Arena Stage Annual Gala

Janice "Jan" Adams

Jan Adams held the rank of Chief Master Sergeant before retiring from the United States Air Force, after 24 years of outstanding service. She founded JMA Solutions in 2005 and has grown the company through hiring outstanding staff who assist the Federal Aviation Administration and other clients in the areas of acquisition planning, air traffic management, financial management, information technology, program and project management, professional and technical training and software engineering. She currently has 140 full time employees and over 40 percent of her workforce are prior military.

Ms. Adams is very active in the community. She serves as a board member for Washington Redskins Corner Back, Josh Norman’s Starz24 charity organization. She is a member of the Air Traffic Control Association and a corporate partner of the D.C. Adopt-a-School program. Ms. Adams was appointed by the Mayor of D.C. to be a trustee on the District of Columbia’s Retirement Board providing fiduciary responsibility toward the investment of retirement funds for D.C. teachers, firefighters and police. She is a board member of the D.C. Chamber of Commerce and the Mamie Mallory Education and Scholarship Foundation.

Under her leadership, JMA Solutions has won numerous awards that include ATCA’s Small and Disadvantaged Business Award, INC. 5000’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies in America, the DC Chamber of Commerce’s Community Impact Award, The Washington Post’s Top Workplaces for the D.C. area, Washington Business Journal’s Minority Business Leader of the Year (2017), and the Disabled American Veterans’ Small Employer of the Year Award.

Ms. Adams was profiled in O, The Oprah Magazine (2018), Entrepreneur Magazine (2018), Forbes Magazine (2016) and is also an original corporate contributor to the National Museum of African-American History and Culture. In 2018, her philanthropic efforts included supporting over 50 charitable foundations including the National Down Syndrome Foundation, USO, the Air Force Association, the Arena Stage and the Disabled American Veterans of America.

In April 2019, Ms. Adams was inducted into the Washington, DC Hall of Fame for her dedication and outstanding contributions to the D.C. business community.

Ms. Adams is a graduate of the Community College of the Air Force. She is the mother of two, grandmother of seven

Molly Smith

MOLLY SMITH has served as Artistic Director since 1998. Her 40 directing credits at Arena Stage include large-scale musicals, like Catch Me If You Can, Anything Goes, Disney’s Newsies, Carousel, Fiddler on the Roof, Oklahoma!, My Fair Lady, The Music Man, Cabaret, South Pacific; new plays, like Celia and Fidel, Sovereignty, The Originalist, Camp David, Legacy of Light, The Women of Brewster Place, How I Learned to Drive; and classics like Mother Courage and Her Children, A Moon for the Misbegotten, The Great White Hope, and All My Sons. Her directorial work has also been seen Off-Broadway at 59E59 in New York, Portland Center Stage, Canada's Shaw Festival, The Court Theatre, The Old Globe, Asolo Repertory, Berkeley Repertory, Trinity Repertory, Toronto's Tarragon Theatre, Montreal's Centaur Theatre, and Perseverance Theater in Juneau, Alaska, which she founded and ran from 1979-1998. Molly has been a leader in new play development for over 40 years. She is a great believer in first, second, and third productions of new work and has championed projects, including Dear Evan Hansen; Next to Normal; Passion Play, a cycle; and How I Learned to Drive. She led the re-invention of Arena Stage, focusing on the architecture and creation of the Mead Center for American Theater and positioning Arena Stage as a national center for American artists through its artistic programming. During her time with the company, Arena Stage has workshopped more than 100 productions, produced 39 world premieres, staged numerous second and third productions, and been an important part of nurturing nine projects that went on to have a life on Broadway. In 2014, Molly made her Broadway debut directing The Velocity of Autumn, following its critically acclaimed run at Arena Stage. She was awarded honorary doctorates from American University and Towson University. In 2018, she was honored as Person of the Year by the National Theatre Conference and inducted into the Washington DC Hall of Fame. In 2020, she was awarded the Director of Distinction in Cairo, Egypt, from the Academy of Arts. During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, she developed the concept for two online films, May 22, 2020 and The 51st State, overseeing the production direction as well as directing pieces within the films.

Martha Dippell

Martha Dippell is a native Washingtonian, a graduate of Holton-Arms School, Smith College, and the mother of three daughters and a son. She is the immediate past President of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, and a former chair and Trustee Emerita of the board of Holton-Arms. She also currently serves on the Board of the Decorative Arts Trust and the Endowment for the Diplomatic Reception Rooms of the Department of State. She is a member of The Founders of Mount Vernon.

Martha is an avid fan of the former Washington Redskins Football Team. She also loves traveling, antiquing, reading, discussing political history and bonding with her four young grandchildren.

Danny Korengold

Daniel L. Korengold, a graduate of Trinity College in Connecticut currently serves as Chairman of Ourisman Automotive of Virginia, a family group of dealerships having celebrated their 100^th anniversary in 2021. He has served on many non-profit institutions including past chairman of Norwood School, Washington Performing Arts and the Washington Automobile Dealers Association. Other board involvement over the years include Arena Stage, the Sconset Trust in Nantucket, Chevy Chase Club, Landon School, Boys and Girls Club, Trinity College, the National Rehabilitation Hospital and National Child Research Center.

Danny enjoys golf, the decorative arts, travel, fitness and spending time at their vacation home in Nantucket.