THE MOB MUSEUM - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Las Vegas Division
Aaron Rouse currently serves as the Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Las Vegas Division. Mr. Rouse began his career with the FBI in September 1996, and was first assigned to the Washington Field Office where he worked violent crime and was on both the Joint Fugitive Task Force and the Violent Crime/Reactive squads. In January 2005, Mr. Rouse became a Supervisory Special Agent (SSA) in the Counterintelligence Division at FBIHQ and worked as a Program Manager for Counterespionage matters. He has also served in roles in the Tampa and San Antonio Divisions of the FBI. Prior to entering the FBI, Mr. Rouse was a state trooper in the New York State Police.
Alan Feldman is one of the world's leading experts on responsible gaming.
As Distinguished Fellow in Responsible Gaming for UNLV's International Gaming Institute, Feldman develops programs and policies to advance related knowledge and capabilities within the industry and regulatory community.
Feldman spent nearly 30 years in the gaming industry with MGM Resorts, where he recently spearheaded the launch of GameSense, an innovative, player-focused responsible gambling program that encourages players to adopt behaviors and attitudes that can reduce the risk of developing gambling disorders. This landmark program is now available at all of MGM's U.S. properties.
A frequent speaker on responsible gaming at conferences, universities and media events around the world, Feldman serves as Chair of both the National Center for Responsible Gaming as well as the Nevada Advisory Committee on Problem Gambling. He also serves as a member of the Gambling Research Advisory Committee for the Massachusetts Gaming Commission.
In 2002, the Casino Management Association honored Feldman as the Gaming Professional of the Year and in 2009, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award in Gaming Communications from the American Gaming Association.
Job Titles:
- Business Owner
- Member of the Las Vegas Community
A successful business owner, seasoned consultant and sought-after public speaker, Amy Ayoub is a lifelong Las Vegan who combined her passion for public speaking and helping others when she founded The Zen Speaker. Possessing over 30 years of professional experience as a financial planner and political fundraiser with numerous turns behind the microphone, she was regularly asked to share her networking talents and storytelling abilities with staff, volunteers and key leaders of nonprofit and community organizations, corporations, academic forums and leadership groups throughout Nevada and the United States. Embracing her strength as a public speaker with an entrepreneurial spirit, she obtained her certification as a World Class Speaking coach and began assisting clients on their journey to share their stories, find peace behind the podium, and move audiences to action. As a result of working with her - utilizing her supportive nature and ability for bringing out each person's unique voice - clients report remarkable increases in revenue, acceptance as experts in their various fields, and a greater feeling of preparedness, confidence and connection whether presenting to an audience of one or one-thousand.
As a member of the Las Vegas Community, Ms. Ayoub has been active in the fight to better the lives of all Nevadans through her political and community participation for over three decades. In February 2013, she testified before the Nevada State Assembly and Senate Judiciary Committees, using her personal survivor story in support of Assembly Bill 67, which increased penalties for those convicted of sex trafficking. She served as a commissioner on the Commission to Eliminate Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities, as appointed by then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), providing a voice for our nation's youngest citizens. She was honored as a 2016 Distinguished Nevadan Award by the Board of Regents at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She was a featured speaker in the October 2014 television series of MAKERS: Women in Nevada History, a partnership program by Vegas PBS and UNLV's Women's Research Institute of Nevada.
Appointed by Governor Kenny Guinn as the first female to the Nevada State Athletic Commission (known as the Boxing Commission) in 1999, she also has been recognized by the National Conference for Community and Justice with the Community Hero award (2000); named one of the women responsible for shaping the city during its first 100 years of growth by the Las Vegas Centennial Committee; and, acknowledged In Business Las Vegas as one of the Most Influential Businesswomen of 2003. In 2012, she was honored as one of the "Women of Distinction" in her field by the Southern Nevada chapter of National Association of Women Business Owners.
Anthony Ricevuto started his law enforcement career with the Chicago Police Department and worked as a task force officer assigned to high crime suppression with a special operation group. In 1972, he became a special agent of the Drug Enforcement Administration, investigating international drug traffickers and money launderers. He was the senior inspector in charge of the DEA's Office of Professional Responsibility and retired as the assistant special agent in charge of the Los Angeles DEA office. He traveled extensively throughout Latin America conducting sensitive investigations involving government personnel. Upon retirement, he worked for the Los Angeles METRO as a senior investigator with the Office of Inspector General investigating management and contractor fraud. He was a teacher at the University of Phoenix/Chaffey Community College and a lecturer for various colleges and organizations. Ricevuto is currently the Western Vice President for the Association of Federal Narcotic Agents and Vice President of the Las Vegas Italian American Club. He lives in Las Vegas.
Job Titles:
- Member of the American Marketing Association
- VICE PRESIDENT of MARKETING, COMMUNICATIONS & SALES
Ashley Miller possesses a diverse marketing background with more than 20 years of experience spanning multiple facets of marketing including developing and implementing PR & marketing strategies, digital initiatives, social media, partnerships, promotions, creative, sales and research. Prior to her role at the Museum, she was the Director of Communications for a real estate investment firm. Previously, she was responsible for public relations and marketing for Loews Hotels, a luxury hospitality company that operates 26 hotels in the U.S. and Canada. Ashley earned her Masters of Business Administration, and Bachelor's Degree in Communications Studies with a focus in advertising and journalism from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Ashley is a member of the American Marketing Association, the Las Vegas Innovation Marketing Association and the International Marketing Association. She is a member of the Western Museums Association, the Las Vegas Museum Alliance and the American Alliance of Museums (AAM), as well as a past member of the National Program Committee for AAM. An active alumna of UNLV, she is Past Vice President of the Greenspun College of Urban Affairs Alumni Association and is a member of the Harrah College of Hospitality Mentor Program.
Audry "JB" Batiste is a retired Air Force officer and served his country honorably over a 20-year military career. And through his selfless endeavors, he continues to serve and volunteer with several organizations throughout Las Vegas, and he is a role model and mentor to young children in underserved areas. Today, JB is an entrepreneur with over 15 year's experience in financial and tax services, and now works with affluent clients as a Certified Financial Planner professional with Redrock Wealth Management.
Job Titles:
- Senior Vice President of Switch CITIES
Betsy Fretwell is the Senior Vice President of Switch CITIES. In her role, she leads the result-based community solutions team to drive the strategic development, implementation and national expansion of Switch's vision to integrate all aspects of smart city development utilizing Switch's data center ecosystem.
Prior to joining Switch, Betsy Fretwell retired from the City of Las Vegas after 17 years and served as the City Manager from 2009 to 2017. As a nationally recognized leader, she oversaw a dynamic organization of more than 3,300 employees and a budget of $1.3 billion. She also served as the Executive Director of the Las Vegas Redevelopment Agency charged with the economic revitalization of downtown Las Vegas. Under Fretwell's leadership, the City built a new City Hall, attracted the corporate headquarters of Zappos.com, Inc. to downtown, completed The Smith Center for the Performing Arts and attracted the new UNLV Medical School to the City's Medical District.
As a change leader, she developed the Innovation District in downtown Las Vegas to test new technologies in a live environment, hosting the first real-time autonomous shuttle in the U.S. She also achieved a 4-Star community sustainability ranking by converting all city facilities to 100% renewable energy sources a value she shares with Switch. She also improved the city's equality index score to 100, and open data ranking to first among the nation's cities.
She is a graduate of the University of Georgia with a bachelor's degree in political science and a master's degree in public administration. She completed the Harvard University Senior Executives in State and Local Government Program in 2007.
She also serves on the Board of Directors for The Smith Center for the Performing Arts and on the Board of Directors and Executive Committee for the Las Vegas Global Economic Alliance.
Born in Yerington, Bill Young is a fourth-generation Nevadan. As a small child, his family moved to Las Vegas where he graduated from Bishop Gorman High School in 1974. Young is also an alumnus of UNLV, holding a BA in Criminal Justice and an MS in Emergency Management. He began his career with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department as a Patrol Officer in 1979. In 1984 he was promoted to sergeant and his assignments included Patrol, Field Training, and SWAT. He was promoted to lieutenant in 1986 and served in Patrol, as Operations Manager of the Communications Center, and in Vice/Narcotics. In 1995, he was promoted to captain and commanded the Support Services Bureau, overseeing the Resident Officer Program, K-9, Air Support, and Search and Rescue. He was promoted to deputy chief in January 1999 and assigned to the Detention Services Division. He took over as the Deputy Chief for Special Operations Division in February 2001. Mr. Young was elected Sheriff in November of 2002. After his retirement, he joined Stations Casinos as the Vice President of Security. Mr. Young also serves on the board of multiple organizations: After-School All-Stars, Hope for Prisoners, Nevada Child Seekers, Olive Crest, and AlertID.
Distinguished as the longest serving governor in Nevada history, 1989-1999, Bob Miller has held several public offices including Lieutenant Governor and Clark County District Attorney, 1979-1987. He served as the Chair of the National Governors Association (NGA), 1996-1997, Chair of the Western Governors Association (WGA), 1993-1994, and during his tenure as District Attorney he served as the President of the National District Attorney Association, 1984-1985, and was one of nine individuals President Reagan selected to serve on a Presidential Task Force on victims of crime in 1982. He owns Robert J. Miller Consulting and he presently serves as a board member of Solar Alliance. He has previously served on several other public boards including America West Airlines, Newmont Mining Corporation, Zenith Insurance Company, International Game Technology and Wynn Resorts. He has received civic and charitable awards, including honorary doctorates from Santa Clara University in 1991 and UNLV in 1998, the Breaking Glass Ceiling National Award from the Women Executives in State Governments in 1997, Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Organization of Victims Assistance in 1999, Inaugural National Award for State Art Leadership from Americans for the Arts in 1997, as well as the Distinguished Nevadan award from the Nevada System of Higher Education Board of Regents in 2012. USAID (United States Aid to International Development) has sent him on several foreign missions to provide tourism advice, including Russia, Georgia, Poland and Bulgaria. He served as Co-Chair of the Russian Heritage Highway with former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev from 2004-2007. He has served as an Honorary Consul General of Bulgaria since 2005. A Las Vegas resident for over 60 years, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science at the University of Santa Clara and a Juris doctorate from Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. He is a member of the Clark County Bar Association and the State Bar of Nevada.
Job Titles:
- Principal of Sports & Entertainment Advisors
Brandon Doll is the Principal of Sports & Entertainment Advisors, leveraging industry experience, storytelling, and creativity while utilizing data, modeling, and customer insights to address challenges, optimize commercial strategy, improve business outcomes, and capitalize on new opportunities for clients in collegiate and professional sports and entertainment. He previously served as Senior Vice President, Strategy and Business Development for the Las Vegas Raiders from 2013-2021. In this role, Brandon led the relocation of the NFL's Raiders from Oakland to Las Vegas, including gaining necessary approvals, securing financing, and developing a commercial strategy for the Allegiant Stadium project, generating significant stadium contractually obligated income, creating sustainable future annual stadium revenue streams, negotiating critical strategic partnerships and live entertainment events, and designing and implementing award-winning, revenue-generating nightlife, culinary, and attraction experiences, including the Wynn Field Club, Silver & Black Hospitality, and Allegiant Stadium Tour Program. Prior to working in professional sports, Brandon served as a Naval officer for seven years, completing tours aboard the USS Boxer (LHD-4) and with Commander, Naval Surface Forces, U.S. Pacific Fleet, and making deployments to Australia, South America, and the Persian Gulf. Brandon holds a Bachelor of Science in Political Science from the United States Naval Academy (2005) and a Master of Business Administration from the University of California Berkeley Haas School of Business (2014). In the Southern Nevada community, Brandon serves as a member of the Las Vegas Bowl Committee and as a member of the Board of Directors for Three Square Food Bank. Brandon has lived in Las Vegas since 2018 with his wife, Brie.
Job Titles:
- Intelligence Officer of the U.S. Coast Guard
Elizebeth Friedman was one side of a master cryptology team with her husband, William Friedman. They were a remarkable pair. William, working for the War Department, broke the cipher used by Japanese diplomats and invented deciphering devices used by the United States during World War II. Elizebeth decoded more than 12,000 messages sent via shortwave radio by rumrunners to help the U.S. Coast Guard confiscate illegal liquor during Prohibition.
She was born Elizabeth Smith in Huntington, Indiana, the daughter of a Quaker, John Smith, and his wife, Sopha Strock Smith. She attended Hillsdale College in Michigan, studied German, Latin and Greek, and graduated with a degree in English in 1915. She arrived a year later at the Newberry Library in Chicago looking for a job. A librarian offered to contact Colonel George Fabyan, the wealthy owner of, Riverbank Laboratories, the nation's first private research facility, located on a 500-acre estate in Geneva, Illinois. Fabyan offered Elizebeth a job on the phone and took her to the estate. Among Fabyan's interests was showing that Francis Bacon used ciphers to prove he was the actual writer of William Shakespeare's plays and poems. He decided to bring on Elizebeth as an apprentice on the project.
On her first day at the Riverbank estate she met William Friedman, the son of Russian Jewish immigrants. Fabyan hired Friedman to conduct genetics experiments on crops and analyze Shakespeare's writings through photo enlargements. Elizebeth introduced Friedman to cryptology. They both took to the topic, and to themselves, marrying in 1917. They wrote pamphlets on cryptology and taught courses on the subject for the U.S. Army, which created a Cipher Bureau during World War I. They stayed at the sprawling Riverbank estate studying cryptology for four years before leaving for Washington, D.C., to work in the fledgling profession of cryptology for the U.S. government. By 1921, William was employed as a contract cryptologist by the War Department's Signal Corps to solve enemy codes and ciphers. Elizebeth also worked as a contract cryptanalyst for the War Department and then for the U.S. Navy from 1922 to 1923.
After moving to a country house in Maryland, they moved again to suburban Chevy Chase outside Washington, where they worked together on a special code commissioned by Edward Beale McLean, the eccentric owner and publisher of the Washington Post. William, at the request of Congress, deciphered the letters of Albert Fall, the Interior secretary under President Warren Harding, that led to Fall's bribery conviction in the Teapot Dome scandal. Elizebeth gave birth to two children and decided to write a book on the alphabet.
Then, in 1926, Captain Charles Root, intelligence officer of the U.S. Coast Guard, called Elizebeth to say he wanted her to work with him on developing anti- or counter-intelligence for the Guard to enforce Prohibition laws against rumrunners who were using speed boats to transport illegal liquor. At the time, the Coast Guard was responsible for patrolling America's 19,000 miles of coastline with a small staff to catch the smugglers. The Coast Guard's Intelligence squad tapped Friedman for her talents as a cryptanalyst in breaking codes sent by rumrunners using the almost new technology of shortwave radio.
Root had been working with Harry Anslinger (later head of the U.S. Bureau of Narcotics), who was vice consul in Nassau in the Bahamas, where, as Elizebeth related in a 1966 oral history kept at the George Marshall Foundation in Washington, "the water routes back and forth between the Florida coast and the Bahamas and also Florida to Cuba and back had become one of the highways of liquor smuggling."
Root and Anslinger came across radio communications on the East Coast sent in the form of ciphers that "were usually not by any organized group but by individuals, ambitious men who aspired perhaps to be the Capones of the profitable game of rum smuggling," she said.
Elizebeth's job was to decipher the rumrunners' secret radio dispatches to let the Coast Guard know what sea routes the runners' boats were taking so the Guard's boats could intercept them and confiscate the liquor. At first she worked part time on decoding, including a long telegraph transmission from Havana to the United States in which the sender foolishly used the word "Havana" as a key word, making it much easier to decipher. In 1927, she undertook the cryptologist position on a full-time basis for the Coast Guard and the Bureau of Foreign Control.
"The Coast Guard, being the organization which at sea had to combat rumrunning vessels, had need of something more than just patrol by Coast Guard vessels to operate effectively," she said. "New York, of course, had been the leading port of entry for the smuggled liquor, but the whole Atlantic coast with its coves and inlets, its chopped waterline, with its many secluded spots where boats might secretly dock and unload, created a problem which defied description."
In 1928, she transferred to the Treasury Department as special agent to the Customs Investigative Service in the Bureau of Customs and for the next two years focused on decoding ciphers sent by the alcohol-running rings in the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Coast. Nothing seemed to faze Friedman as she decoded ciphered radio messages, from the ordinary to the sophisticated, used by racketeers.
At the end, it wasn't the street that did in Tommy Lucchese, it was his health. He died of a brain tumor on July 13, 1967, in his own bed at his Long Island estate.
Carolyn G. Goodman, elected to her third term in 2019 with 83.5% of the vote, became the mayor of Las Vegas in 2011, succeeding her husband, then current mayor, Oscar B. Goodman. Carolyn Goodman is well known in the Las Vegas community for founding The Meadows School, Nevada's first nonprofit, nonsectarian, independent, coeducational, college preparatory school for pre-kindergarten through 12th grades. Recognized nationally by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education and the National Association of Independent Schools in 2006 with the Seymour Preston Trustee Award for Leadership, Carolyn Goodman has devoted much of her life to volunteerism in Las Vegas. In 1989, the University of Nevada recognized her with the prestigious "Distinguished Nevadan" award and in 2006 bestowed upon her an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree (PhD). In 2009, she was named a Sarah D. Barder Fellow in The Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth and an Alumna of the Year in Education at UNLV. Carolyn Goodman holds national leadership roles as a member of the U.S. Conference of Mayors and also serves on the board of directors of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.
Job Titles:
- Retired FBI Agent and Former Special Agent
Charlene Thornton is a retired FBI agent and former Special Agent in Charge (SAC) of the Honolulu, San Francisco, Phoenix, and Birmingham field offices. During her 30+ year career, she also served as Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI's Inspection Division where she oversaw comprehensive audits of FBI investigative and administrative operations worldwide. In 2005, she was awarded the Presidential Rank of Meritorious Executive in recognition of her sustained high level of achievement in managing demanding and multifaceted FBI operations. She retired from the FBI in 2010.
Charles "Lucky" Luciano, born Salvatore Lucania in 1897 in Sicily, probably did more to create the modern American Mafia and the national criminal Syndicate than any other single man. Luciano led a group of young Italian and Jewish mobsters against the older set of so-called "Moustache Petes," and in the process set the stage for the Mob to grow beyond the limits of bootlegging profits to become, in the words of his friend Meyer Lansky, "bigger than United States Steel."
Luciano, who moved to the United States and settled in the Lower East Side with his family at age 10, was recruited early into gangster life and was a member of the Five Points Gang in Manhattan. Around the start of Prohibition in 1920, he was recruited as a gunman by Giuseppe "Joe the Boss" Masseria, and a few years later Luciano went to work for Arnold Rothstein, another seminal figure in early organized crime. By the mid-1920s, Luciano was reportedly making millions in bootlegging profits.
With Rothstein's murder in 1928, Luciano went back to working for Masseria, who by this time was the self-styled "Boss of Bosses," and who was going to war with a rival, Salvatore "The Duke" Maranzano.
That wasn't the end of Luciano's story, however. During World War II, the government needed the Mob's help to keep the New York docks free of strikes, sabotage and other problems. Luciano agreed to help, on the assumption that he would get a break on his sentence. Dewey, the former prosecutor, was now New York governor and in a position to grant clemency.
Job Titles:
- Executive Director of the Crime
Christine Cole is currently the executive director of the Crime and Justice Institute, a division of Community Resources for Justice, Inc., a nonprofit based in Boston. As executive director she oversees a team of about 50 who work on policy reforms and implementation activities that are driven by data, research, and a goal of achieving greater equity in the justice system. Christine has over 30 years of experience in the safety and justice sector - in policing, institutional and community-based corrections, victim advocacy, community organizing and prosecution in the US, Africa, Europe, Asia, the Pacific, and the Caribbean. She has extensive experience as a collaborator and facilitator with practitioners, community members, and academics working as a change agent across a variety of topics and levels of government. Christine has contributed research and writing on reports and publications about police management, leadership, and oversight, and the organization of first responders to mass casualty and active shooter events. Her current focus is on police reform that emphasizes community participation; improving accountability, oversight, and transparency; and increasing trust and confidence in the police. Christine holds a MPA from Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government, MA from the University of Massachusetts, Lowell and BA from Boston College. Christine is currently a Fellow with the Program on Crisis Leadership at John F. Kennedy School of Government's Ash Center.
Job Titles:
- Senior Partner of Kaempfer Crowell Renshaw Gronauer & Fiorentino
Christopher L. Kaempfer is a senior partner of Kaempfer Crowell Renshaw Gronauer & Fiorentino and founder of the firm's preeminent land use and governmental relations department. Over the years, Kaempfer's practice has been devoted to the areas of land use and zoning law, administrative law, government affairs, construction law and sports law. Kaempfer has achieved an AV rating by Martindale Hubbell and has been named to Best Lawyers in America, America's Leading Lawyers for Business in Real Estate and Zoning & Land Use Law, Nevada Legal Elite and Mountain States Super Lawyer. Kaempfer coached high school softball at The Meadows for 12 years, winning a state championship. For his efforts, The Meadows' softball field bears his name. Since 1985, he has been actively involved with the Las Vegas Aviators and its predecessors, the Las Vegas 51s and Las Vegas Stars. Kaempfer is also very active in Major League Baseball's Baseball Assistance Team (BAT), an organization whose purpose is to provide financial and medical aid to former members of the baseball family. He is a benefactor member of the Baseball Hall of Fame and is also a proud supporter of UNLV Baseball, MLBPAA, and the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR).
As Director of Education, Claire White is responsible for the creation of educational and interpretive programs and content for The Mob Museum. Claire has more than 15 years of experience in the museum industry, including the Liberace Museum and the Nantucket Historical Association & Whaling Museum in Massachusetts. She has guided the creation of classroom outreach programs for both museums and archives, including The Mob Museum's award-winning program Investigating History. She earned a Masters of Art in public history from the University of South Carolina and a Bachelor's degree in history and secondary education from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Job Titles:
- Director of the Oral History Research Center at UNLV Libraries
Claytee D. White is the inaugural director of the Oral History Research Center at UNLV Libraries. In this position, she collects the history of Las Vegas and the surrounding area by gathering memories of events and experiences from long-time residents that are used by students and by researchers from around the world.
Clint Holmes is a singer-songwriter and Las Vegas entertainer. He was raised by his father, a jazz musician, and mother, an opera singer. Holmes enrolled as a vocal music student at Fredonia State College before joining the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War for a three-year enlistment with the United States Army Chorus. He moved to Las Vegas in 1999 when Steve Wynn offered him a showroom at the Golden Nugget. Holmes has held residencies at Harrah's, Palazzo, The Smith Center, and is now back performing at the Golden Nugget. He has co-written two original shows, "Comfortable Shoes" and "Just Another Man" and recently released a jazz album, Rendezvous. Holmes has been inducted into the Casino Legends Hall of Fame, the Buffalo Music Hall of Fame, and has received the Sammy Davis Jr. Foundation Award. Holmes serves as a spokesman for the American Cancer Society, following his own brief battle with colon cancer. He has been involved locally with several nonprofits, including Candlelighters, ROB Reachout, Shadetree, and St. Jude's. Holmes mentors young people with goals of becoming entertainers through his work with the Las Vegas Academy of Performing Arts and launched the Clint Holmes Foundation for the Performing Arts in 2005.
Job Titles:
- SENIOR DIRECTOR of FOOD and BEVERAGE
With over 14 years in the food and beverage industry, Clint brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the team. Most recently he worked as a Mixologist for Alder and Birch Steakhouse at the Orleans Casino. Prior to that he owned and operated Buddha Belly Deli and served as the Beverage Manager for Wolfgang Puck Fine Dining Group. He earned his Associate's Degree in Culinary Arts from College of Southern Nevada and is a Certified Sommelier.
Job Titles:
- Principal at LGA Architecture
As a principal at LGA Architecture, Galati focuses on forward-thinking, strategic solutions that result in organizational and operational excellence. Galati has received numerous honors throughout his career, including the AIA "Nevada Service Award," the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce "Community Achievement Award for Business" and the American Planning Association "DeBoer Excellence in Planning Award" for his outstanding service on the City of Las Vegas Planning Commission. In addition to his service to the MOB Museum, Galati is also on the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce Government Affairs Committee. Galati authored "Admit it! 21 things you already know but apparently have forgotten regarding client service" in 2005, "A Man in Transition, Reflections on Relationships, Leadership, and Life" in 2007, "Business From the Heart" in 2010 and "The Reluctant Leader" in 2021. He has received fellowship in both the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the Society for Marketing Professional Services (SMPS) and is a past SMPS National President.
As Director of Design, Danica Taboada is responsible for the vision, ideation, development and execution of creative concepts that translate marketing and overall branding strategies into innovative and impressive campaigns for The Mob Museum. Danica has played a pivotal role in the development of brand-consistent marketing and advertising content across various platforms for the Museum since 2015. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Design magna cum laude from the International Academy of Design and Technology in Las Vegas and an Associate Degree in Computer System Design and Programming from AMA College.
Daniel W. Hamilton is the fourth dean of the UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law. He assumed the deanship in July 2013 and joined the Boyd School of Law faculty as the Richard J. Morgan Professor of Law. He joined UNLV from the University of Illinois College of Law where he was the Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Professor of Law and History.Dean Hamilton received his Ph.D. in American legal history in 2003 from Harvard University. He was a Golieb Fellow in Legal History at New York University School of Law during the 2003-04 academic year. He received his J.D. from George Washington University and his B.A. from Oberlin College.
Before coming to UNLV, Dean Hamilton taught property law, legal history, and constitutional law at the University of Illinois College of Law and the Chicago-Kent College of Law. He is the recipient of multiple teaching awards, including Professor of the Year at both institutions.
A California native, Darcel has amassed a diverse career in the field of Criminal Justice spanning back to the early 1980s. Her public service positions include Deputy with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, Youth Correctional Counselor with California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Division of Juvenile Justice (CDCRDJJ), Parole Agent assigned to Los Angeles County Street Gang Unit where she served as a member of an interagency task force consisting of agents and officers representing Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives, Drug Enforcement Agency, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, and Los Angeles Police Department with the focus of reducing gang violence during the turbulent 1980s and 1990s. She has served as a Gubernatorial appointed Commissioner to the State of California Board of Parole Hearings presiding over adult Life Term Inmate parole suitability hearings, associated parole reconsideration and rescission hearings all of which were conducted at prisons statewide, investigated requests for Gubernatorial pardons, reprieves and commutation of sentences.
Darcel recently retired after a 24 year career as an educator and education administrator. During those years she held positions as a Tenured Professor in Correctional Science, Educational Coordinator for the Public Safety Department (2008-2011), Department Chair (2003-2013), faculty and student advisor/mentor for professional development, academic and university matriculation at Chaffey College located in Southern California. She also held a management position at a Regional Occupational Program where she was Director for Cal WORKS, Welfare-to-Work, Workforce Development programs, and a multitude of community collaborative projects such as the Success Project which provided both pre-release and post-release correctional reintegration continuum of care services.
Since retirement, Darcel completed a short term assignment in 2018 with the State of Nevada's Department of Public Safety Parole and Probation Division conducting presentence investigations, and has now begun research for the development of programs, systems and public enlightenment to address special topics of interest such as Coherent Restorative Justice, Deterrence Driven Community Based Prevention Programs, Justice System Reform (4C), Restructure of Sentencing Statutes and Examination of Guidelines.
She holds a Masters in Public Administration from the University of La Verne, and received her Bachelor of Arts in Music Education at California State University Fullerton.
David G. Schwartz directs the Center for Gaming Research at UNLV, a hub for scholarly analysis of gambling and gaming issues. The center is part of University Libraries and boasts the largest repository of English-language materials on gambling and has an unparalleled repository of books, journals, and primary materials for gaming research. The center also maintains casino corporate archives including the Harrah's Entertainment, MGM Resorts, and Boyd Gaming Corporate Archives, gaming-related manuscript collections such as the Sands, New Frontier, and Binion's Horseshoe collections, and a growing number of collections obtained under the Problem Gambling Pioneers initiative, which collects and preserves the papers of the pioneers of the problem gambling treatment and advocacy movement.
In addition to his work at UNLV, David Schwartz is an active consultant. As vice president of research and analytics for Santo Gaming he assists the Las Vegas-based gaming management and consulting firm with a range of projects.
Schwartz is the author of three books about gambling, including Roll the Bones: The History of Gambling, Suburban Xanadu: The Casino Resort on the Las Vegas Strip and Beyond, and Cutting the Wire: Gaming Prohibition and the Internet. He currently writes the biweekly Green Felt Journal column for Vegas Seven magazine and was named gaming and hospitality editor of Vegas Seven.
David Uslan began his career as an intern with D.C. Comics, Walter Cronkite's production company, and Wild Brain Animation Studios. After graduating from Indiana University, Mr. Uslan joined International Creative Management (ICM), one of the leading international talent agencies. Armed with a passion for comic books, history, and creative development, Mr. Uslan went to work for his mentor and father, Michael Uslan, originator and Executive Producer of the Batman movie franchise. Alongside his father, David assisted in developing films including the upcoming Lou Gehrig biopic being produced alongside the Steinbrenner family and the New York Yankees organization. Uslan's producing credits include Valentine's Day Massacre (National Geographic) and the AMC Mob Week documentary series.
Dean Hamilton is past-president of the legal history section of the American Association of Law Schools and serves on the Board of the American Society for Legal History. His research presentations include talks at the law schools at New York University, Northwestern, Stanford, the University of Texas, and Harvard University as well as multiple presentations at the American Society for Legal History.
After serving as Assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor, Judge Donna Congeni Fitzsimmons was the first woman appointed as Special Attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice, Organized Crime Strike Force in Cleveland - work which later led to an appointment as Deputy Counsel to President Reagan's Commission on Organized Crime in Washington, D.C. She then entered private practice before taking the bench and now serves on the Rocky River Municipal Court.
Job Titles:
- Treasurer
- Certified Public Accountant in Nevada
Edward A. Koijane is a licensed certified public accountant in Nevada, California and Oregon, a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and a member of those state's Societies of CPAs. He holds a bachelor's degree in accounting from Pepperdine University. Koijane has spent almost three decades in public accounting providing tax and accounting services to large, multi-national businesses. For over 10 years now Koijane has been the Las Vegas office tax managing partner at Ernst and Young.
Job Titles:
- Counsel to Greenberg Traurig
Ted Quirk has remained Of Counsel to Greenberg Traurig following its acquisition of his firm, Quirk & Tratos. Ted specialized in Intellectual Property law, and has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America for 31 years. He has also been a principal in companies that have developed and built residential and commercial properties in Las Vegas, including Spanish Trail. Ted has been active in many non-profit organizations. He chaired the Boys and Girls Clubs of Las Vegas Board and created its Foundation. He was Chair of the UNLV Foundation during its capital campaign, and was a founder of the UNLV Research Foundation which he chaired for many years. Ted has received numerous civic honors, including an Honorary Doctorate degree and President's Medal from UNLV, and the Distinguished Nevadan award from the NSHE Board of Regents.
Ellen B. Knowlton served as a Special Agent of the FBI for 24 years, culminating her career as the Special Agent in Charge, Las Vegas Division, and retiring in 2006. She also served in New Orleans and Washington D.C., where she was responsible for hundreds of employees as well as investigative and administrative operations. She was involved in addressing sensitive personnel issues and crises situations following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. While serving as Assistant Special Agent in Charge, Washington Field Office, she was responsible for counterintelligence investigations and operations and led delegations to the Middle East and Europe pertaining to terrorism and counterintelligence investigations. Knowlton also served as Special Agent in Charge of the Washington Field Office and as Deputy Assistant Director/Acting Assistant Director of the National Security Division. She was also the founding chair of The Mob Museum's Board of Directors.
Erin Keller has spent 20+ years raising funds for worthy causes. Focusing her time in higher education, Erin became Vice President of Advancement at Nevada State College in July, 2022. Her role includes leading the Advancement office, which includes private fundraising, alumni relations, marketing, communications, events, public and community relations, and the Nevada State College Foundation Board.
She was promoted to her current position from the role of Associate Vice President, where she led the development and alumni teams to record breaking fundraising years as well as creating the first ever network board for alumni of the college. Prior to this position, she worked for the University of Nevada, Las Vegas for 9 years; 6 as Director of Development for the Lee Business School. She worked for the College of Liberal Arts at UNLV and the UNLV Foundation's Annual Fund as well.
When she's not leading her dynamic team at Nevada State, you can find Erin listening to live music, going on adventures with her sons, or running.
Eunice Hunton Carter was the first African-American woman to work as a prosecutor in the New York County (Manhattan) District Attorney's Office. As a key assistant to special prosecutor Thomas Dewey, she is credited with establishing key facts in the prosecution of mobster Charlie "Lucky" Luciano.
Carter might seem an unlikely hero to bring down the "chairman of the board" of the Five Families of New York, but everyone knew she was smart. She graduated cum laude from Smith College in 1921 with both undergraduate and graduate degrees, then earned her law degree from Fordham Law School in 1932 - the first black woman to graduate from that school.
She was a social worker in New York City before Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia appointed her as a prosecutor in what was then called "women's court" - that is, a court for the prosecution of women, especially prostitutes.
What Carter saw there was interesting: It appeared that women arrested for prostitution from all over New York City were represented by the same lawyers and bail bondsmen. And those agents had a relationship with Charlie "Lucky" Luciano. Bringing that information to Dewey, Carter meticulously built a case that led to raids of brothels in the city and, finally, the successful prosecution of Luciano, at the time the most powerful racketeer in the country.
Carter and Dewey established that prostitutes were required to kick back half of their earnings to crime bosses in exchange for legal representation - in effect, Luciano was profiting from prostitution. Luciano was sentenced to 30 to 50 years in 1936. (Luciano was released from prison and deported to Italy 11 years later in exchange for his help in preventing problems on the New York City docks during World War II.)
Carter continued working with Dewey and the District Attorney's Office until 1945, when she entered private practice. She was active with the United Nations, the National Council of Negro Women and the YWCA until her death in 1970.
Luciano turned over leadership of the national Commission to Frank Costello.
Frank Panessa was a Drug Enforcement Administration agent for 28 years. He had numerous undercover roles in the United States, Europe, Asia, and Central America. He infiltrated the Sicilian Mafia in the infamous "Pizza Connection" case that resulted in the conviction of high-level Sicilian wholesale distributor of heroin. He retired from the DEA in 1995 as the Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Philadelphia Division where he was responsible for the day to day activity of 300 law enforcement personnel. He also served in the U.S. Embassy in Rome as the government's chief liaison to Italian police agencies on narcotics and organized crime. He is the recipient of numerous awards including the Award of Honor from the International Narcotic Officers Association. He testified before the President's Commission on Organized Crime as an expert witness on the Mafia. He is Trustee Emeritus of the Sons and Daughters of Italy in America having served for the past 20 years in various positions including National Treasurer and National Financial Officer. He lives in Annapolis, Maryland.
Frank Sinatra was a close friend of the Mob, performing for them in places like the Copa Room, but he was never an official member of La Cosa Nostra.
Job Titles:
- VICE PRESIDENT of EXHIBITS & PROGRAMS
As the vice president of exhibits and programs, Geoff Schumacher is responsible for the Museum's artifacts, exhibits, public programs and digital historical content. He is the author of two books, Sun, Sin & Suburbia: A History of Modern Las Vegas and Howard Hughes: Power, Paranoia & Palace Intrigue. He earned his bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Nevada, Reno, and his master's degree in American history from Arizona State University. He started his 25-year journalism career at the Las Vegas Sun. He served as director of community publications for the Las Vegas Review-Journal and also wrote a public affairs column for the Review-Journal. He has been interviewed as a subject matter expert for newspapers, magazines, documentaries, television shows and podcasts, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, History Channel, Travel Channel, Reelz Channel, PBS and HLN.
Giovanni Rocco was the FBI undercover at the epicenter of several federal undercover operations. His most recent assignment in Operation Charlie Horse ultimately brought down several high-ranking members and associated of the infamous NJ DeCavalcante Mafia family, the organization known as "The Real Sopranos".
Giovanni's successes have been covered in dozens of newspapers, television and social media channels/platforms throughout the world and is now told in his critically acclaimed book "Giovanni's Ring: My Life Inside The Real Sopranos".
Giovanni's Ring is not just simply a chronicle of Giovanni's heart stopping adventures in the murky and dangerous criminal underworld he inhabited, but also a fascinating window into the phycological and physiological struggles that such a life inevitably entails.
The culmination of Operation Charlie Horse and many other operations resulted in successful criminal prosecutions, but ultimately resulted in Giovanni's sudden and unplanned retirement from law enforcement as well as the government having to relocate him and his family to an undisclosed location for fears of criminal retaliation.
Giovanni has decades of experience as a case investigator building cases against some of the most violent offenders. Some of those cases include homicides, violent street gangs, international narcotics cartels, and human trafficking organizations.
Job Titles:
- Retired Law Enforcement Executive
Greg McCurdy is a retired Law Enforcement Executive, whose career spanned over 30 years with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. He spent his last nine years as a Senior Executive, serving as the Assistant Sheriff responsible for Homeland Security and Law Enforcement Investigations, as well Deputy Chief assignments leading both the Homeland Security Division, Special Operations Division, and Chief of Detectives. Upon retirement, he was selected to be the Vice President of Corporate Security for sbe Entertainment. A part of his responsibilities included being on the opening team for the SLS Las Vegas Hotel and Casino, where he built and led the Security and Surveillance Teams. He is a graduate of the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, FBI National Academy Class 197, Harvard's Kennedy School's Senior Executives in State and Local Government Executive Education Certificate Program and Harvard's National Preparedness Leadership Program. He is a Lifetime Member of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, The International Association of Chiefs of Police, The Police Executive Research Forum and a member of ASIS International, the largest Professional Security Organization.
Gus Russo is a veteran investigative reporter, documentary producer, screenwriter and author. His books have included The Outfit: The Role of Chicago's Underworld in the Shaping of Modern America, Supermob: How Sidney Korshak and his Criminal Associates Became America's Hidden Power Brokers, Gangsters and Goodfellas," Boomer Days, and Live by the Sword: The Secret War Against Castro and the Death of JFK. Mr. Russo is also a musician, having played with The Byrds, Poco and Phoebe Snow, as well as an actor.
His first book, Live By the Sword: The Secret War Against Castro and the Death of JFK (Bancroft, 1998), was praised by the New York Times as "compelling, exhaustively researched and even handed." Kirkus Reviews called Sword, "Probably the last book on the Kennedy assassination you will need to read." The book was a Book of the Month Club and History Book Club Featured Alternate. Sword was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 1999, and has been scripted for a mini-series by Showtime Networks.
Russo next authored The Outfit: The Role of Chicago's Underworld in the Shaping of Modern America. The Outfit was also nominated for the Pulitzer and was optioned before publication by USA Networks. Gangsters and GoodFellas, published in 2004, was a collaboration with former gangster Henry Hill, a sequel to his 1985 biography Wiseguy, which was the basis for the hit 1990 movie GoodFellas, starring Robert De Niro.
Russo followed with Supermob: How Sidney Korshak and His Criminal Associates Became America's Hidden Power Brokers. Supermob film rights were sold before publication to CBS Paramount, and is being developed as a television series.
Hans Hauser did not remain in the country for long. Hans overstayed his visa and had to leave. He flew to Chile to teach skiing and brought Peter with him. The IRS was pursuing Mrs. Hauser with vigor. That July, the agency served a $161,000 lien on her for back taxes from 1942 to 1947. In a stopover at the Denver airport, Hill was nearly arrested. She snapped at reporters, "I'd shoot you if I had a gun." In August, while the Hausers were in Europe, the IRS auctioned off 800 of Hill's possessions in Spokane - including two cars, five expensive furs worth $23,000, a ruby and diamond ring from Siegel for their intended wedding in 1947, china and crystal sets, her $30,000 home - from which the IRS netted a mere $41,000.
Now that Hill was in Austria, near Switzerland, some in the States speculated that she had deposited as much as $5 million in Swiss banks for the underworld. U.S. and Interpol agents monitored Hill's movements. She made 65 border crossings in Europe from 1952 to 1956. She traveled with Epstein in Italy for several days in 1953. The Hausers moved to Klosters, Switzerland, and kept an apartment in Zurich. A grand jury in Los Angeles indicted Hill in 1954 on four counts of tax evasion. The ever-loyal Epstein sent about $3,000 a month to his patron through the mail and delivered money to her personally in Switzerland. In 1957, she dined with old boyfriend Joe Adonis in Rome and later inquired about returning to the United States. But she faced a $227,000 tax evasion suit in Los Angeles and heard she faced at least a year in prison if convicted.
Hill and her family moved to Austria. By the mid-1960s, she wearily related to people about her wish to commit suicide. In 1965, her husband found her unconscious and took her to a hospital for yet another overdose of sedatives - her seventh - to be pumped from her stomach. She flew to Cuba but officials knew who she was and denied her entry. In 1966, now out of money, even Epstein ignored her pleas for funds. She is said to have spoken by phone to Adonis, then living in Naples, Italy, on March 20. She left her home on March 22. Her body was found two days later. Some maintained that Adonis had his soldiers force feed her drugs to kill her after she tried to extort money from him. Epstein publically admitted he had sent her $100,000 from 1952 to 1965 from her investments, backed by money provided by mobsters, and that her assets had finally run out.
Hans Hauser died from in an apparent suicide in Austria in 1974. Peter Hauser, a decorated U.S. Army veteran of the Vietnam War, died in a car accident in Toulouse, France, in 1994. All three family members are buried together in a cemetery in Salzburg, Austria.
Thomas Dewey was one of the great leaders in the 20th century's epic battle between American law enforcement and the Mob. Dewey first grabbed headlines as a special prosecutor for the Justice Department going after bootleggers and racketeers in New York City. In the early 1930s, Dewey won successful prosecutions against big-name bootleggers such as Waxey Gordon.
In 1935, Dewey was appointed by the New York governor as a special prosecutor for the County of New York - that is, Manhattan - where Dewey wouldn't have the income tax statutes to work with, but he could enforce state laws against gambling and prostitution. The appointment was specifically in response to concerns from the community that racketeers and gangsters were not being effectively or aggressively pursued by the city's existing law enforcement.
One of Dewey's first targets was Dutch Schultz, who was known for his illegal gambling and prostitution rings. Schultz didn't like Dewey, and found that his investigations made it hard for him to make money. Schultz asked the leader of the nation's organized crime Commission, Charles "Lucky" Luciano, to approve a hit on Dewey, but Luciano said no. Killing a public official would be bad for business.
When Schultz decided to buck Luciano and go through with the hit, Luciano orchestrated the death of Schultz, effectively saving Dewey's life. With Schultz out of the way, Dewey was free to focus on other crime lords in New York City. He focused first on Louis Lepke, head of the so-called Murder Incorporated assassination-for-hire enterprise, who served as Luciano's enforcer. Dewey put Lepke away for murder, and Lepke eventually went to the electric chair.
Then Dewey, along with his assistant, a young African-American woman lawyer named Eunice Carter, built his case against Luciano through evidence that prostitutes from all over New York were represented by the same lawyers and bail bondsmen who worked for Luciano. With Carter's help, Dewey sent Luciano "up the river" to Sing Sing prison for 30 to 50 years.
Between 1935 and 1937, Dewey won 72 convictions out of 73 prosecutions. His success against New York's biggest mobsters gave him a huge political platform. He was elected district attorney for New York in 1937; he immediately launched an effort to win the governor's seat in New York in 1938, but lost. He was successful in his second try, winning the governorship in 1942 and two more terms, serving until 1955.
As governor, he had one more bit of business with his old nemesis Lucky Luciano. During World War II, Luciano struck a deal with federal officials to protect the New York docks from German saboteurs in return for clemency. After the war, Dewey reluctantly agreed to free Luciano from prison if the gangster left the country - which he did, returning to his native Italy.
Dewey ran for president twice, and was widely expected to beat President Harry S. Truman in 1948. One Chicago Tribune headline famously and erroneously proclaimed, "Dewey Beats Truman." But it did not happen.
Years later, in 1968, President Richard Nixon offered Dewey a spot on the U.S. Supreme Court, but Dewey declined it, citing his age. Dewey never reached the presidency, but he will always be celebrated as an honest and effective "gangbuster."
Heather Harmon works with artists, galleries and museums on strategy, capital campaigns, long-term planning and problem solving. In addition to her support of gallerist Ales Ortuzar and Ortuzar Projects, she works with clients in sourcing artworks for commercial and residential purposes. Recently she served as Director of the Nevada Museum of Art, Las Vegas helping lead the effort to establish an art museum in Southern Nevada. Previously she worked as director of Regen Projects, Los Angeles before joining the firm KCM Fine Arts to build and manage Art Projects Ibiza and execute large-scale projects for the Lune Rouge Foundation. She also served as Director of Development for Artists Space in New York, heading the fundraising effort for the non-profit's strategic planning and building campaign. Since 2008, Harmon has been building a museological private collection representing the most powerful female, social and political voices throughout the 21c. She serves on the board of the Black Mountain Institute and is a member of Nevada Women's Philanthropy. With over 20+ years of experience in the field of contemporary art, her encyclopedic knowledge and passion drive every endeavor.
Job Titles:
- Member of the BOARD of DIRECTORS -
A native Nevadan, former U.S. Senator Richard Bryan began his legal career in 1964 as a Deputy District Attorney in Clark County. In 1966, he was named Clark County's first Public Defender. He served in the Nevada State Assembly from 1968-72 and in the State Senate from 1972-78. The Former prosecutor won his first statewide election as Nevada's Attorney general where he played a major role in successfully defending Nevada's gaming regulatory structure in federal courts. In 1982, he was elected to the first of two terms as governor. In 1988 he was elected to the first of two terms in the U. S. Senate. He is a director of the Fennemore Craig law firm and his practice focuses on government relations at the federal, state and local levels, particularly in the area of public land use issues. He serves on many area boards including the National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement (the Mob Museum), Centennial Commission, Chairman of Preserve Nevada, Great Basin National Park and is a director emeritus of The Vegas Chamber, formerly The Las Vegas Metro Chamber of Commerce.
Job Titles:
- CEO of Point Blank Entertainment Ltd
Howard Blank has been a member of the entertainment and gaming industry for over 30 years. Howard sits on a number of NPO and public Boards and is proud to give of his time talent and treasure to a number of philanthropic organizations.
Howard serves as ambassador for the Cerebral Palsy Association of BC, past president of Variety BC, and current Board member of Variety International and Vancouver Police Odd Squad Production Society. Howard is a passionate fundraiser and has raised over $950,000,000 for organizations across Canada and the United States.
Howard is CEO of Point Blank Entertainment Ltd.; a company that produces films, concerts, and special fundraising events. Howard also serves as technical director on many feature films and is an avid collector of movie memorabilia. Howard is proud to have his two figurative slot machines on display in the 2nd floor "Open City" exhibit.
Howard is recipient of the Governor General's Volunteer Medal, The BC Community Achievement Medal, and HRH Queen Elizabeth's Jubilee medal as well as other distinctions from Variety the Children's Charity, Rotary International, The Canadian Gaming Hall of Fame, and NW 911 Committee.
Howard is proud to serve on the Mob Museum Advisory Council and is a passionate advocate for the Museum, its programs, events, and contributions to the local communities, nationally, and internationally.
Ioan Grillo is a journalist and writer based in Mexico City. A native of Brighton, England, he has been covering Latin America, with an emphasis on drug cartels, since 2001. His work has appeared in Time Magazine, The New York Times, The Sunday Telegraph, The Guardian, and The Associated Press, along with being featured on CNN. He is the author of Gangster Warlords: Drug Dollars, Killing Fields and the New Politics of Latin America and El Narco: Inside Mexico's Criminal Insurgency. In addition to reporting on drug-trafficking empires, he has covered a number of other issues crucial to Latin America and the Caribbean, including natural disasters, political conflicts, and emigration.
Audry "JB" Batiste is a retired Air Force officer and served his country honorably over a 20-year military career. And through his selfless endeavors, he continues to serve and volunteer with several organizations throughout Las Vegas, and he is a role model and mentor to young children in underserved areas. Today, JB is an entrepreneur with over 15 year's experience in financial and tax services, and now works with affluent clients as a Certified Financial Planner professional with Redrock Wealth Management.
Job Titles:
- SENIOR DIRECTOR of DIGITAL MARKETING
Jackie Apoyan is responsible for The Mob Museum's digital marketing presence, which includes social media, digital advertising, website management and content development. Prior to joining the Museum, Jackie managed digital marketing and sales for Greenspun Media Group's various publications in Southern Nevada. She previously worked with several cultural nonprofit organizations in Los Angeles, CA, including the LA County Museum of Art and the Colburn School. Jackie has a Master of Arts in Arts Management from Claremont Graduate University and a Bachelor of Art in Art History from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Job Titles:
- Director of the Department of Corrections
James Dzurenda began as Director of the Department of Corrections in April 2016, after a distinguished career which began in 1987 as an officer in a local jail in Connecticut. As he rose through the ranks, Mr. Dzurenda developed expertise at every level of corrections, broadening his experience by collaborating with local, state and federal agencies and serving as Liaison for the Office of the Attorney General working on litigation for cases in state and federal courts. After promoting to Warden, he consolidated the state's chronic mentally ill population to one facility, developing programs which were later used as a national model. After his appointment to Commissioner, he managed all custody and operations for 18 facilities and a $350 million dollar budget, while serving on multiple state commissions. Mr. Dzurenda retired from state service in August 2014, and accepted a new role as First Deputy Commissioner for the New York City Department of Correction overseeing the city jails in each of the Five Burroughs, District Courts and Rikers Island. Director Dzurenda brings to the Silver State exceptional experience, invaluable perspective and has pledged his commitment to the continued success of the Nevada Department of Corrections.
Jim Germain is a tourism consultant who was born in Las Vegas and is a member of a pioneer Las Vegas family. Germain joined USA Hosts, Ltd., Las Vegas, in 1982 and served as Director of Sales, Vice President of Sales, Executive Vice President and was CEO for eleven years. As Senior Corporate Officer, he supervised 13 offices in eight states (three offices in Nevada). Prior employment included working in sales for the Flamingo Hilton Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas Hilton Hotel and Casino, and as Director of Sales for the Sahara Hotel and Casino. Germain also was a Hospitality Management Instructor at UNLV, Las Vegas. He serves on several professional and tourism-based boards.
Job Titles:
- Chief of Enforcement for the Nevada Gaming Control Board
James Taylor is the Chief of Enforcement for the Nevada Gaming Control Board. He has worked for the GCB for over 27 years and supervised the board's organized crime squad for more than fifteen years where he was responsible for criminal, financial and intelligence investigations of organized crime activity and major casino cheating groups. During his career with the GCB, Mr. Taylor has worked on numerous local and federal investigations and task forces involving sophisticated cheating devices, bookmaking, drug trafficking, credit card fraud, money laundering, terrorism and major criminal organizations.
Jan Jones Blackhurst is a long-time political and business leader who has left an indelible imprint on the lives of millions of people. In 1991, she broke the glass ceiling as Las Vegas' first female mayor. Under her leadership the city experienced tremendous growth, making her one of Las Vegas' most popular mayors to date. She then joined Caesars Entertainment, where she grew the industry's first Responsible Gaming practices to include an ambassador model for the gaming industry and the first industry code of commitment and now serves on its Board of Directors. She is also known and respected for her efforts to create a diverse and inclusive workplace, advancing environmental stewardship, advocating for important social issues and giving millions of dollars to individuals, families, and communities in need.
Through her guidance, Caesars Entertainment earned a 100 percent perfect score in the Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index for 10 consecutive years. She channeled her passion for charitable causes through her role as Chair of the Caesars Foundation, which strengthens communities through philanthropic activities and corporate gifts totaling $66 million since 2013. She participates extensively in university speaking engagements and lecture series throughout the country and has also helped establish the International Gaming Institution Center of Excellence at the University of Nevada - Las Vegas.
Before joining Caesars in 1999, Jan Jones Blackhurst served two terms as Mayor of Las Vegas. She was re-elected in 1995 by a 72 percent margin. While in office, she presided over an unprecedented period of economic, social and cultural expansion. She spearheaded a massive redevelopment effort in the city's once-neglected downtown neighborhood and was among the first mayors in the country to advocate for LGBT rights and issues as early as 1991.
She serves on the Board of Directors for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Global Fairness Initiative. Additionally, she serves on several boards as chairwoman including the Nevada Resort Association, Las Vegas Stadium Authority, and is also a member of the Women's Leadership Board at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. She has received many recognitions and accolades including the Americanism Award from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the Woman of Diversity Award for "100 Years of Influence - Women Shaping the First 100 Years of Las Vegas," Outstanding Service in a Land-based Industry from Totally Gaming, PR News CSR Professional of the Year and was named by the Las Vegas Business Press as one of its "Women Who Mean Business." She has been honored by the American Diabetes Association and the "I Have a Dream" Foundation, and named Humanitarian of the Year in 1998 by the Muscular Dystrophy Association. In 2014, she was one of the first women to be inducted into the American Gaming Association (AGA) Gaming Hall of Fame. More recently, she has earned the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Latin Chamber of Commerce, the Dom Pérignon Award of Excellence from UNLVino, the Diversity Hero Award from PR Week and was honored by ACLU for Community Equality.
Jan Jones Blackhurst holds a bachelor's degree in English from Stanford University and attended the University of Southern California's School of Food Marketing Management.
Job Titles:
- Principal, Veterans Tribute Career & Technical Academy
Jason Ginoza, Principal, Veterans Tribute Career & Technical Academy (VTCTA), has served the students of the Clark County School District since 1998 as a teacher, counselor, partnership coordinator and administrator. Mr. Ginoza has been with VTCTA since 2009 and has worked tirelessly to develop positive working relationships with local, state, and federal public service agencies. Mr. Ginoza is a proud graduate of the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce's Leadership Las Vegas Class of 2015.
Mr. Silver began his career as a Certified Public Accountant, but following law school he worked as a prosecutor with the Clark County District Attorney. He became a Chief Deputy in charge of the Consumer Fraud and White Collar Crimes Division. Thereafter, Mr. Silver was appointed as the resident Board Member supervising the Las Vegas office of the Nevada Gaming Control Board during the State's tumultuous period of cleansing the gaming industry of its organized crime influence. Following State service, he held top leadership positions at various resort hotels including the Landmark Hotel & Casino, Riviera Hotel & Casino and Caesars Palace. Mr. Silver has published journal articles, spoken at conferences, testified before the Nevada Legislature and U.S. Congressional sub-committees and qualified as an expert witness on gaming law matters, in state and federal courts. He is consistently honored as one of Nevada's pre-eminent gaming law practitioners by Best Lawyers in America, Chambers USA, and Mountain States Super-Lawyers. A long-time Nevadan, he is involved in community and business affairs. Mr. Silver is a former Chairman of the Las Vegas Metro Chamber of Commerce, former Secretary-Treasurer of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority and a former President of the International Association of Gaming Advisors. He is a founding member of the Las Vegas FBI Citizen's Academy Alumni Association and is currently the Board Chair of The Mob Museum. Mr. Silver practiced gaming and administrative law as Of Counsel with Dickinson Wright, PLLC (Retd). Mr. Silver was a 2020 inductee to the American Gaming Association's "Gaming Hall of Fame".
Job Titles:
- Founder, President and CEO of Engaged Nation
Jerry Epstein is founder, president and CEO of Engaged Nation, an innovative company that delivers online loyalty reward platforms and business enhancement programs for the gaming industry. Prior to founding Engaged Nation, Epstein spent 25 years working with companies in strategic positioning, brand development and marketing communications as one of the leading authorities in the public relations industry. He served as president and chief operating officer for Zeno, a boutique agency that specialized in research-driven marketing communications campaigns for its clients. Epstein also spent 17 years with Fleishman-Hillard International, Inc., serving as regional president and a member of the operating committee.
Joaquin "Jack" Garcia is considered by his peers and leading FBI experts to be among the most successful undercover agents in the history of the FBI. In his 26 years of service and as an undercover agent in over 100 undercover operations, Mr. Garcia is best known for his undercover role as "Jack Falcone," a self-described Sicilian jewel thief and drug dealer from Miami who infiltrated the Gambino crime family. The case resulted in the arrest and conviction of 35 mobsters, including the top members of the Post-John Gotti Gambino crime family.
Job Titles:
- Professor and Chair of the Criminal Justice Department at the University of Nevada
Joel D. Lieberman is a Professor and Chair of the Criminal Justice Department at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He received his Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Arizona. His work involves the application of social psychological theories to criminal justice issues. More specifically, his research focuses on jury decision-making, inter-group conflict, and public reactions to surveillance technology, including police use of aerial drones. He is a founding member of the Forensic Crime Scene Investigation Consortium, which is group working to develop national training standards and techniques for the analysis of crime scene evidence, and the presentation of that evidence in court. Dr. Lieberman has experience in professional consultation, has authored numerous publications, and is a member of the editorial board for leading journals in his field.
Job Titles:
- Founding Board Member of the Museum
A founding board member of the Museum, John Hammes Mowbray is a 2nd generation Nevada lawyer, who has been practicing law in Southern Nevada for the past 40 years. Active in community and cultural affairs for decades, Mowbray is the lead partner for Spencer Fane's Las Vegas office. Mowbray is a current member and past president of the State Bar of Nevada and has served in leadership positions on the boards of the Clark County Bar Association, the Boy Scouts of America, the Clark County Law Foundation, Nevada Law Foundation among others and is a current member of the Centennial Commission for the City of Las Vegas. He has received Martindale-Hubbell AV Rating and has been named to Mountain States Super Lawyers and Best Lawyers in America. He received the Lloyd D. George Professionalism Award, State Bar of Nevada, 2009.
Jonathan Ullman is President & CEO of The Mob Museum, the National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement. The Mob Museum is a 501(c)3 nonprofit located in downtown Las Vegas, with a mission of advancing the public understanding of organized crime's history and impact on society. Reporting to a 22-member Board of Directors, Jonathan is responsible for leading the organization that has been named both a "Top Workplace" and "Best Museum" by the Las Vegas Review Journal and ranked #20 on TripAdvisor's list of top museums in the United States.
Jonathan has spent over 20 years in a variety of management and leadership roles within the nonprofit industry. Jonathan's museum career began at Liberty Science Center, New Jersey's most visited museum, where he was intimately involved in the strategic planning and operationalizing of the facility following a $109 million capital expansion. Over the years, Jonathan served in numerous capacities with responsibilities including intensive staff management, program oversight, and external relations. Immediately prior to joining The Mob Museum, Jonathan was the president and COO at the National Soccer Hall of Fame, where he led the dramatic transformation of the organization's operating model.
Jonathan earned his Bachelor's Degree from Rutgers College and his Masters of Business Administration from Rutgers Business School. A believer in the importance of community, Jonathan has volunteered on a number of nonprofit boards and community-driven initiatives. He is a graduating member of the LV Metro Police Department Citizens' Academy and the FBI Citizens Academy, and served as immediate past President of the FBI Las Vegas Citizens' Academy Alumni Association. Jonathan has served two terms on the Downtown Vegas Alliance's Executive Committee as Chairman and has helped lead the organization's growth to help it become one of the most vital resources to businesses in the downtown community. Additionally, Jonathan is a graduate of the Las Vegas Metro Chamber of Commerce's Leadership Las Vegas program and a past Curriculum Chair. Jonathan resides in Las Vegas with his wife and three children.
Kara J. Kelley has proven expertise in organizational leadership, business and political strategy, and marketing. She has achieved results through a collaborative approach and is a passionate advocate for business and free enterprise. As president of The Kelley Company, she advises companies and individuals on branding, business strategy and organizational development. TKC also offers consulting and training in the following areas: leadership; culture change; non-profit management and governing boards; executive coaching; government & community relations; and retreat facilitation.
Ms. Kelley served as executive director for the Nevada Sesquicentennial Commission, overseeing the State of Nevada's 150th anniversary of statehood, raising more than $1.5 million in non-tax contributions. Nevadans enjoyed more than 500 events, contributed to dozens of legacy projects and established an official world record for "most people singing their state song at once."
Ms. Kelley is a former, and the first female, CEO of the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce (LVCC), Nevada's most influential business association and the recognized industry leader. Under her leadership LVCC became the third largest metropolitan chamber in the nation, with a membership of more than 7,000. She achieved revenue growth of more than 40% and her successful marketing and sales effort led to member growth of more than 30%. Her initiatives earned the Chamber acclaim including "Best Places to Work in Nevada" (In Business), "Most Respected CEO" (Nevada Business Journal), and top industry honors for website and other programming.
Ms. Kelley is a noted public speaker and has authored numerous opinion columns, hosted a business radio show and conducted hundreds of media interviews internationally, nationally and locally, including interviews for The Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Travel Channel.
She holds various community leadership positions including serving as a gubernatorial appointee on the Colorado River Commission and the boards for Three Square food bank and University of Nevada, Las Vegas' College of Liberal Arts Advisory Committee.
Ms. Kelley received her Bachelor's and Master's degrees in political science from the UNLV.
Included in her awards and recognitions: "Top 100 Most Influential Women in Las Vegas History" (Las Vegas Centennial Committee), "Most Influential Businesswoman of the Year" (In Business), "Executive of the Year" (Western Association of Chamber Executives), and "UNLV Alumnus of the Year" (College of Liberal Arts).
Ms. Kelley and her husband Paul Larsen live in Las Vegas with their two rescue beagles.
Job Titles:
- Director of Laboratory Services for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department
Kimberly Murga is currently the Director of Laboratory Services for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. She oversees all forensic-related operations of the full-service laboratory to include Firearms, Toxicology, Latent Prints, Biology/DNA, Trace Materials, Seized Drugs and Quality Management. Ms. Murga has been in the field of forensic science since 1996 and was formerly employed by the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory. She is a member of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences and the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Biology from Chaminade University, a Bachelor's degree in Criminal Justice from Chaminade University, and a Master of Forensic Science degree from The George Washington University.
Job Titles:
- Member of the BOARD of DIRECTORS -
- Leadership Member of Both United Way of Southern Nevada 's Women United
Krista J. Darnold is passionate about the arts & culture, education and the wellbeing of others. As a community-wide ambassador, she has established strong roots representing numerous organizations tied to her passions.
In addition to the Mob Museum's board, Krista also serves on the Vegas Chamber's Leadership Las Vegas Council and The Smith Center for the Performing Arts President's Advisory Council.
Krista has been a longstanding leadership member of both United Way of Southern Nevada's Women United and the Junior League of Las Vegas. She is also a graduate of Leadership Las Vegas, Class of 2005 where she met her husband, Rick, a gaming executive and native Las Vegan. Shortly after they wed, they both graduated from the LVMPD Citizen's Police Academy.
Prior to arriving in Las Vegas, she held sales and marketing positions with companies such as ESPN, AT&T and One America. Krista moved to Las Vegas in 2002 to join an international design firm as director of business development. She has served as the director of corporate partnerships at The Smith Center for the Performing Arts and vice president of member engagement and partnerships with the Vegas Chamber. She also led fundraising and community outreach efforts surrounding the 2016 Final Presidential Debate in collaboration with the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Most recently, she held the position of industry relations senior director for the LVCVA having represented the organization as the liaison to external industry organizations. Additionally, she led collaborations between internal divisions and external business partners to support the goals of the LVCVA.
Krista has been recognized by community leaders as a champion for others, for her passion and enthusiasm in meaningful work with purposeful connections. She now spends a good part of her time with the helpers and healers of the Las Vegas community. She leads the Jameson Fellowship program in partnership with the Moonridge Group and founder, Gard Jameson.
Raised in Wichita, Kansas, Krista holds a degree from the University of Kansas.
Kristen Punzalan is responsible for the development and management of retail strategies for The Mob Museum. From fashion merchandising and product development, to brand licensing and e-commerce, Kristen has over 17 years of progressive experience in the retail industry. Prior to joining the Museum, Kristen worked on e-commerce product management for Nike MLB and NFL fanwear and jerseys at Fanatics Incorporated. Kristen earned a degree in Bachelor of Arts in Marketing from The American Public University and Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from The University of the Philippines.
Job Titles:
- Senior Director of Convention Sales for the Las Vegas Convention
Laurae Clifford is the Senior Director of Convention Sales for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, where she oversees business development for the meetings and conventions industry in Las Vegas. As a native Las Vegan, she is driven by a passion for the city and has worked in hospitality for over 20 years. In addition to marketing business travel to Las Vegas, her passions include giving back to the community that her family calls home. Laurae is a Leadership Las Vegas class of 2018 graduate, serves Brothers Big Sisters of Southern Nevada, and has been a Big Sister for 7 years.
Lieutenant Jeff Clark is a 3rd generation Las Vegas native who has been with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department for over 15 years. Clark currently serves as the Lieutenant of LVMPD's K-9 Section, the country's oldest and longest running K-9 unit. Prior to that, he was the sergeant in the Office of Public Information, where he served a pivotal role in pushing out information during high-profile incidents.
Job Titles:
- VICE PRESIDENT of FINANCE & BUSINESS ANALYTICS
Lisa Belair is responsible for the strategic oversight of all finance and accounting functions for the Museum. Lisa earned her BS degrees in both Accountancy and Business Administration & Finance from Cal State University Northridge. She began her career working for a local accounting firm in California and since then has held positions at PwC, Las Vegas and American Gaming System. Prior to joining The Mob Museum, she was Senior Manager of General Accounting at Global Experience Specialists, a publicly traded company. Lisa holds a CPA and brings a wealth of senior-level, financial auditing experience to the team.
As Chief Executive Officer of the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada (RTC), M.J. Maynard leads the only agency nationwide that is responsible for a region's public transit system, traffic management, roadway and construction funding, and transportation and overall planning efforts - all under one roof.
M.J. joined the RTC in February 2007 and served as Assistant General Manager of Administrative Services and later as Deputy Chief Executive Officer prior to leading the agency. During her 14-year history with agency, she has launched several groundbreaking initiatives including on-demand mobility options; the rideRTC smartphone app; and a massive transit safety expansion project encompassing the replacement of more than 3,000 bus shelters and amenities.
M.J. worked in Las Vegas' hospitality industry for more than 25 years prior to joining the RTC, where she served as Vice President for Hard Rock Hotel and Casino for more than a decade. In this role, she oversaw a culturally diverse staff of more than 750 employees and was responsible for managing a multi-million dollar annual budget that included capital expansion projects.
Mark B. Achenbach is responsible for the overall operations of the Museum, serves as in-house counsel and provides oversight to the guest experience, security, technology, facilities, food and beverage and sales functions. He is an attorney, licensed in Nevada, New Jersey and New York. Prior to joining The Mob Museum, Achenbach managed a solo-practice law firm in northern New Jersey. He earned his JD from the Rutgers School of Law - Newark, and his BS from West Virginia University. Before entering law school, Achenbach's concentration was on the human resources field, principally in the nonprofit sector, including a 4-year tenure at Liberty Science Center.
Professor Mark Galeotti is an expert on Russian organized crime and espionage. Educated at Cambridge University and the London School of Economics, he is now a senior researcher at the Institute of International Relations Prague and the principal director of the consultancy firm Mayak Intelligence. Previously, he was Professor of Global Affairs and departmental chair at New York University and Senior Lecturer in International History at Keele University in the United Kingdom. His books include the edited collections The Politics of Security in Modern Russia, Russian & Soviet Organized Crime, and Spetsnaz: Russia's Special Forces.
As Director of Accounting, Markus Johnson is responsible for all day-to-day accounting and finance operations at The Mob Museum. Markus earned his Bachelor's Degree in Accounting from Midwestern State University and began his career at a public accounting firm preparing financial statements and tax returns for a diverse client base. Prior to joining the Museum, he also worked as an accountant for Wyndham Destinations and served in the United States Army for seven years.
Michael Green, Ph.D., is an associate professor in UNLV's Department of History. He holds bachelors and master's degrees from UNLV and obtained his Ph.D. in history from Columbia University. Green is the author of several books about the history of Las Vegas and Nevada as well as broader topics in American history. His books on the Civil War era include Freedom, Union, and Power: Lincoln and His Party during the Civil War, Lincoln and the Election of 1860, and Lincoln and Native Americans. His works on Nevada include Las Vegas: A Centennial History with Eugene Moehring; Nevada: A History of the Silver State; and the oral history, A Liberal Conscience: Ralph Denton, Nevadan. He is writing both a history of the Great Basin in the twentieth century and a history of organized crime in twentieth-century America. Green is also active in writing and speaking in the community. For Nevada Humanities and KNPR, he writes "Nevada Yesterdays," which is narrated by another board member, Senator Richard Bryan.
Miguel Hernandez is a Las Vegas based artist, originally from Los Angeles. Miguel began his artistic career as the Zappos Resident Artist. His work has brought him to create in several states, but also can be found at the Zappos campus, local businesses, schools, music festivals, and various charity events. His areas of concentration are fine art and murals, and are created through mediums ranging from all types of paints, chalks, recycled materials, and even dirt! On May 16th, 2016, along with the Mob Museum mural unveiling, Mayor Carolyn Goodman dedicated the date as "Miguel Hernandez Day". We celebrate the work he's done in our community and the mural that lives at The Mob Museum.
Nancy B. Rapoport is the Garman Turner Gordon Professor of Law at the William S. Boyd School of Law, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and an Affiliate Professor of Business Law and Ethics in the Lee Business School at UNLV. After receiving her B.A., summa cum laude, from Rice University in 1982 and her J.D. from Stanford Law School in 1985, she clerked for the Honorable Joseph T. Sneed III on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and then practiced law (primarily bankruptcy law) with Morrison & Foerster in San Francisco from 1986-1991. She started her academic career at The* Ohio State University College of Law in 1991, and she moved from Assistant Professor to Associate Professor with tenure in 1995 to Associate Dean for Student Affairs (1996) and Professor (1998) (just as she left Ohio State to become Dean and Professor of Law at the University of Nebraska College of Law). She served as Dean of the University of Nebraska College of Law from 1998-2000. She then served as Dean and Professor of Law at the University of Houston Law Center from July 2000-May 2006 and as Professor of Law from June 2006-June 2007, when she left to join the faculty at Boyd. She served as Interim Dean of Boyd from 2012-2013, as Senior Advisor to the President of UNLV from 2014-2015, as Acting Executive Vice President & Provost from 2015-2016, as Acting Senior Vice President for Finance and Business (for July and August 2017), and as Special Counsel to the President from May 2016-June 2018.
Former director of the City of Las Vegas's Office of Cultural Affairs.
Nicholas Pileggi is an American author, producer and screenwriter. Pileggi began his career as a journalist and had a profound interest in the Mafia. He is best known for writing Wiseguy: Life in a Mafia Family (1986), which he adapted into the movie Goodfellas (1990), and for writing Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas and the subsequent screenplay for Casino (1995). The movie versions of both were directed and co-written by Martin Scorsese. Pileggi also wrote the screenplay for the film City Hall (1996), starring Al Pacino. He served as an Executive Producer of American Gangster (2007), a biographical crime film based on the criminal career of Frank Lucas. He also authored Blye, Private Eye (1987).
Known for his trademark, no-nonsense tell-it-like-it-is style, Oscar B. Goodman, the 20th mayor of Las Vegas, served for 12 years before swearing in his wife, Carolyn G. Goodman, as mayor in 2011. Passionate about downtown revitalization, Oscar Goodman is the primary visionary of The Mob Museum. As former chairman of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, Oscar Goodman worked feverishly to promote Las Vegas as one of the most exciting destinations in the world. This self-proclaimed "happiest mayor in the universe," Oscar Goodman is one of the nation's best criminal defense attorneys and was named one of the "15 Best Trial Lawyers in America" by the National Law Journal. He spent more than 35 years defending some of the most notorious alleged Mob figures, including Meyer Lansky, Frank Rosenthal, Anthony Spilotro and others. In 1995, he appeared as himself in the movie, "Casino." Oscar Goodman has been honored with the Public Leadership in the Arts Award from the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the Leadership Award for Public Service from the International Economic Development Council.
Retired Superintendent Pat Skorkowsky spent 30 years as an educator in the Clark County School District serving as a teacher, assistant principal, principal, academic manager, assistant superintendent, associate superintendent and deputy superintendent. His final 5 years were as the Superintendent of Schools. He retired from that position in June of 2018.
Mr. Skorkowsky is an active member of the community and serves on the Mob Museum Advisory Board and the national board of Jobs for America's Graduates. He has received the following recognition: Nevada Superintendent of the Year, 2018; Magnet Schools of American National Superintendent of the Year, 2017; President of the Nevada Association of School Superintendents, 2016-2017; Clark County School District Excellence in Education Hall of Fame, 2016; Jobs for America's Graduates (JAG) National Superintendent of the Year, 2015; National Speech & Debate Association District Communicator of the Year Award, 2015; University of Nevada, Las Vegas TriO & Gear UP Educational Pioneer Award, 2015; Nevada State Parent Teacher Association (PTA) President's Award, 2014, 2017; University of Nevada, Las Vegas College of Education Alumnus of the Year, 2013.
Job Titles:
- Member of the BOARD of DIRECTORS -
- Vice President of Casino Compliance for San Manuel Casino
Paul Camacho is the Vice President of Casino Compliance for San Manuel Casino. Paul previously served as the Special Agent in Charge for the Las Vegas Field Office of Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS CI) directing investigations of all IRS CI special agents in Utah and Nevada. Over the course of his career in IRS CI, Paul has overseen sophisticated investigations involving drug trade organizations, embezzlement, large scale fraud schemes, money laundering, offshore abusive schemes, prostitution, public corruption, tax evasion and terrorist financing. Paul received the highest honor given to IRS CI employees, the Elmer Lincoln Irey Distinguished Service Award. Paul's research into America's battle of organized crime and corruption ultimately led to the discovery of significant historical documents and artifacts that are now on display at The Mob Museum.
Peter Barton most recently served for 15 years as the Administrator for the Nevada Division of Museums and History, overseeing the development, operations and programs of Nevada's seven state-sponsored museums. Mr. Barton has spent 40 years developing and managing museums and historical organizations. With a special interest in transportation history he has developed numerous railroad museums, including the visitor center at the Horseshoe Curve National Historic Landmark in Altoona, PA and the acclaimed Altoona (PA) Railroaders Memorial Museum, a museum that rather than celebrating advances in technology breaks from tradition and explores railroad life and labor in what was America's largest railroad community. Barton played a key role in developing the Southwestern Pennsylvania Heritage Preservation Commission, one of America's early National Heritage Areas. He also served as an organizer and board member of the Allegheny Ridge State Heritage Park, an innovative 100-mile linear park in western Pennsylvania and served a term as president of the Pennsylvania Federation of Museums and Historical Organizations (PFMHO).
Mr. Barton also served years as vice-president of Christopher Chadbourne and Associates of Boston, MA, project managing museum exhibit design projects for a variety of clients including the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry (U-505); Mt. Vernon, the home of George Washington (Donald W. Reynolds George Washington Education Center); the U.S. Marine Corps (National Museum of the Marine Corps, Quantico, VA), and the Smithsonian Institution. For his efforts in developing innovative and engaging museum experiences he is the shared recipient of three internationally recognized Awards of Merit from the Themed Entertainment Association (THEA). In addition to his professional work, Mr. Barton advises on numerous cultural resource and museum development projects, served seven years on the Carson City Cultural Commission (three years as chairman), and served as lead support staff for Nevada's Sesquicentennial Commission (2012-2015). He retired in 2020 and is staying active and involved in the planning, development, management and operation of museums from his new home along Florida's Treasure Coast shared with his wife, Nancy, and their two beagles.
Job Titles:
- President of the Latin Chamber of Commerce NV
Peter Guzman currently serves as the President of the Latin Chamber of Commerce NV, the premier advocate for the Hispanic business, cultural and educational community in Nevada. He is also an accomplished small business owner, real estate investor, and developer who has been a Las Vegas resident for 50 years. His work in real estate has been recognized nationally by major real estate organizations, and he was recognized as the top producer for his company from 2002-2008 with over $650 million in sales. Mr. Guzman has also been recognized by government leaders for his ideas on affordable housing and creative ways to increase minority home ownership. Mr. Guzman is committed to youth mentorship and inspiring young people to follow their passion and has supported youth through scholarships he has funded. He and his wife of 30 years, Mercy, live in Las Vegas with their two children, Jovani and Tatiana.
Before collecting and advising on Contemporary Art, Ralph DeLuca specialized in rare and important 20th Century Art and Design, with a focus on photography, prints, film posters, and graphic design. DeLuca has one of the world's premier private collections of posters and entertainment memorabilia and is currently the largest private buyer in the industry. Areas of concentration include Contemporary and Vintage Photography, Russian Constructivism, German Expressionism, Pop Art, Music Posters, and more. He has spent the last 20 years working with consultants, collectors, dealers, museums and institutions internationally and has been highlighted in numerous high-profile publications, including the Wall Street Journal and BBC News, for his expertise and collecting achievements. All pieces in the collection are hand-selected with a focus on acquiring the best examples. His core clients are celebrities and accomplished collectors, in addition to private and public museums world-wide. As the leading expert in his field, DeLuca acts as a consultant to various institutions such as LACMA and The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Over the years he has also built and placed dozens of archives with museums and colleges, focusing on the following areas: African American, Asian American, Latin American and
Ralph Lux served with the FBI for over 40 years in the Sacramento Field Office as the Automotive Fleet Manager. His primary duties included identifying division vehicle requirements, vehicle acquisition, specification and modification. The overall fleet responsibility was to ensure vehicles fit the investigative mission of the FBI and served as an effective investigative tool. Acquiring and providing vehicles through multiple sources to fit into any investigative scenario either overt or covert was his specialty.
Mr. Lux routinely attended meetings and conferences offered by vehicle manufacturers and private organizations to stay abreast of new vehicle technology, design and market trends. These meetings included test drives where Mr. Lux assisted FBIHQ personnel with selection of vehicles to be purchased by the FBI to support all investigative functions including full time surveillance units. Mr. Lux established an effective liaison with new vehicle manufacturers. This relationship provided information on new vehicle specifications such as popular make, model, trim level and common exterior color choice. This information was used to match official vehicles and surveillance units to cars operated by the general public.
Modification of vehicles for use by the FBI included vehicle cosmetic changes to fit neighborhood demographics, surveillance vehicle modifications to effectively gather intelligence and determining specifications and vehicle configuration of undercover vehicles. Large vehicles such as command posts, SWAT tactical operations units, evidence command posts and any other specialty vehicle to support investigative functions were procured and designed by Mr. Lux.
Mr. Lux served as a Certified Crime Scene Investigator as a member of the FBI Evidence Response Team (ERT). In this capacity Mr. Lux was responsible for searching, seizing, impounding and transportation of vehicles used in a wide variety of crimes and violations that fall under FBI jurisdiction. These duties included assistance to allied law enforcement agencies who requested FBI assistance in major crimes or ongoing local investigations. In addition, Mr. Lux was cross trained in all ERT skills. A partial list of specialized training includes; Post Blast, latent finger prints, human scent transfer, crime scene sketch, crime scene management and Haz Mat protocol, evidence collection and packaging.
From April 2012 to June 2017, Richard served as the Chief of the Criminal Investigation Division for the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Internal Revenue Service (IRS-CI). Richard led a worldwide staff of nearly 3,500 employees, including approximately 2,300 special agents, who investigate crimes involving tax, money laundering, sanctions enforcement, Bank Secrecy Act violations, public corruption, cyber, ID theft, narcotics and terrorist financing. Before joining IRS-CI, Richard was the Deputy Chief of the Investigation Division and Chief of the Major Economic Crimes Bureau in the Manhattan District Attorney's Office. Richard has previously served as Chief of the Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section at the U.S. Department of Justice, and as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Eastern District of New York. He is the recipient of the 2015 Presidential Rank Award - the highest civil service recognition that is given in the Federal government - and a two-time recipient of the Attorney General's John Marshall Award, the highest honor for Justice Department lawyers.
Rob Dondero is executive vice president, R&R Partners, in charge of oversight of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority account for the agency. He manages a fully integrated team that's charged with filling 144,000 hotel rooms 365 days per year. His portfolio includes UFC, Ford, Bud Light, Major League Baseball, the NHL and more. This experience also makes him a leader in R&R's business development efforts. He has also developed, negotiated and promoted such special events as the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue Launch Party; NBA All-Star Game; Latin GRAMMY Awards; Billboard Music Awards; Academy of Country Music Awards; Las Vegas Bowl; NASCAR Champions Week; Miss Universe/Miss America/Miss USA; and the internationally renowned gourmet food and wine event, Vegas Uncork'd. A great example of the results that he delivers was the launch of the Professional Bull Riders' Championship Tour, which propelled bull riding into the mainstream of professional sports, established a fiercely loyal fan base and increased sponsorship revenues by 700 percent with such blue-chip brands as Ford, Wrangler, Bud Light and Coca-Cola.
Job Titles:
- Chairman of the Board of the Nevada Independent
During his career as a journalist, Robert Stoldal served as a reporter, television news anchor, creator and manager of a 24-hour Las Vegas cable news operation, and as the News Director of a statewide Nevada television news system.
As a journalist, Stoldal has covered Las Vegas and the state of Nevada starting as Director of News for KLAS radio in 1965 and continues today as President of the Board of Nevada Independent.
In 1967, Stoldal was hired as a reporter and anchor at KLAS-TV, Channel 8 and a year later was promoted to News Director. That same year 1968, industrialist Howard Hughes purchased KLAS-TV.
In 1978, KLAS was sold to Landmark Communications. During his tenure as News Director, United Press International honored KLAS as having the "Best Newscast in America." In April 1998, he launched Las Vegas ONE, a 24-hour local news television operation and promoted to Vice President for KLAS overseeing all of its news operations.
Job Titles:
- Founder and President of Applied Management Strategies
Roy Student is the founder and president of Applied Management Strategies (AMS). A long-time gaming and hospitality executive, Student utilizes his key expertise and experience as a sought-after consultant and speaker to the international casino and gaming industry from his base in Las Vegas. Student has traveled throughout the world and has extensive gaming contacts and relationships within the various global regions.
Job Titles:
- SENIOR DIRECTOR of TECHNOLOGY & FACILITIES
Ryan Markus manages all aspects of the Museum's interactive exhibits, technical infrastructure and computer systems, software and security. He has been with the Museum since its opening in 2011. He continually implements technical advances to enhance guest experience and company productivity.
Sabine von Henning is responsible for the planning of special events and facility rentals as well as group ticket sales. A native of Berlin, Germany, Sabine has many years of sales and event management experience in the international tourism industry. She earned a degree in hospitality management and a degree in commercial law with a concentration in sales and marketing. Before making Las Vegas her home she lived and worked in various European and North African countries as well as the Caribbean adding Spanish, French and Italian to her native German language. Most recently, she worked as director of sales and marketing for a local destination management company.
Sarah Lautzenheiser earned a B.S. in Microbiology from Michigan State University and both a M.Ed. and a M.A.S. in Biology from UNLV. She has been a Clark County School District teacher for the last 14 years. For most of those years she has taught Forensic Science and AP Biology to high school students. For the last four years, she has been a faculty member of Veterans Tribute Career and Technical Academy.
Scott Lautzenheiser holds a B.A. in Anthropology and Master's Degree in Education from UNLV, and teaches forensic science classes at Veterans Tribute Career & Technical Academy with his much better half (Sara Lautzenheiser). He also has been a medicolegal death investigator, and fingerprint examiner, for the Clark County Coroner/Medical Examiner's Office since 2005.
Scott M. Burnstein is an author, journalist, historian and organized-crime expert, based in the Midwest. He's written extensively about various forms of mob activity in Detroit, Chicago, New England and Philadelphia, published six books on the subject of organized crime and produced three documentaries. He founded the Gangster Report web magazine in 2014, which quickly became a leading media outlet for American underworld news. His work appears weekly in The Oakland Press and he's written for The Detroit Free Press, The New York Daily Post, Ambassador Magazine, Chicago Magazine, The Huffington Post and CBS.com. His podcast, The OG (Entercom/Radio.com), which explores the nexus between crime and pop culture, launched in the summer of 2019 and was named one of Radio.com's Top True Crime podcasts last December.
Over the past 10 years, Burnstein has been featured on various local and national television shows (including multiple episodes of the History Channel's ‘Gangland' series and Bio Channel's Gangster: America's Most Evil series), radio shows (BBC, CBC & NPR's "Fresh Air" and "All Things Considered"), films & TV docuseries discussing a variety of topics related to organized crime in North America, both past and present. The documentaries he's produced include the critically-acclaimed White Boy (2017), Detroit Mob Confidential (2009) and Rollin: The Fall of the American Automotive Industry & the Rise of The Drug Economy (2011). White Boy is currently running on the Starz network and is available on Netflix.
Between 2015 and 2018, Burnstein was employed by Sony Pictures as a technical and script consultant for the Hollywood movie White Boy Rick starring Matthew McConaughey. The screenplay for the film was partially sourced from his newspaper articles on the case the movie was based on. He has consulted for other film and TV projects at the Discovery Channel, NatGeo, BET, HBO and Starz as well as for Eminem's Shady Entertainment and John Legend's Get Lifted production house shingle. In 2019, he consulted for Sony Classic's The Traitor, an Italian film put forth as the country's Academy Award entrant for Best Foreign Film. Burnstein is also a frequent public speaker, giving talks around the United States on mob and true-crime history. He is currently working on two scripted television projects in Hollywood, one with Sylvester Stallone and the other with the producers-writers of the hit Netflix show Ozark.
Scott M. Deitche is a scientist, author, and organized crime expert based in St. Petersburg, Florida. His books include Cigar City Mafia: A Complete History of the Tampa Underworld, Garden State Gangland: The Rise of the Mob in New Jersey and Hitmen: The Mafia, Drugs, and The East Harlem Purple Gang. He has written extensively on organized crime for local and national magazines and has contributed to books on sustainability and environmental justice.
Job Titles:
- Director of Public Programs
As Director of Public Programs, Shakala Alvaranga is responsible for the development and coordination of a dynamic public programming schedule at The Mob Museum. Programs include Courtroom Conversations, Wiseguy Speaker Series, Community Safety Forums and other large-scale events. Shakala received her Bachelors of Science degree in broadcast journalism at Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts. She served as a television news anchor in Massachusetts and, most recently, worked as a television news reporter at CBS in Las Vegas, Nevada. At KLAS-TV, she covered a wide array of issues including arts and entertainment, business development, crime and education.
Job Titles:
- SENIOR DIRECTOR of DEVELOPMENT
Stephen N. Lackey is responsible for the leadership and management of all Museum fundraising efforts, including the formulation, planning, and execution of fundraising strategy. He is a creative and entrepreneurial executive with more than 20 years in fundraising, government relations and public leadership. Stephen has successfully planned, organized and led fundraising campaigns resulting in over $450 million raised to support important community programs. Prior to joining the Museum, Stephen was a successful regional philanthropy director with the Trust for Public Land. Most recently, he led efforts to raise millions in emergency food assistance dollars as senior advancement officer with the Culinary Academy of Las Vegas. In addition, he previously served as a policy advisor to the White House. Most proudly, he is committed to using his talents to ensure his daughter and all children inherit communities with the resources necessary to grow and thrive.
Job Titles:
- Chairman
- Senior Vice President of Global Security for MGM Resorts
Steven Martinez is the Senior Vice President of Global Security for MGM Resorts. Mr. Martinez oversees all corporate security functions and works closely with property security teams to assist in the continued development of companywide best practices. From 1987 to 2013, Mr. Martinez enjoyed a distinguished career with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), including a record of achievement in steering highly complex and sensitive global national security, cyber, and criminal investigations.Among a series of promotions throughout his FBI career, Mr. Martinez served as the Special Agent in Charge for the Las Vegas Field Office, as well as the Assistant Director in Charge in the Los Angeles Field Office. Mr. Martinez concluded his FBI career as the Executive Assistant Director for the Science and Technology Branch at FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Su Kim Chung received a MLIS from UCLA with a specialization in archives and preservation in 1998. She has been immersed in the history of Las Vegas since she began work in the UNLV Libraries' Special Collections Division in 1999. As head of public services, she is in charge of reference, outreach, and instruction for archival collections and photographs about Las Vegas and southern Nevada history. Ms. Chung also serves as curator of the UNLV Libraries entertainment collections where she works on documenting the history of the showgirls and the Las Vegas production show. As part of this work, she has conducted oral history interviews of former dancers and showgirls and moderated community panel presentations on the history of the Las Vegas showgirl and production shows. In 2015, she received her doctorate in information studies from UCLA. She is the author of the popular photo book Las Vegas Then and Now, now in its third edition.
Sylvia Longmire is a former officer and Special Agent with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations and worked for four years as a Senior Intelligence Analyst for the California State Threat Assessment Center, specializing in southwest border violence and Mexico's drug war. She is an award-winning writer and contributing editor for Homeland Security Today magazine and American Military University's InHomeland Security blog. Ms. Longmire has consulted for the producers of the History Channel and National Geographic Channel, and is regularly interviewed by national, international, and local media outlets for her knowledge and expertise on drug war and border security issues. She is the author of Cartel and Border Insecurity, and she has written for numerous peer-reviewed academic journals and online publications.
T.J. ENGLISH is a former New York City taxi driver who has gone on to become one of the foremost writers on the subject of crime in America as both social history and a contemporary phenomenon. He is the best-selling author of seven nonfiction books. Four of those books - The Savage City, Paddy Whacked, Havana Nocturne, and Where the Bodies Were Buried - have been New York Times Bestsellers, with Havana Nocturne rising to lucky No. 7 on the list. That book is currently in development as a major motion picture. The Savage City is in development as a television mini-series with the FX network. English's latest book, The Corporation: An Epic Story of the Cuban American Underworld, is to be published in March 2018 by HarperCollins and is also in development as a feature film, to be produced by Leonardo DiCaprio's company, Appian Way, with Benicio Del Toro in the lead role.
Over the past 20 years, English's journalism has appeared in many national magazines, including Vanity Fair, Esquire and Playboy, to name a few. His articles have covered a variety of topics relating to organized crime, the criminal underworld, and criminal justice in America.
He has also written episodes of the television crime dramas NYPD Blue and Homicide: Life on the Streets. His writing on Homicide was awarded the prestigious Humanitas Prize for humanitarian writing in the arts. With the mini-series The Savage City, he will be serving as both a writer and executive producer.
English has frequently been interviewed in crime documentaries seen on the History Channel, the Discovery Channel and on CNN. Twice he has appeared as a guest on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
Tara Sullivan is the Special Agent in Charge, IRS Criminal Investigation (CI), in the Las Vegas Field Office. Ms. Sullivan was named to this position in June 2016. She is responsible for planning, directing and evaluating activities of five groups of special agents across the states of Nevada and Utah.She began her career with IRS Criminal Investigation in 2000 as a Special Agent Student Trainee in the Las Vegas Field Office. She graduated from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, with a degree in accounting and was subsequently converted to the Special Agent position in 2002. As a Special Agent, Ms. Sullivan worked in both the Las Vegas and New York Field Offices.
In 2010, Ms. Sullivan joined CI's leadership team as Supervisory Special Agent in the New York Field Office, Bronx Post of Duty. In 2011, she was one of four selected into the IRS' Accelerated Senior Leadership Program, which was a special program to identify individuals with strong leadership potential and provide them with the training and resources to progress to a Special Agent in Charge position.
In 2013, she was assigned to Headquarters where she worked as a Senior Analyst in International Operations. In 2014, she was selected as the Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Boston Field Office and later served as the Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Tampa Field Office.
But all of that meant Luciano was a very public leader of the Mob, and that drew attention from law enforcement, and specifically from a young prosecutor in New York named Thomas Dewey. Dewey and his assistant, an African-American attorney named Eunice Carter, noticed that many of the prostitutes who were being arrested were represented by the same bondsmen and attorneys working for Luciano.
Job Titles:
- SENIOR DIRECTOR of PEOPLE & CULTURE
Toni Ann Jones provides leadership, strategies and processes that ensure excellence in the selection and retention of all staff at The Mob Museum. This includes building, managing and sustaining an award-winning culture, with a focus on fostering inclusion and professional growth that will advance the mission, vision and values of the organization. Prior to joining the Museum, Toni held leadership roles with JP Morgan Chase, the State of Ohio and the City & County of San Francisco. Additionally, Toni was an organizational management consultant with global clients. She studied Organizational Behavior and is a proud graduate of the University of San Francisco. Toni also holds multiple certifications, most notably in change management and process improvement and is the founder and member of the executive board for the Innocence Center of Nevada.
With more than 30 years of experience in the Human Resources profession, Valerie Murzl has received national recognition for her creation of a non-traditional platform of benefits, including 24/7 On-site Child Care, Foreclosure Assistance and a Citizenship Program, among others.
Job Titles:
- Director of the Center for Crime
William Sousa is the Director of the Center for Crime and Justice Policy and an Associate Professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. The focus of his research is on crime and disorder reduction policies implemented by police agencies. His current projects involve police order-maintenance practices, policing technologies, and community crime prevention in Las Vegas neighborhoods. He is the author, with Kenneth J. Peak, of the book Policing America: Challenges and Best Practices. His recent publications appear in Police Quarterly, The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, and The Journal of Experimental Criminology. He received his B.A. from Stonehill College (Easton, MA), his M.S. from Northeastern University, and his Ph.D. from Rutgers University.