Ithaca College Board of Trustees Elects Four New Members

By Dave Maley, June 2, 2025

New trustees will join the board on July 1.

At its May meetings, the Ithaca College Board of Trustees elected Tsugumi Maki ’94, P ’25 to serve for the next four years as an alumni trustee and Joseph Cantatore P ’28, Monica Digilio ’85, M.S. ’86, and Jeffrey Weiss ’72 to serve for the next four years as term trustees. They will join the board on July 1.

Tsugumi Maki ’94, P ’25
Tsugumi (Ami) Maki has been a longtime leader in the Ithaca College alumni community, serving as a member and former president of the Alumni Association Board of Directors. She led the development of a three-year strategic plan to strengthen alumni engagement and embed a deeper commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Maki currently serves as Director of the RISD Museum at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, where she is transforming museum operations to deliver on a bold strategic vision. She is focused on making the creative process visible and accessible, helping people understand how art and design are made and why they matter.

Tsugumi Maki (photo by Jo Sittenfeld)

Her 30-year career includes senior leadership roles at major cultural institutions. As Chief Exhibitions and Collections Officer at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), she modernized curatorial workflows and integrated global perspectives into the museum’s collection strategy. She has also served as Chief Operating Officer at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston and Associate Director at the Davis Museum at Wellesley College. Maki began her museum career at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, where she spent two decades and ultimately served as Head of Gallery Planning.

Maki holds a B.S. in Cinema and Photography from Ithaca College and an M.F.A. in Photography from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University.

Joseph Cantatore P ’28
Joseph Cantatore is the Global Head of Tax and Real Estate Accounting at Taconic Capital Advisors LP, a leading multi-strategy global alternative investment manager. Since joining Taconic in 2013, he has been responsible for overseeing and developing the firm’s global tax planning, strategies, and compliance, as well as managing the global real estate accounting and reporting functions.

Joseph Cantatore (photo submitted)

Mr. Cantatore also serves as a member of Taconic’s Business Infrastructure Group, advising on and overseeing critical aspects of the firm’s reporting, data structure, systems, and overall business administration. He holds multiple board seats for Taconic’s investment subsidiaries in Luxembourg, where he leverages his expertise to oversee complex tax, operational, and investment strategies across several distressed credit and equities investment platforms.

Prior to his tenure at Taconic, Mr. Cantatore was a tax manager in Ernst & Young’s tax practice, advising large multinational alternative investment fund clients. Earlier in his career, he worked in the internal accounting department at Forvis Mazars LLP (formerly Weiser LLP).

A Certified Public Accountant licensed in the state of New York, Mr. Cantatore is a member of the Managed Funds Association. He earned both his bachelor’s degree in accounting and master’s degree in taxation from St. John’s University’s Peter J. Tobin College of Business. His daughter Amelia is a rising sophomore in IC’s Roy H. Park School of Communications.

Monica Digilio ’85, M.S. 86
Monica Digilio is the founder and CEO of Compass Advisors LLC, which provides strategic advisory support to senior-level executives, private equity investors, and boards of directors, with a focus on human capital strategy and management, business leadership, talent development, and organizational planning.

Monica Digilio (photo submitted)

She previously led human resources for some of the most well-known global brands in hospitality and entertainment, including Atlantis Resorts, One&Only, Caesars Entertainment, and Montage International. In those roles, she served as a trusted advisor and collaborator to the C-Suite, successfully leading large-scale transformation and growth initiatives, executing complex financial/organizational restructuring, and implementing strategies to enhance workplace culture and employee experience while creating growth and development opportunities.

Selected as the college’s 2025 Commencement speaker, Digilio holds a bachelor’s degree in cinema and photography and master’s degree in communications from IC’s Roy H. Park School of Communications. While a student, she was elected to the Phi Kappa Phi national honor society and was a recipient of the Rod Serling Scholarship in Communications. Her alumni service has included membership on the Park School Board of Advocates.

Digilio currently serves on the boards of directors of Seaport Entertainment Group, The Venetian Resort Las Vegas, CopperPoint Insurance Companies, and Sunstone Hotel Investors Inc. She is also on the advisory board for Cornell University's Leland C. and Mary M. Pillsbury Institute for Hospitality Entrepreneurship.

Jeffrey Weiss ’72
Jeffrey Weiss is the founder and Managing Director of CCI, which develops and conducts ongoing executive forums for CEOs, board leaders, and C-Suite executives of major technology and healthcare organizations across the United States. CCI’s forums provide fresh insight into tough business issues by leveraging peer discussion and the resources of outside experts.

Jeffrey Weiss (photo submitted)

Weiss serves as an adjunct assistant professor of medicine at UCLA, where he co-leads the Leadership for UCLA National Clinician Scholars Program. He was previously an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at the UCLA Medical School and director of the Department of Behavioral Medicine at the UCLA/San Bernardino County Medical Center. He is a licensed psychologist specializing in behavioral medicine, achievement motivation, and career strategy.

In 1983, Weiss co-founded the Southern California Technology Executives Network, composed of over 200 technology CEOs. SO/CAL/TEN was recognized by Inc. and Fortune magazines as one of the first and most successful high-tech network organizations.

Among his numerous leadership roles with educational and medical organizations, Weiss was a director at City of Hope Medical Center and a trustee and founding director of Thrive Scholars, which provides mentoring and scholarships to high-achieving students from economically under-resourced communities.

He is currently on the board of directors of AltaMed, an 80-site health care provider, and ThriveWell, an emerging longevity and wellness company.

He earned his bachelor’s degree in general studies from Ithaca College and holds an M.S. in organizational development and Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology, at which he has also served as a trustee.

Recognizing Service
Reelected to the board for an additional term were Luvelle Brown, Traci Hughes ’85, David Meberg ’85, Kristin Muenzen ’00, Christopher Palmieri ’96, and James Taylor ’00.

Departing the board were trustees Rosanna Aybar and Kirk Harbinger ’89.

Douglas Weisman ’78 retired from the board after reaching three consecutive terms, which is the maximum a trustee can serve without taking a one-year break. A proclamation from the board expressed its deepest gratitude, thanking Weisman for his dedication to the college and noting that “his deep commitment to generously giving his time, talent, and treasure to Ithaca College in meaningful ways has touched the lives of countless students, faculty, staff, alumni, and trustees.”