BBCLP Board of Directors

Debbie Degutis
President, Board of Directors

Debbie has lived on Surrey Street in Glen Park since 2000. A big jazz fan, she knows the power of music to build community and spread joy. A career in tech marketing doesn’t get in the way of her volunteering or going to see live jazz.

Favorite Jazz Tune: Cantaloupe Island (Herbie Hancock)
Favorite Local Musicians: Scott Amendola and Scott Foster

 

Angela Bennett
Member, Board of Directors

Angela Bennett has worn many hats in the B&B organization since wandering in to hear the music back in October of 2002, including sound guy, photographer, publicist, social media maven, booker, Jazz Club! hostess and innovator in the use of the disco lamp in jazz and the allied arts. She brings over 30 years of experience in the local music scene to Bird & Beckett, including six years as the music booker for the Glen Park Festival. A musician in her own right, you may have encountered her around town performing with the infamous Bad Mommies, or showing off her ukulele stylings with MUCH MORE FUN.

Favorite Jazz Album: Kind of Blue (Miles Davis). Hard to beat the best!
Favorite Local Musician: I know enough to never put that in writing

 

Dan Lanir
Member, Board of Directors

Dan has lived in Glen Park since 2002 and has been a devoted supporter of Bird & Beckett for over two decades. His love of live jazz began right here—after stopping in on a Friday evening and discovering that the bookstore’s performances were the perfect way to shift from the intensity of his workweek into the rhythm of the weekend. The same is true for his unexpected affection for Honky Tonk and classic country music, both nurtured by Bird & Beckett’s uniquely intimate and welcoming space.

In his professional life, Dan is an executive in the cybersecurity industry, where he focuses on customer experience and operational leadership. He brings a thoughtful, steady approach to problem-solving and a strong appreciation for organizations rooted in community and culture.

As a member of the Board of Directors, Dan is dedicated to sustaining and growing Bird & Beckett’s role as a cultural anchor—supporting live music, literature, and arts programming that enriches Glen Park and San Francisco as a whole.

Favorite Jazz Album: Up and Down Club Sessions, Volume 1 (Various Artists)
Favorite Local Musicians: Scott Foster and Yoav Konig

 

Tom Misage
Member, Board of Directors

Tom is a lifelong music fan and longtime Glen Park resident who truly appreciates the special contribution Bird & Beckett makes to the local culture and music scene. He is continually amazed and inspired by the caliber of musicians and music that emanates from this tiny local bookstore. 

Tom has a background managing engineering product development at companies such as Apple and Cisco and more recently leading several early start-ups. He supports Eric with sound and video production and attending to the tech and instruments.  Tom is also known to pick up the drumsticks once in awhile to play in some local bands.  

Favorite album:  The Very Best of Otis Redding – alas not jazz but has become his signature exit music.  If playing music is baring your soul then this album personifies it.
Favorite local musician: Too many to name!

 

Susan Petro
Member, Board of Directors

Susan Petro has been a board member since BBCLP was incorporated when neighbors in the Glen Park community came together to save the book store.

Favorite Line From a Song: “Sometimes You’re the Windshield, Sometimes You’re the Bug”
Favorite Local Musician: Still exploring…

 

Ellen Rosenthal
Member, Board of Directors

Ellen has lived in Glen Park since 1988. She has had a career as a Spanish-language court interpreter and is now somewhat retired from that. She is also an art photographer and has a studio at Art Explosion near Potrero Avenue. She plays standup jazz bass (as a perennial student) in a weekly class that was started by the great Harvey Robb around 2014. This class group plays occasionally at Bird & Beckett.

She is a fan of jazz, flamenco and classical music for the most part. Too many great jazz bassists to zero in on a favorite.

 

Eric Whittington
Member, Board of Directors

Eric finished a B.A. in film studies at UC Berkeley in 1980, was operations manager for the San Francisco International Film Festival for two seasons, formed a partnership, Carnaval Productions, to promote concerts in small venues around town, then spent a half-dozen years with a business partner in Detour Productions, attempting to launch an independent feature film project and operating a small record label. At that point, he just knuckled down to the day job he had taken during the Detour days to keep his growing family (three children, all now bearing advanced degrees, all working in education and the arts) housed and fed. In 1999, he left that day job (though he moonlighted at it for the ensuing decade) and established the bookshop, Bird & Beckett, which spun off and houses the BBCLP. He operates the two entities with the help of a remarkably supportive and talented staff, sustained by an amazingly loyal patron and donor base.

Favorite Jazz Album: Birth of the Cool (Miles Davis). A blessing and a curse. Who among us mortals can expect to achieve such heights? But it vividly demonstrates what can be accomplished by putting together a well-oiled machine, which is finally within our grasp!
Favorite Local Musician/Musicologist/DJ: Avotcja

 

Nicholas James Whittington
Member, Board of Directors

Nick is a college administrator by day and by night leads a multifarious life as poet, editor, small press publisher, letterpress printer, book designer, independent scholar, ad hoc educator, family man, and more. A San Franciscan by birth and upbringing, he attended Jefferson Elementary, Aptos Middle, and Lowell High Schools, where he was wrapping up his sophomore year when his mom and dad opened Bird & Beckett Books back in 1999.

Favorite Jazz Album: Out to Lunch (Eric Dolphy)
Favorite Local Musician: Del the Funky Homosapien

 

Heather World
Secretary, Board of Directors

Heather has lived in Glen Park since 2002 and started going to Bird & Beckett concerts with her jazz-loving husband Dan shortly thereafter. She is devoted to the community–volunteering for the neighborhood association, the PTA and writing for local micro news outlets like The Glen Park News–and she’s pretty sure the community created by Eric and Bird & Beckett is the neighborhood’s most hip.

Favorite Jazz Album: unknown
Favorite Local Musician: unknown