July 25, 2022, Ann Arbor, MI (3 min. read) — The Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra (A²SO) has announced the addition of three new members to its Board of Directors, bringing experienced leadership, fresh perspective and passionate advocacy to the orchestra as it prepares to launch its 94th concert season. Entrepreneur Sassa Akervall, lawyer Diana Raimi and Epidemiologist Dr. Aruna Sarma were elected to the board at its annual meeting on June 16, 2022.
“As music lovers and leading members of the Ann Arbor cultural community, our three new board members bring extensive expertise to the orchestra’s governing body in the fields of executive leadership, legal counsel and medical guidance.” says A²SO Executive Director Sarah Calderini. “We count ourselves fortunate to draw on their skills and experience as we define the next chapter in the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra’s storied history.”
A²SO Board President Carol Sewell comments: “Sassa, Diana, and Aruna each bring significant and specialized expertise to our board. Together with their talent and community-focused passion, they will add tremendous value to the A²SO leadership. I am honored to work alongside them as we continue to grow and evolve our organization.”
Sassa Akervall is an entrepreneur, CEO, and majority owner of Akervall Technologies Inc. (ATI). A native of Sweden with a BA in Communications from the University of Lund, Akervall’s career has included stints as a copywriter, network television host, producer and children’s author.
Under Akervall’s leadership, Saline, Michigan-based ATI has grown from the kitchen table into a full-fledged manufacturing company with worldwide distribution and partnerships with CCM Hockey and the State of Michigan. Recognized in the prestigious Inc. Magazine’s 5000 Fastest Growing Privately Owned Companies for three consecutive years (2016-2018), the company was named The Michigan Small Business Development Center’s “Best Small Business in Michigan” in 2019. Akervall and her husband, Jan, also received the coveted Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2017.
Akervall has been an active member of the Small Business Association of Michigan and served on its Board of Directors for 6 years. She has also served on the Board of Directors of the Saline Area Chamber of Commerce. She is an avid skier, hiker, and golfer and enjoys cooking, entertaining, and cultural events.
As a lawyer and mediator, Diana Raimi has been in practice since 1978. For most of that time her practice has focused on family law, including client representation and mediation and arbitration services.
Ms. Raimi is a respected author and frequent speaker at continuing education seminars, and has assisted with curriculum design and planning for the statewide Family Law Certificate Program, among many other educational programs. For more than 30 years, she was author of the Property Division chapter of ICLE’s “Michigan Family Law.”
She is a recipient of ICLE’s Blaine B. Johnson award for her contributions to continuing legal education, was named as a 2014 “Michigan Lawyers Weekly” Women in the Law, and has been named one of Michigan Super Lawyers’ top 50 women attorneys in Michigan. She was voted “Best Lawyers” Lawyer of the Year for Family Law in Ann Arbor (2021) and Detroit (2022). She is a fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers and the Michigan Bar Foundation and is listed in Michigan Super Lawyers, “DBusiness” Top Lawyers, and “Best Lawyers in America.” In 2015, Ms. Raimi authored an amicus brief on behalf of the AAML in support of the plaintiffs in the U.S. Supreme Court same-sex marriage case of “Obergefell v Hodges.” At present, she is semi-retired from client representation but continues to mediate, arbitrate, teach, and consult.
Dr. Aruna Sarma PhD, MHA is the Assistant Dean of Research Faculty at the University of Michigan Medical School. She is also a Professor in the Department of Urology with a joint appointment in the Department of Epidemiology at the School of Public Health. An Epidemiologist and an independent PI of several large funded urological studies, Dr. Sarma has published extensively on the epidemiology of urological complications. Using epidemiologic and clinical datasets, population based cohort studies and clinical trials, she has played a role in the development of the epidemiologic approach to urologic research in the Department of Urology and has established herself as a prominent researcher in Urology nationally.
Dr. Sarma is currently the Chair of the Epidemiology Committee for the International Consultation on Urologic Diseases and the Director of the University of Michigan UroEPI Career Development Program, a K12 career development program designed to train academic scholars in benign urology epidemiology. She has served on numerous local and national committees and is a member of the American Urologic Association, American Diabetes Association, Society of Epidemiologic Research and an inducted member of the American College of Epidemiology.
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The 2022-23 A²SO Executive Board Members are: President, Carol A. Sewell; First Vice President, Lesa Huget; Secretary, Steven E. Gerber; Treasurer, Daniel B. Clark; Past President, Geoffrey D. Barnes; Artistic Affairs, Roderick Little; Development, Constance A. Bridges; Education & Engagement, Jeffrey S. McKelvey; Finance & Budget, Daniel B. Clark; Marketing, Sarah L. Bishara; Policy, Martha A. Darling; Special Events, Jon Beebe, Lesa Huget.
The 2022-23 A²SO Board of Directors are: Sassa Akervall, André Dowell, James B. Froehlich, Sylvia M. Funk, J. Robert Gates, Julie Gates, David A. Gier, Richard D. Hendricks, David J. Herzig, Henry Johnson, Kristine Kerns, Brigitte A. Maassen, William J. Maxbauer, Jane Arvison Panikkar, Diana Raimi, Aruna Sarma, Barbara Sturgis-Everett, Darcel Tolle, Elisabeth Vanderpool, Jane Wilkinson, and Remedios Montalbo Young.