HB Studio Reveals Newly Elected Board Members
Kimberly Allen-Mills, Sandra Polsak, Victor Slezak, and Michael Thomas Duffy join the prestigious New York acting school's board
HB Studio, New York City's longest continually running theater school, has announced the March 2026 election of four new members to its board: Kimberly Allen-Mills, Sandra Polsak, Victor Slezak and Michael Thomas Duffy.
Taken together, Allen-Mills, Polsak, Slezak and Thomas Duffy represent excellence in an array of private and public fields, including performance, human resources, education and construction.
"We are overjoyed to welcome this quartet into HB's board," says Christopher Hibma, the Interim Co-Executive Director, Strategy & Operations. "This group's collective creative diversity, tested leadership, business expertise and a genuine desire to preserve our history are a tremendous gift to the organization."
Francesca Ferrara, HB's Co-Executive Director of Programs, says "acting is the art of understanding outside perspective. The experience and vision this new team brings to the table is game-changing. I look forward to working with all of them as we chart a path for HB's future."
A brief biography of each of our new board members follows below. To arrange for conversations with any of our newly elected board about their new roles or for more information about HB Studio, please contact John Seroff at GreenHouse Publicity.
Kimberly Allen-Mills is an Area Director of People & Culture at IHG Hotels & Resorts, global hospitality leader, photojournalist, and culture builder whose life and career have been shaped by movement across countries, disciplines, and communities. Raised in a military family, she learned early how to adapt, build connection quickly, and bloom wherever she was planted. That formative experience instilled a lifelong commitment to understanding people, honoring their experiences, and creating environments where they can thrive. She began her professional journey in the arts, studying Theatre at Emerson College and the University of Massachusetts, and later training with Herbert Berghof and Uta Hagen at HB Studio. Their belief in theatre as a force capable of transforming lives and shaping the world continues to inform her work across sectors.
Photography emerged as another creative and humanistic pathway. As a photojournalist working in South Africa, India, China, Germany, France, and the United States, Allen-Mills documented pivotal moments in modern history, including the South African state of emergency, the aftermath of Tiananmen Square, and the fall of the Berlin Wall. These experiences deepened her commitment to empathy, careful observation, and the ethical responsibility that comes with bearing witness to people's stories, often at moments of great vulnerability. Her transition into hospitality revealed a new arena for the same values. At the Willard InterContinental Washington, she progressed from quality assessor to Area Director of People & Culture. In this role, she has helped shape inclusive workplace cultures where colleagues from more than 80 countries feel seen, valued, and empowered. Over more than two decades, she has supported multiple hotel openings, strengthened organizational culture, and contributed to quality initiatives recognized with two Virginia State Quality Awards. Across theatre, journalism, and hospitality, Allen-Mills' throughline remains consistent. She is deeply committed to building environments where people are recognized, supported, and inspired to grow, while fiercely advocating for the inclusion of the arts in all aspects of human endeavor. She continues to support organizations dedicated to expanding opportunity, including the ONE Campaign, BroadFutures, and local youth programs in Washington, DC. She is also the proud mother of two daughters, one pursuing photography and The Other Theatre, who carry forward a shared artistic legacy.
Sandra Polsak is a highly respected owner's representative and project management executive with 40+ years of experience who has provided collaborative, comprehensive management for some of the most complex and iconic civic and cultural projects in New York. She specializes in challenging projects: multiple stakeholders, difficult sites, complex funding, intricate budgets and demanding schedules and phasing. She has represented not-for-profit institutions, owners, and public corporations to deliver projects that meet the client's budget, schedule, and quality goals in a collaborative manner. At Sterling, Ms. Polsak has managed renovations at Manhattan Theatre Club's Samuel Friedman Theatre, multiple projects for Coalition for the Homeless and for HB Studio Acting School. Prior to joining SPD as Co-Director of its Civic and Cultural practice, Ms. Polsak was a founding principal of 74West Project Management, where she managed the exterior renovation of the Samuel Friedman Theatre on Broadway, and also oversaw design & construction for a not-for-profit developer of affordable housing in Hell's Kitchen, with a pipeline of 10-12 development projects with an aggregate value of $65M.
For 17 years, Ms. Polsak was a Senior Project Executive at Levien & Company, responsible for projects including the complete renovation of the landmark New York City Center Theater, the conversion of a landmarked church for the Packer Collegiate Institute in Brooklyn, and construction of The Shed, the $500M flexible performing and visual arts center at Hudson Yards. Ms. Polsak also spent nine years at The New York Public Library, where she was responsible for design, construction, maintenance, and security for 89 diverse library buildings across three NYC boroughs. At Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Ms. Polsak was Project Director for the $160M Rose Building for use by 11 performing arts organizations. Facilities included dormitories, rehearsal studios, offices, a film theater, a public library, archival storage, and extensive outdoor public facilities. She also served as Vice President for Development for the Javits Convention Center Ms. Polsak is a licensed architect with a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Cornell University.
Victor Slezak is an American actor whose career spans regional theatre, Off-Broadway, Broadway, film and television, with a particular commitment to classical and developmental theatre. He spent many years working in regional theatres across the United States, followed by an extensive Off-Broadway career. Notable stage performances include starring roles in The Hasty Heart, Creditors, and Ghosts, the latter opposite Geraldine Page. His dedication to new work and artistic development has included long-term collaborations with New Dramatists, The Lark, and Ensemble Studio Theatre, where he is a member. On Broadway, Slezak has appeared in Salome opposite Al Pacino, The Graduate opposite Kathleen Turner, Jackie: An American Life portraying John F. Kennedy, Suddenly Last Summer opposite Elizabeth Ashley, and Any Given Day by Frank Gilroy.
As an acting student, he trained with some of the most influential teachers and artists of the twentieth century, including Uta Hagen, Kim Stanley, Geraldine Page, and Wynn Handman. He is a lifelong member of The Actors Studio, reflecting a sustained commitment to rigorous actor training and the craft of performance. In 2026, Slezak appears on the international festival circuit with a starring role in the feature film Take Me Home. The film had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. The film also screened at the Berlin International Film Festival in February and is on the docket for the Tribeca Film Festival in June.
Michael Thomas Duffy is the president of the Great Oaks Foundation, which has a mission to provide students with access to a quality education through high dosage tutoring. Previously he worked at the NYC Department of Education under Chancellor Joel Klein, working for three years in the administration of Mayor Michael Bloomberg to help expand the number of high-quality charter schools in New York City. Michael's efforts in education grew out of his work in the civil rights movement, having served as the Chairman and Commissioner of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts' civil rights enforcement agency, a position he held for six years. During that time he testified before Congress several times and appeared at a White House conference on matters relating to the enforcement of civil rights laws.
Michael has also held leadership positions in the non-profit sector: he served on the Board of Directors of the Human Rights Campaign, for several years as its co-chair; two terms on the Vestry of St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church in Manhattan; and is currently chair of the board of the Lyme Academy of Fine Arts. Michael has a Master's degree in Public Policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University where he wrote his thesis on business support for child day care and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Trinity College in Connecticut with a degree in Economics. For the past 14 years Michael has been an adjunct professor at NYU's Wagner Graduate School of Public Service where he teaches courses on leadership and management in the public and non-profit sector.
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