Board Members
Officers
Jeffrey S. Roemer
President
Jeff has been a resident of Harford County since 1971 and has lived in the North Harford district since 1997. A proud father of 2, Alexandra and Casey, he has been married to his wife Kim for 32 years. Singing since the age of 8 in a church choir, and all through school and college years, life happened and music took a passive only role in his life. Over 10 years ago, on a whim, he attended an open rehearsal of the Chorale. The director, Marty, happened to be his original guitar teacher, but what drew him in was the talent and quality of music that was being performed. Needless to say, it has been his pleasure ever since to be a member of the Chorale as well as a member of the Chamber Choir. As a Bass II, he has had the pleasure of performing as far away as Sanibel Island and singing in the famed Carnegie Hall. A serial collector of stringed instruments, DCC has reignited the dormant spark of music into a bonfiire of melodies.
Kris Foster
Vice President
Kris Foster serves as the Judicial Assistant to a Federal Judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. Prior to serving in the federal courts, she worked at the Baltimore office of Miles & Stockbridge P.C. for almost 15 years. She is a former student of Martha Banghart and is a charter member of the Deer Creek Chorale. Kris served as our first President of the Chorale from 2006-2009. Kris resides in Pylesville, Maryland with her husband, Jim. She has two adult children, Jimmy and Julia, who were also previous members of the choir, and two adorable grandsons.
Sharon Kachur
Secretary
Lance Ledebur
Treasurer
Lance Ledebur is a retired 40-year career Harford County teacher who is married to Deer Creek Chorale Soprano, Hope Ledebur. After his teaching career ended, he worked for Harford County and the state of Maryland as an advisor for the Harford County Regional Association of Student Councils and as the Executive Director for the Maryland Association of Student Councils for a total of 14 years. He worked in many capacities from Dean to Office Manager for Indian Lake Christian Camp for almost 40 years and has served in many positions, including Elder, at Fork Christian Church. He and Hope are the parents of three children and grandparents to six granddaughters. Acting as Hope’s chauffeur and waiting patiently through rehearsals, he felt he could be useful in other ways, helping out at concerts, accepting the role of treasurer and eventually joining the chorale as a tenor.
Directors
Stephanie Davis
Alto Stephanie Davis is very familiar with the role of President, having served DCC in this position previously from 2009-2014. She is currently the Executive Director for Camp Sunrise. Camp Sunrise, Camp Sunrise at Hopkins, and Camp SunSibs provide families affected by childhood cancer an array of life-changing camping experiences dedicated to the health, happiness and healing of every camper. Co-chair of DCCs 2019 Camp Opportunity Charitable project, she is a charter member of DCC and has sung with director Marty Banghart from Carnegie Hall to China’s Great Wall, or, as we call it, “The Hall to the Wall.” Steph has been volunteering in Africa for the past 8 years working with Project C.U.R.E. — the largest provider of donated medical supplies and equipment to developing countries around the world.
Gracemarie Garlen
Sue Hill
Susan G. Hill (Sue) is a retired research scientist, who worked at the U.S. Army Research Laboratory, Aberdeen Proving Ground, for more than 20 years. Her area of research was human (soldier) interaction with technology, with the last ten years focused on human-robot interaction and teaming. Prior to joining ARL, she worked at the Idaho National Laboratory and other organizations conducting applied research across a variety of domains, including military, nuclear, and accident investigation. She has helped with DCC grant writing, as she participated in writing, evaluating, and managing research grants during her professional career. Sue joined DCC in 2020, beginning with all virtual rehearsals. It was a joy when in- person rehearsals resumed. Sue has sung in community choruses since college. Sue belongs to the Flying Geese Quilt Guild in Harford County and had the opportunity to serve as liaison between DCC and the Quilt Guild to present a collaboration of choral music and quilts displays during our DCC Fall 2023 concert entitled “Fabric of Gratitude.” Sue lives with her husband in Bel Air, MD.
Brittany Maccubbin
Brittany Maccubbin, a lifelong Harford County resident, has been a member of the DCC over the past 17 years with intermittent breaks when getting married and starting a family. Along with her two older sisters, Brittany was a member of various North Harford High School choirs and studied privately under Marty’s direction. She had the privilege of traveling to Llangollen, Wales in 2003 to sing in the International Eisteddfod with Marty for a life-changing musical experience.
Brittany lives in Pylesville with her husband Ben and their two children, Reese and Smith and is a Project and Change Manager for TEKsystems. When she is not singing with the DCC, you can find her spending time with her family, at a concert with friends or duckpin bowling on a league with her mom and uncle.
Donald McGonigle
Don McGonigle has over 30 years of experience in all aspects of systems engineering, program and content management with specialized expertise in Knowledge Management and dissemination solutions for Federal Government agencies. His teams deliver information portals, databases and collaborative systems including healthcare quality measures, toxic agent characteristics, international treaties and biotechnology market surveys, historical production and test processes. Don is a certified Project Management Professional and Leadership Coach Trainer. He currently volunteers as a Field Associate for the Maryland Area of the Christian Businessmen Connection and is involved in community development planning. He started singing in his middle school choir in the South Hills area of Pittsburgh (he is also the support team of the McGonigle musical family).
Ugonnaya Obineme
Ugo has been a part of Deer Creek Chorale since 2024. Currently a pharmacy technician at the University of Maryland Midtown Campus Hospital, Ugo holds a Bachelor’s in biology and music minor from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. She has been singing since elementary school and is active in her church choir. Ugo also serves on the ELCA Baltimore Campus Ministry Board, her church council, and helps with her church’s Youth Group program. Ugo is excited for the future of Deer Creek Chorale and hopes that her experiences can help spread the mission of this exceptional community choir.
Linda Perrine
Linda Perrine is a retired Spanish teacher having taught all levels of Spanish during her career in Harford County. Upon retiring in 2002 she and her husband, Richard, moved to Garrett County to assist his parents in their declining years. There she found her love of choral music and joined the Garrett Choral Society where she sang for 17 years. In 2010 she was asked to serve as the soprano section leader and joined the board of directors for that organization. In 2021 she and Richard moved back to Harford County to be closer to family and to spend time with her grandchildren. She found her music outlet with the Deer Creek Chorale soon after returning to Forest Hill. She also sings with her church choir. She is currently very active in serving with the Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware Disaster Relief program in the area of flood and hurricane recovery, having travelled as far west as Colorado and as far south as Florida to minister to affected people.
Wayne Perry
Wayne Perry is the former Assistant Director of Deer Creek Chorale and has been a musician for as long as he can remember. He majored in tuba at Towson University studying with Dan Brown, of the Baltimore Symphony. He also taught himself to play the guitar and string bass, and began conducting as a teen, leading his church choir and conducting the annual musical as a senior in high school. In the ‘70s Wayne spent 2 years in Australia as a teaching missionary then returned to earn a BS in Music Education at Towson University. He spent the next 13 years as an educator teaching high school music (band and orchestra). His instrumental ensembles built a strong reputation for excellence, receiving several awards and recognitions along the way. After earning an MA from University of Maryland-College Park in 1990 he became a school administrator. Retiring in 2008 after 30 years, he spent the last 9 as principal of 2 middle schools.
Wayne has worked quite a bit in vocal music, too, singing and strumming folk songs through the ‘70s and studying voice for a while in college, and even after leaving the music classroom, continued with significant work in local musical theater as an actor, singer, conductor, and music director, as well as years as church choir director and director of an a cappella group, Bonus Track. Wayne has been happily married to his wife Karen since 1977 and has 5 kids and 11 grandkids.
Julie Schwaninger
Julie Schwaninger was in DCC from approximately 2009-2015 and currently has 1 daughter in DCYC. Her oldest started with DCYC as a 6th grader in the Spring of 2022 and had her final DCYC concert last May. Julie’s younger daughter is currently a 7th grader and has been with DCYC since the Fall semester of 2022. Julie has been passionate about choir and singing since elementary school and has fond memories of performing in musical revues and with the madrigal group at North Harford High School under the direction of Martha Banghart (where she also served as high school choral president in her senior year). Julie was active in her college’s concert, madrigal and gospel choirs, and led an online singing/social group from 2017-2022. She continues to sing recreationally when her mom/work schedule allows (especially when a good mashup idea pops into her head!).
Julie works for a funding organization supporting asthma and allergy research. In her free time, she loves hiking/walking outdoors, foraging wild foods along the way, and paddleboarding whenever she gets time on/near water. She is also passionate about ceremonial cacao and its health and wellness benefits–she recently travelled to Costa Rica to experience indigenous cacao and is dreaming about exploring Peru next!
Mary Sue Shaw
Mary Sue is a charter member of the Deer Creek Chorale and has served on the board of directors in the early years. She has always enjoyed singing and has been a member of her church choir for 60 years. She and her husband Glenn are the past owners of Shaw Orchards on the Mason-Dixon Line. Their son Barron and his wife Jana now manage the farm and market. In her retirement years she volunteers at her local food pantry and enjoys playing bridge with several casual groups of friends.
She has traveled with Deer Creek and sung at Carnegie Hall on four occasions. She likes to tell people that she especially enjoys the challenge of our choir because it helps keep the brain moving!
Sally VanLieshout
Sally VanLieshout has been a part of Deer Creek Chorale since 2018. She has a B.S. in Design from the University of Delaware and currently works part-time in accounts payable/receivable for Creative Engineers, Inc. In her spare time she has volunteered with the Baltimore County Animal Shelter, has fostered several dogs and is currently a TRU Rescue volunteer.
Advisory Board Members
Jeffrey Gonya
Jeff Gonya is a Trustee of the Friends School of Baltimore and serves on the Board of the Middle Grades Partnership. Mr. Gonya serves on the Board of Trustees of the Mpala Wildlife Foundation, Inc. and the Fund Management Committee of the ICDDR, B. He is also a member of the Baltimore Estate Planning Council. Mr. Gonya is a member of the Estates and Trusts Section Council of the Maryland State Bar Association. He holds degrees from the University of Virginia and is a law partner at Venable.
Ken Hrica
Ken Hrica is the owner of Century Accounting and Financial Services. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and Accounting from Loyola College and is a Certified Public Accountant.