not eligible for reelection). She is a member of the Conference Committee, chairs the Nominations Committee, and also serves on the Oxfordian of the Year Committee.
Eva Varelas, Trustee and Treasurer
Eva Varelas is a New York State licensed Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and financial professional with over two decades of experience in accounting, auditing, and business administration. Her career spans government, nonprofits, and global companies. Eva holds a BA in English from Fordham University and an MBA in Public Accounting from Pace University. She is currently a Financial Consultant with the Robin Hood Foundation. In her previous role, she served eight years as an Assistant Controller at the National September 11 Memorial Museum.
Eva is passionate about the ancient Mediterranean world, the Renaissance, and the Middle Ages. She enjoys studying philosophy, poetry and drama in ancient Greek, and learning introductory Latin. Intrigued by the Shakespeare authorship question, she actively follows contemporary scholarship in this area. She brings creativity and a fresh perspective to her philanthropic endeavors and serves as a strategic partner with humanitarian, cultural, and arts organizations.
Eva was appointed to the Board of Trustees on May 9, 2025, to fill the seat vacated by Michael Dudley. She was then elected to complete the final year of that term, and became Treasurer, at the Annual Meeting on September 21, 2025. Her current terms as Trustee and Treasurer expire at the Annual Meeting on September 27, 2026 (she is eligible for reelection to both). She chairs the Finance Committee.
Tom Townsend, Trustee and Secretary
Tom Townsend has been studying and researching Elizabethan history and the Shakespeare authorship question for over 35 years. A longtime member of the SOF, he has presented numerous conference papers and introductions to the authorship issue for those new to the subject (see this YouTube video for one example). He has also published several articles in the SOF Newsletter. Tom is a former Director of Consumer Insights (a senior research position) for a large advertising agency. He holds a Master’s degree from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.
Tom was elected to the Board of Trustees at the Annual Meeting on September 28, 2024, to complete the remaining year of Earl Showerman’s term. He succeeded Bonner Cutting as Secretary on August 1, 2025, and was reelected to a three-year Board term at the Annual Meeting on September 21, 2025. His current terms as Trustee and Secretary expire at the 2028 Annual Meeting (he is eligible for reelection). He chairs the Membership and Fundraising Committee.
Dorothea Dickerman, Trustee and Former President
Dorothea Dickerman retired from a 34-year career as partner in a 1,000-lawyer international law firm to research and write about the Shakespeare authorship question. She earned her B.A. (summa cum laude) in English and Political Science from Amherst College and her J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School. Using her legal skills, primary source historical and literary documents, and travels to locations where Oxford lived and visited, she focuses on giving context to his life, to the Shakespeare canon, and to Tudor law, history, politics, and personalities. Her foreign language skills include Italian, French, and rusty Latin. You can read here how Dorothea became an Oxfordian.
Dorothea has spoken at several SOF conferences. See, for example, “Shakespeare in Northern Italy: Part I,” “Shakespeare in Sicily: Part II,” “The Roar of the Mouse: Anne Cecil de Vere and What She Tells Us About Shakespeare,” and “Upholding and Raising the Ancient and Most Honorable House: Elizabeth Trentham de Vere and What She Tells Us About Shakespeare.” She is a regular Blue Boar Tavern participant and podcast guest on Oxfordian topics. Listen, for example, to “The Italian Job,” “For the Love of Shakespeare,” and “Begin at the Beguine.” She also writes articles and book reviews and is working on a series of Elizabethan historical novels. Read her blog, “The Secret Lives of Elizabethans,” to keep up with all her projects.
Dorothea was elected to the Board of Trustees at the Annual Meeting on October 2, 2021, and was reelected to a second term at the Annual Meeting on September 28, 2024. She served as Vice President (succeeding Ben August) from April 1 to May 31, 2025. She then followed Ben as the seventh person (and first woman) to serve as President of the unified SOF from June 1 to July 31, 2025 (Presidents served on a rotating basis during 2024–25). Her current term as Trustee expires at the 2027 Annual Meeting (she is not eligible for reelection). She chairs the Online Communications Committee.
Bob Meyers, Trustee and Former President
Bob Meyers served for 21 years at the National Press Foundation (NPF), including 19 years as president and chief operating officer. He retired in 2014 with the title of President Emeritus. The NPF provides free on-the-record educational programs for U.S. and international journalists. Thousands of print, broadcast, and online reporters and editors went through programs that Bob led or designed. He also worked as a reporter at the Washington Post, including on its Pulitzer Prize-winning Watergate investigation, as an editor at the San Diego Union, and as director of the Harvard Journalism Fellowship for Advanced Studies in Public Health. Bob has been a freelance writer for Newsweek, Rolling Stone, and Columbia Journalism Review, among other publications. He is the author of two books, one of which won the American Medical Writers Association Award for Excellence in Biomedical Writing.
Bob has edited the popular “How I Became an Oxfordian” essay series on the SOF website since 2015. You can read here how Bob himself became an Oxfordian. On March 4, 2020, he moderated the SOF Centennial Symposium at the National Press Club. He was appointed to the Board of Trustees on July 15, 2020, to fill the seat vacated by Bryan H. Wildenthal (also succeeding Bryan as Chair of the Communications Committee). Bob was elected to a three-year term at the Annual Meeting on September 26, 2020, and was reelected to a second term at the Annual Meeting on November 11, 2023. His current term as Trustee expires at the Annual Meeting on September 27, 2026 (he is not eligible for reelection).
Bob was elected as the third person to serve as President of the unified SOF (succeeding John Hamill) at the Annual Meeting on October 2, 2021, serving until the Annual Meeting on September 25, 2022. He was again elected President (succeeding Earl Showerman) at the Annual Meeting on September 28, 2024, serving until January 31, 2025 (Presidents served on a rotating basis during 2024–25). He continues to chair the Print Communications Committee. He previously served on the Editorial Board of The Oxfordian.
Jonathan Jackson, Trustee
Jonathan Jackson is a multi-dimensional artist: author, musician, actor, and filmmaker. His life in the arts began as an actor at age eleven on General Hospital, where his performances earned him six Emmy Awards. After years working in feature films including Tuck Everlasting and Insomnia, he played Avery Barkley in the TV series Nashville. He is the lead singer and songwriter for the band Jonathan Jackson + Enation. He also serves as Associate Dean and Primary Lecturer at Theoria School of Filmmaking.
As an author, Jonathan’s works include The Harrowing of Hell, Anthology of Longing, and The Mystery of Art, which has been translated into Russian, Greek, and Romanian. In 2022 he received the Royal Literary Magazine Award for Distinction of Excellence. At the 2024 SOF Annual Conference in Denver, Jonathan delivered a highly praised lecture on “The Moral and Spiritual Vision of Edward de Vere.”
Jonathan was elected to a three-year term on the Board of Trustees at the Annual Meeting on September 21, 2025. His term expires at the 2028 Annual Meeting (he is eligible for reelection). He serves on the Online Communications Committee and the Education and Outreach Committee.
Phoebe Nir, Trustee
Phoebe Nir’s life was changed forever one fateful evening during the Covid lockdowns, when she stumbled on a YouTube video of Hank Whittemore’s one-man show, “Shake-speare’s Treason.” She tumbled straight down the Oxfordian rabbit hole and hasn’t come up for air since. As “Phoebe De Vere,” she has produced a variety of beginner-friendly educational videos about the Shakespeare authorship question on YouTube and TikTok. She threw two notorious “De Vere Ball” influencer parties in New York City, inspiring much online discourse and, possibly, a much-forwarded cartoon in The New Yorker (see image 6 of 21). She has presented several videos on Bob Prechter’s “Oxford’s Voices” theory, including the inaugural “Oxford’s Voices Theater Festival.” Her research presentations include talks on Michael Drayton’s connection to the authorship question, Alexander Pope’s role in the creation of the Shakespeare statue in Westminster Abbey, and “The Three Burials of Edward de Vere: How the Real Shakespeare Was Erased and Replaced.”
Phoebe is a playwright and filmmaker who holds degrees in theatre from Brown University and New York University. She is currently working with her long-time artistic collaborator Linds Gray on a docuseries about Edward de Vere. Their previous film, “Eco Village,” premiered in the Bright Futures section of the International Film Festival Rotterdam. Phoebe is a regular cast member at the Blue Boar Tavern and conducts interviews on intriguing Oxfordian topics. She is also the self-appointed capellmeister of the Ox-Tones, a one-hit wonder Oxfordian band that has performed her choral setting of Sonnet 17, brilliantly orchestrated by Bonner Miller Cutting, at several SOF conferences.
Phoebe was elected to a three-year term on the Board of Trustees at the Annual Meeting on September 21, 2025. Her term expires at the 2028 Annual Meeting (she is eligible for reelection). She serves on the Online Communications Committee.
John Rauck, Trustee
John’s undergraduate major was in literature at a small liberal arts college in Florida. After a few years he returned to school, at the University of California’s MBA program and emerged with enough accounting to become a CPA. He was less than enchanted with public accounting and, again within a few years, joined a small business which specialized in various real estate ventures. His full time career became managing all of the finances of eight vineyard partnerships in Napa and Sonoma counties in California. These partnerships collectively included 800 planted acres and sold to as many as 25 different wineries in any given year. John served 6 years on the board of the Sonoma County Grape Growers, including two as board president. He retired after 37 years and does not miss it.
John has loved Shakespeare since college, which inevitably led to some exploration of the man from Stratford’s biography. After seeing that the evidence was beyond thin for Shakspere’s authorship claim, John discovered the SOF and has deepened his involvement ever since. He supports the SOF for three reasons: 1) knowing De Vere’s life story makes the plays deeper and more meaningful and he hopes it will do the same for other Shakespeare aficionados, 2) the whole Oxford story is a damn good mystery, and 3) he is fascinated by people believing in, and insisting on things despite massive evidence to the contrary. As Upton Sinclair said, “It’s difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”
Former SOF Trustees
Tom Regnier, Late Trustee and President
The late Thomas G. (“Tom”) Regnier was the second President of the unified SOF (succeeding John Hamill), elected at the Annual Meeting on September 13, 2014. He was reelected in 2015, 2016, and (with unanimous Board support) for a fourth term in 2017, concluding his service as Trustee and President on October 13, 2018. He was an original member of the unified SOF Board of Trustees from October 20, 2013. He also served as First Vice President of the SOF from October 20, 2013 to September 13, 2014. He continued to serve as Chair of the Communications Committee and website editor until his death on April 14, 2020.
Tom was serving as Trustee and President of the Shakespeare Fellowship at the time of the 2013 merger creating the SOF. Along with John Hamill, the first SOF President, Tom played a central role in bringing about the unification. He was honored as Oxfordian of the Year in 2016 for his work on the unification and many other achievements. Tom was a beloved friend and colleague of countless people in the authorship community. For more on his remarkable life and career, see his obituary. In this memorial video and interview, Tom discussed how he became an Oxfordian.
Tom was an appellate attorney in southern Florida, having earned his J.D. summa cum laude at the University of Miami School of Law, and his LL.M. at Columbia Law School, where he was honored as a Harlan F. Stone Scholar. He taught at the University of Miami School of Law (including a course on Shakespeare and the Law) and at Chicago’s John Marshall Law School. Tom spoke and published frequently on Shakespeare and the law, especially in connection with the authorship issue. He contributed chapters to Shakespeare Beyond Doubt? (2013) and the ebook Contested Year (2016). He loved acting, performing in many Shakespeare productions and appearing frequently with Peter Galman’s Shakespeare Troupe.
Tom’s YouTube video, “Did Shakespeare Really Write Shakespeare?,” was taped at the GableStage in Coral Gables, Florida, introduced by award-winning director Joseph Adler. Read more here about Tom’s widely acclaimed lectures (eight of them posted on the SOF YouTube channel), including his presentation on March 4, 2020, at the SOF celebration of the centennial of Looney’s 1920 book.
John Hamill, Former Trustee and President
John Hamill retired in 2010 from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in San Francisco, where he worked as Coordinator of U.S.-Mexico Border Issues and Manager for Military Base Cleanups in California, Nevada, Arizona, Hawaii, and other U.S. Pacific Islands. A native of Puerto Rico, John earned his bachelor’s degree at the University of Puerto Rico and his master’s degree summa cum laude, in historical geography, at California State University. He also attended graduate school at the University of California at Davis.
John is an independent scholar who has written frequently for The Oxfordian and the Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter. One of his most notable articles is “Shakespeare’s Sexuality and How It Affects the Authorship Issue” (2005). In 1995 he published an article, “Dexterity and Sexuality: Is There a Relationship?” in Sex, Cells, and Same-Sex Desire: The Biology of Sexual Preference (Journal of Homosexuality, v. 28, nos. 1–4).
John was serving as Trustee and President of the Shakespeare Oxford Society at the time of the 2013 merger creating the SOF. He was instrumental, along with the late Tom Regnier and others, in bringing about the unification. John was an original member of the unified SOF Board of Trustees from October 20, 2013, and on that date became the first President of the unified SOF. He left the Board and was succeeded by Tom as President at the Annual Meeting on September 13, 2014. John received a special award from the SOF in 2016 for his work on the unification and on establishing the SOF Research Grant Program. John was again elected to the Board, and as President (following Tom), at the Annual Meeting on October 13, 2018. He was reelected twice more as President, in 2019 and 2020, before completing his service as Trustee and President at the Annual Meeting on October 2, 2021. He continues to serve as chair of the Research Grants Committee and as a member of the Conference Committee.
Earl Showerman, Former Trustee and President
Earl Showerman, M.D., graduated from Harvard College and the University of Michigan Medical School. He practiced emergency medicine in Oregon for over 30 years and is a longtime patron of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. After retiring from medicine, he enrolled at Southern Oregon University to study Shakespeare and pursue his decades-long love affair with the authorship question. Earl has presented and published a series of important articles on Shakespeare’s Greek sources, which point to Oxford as the true author, and he wrote the chapter on the author’s medical knowledge in Shakespeare Beyond Doubt? (2013). In 2025 he published a landmark book, Shakespeare’s Greater Greek, synthesizing much of his groundbreaking scholarship.
Earl was honored in 2025 as Oxfordian of the Year. You can read here how he originally became an Oxfordian. He was a Trustee of the Shakespeare Fellowship at the time of the 2013 merger creating the unified SOF, and had previously served as President of the Shakespeare Fellowship. He became an original member of the unified SOF Board of Trustees on October 20, 2013, serving until the Annual Meeting on September 13, 2014. He was again elected to the Board, and succeeded Bryan H. Wildenthal as Secretary, at the Annual Meeting on October 13, 2018, ending his service in both roles on June 15, 2021, to recover from a bicycle accident.
Earl was elected a third time to the Board, and as the fourth President of the unified SOF (succeeding Bob Meyers), at the Annual Meeting on September 25, 2022. After being reelected as President in 2023, he stepped down as Trustee and President at the Annual Meeting on September 28, 2024, to again deal with health issues, but he continues to serve on the Conference Committee and to actively research, write, and lecture.
Tom Woosnam, Former Trustee and President
Tom Woosnam was born in England, where he earned his B.Sc. in physics from Imperial College, London. He has lived in the U.S. since 1975 and taught high school physics and math for 45 years before retiring with his wife Julia to Ashland, Oregon, in 2019. His avocation is acting. He has performed in over 50 amateur and professional productions, including eight Shakespearean plays. About his fascination with the Shakespeare authorship question, Tom has stated: “It’s all about the data.” He adds that this is “also a subject that disdains authority as the ultimate arbiter of truth. We’ve all noticed that the case for Oxford attracts a large number of people whose jobs center around evidence: lawyers, judges, engineers, scientists, and others. I am no different.”
You can read here how Tom became an Oxfordian. Tom was elected to the Board of Trustees at the Annual Meeting on October 2, 2021, was reelected to a second term at the Annual Meeting on September 28, 2024, and resigned from the Board on September 24, 2025. He served as Vice President (succeeding Don Rubin) from September 25, 2022, to January 31, 2025. From February 1 to March 31, 2025, Tom followed Bob Meyers as the fifth person to serve as President of the unified SOF (Presidents served on a rotating basis during 2024–25). During his Board service, Tom was the primary website content editor.
Ben August, Former Trustee and President
Ben August became an Oxfordian after reading “Shakespeare” By Another Name” by Mark (now Margo) Anderson. Thereafter Ben removed the traditional Shakespeare bust from his library shelf. Unable to find a bust of Edward de Vere, he commissioned a bronze bust sculpted by Paula Slater. An original new bust has been placed at Castle Hedingham in England. Ben is an associate producer of Cheryl Eagan-Donovan’s documentary, Nothing Is Truer Than Truth. He also produces a premium Cabernet and a Merlot from August Family Vineyards under his “Earl 17” label.
Ben is the proud owner of Edward de Vere’s personal copy of a 1565 Herodotus volume on the Greek and Persian Wars — Delle Guerre de Greci et de Persi — which he purchased at auction and displayed at the 2019 SOF Annual Conference in Hartford, Connecticut.
Ben was elected to the Board of Trustees at the Annual Meeting on October 18, 2019, and was reelected to a second term at the Annual Meeting on September 25, 2022, concluding his service at the Annual Meeting on September 21, 2025. He served as Vice President (succeeding Tom Woosnam) from February 1 to March 31, 2025. From April 1 to May 31, 2025, he then followed Tom as the sixth person to serve as President of the unified SOF (Presidents served on a rotating basis during 2024–25). During his time on the Board he served on the Finance Committee.
Julie Sandys Bianchi, Former Trustee
Julie Sandys Bianchi earned a Master’s Degree in Drama at San Francisco State University in 1982 and worked in a variety of theater settings in California, Colorado, Missouri and Virginia, both on the stage as an actress and behind the scenes as a designer, stage manager and theater educator. While a member of the community of Redding, California, she served on the Columbia School District Board and in St Louis County, Missouri, was a member of the University City Arts Commission. Because of her interest in her paternal heritage as a descendant of the Treasurer of the Virginia Company of London, she has over 40 years of experience as a family historian specializing in the gentry families of England and their emigration to colonial Virginia. She has given presentations at SOF Annual Conferences in 2014 (Madison, Wisconsin) on the use of genealogy in solving Elizabethan ancestral mysteries and in 2016 (Boston) on card-playing imagery in the First Folio. You can read here how Julie became an Oxfordian. Now residing in Nashville, Tennessee, Julie is the mother of two adult children, Marieke and Paul, and the wife of Robert (“Bob”) Bianchi, a health-care executive.
Julie was appointed to the Board of Trustees on February 1, 2017, to fill the seat vacated by Cheryl Eagan-Donovan, and was elected to a three-year term at the Annual Meeting on October 14, 2017. She was reelected at the Annual Meeting on September 26, 2020, to complete the last two years of the term vacated by Bryan H. Wildenthal, concluding at the Annual Meeting on September 25, 2022. She served as Second Vice President (succeeding Don Rubin) from October 14, 2017 to October 13, 2018, and as sole Vice President (again following Don) from September 26, 2020, to October 2, 2021. Julie chaired the Video Contest Committee and took the lead in launching the SOF Podcast Program, “Don’t Quill the Messenger.” She also served on the Communications, Membership and Fundraising, and Education and Outreach Committees.
Michael Dudley Former Trustee
Michael Dudley is a Canadian academic librarian. Having been an Oxfordian since the 1980s, he has written extensively on various interdisciplinary aspects of the Shakespeare authorship question in The Oxfordian and Brief Chronicles, as well as in the fields of education and library science. Among his many popular YouTube videos, one, “The Bard Identity: Becoming an Oxfordian,” has more than 25,000 views. His book, The Shakespeare Authorship Question and Philosophy: Knowledge, Rhetoric, Identity, was released by Cambridge Scholars Publishing in 2023.
Michael was elected to the Board of Trustees at the Annual Meeting on November 11, 2023. He left the Board on January 20, 2025, to focus on his academic work. He continues to serve on the Data Preservation Committee, which among other duties seeks to encourage Oxfordian researchers to plan for the survival and orderly transmission of their papers and collections to future generations.
Cheryl Eagan-Donovan, Former Trustee
Cheryl Eagan-Donovan studied Shakespeare and wrote poetry at Goddard College, has a B.S. in Finance & Business Administration from Boston University, and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Lesley University. Her debut documentary, All Kindsa Girls, was short-listed for the PBS series POV. She served as Board President of Women in Film & Video/New England for several years, served on the Board of Directors of the Next Door Theater, and has curated film series at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Brattle Theatre.
You can read here how Cheryl became an Oxfordian. She was honored as Oxfordian of the Year in 2019 and was a featured speaker at the SOF celebration in 2020 of the Oxfordian Centennial. Cheryl has written narrative screenplays, stage plays, and published articles on Shakespeare, screenwriting, and film. She teaches screenwriting, film, and drama at Lesley University and Northeastern University. Her ten-minute play Veritas, a send-up of Shakespeare academia, had its first staged reading at Lesley University. Her 2018 documentary film, Nothing Is Truer Than Truth, based on Margo Anderson’s book “Shakespeare” By Another Name, focuses on Edward de Vere and his travels in Italy. Her latest documentary film, All the World’s a Stage, is now in post-production. Cheryl is deeply committed to education and serves as a mentor to elementary school students interested in media.
Cheryl was elected to the Board of Trustees at the Annual Meeting on September 13, 2014, and left the Board on February 1, 2017, to focus on her work as a filmmaker and educator. On the Board, among other roles, she served as Second Vice President (succeeding Lynne Kositsky) from September 26, 2015, to November 5, 2016, and as chair of the Finance Committee. She has also chaired the Oxfordian of the Year Selection Committee and has served on the Nominations and Education Outreach Committees.
Rick Foulke, Former Trustee
Richard (“Rick”) Foulke is a graduate of Purdue University and has an M.B.A. degree from Indianapolis University. He has been an instructor of Cost Accounting. He has 30 years of experience in financial management and is currently Corporate Controller at the Chicago Magnesium Casting Company. The Shakespeare authorship question came to his attention in 1999 and since then, he’s developed a keen interest in Oxford as Shakespeare. In 2001, Rick and his wife, Lucinda, began attending meetings of the Chicago Oxford Society, organized by Marion Buckley and William Farina. In 2006 he became active nationally, attending his first Shakespeare Oxford Conference in Ann Arbor. The Foulkes have twice toured England, particularly sites related to de Vere: Westminster Abbey, the Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace, Windsor Castle, Hedingham Castle, Gray’s Inn, and even peeked into the Middle Temple with Kevin Gilvary. Rick and Lucinda traveled to Italy in 2013, using Richard Roe’s The Shakespeare Guide to Italy, exploring the northern cities of Milan, Verona, Venice, Florence, and Genoa.
Rick was elected to the Board of Trustees, and as Treasurer (succeeding Tom Rucker), at the Annual Meeting on October 18, 2019. He was reelected to a second Board term at the Annual Meeting on September 25, 2022, and served until the Annual Meeting on September 21, 2025. Rick was a member of the Finance Committee for many years (chairing it as Treasurer). He continues to serve on the Membership and Fundraising Committee.
Catherine Hatinguais, Former Trustee
Catherine Hatinguais is a graduate of Bordeaux University (France), where she earned a B.A. in Political Science and an M.A. in English. She later studied biology and ecology at Hunter College and trained as a botanical illustrator at the New York Botanical Garden. Fluent in English, French, and Spanish, Catherine worked for thirty years at the United Nations in New York City as a translator and terminologist, creating bilingual glossaries for use by UN interpreters and translators on technical subjects reflecting UN activities, such as military affairs, the law of the sea, and the environment. You can read here how Catherine became an Oxfordian. She became aware of the Shakespeare authorship question in the early 1990s, and upon her retirement she joined the SOF and started writing abstracts for the Shakespeare Online Authorship Resources (SOAR) database of Oxfordian books and articles.
Catherine started attended SOF Annual Conferences in 2015 and has devoted much research to Shakespeare in Italy, relying on Italian sources and focusing on the landscapes and material culture which find echoes in Shakespeare’s plays. She has published three major articles in The Oxfordian: “The Sycamore Grove, Revisited” (2016), “Catching the Flood: River Navigation from the Adige to the Po in Shakespeare’s Italy” (2019), and “Shakespeare’s Tranect and the Traghetto of Lizza Fusina” (2021).
Catherine was elected to the Board of Trustees at the Annual Meeting on September 26, 2020, and concluded her service at the Annual Meeting on November 11, 2023. She continues to serve on the Data Preservation Committee, which among other duties seeks to encourage Oxfordian researchers to plan for the survival and orderly transmission of their papers and collections to future generations.
Wally Hurst, Former Trustee
Walter (“Wally”) Hurst studied English, Economics and Political Science at Duke University and has a law degree from University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law, where he served as Assistant Managing Editor of the Law Journal and authored several law review articles. He earned an M.A. in Shakespeare Authorship Studies from Brunel University in 2013. He has served as Executive Director of Families Living Violence Free in Oxford, North Carolina, an organization for those caught up in domestic violence. Wally served as Director of the Norris Theatre at Louisburg College in North Carolina. His teaching experience includes courses in public speaking, acting, introduction to drama, writing, and political science. From 1997 to 2012 he served as Managing Director of the Lakeland Theatre Company in Florida. He has directed and acted in a number of Shakespeare productions, including Twelfth Night, The Taming of the Shrew, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Wally was elected to the Board of Trustees at the Annual Meeting on September 13, 2014. He was reelected to a second term at the Annual Meeting on October 14, 2017, serving until the Annual Meeting on September 26, 2020.
Ramon Jiménez, Former Trustee
Ramon Jiménez, an independent historian and Shakespearean scholar, is the author of Shakespeare’s Apprenticeship: Identifying the Real Playwright’s Earliest Works (2018) (published by McFarland and also available on Amazon), a landmark study of several early Shakespeare plays and their revolutionary implications for the authorship question. He has also written two acclaimed histories of ancient Rome, both book club selections – Caesar Against the Celts (Da Capo, 1996) and Caesar Against Rome: The Great Roman Civil War (Praeger, 2000) – as well as several important articles, including “The Case for Oxford Revisited” (2009), “Ten Eyewitnesses Who Saw Nothing: Shakespeare in Stratford and London” (2011), “Shakespeare by the Numbers: What Stylometrics Can and Cannot Tell Us” (2011), “An Evening at the Cockpit: Further Evidence of an Early Date for Henry V” (2016), showing that Shakespeare’s Henry V was probably written and performed no later than 1584, and (most recently) an article showing that The Famous Victories of Henry the Fifth was one of the author “Shakespeare’s” earliest plays, written in the 1560s. His scholarly articles have appeared in The Oxfordian, the Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter, and in the anthology Shakespeare Beyond Doubt? (Shahan & Waugh eds. 2013).
Ramon and his wife, Joan Leon (also a former SOF Trustee), were jointly honored as Oxfordians of the Year in 2018. Ramon was an original member of the unified SOF Board of Trustees from October 20, 2013, and served until the Annual Meeting on September 13, 2014. He received the Award for Distinguished Shakespearean Scholarship at the Shakespeare Authorship Studies Conference at Concordia University in Portland, Oregon. He has served on the Oxfordian of the Year Selection Committee and is a member of the Editorial Board of The Oxfordian.
Richard Joyrich, Former Trustee
Richard Joyrich, M.D., graduated from Kalamazoo College and the University of Michigan Medical School. He has practiced radiology and nuclear medicine for many years in Detroit. He has regularly attended the Stratford Festival in Ontario and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and has “completed the canon” (seen all of the recognized plays of Shakespeare) at least three times. He was a contributor to the SAC Exposing an Industry in Denial campaign.
Richard served as a Trustee and as President of the Shakespeare Oxford Society before the 2013 merger creating the unified SOF. He was an original member of the unified SOF Board of Trustees from October 20, 2013, serving until the Annual Meeting on October 13, 2018. He also served as the first Secretary of the SOF from October 20, 2013, to September 13, 2014, then as First Vice President (succeeding Tom Regnier) from September 13, 2014, until October 14, 2017. For many years, Richard chaired the Conference Committee and he continues to serve as a deeply valued member of that committee, playing a major role in organizing many SOF Annual Conferences. He was honored on September 20, 2025, with the Tom Regnier Veritas Award.
Lynne Kositsky, Former Trustee
Lynne Kositsky is a poet, author, and researcher who lives in Ontario, Canada. She is co-author, with Professor Roger Stritmatter, of a major work of Shakespearean scholarship: On the Date, Sources and Design of Shakespeare’s The Tempest (McFarland, 2013). Her honors include the E.J. Pratt Medal and Award for Poetry and the Canadian Jewish Book Award for Youth. Among her books is A Question of Will, a young adult novel about the authorship question. Lynne and her husband Michael, a composer, wrote a musical version of the novel which received a staged reading at the 2016 SOF conference in Boston.
Lynne was an original member of the unified SOF Board of Trustees from October 20, 2013, serving until the Annual Meeting on September 26, 2015. She was honored as Oxfordian of the Year in 2006 and received the Tom Regnier Veritas Award in 2021.
Theresa Lauricella, Former Trustee
Theresa Lauricella is Professor of Theatre and Program Coordinator for Theatre and Music at Clark State College (Springfield, Ohio), where she directs and produces shows for the Theatre Program. She earned her B.A. in Theatre and her M.A. in Theatre History and Criticism from Ohio University. She is now studying for a Ph.D. in Leadership in Higher Education. Theresa is a recipient of the DayTony Award in Direction for her production of The Foreigner by Larry Shue. Her directing credits include The Clean House by Sarah Ruhl, a stage adaptation of The Great Gatsby by Simon Levy, and Much Ado About Nothing.
You can read here how Theresa became an Oxfordian. She was appointed to the Board of Trustees on October 24, 2018, to fill the seat vacated by James A. Warren when he declined to accept reelection at the Annual Meeting on October 13, 2018. Theresa was reelected to the Board at the Annual Meeting on October 18, 2019, and served the remainder of that term concluding at the Annual Meeting on October 2, 2021. During her Board service she chaired the Education and Outreach Committee.
Joan Leon, Former Trustee
Joan Leon attributes her interest in the SOF to her husband, Ramon Jiménez. She and Ramon were jointly honored in 2018 as Oxfordians of the Year. As Ramon became more immersed in the authorship question and Oxfordian studies, Joan offered advice about fundraising, having worked for more than forty years as a nonprofit program developer. She feels strongly that the SOF’s best source of support is our membership and that the better care we take of our members and friends, the more they will ensure our success. She also recognizes the value of aid from foundations.
Joan was an original member of the unified SOF Board of Trustees from October 20, 2013. She was reelected to a second term at the Annual Meeting on November 5, 2016, and served until the Annual Meeting on October 18, 2019. Joan chaired the Membership and Fundraising Committee for many years. She also served on the Nominations and Oxfordian of the Year Selection Committees.
Michael Morse, Former Trustee
Michael Morse attended Harvard College and the University of Louisville, where he earned a B.A. in Philosophy and English. He earned his J.D. at the University of Kentucky College of Law, where he was a Milton M. Livingston Scholar. He then started a private law practice in western Kentucky. Michael’s Shakespearean research has focused on computer-based linguistic analysis of the “Shakespeare” canon and Edward de Vere’s extant literary and epistolary output.
Michael was an original member of the unified SOF Board of Trustees from October 20, 2013, serving until the Annual Meeting on November 5, 2016. He also served as the first Treasurer of the SOF from October 20, 2013, to September 26, 2015.
Don Rubin, Former Trustee
Professor Don Rubin is the editor of Routledge’s six-volume World Encyclopedia of Contemporary Theatre series. He has been a working scholar and theatre critic for more than forty years. He is the former chair of the theatre department at Toronto’s York University (now professor emeritus) and a founder of York’s graduate program in theatre studies. Don graduated from New York’s High School of Performing Arts and studied Shakespeare as an undergraduate with Bernard Beckerman, author of Shakespeare at the Globe. After graduate school and several years as theatre critic for the New Haven Register in Connecticut, Don moved to Canada for a position as theatre critic for that country’s largest newspaper, the Toronto Star, and later for CBC Radio. He is the founding editor of Canada’s national theatre quarterly, Canadian Theatre Review, and the editor of the standard volume Canadian Theatre History: Selected Readings. He is a past President of the Canadian Theatre Critics Association and was a longtime member of the Executive Board of the UNESCO-affiliated International Association of Theatre Critics. From 2012 through 2016, he offered a senior-level undergraduate course on “Shakespeare: The Authorship Question” at York University. He credits Mark Anderson’s “Shakespeare” by Another Name with sparking his active interest in Oxfordian studies.
Don is Managing Editor and Book Reviews Editor of Critical Stages, the global scholarly web journal of the International Association of Theatre Critics. In 2018 he edited a special issue of Critical Stages devoted to the Shakespeare authorship question. In 2023 he edited a similar special issue in another journal with a powerful array of new articles on the authorship question. Don also serves on the Board of Directors and as President of the Shakespeare Authorship Coalition, which sponsors the “Declaration of Reasonable Doubt.”
Don was elected to the Board of Trustees at the Annual Meeting on September 13, 2014, and was reelected to a second term at the Annual Meeting on October 14, 2017, concluding his service at the Annual Meeting on September 26, 2020. He was then appointed to the Board on June 15, 2021, to fill the seat vacated by Earl Showerman, and was elected to a third three-year term at the Annual Meeting on October 2, 2021. He left the Board at the Annual Meeting on September 28, 2024, after a record total of more than nine years of dedicated service.
Don also served as Second Vice President (succeeding Cheryl Eagan-Donovan) from November 5, 2016, to October 14, 2017, then as First Vice President (succeeding Richard Joyrich) from October 14, 2017, to October 13, 2018. He served again as Second Vice President (succeeding Julie Bianchi) from October 13, 2018, to July 1, 2020, and became sole Vice President from July 1 to September 26, 2020, following Bryan H. Wildenthal’s resignation as Trustee and First Vice President. Don again served as sole Vice President (again following Julie Bianchi) from October 2, 2021, to September 25, 2022.
Don has taken the leading role in organizing numerous successful SOF Annual Conferences over the years, including (just a few examples) Toronto in 2013 (at which the modern unified SOF was born), Chicago in 2017, Hartford in 2019, and most recently New Haven in 2025. Don continues to chair the Conference Committee and also serves on the Editorial Board of The Oxfordian.
Tom Rucker, Former Trustee
Tom Rucker is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Business School. He received his J.D. from the University of Oklahoma School of Law and a Master’s degree in Taxation from William & Mary Law School. Until he retired from the practice of law in 2010, Tom specialized in representing closely held businesses and the preparation of estate planning documents for his clients.
Tom was an original member of the unified SOF Board of Trustees from October 20, 2013. He was reelected to a second term at the Annual Meeting on November 5, 2016, and served until the Annual Meeting on October 18, 2019. He also served as Treasurer (succeeding Michael Morse) from September 26, 2015, to October 18, 2019. During his time on the Board he served for many years on the Finance Committee (chairing it as Treasurer) and on the Membership and Fundraising Committee.
James A. Warren, Former Trustee
James A. Warren was a Foreign Service officer with the U.S. Department of State for more than 20 years, serving in public diplomacy positions at U.S. embassies in eight countries, mostly in Asia. He later served as Executive Director of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training and then as Regional Director for Southeast Asia for the Institute of International Education. He is a Fellow with the Center for the Study of the Great Ideas and the Adler-Aquinas Institute.
James was honored in 2020 as Oxfordian of the Year. In 2018 he edited and published a landmark new scholarly edition of J. Thomas Looney’s revolutionary 1920 book, “Shakespeare” Identified. In 2019 he followed up with “Shakespeare” Revealed, collecting Looney’s previously published articles and letters (mostly unavailable for the past century), and a new scholarly edition of Esther Singleton’s classic 1929 novel, Shakespearian Fantasias, an Oxfordian-influenced book with which Henry Folger (founder of the Folger Shakespeare Library) was deeply fascinated. On March 4, 2020, James was the keynote speaker at the SOF celebration of the centennial of Looney’s 1920 book.
You can read here how James became an Oxfordian. He has authored and edited additional acclaimed books, including Shakespeare Revolutionized (2021), a landmark history of the Oxfordian movement), Shakespeare Investigated (2021), collecting articles published by the Shakespeare Fellowship during 1922–36 (mostly unavailable and out of print since then), and Shakespeare Discussed (2025), collecting a massive treasure trove of Looney’s Shakespearean correspondence (with Sigmund Freud and many others), including private letters recovered and preserved thanks to his own tireless research. He also edits An Index to Oxfordian Publications (now in its 5th edition, 2023).
James was elected to the Board of Trustees at the Annual Meeting on September 26, 2015. He served on the Finance Committee and the Membership and Fundraising Committee, contributing greatly to the important work they both do. He also served on the Centennial and Data Preservation Committees. James was nominated for a second Board term in 2018 but declined to accept reelection in order to focus on his many scholarly endeavors. He concluded his Board service at the Annual Meeting on October 13, 2018.
Bryan H. Wildenthal, Trustee
Bryan H. Wildenthal, Professor of Law Emeritus, has taught for more than thirty years at several law schools, primarily in the San Diego area. Most of his scholarly publications are available here. He earned his A.B. (with honors) at Stanford University and his J.D. (with distinction) at Stanford Law School. A specialist in both constitutional law and American Indian law (Native American rights), he is the author of a textbook on the latter subject, along with numerous articles in leading law reviews. Both fields of law required him to develop deep knowledge and appreciation of history, which has served him well in studying the Shakespeare authorship question. His most important article, on the history of the post-Civil War 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, was cited in multiple briefs and opinions on the U.S. Supreme Court in two major cases decided in 2010 and 2019. You can read here how Bryan became an Oxfordian. He has published articles, among others, on the support for the Oxfordian theory on the Supreme Court and the “Snobbery Slander” often applied to authorship skeptics, as well as the widely praised 2019 book, Early Shakespeare Authorship Doubts.
Bryan was elected to the Board of Trustees at the Annual Meeting on November 5, 2016, was reelected to a second term at the Annual Meeting on October 18, 2019, and left the Board on July 1, 2020, to focus on writing and teaching. He rejoined the Board on September 27, 2025, appointed to fill the seat vacated by Tom Woosnam. His current term as Trustee expires at the Annual Meeting on September 27, 2026 (he is eligible for election). He served as SOF Website Editor (April 25, 2020–Oct. 9, 2021), succeeding the late Tom Regnier, and resumed that role from October 15 to December 1, 2025. He is a member of the Research Grants Committee and will also focus on helping with future plans for The Oxfordian.
Bryan previously served as Secretary (succeeding Wally Hurst), from October 14, 2017 to October 13, 2018, and as First Vice President (succeeding Don Rubin) from October 13, 2018, to July 1, 2020. Bryan was chair of the Centennial Committee (2019–20), organizing the SOF Centennial Symposium at the National Press Club on March 4, 2020. He also served on the Editorial Board of The Oxfordian (2017–21). During his previous Board service, in addition to being on the Membership and Fundraising Committee (chair, 2019–20) and the Communications Committee (chair, April–July 2020), he was a member of the Education and Outreach Committee (2019–21).
Chronology of Presidents
John Hamill (Oct. 20, 2013–Sept. 13, 2014)
Tom Regnier (Sept. 13, 2014–Oct. 13, 2018)
John Hamill (Oct. 13, 2018–Oct. 2, 2021)
Bob Meyers (Oct. 2, 2021–Sept. 25, 2022)
Earl Showerman (Sept. 25, 2022–Sept. 28, 2024)
Bob Meyers (Sept. 28, 2024–Jan. 31, 2025)
Tom Woosnam (Feb. 1–March 31, 2025)
Ben August (April 1–May 31, 2025)
Dorothea Dickerman (June 1–July 31, 2025)
Brent Evans (Aug. 1, 2025–present)
Chronology of First or Sole Vice Presidents
Tom Regnier (Oct. 20, 2013–Sept. 13, 2014)
Richard Joyrich (Sept. 13, 2014–Oct. 14, 2017)
Don Rubin (Oct. 14, 2017–Oct. 13, 2018)
Bryan H. Wildenthal (Oct. 13, 2018–July 1, 2020)
Don Rubin (July 1–Sept. 26, 2020)
Julie Sandys Bianchi (Sept. 26, 2020–Oct. 2, 2021)
Don Rubin (Oct. 2, 2021–Sept. 25, 2022)
Tom Woosnam (Sept. 25, 2022–Jan. 31, 2025)
Ben August (Feb. 1–March 31, 2025)
Dorothea Dickerman (April 1–May 31, 2025)
Brent Evans (June 1–July 31, 2025)
Bonner Miller Cutting (Aug. 1, 2025–present)
Chronology of Board Transitions
Oct. 20, 2013 (founding of unified SOF with original Trustees John Hamill, Ramon Jiménez, and Earl Showerman serving 1-year terms; Richard Joyrich, Lynne Kositsky, and Tom Regnier serving 2-year terms; and Joan Leon, Michael Morse, and Tom Rucker serving 3-year terms)
Sept. 13, 2014 (Cheryl Eagan-Donovan, Wally Hurst, and Don Rubin elected to 3-year terms to succeed John Hamill, Ramon Jiménez, and Earl Showerman)
Sept. 26, 2015 (James A. Warren elected to 3-year term to succeed Lynne Kositsky; Richard Joyrich and Tom Regnier reelected to 3-year terms)
Nov. 5, 2016 (Bryan H. Wildenthal elected to 3-year term to succeed Michael Morse; Joan Leon and Tom Rucker reelected to 3-year terms)
Feb. 1, 2017 (Cheryl Eagan-Donovan resigned; Julie Sandys Bianchi appointed to succeed her)
Oct. 14, 2017 (Julie Sandys Bianchi elected to 3-year term to succeed Eagan-Donovan; Wally Hurst and Don Rubin reelected to 3-year terms)
Oct. 13, 2018 (John Hamill and Earl Showerman elected to 3-year terms to succeed Richard Joyrich and Tom Regnier; James A. Warren declined reelection)
Oct. 24, 2018 (Theresa Lauricella appointed to succeed Warren)
Oct. 18, 2019 (Theresa Lauricella elected to complete 2 years of Warren’s term; Ben August and Rick Foulke elected to 3-year terms to succeed Joan Leon and Tom Rucker; Bryan H. Wildenthal reelected to 3-year term)
July 1, 2020 (Bryan H. Wildenthal resigned)
July 15, 2020 (Bob Meyers appointed to succeed Wildenthal)
Sept. 26, 2020 (Julie Sandys Bianchi reelected to complete 2 years of Wildenthal’s term; Bob Meyers elected to 3-year term to succeed Bianchi; Bonner Miller Cutting and Catherine Hatinguais elected to 3-year terms to succeed Wally Hurst and Don Rubin)
June 15, 2021 (Earl Showerman resigned; Don Rubin appointed to succeed him)
Oct. 2, 2021 (Don Rubin elected to 3-year term to succeed Showerman; Dorothea Dickerman and Tom Woosnam elected to 3-year terms to succeed John Hamill and Theresa Lauricella)
Sept. 25, 2022 (Earl Showerman elected to 3-year term to succeed Julie Sandys Bianchi; Ben August and Rick Foulke reelected to 3-year terms)
Nov. 11, 2023 (Michael Dudley elected to 3-year term to succeed Catherine Hatinguais; Bonner Miller Cutting and Bob Meyers reelected to 3-year terms)
Sept. 28, 2024 (Earl Showerman resigned; Tom Townsend elected to complete last year of his term; Brent Evans elected to 3-year term to succeed Don Rubin; Dorothea Dickerman and Tom Woosnam reelected to 3-year terms)
Jan. 20, 2025 (Michael Dudley resigned)
May 9, 2025 (Eva Varelas appointed to succeed Dudley)
Sept. 21, 2025 (Eva Varelas elected to complete last year of Dudley’s term; Tom Townsend reelected to 3-year term; Jonathan Jackson and Phoebe Nir elected to 3-year terms to succeed Ben August and Rick Foulke)
Sept. 24, 2025 (Tom Woosnam resigned)
Sept. 27, 2025 (Bryan H. Wildenthal appointed to succeed Woosnam)
