Chair of the Board of Directors

Dr. Martin Kabat always thought of himself as a teacher and studied philosophy at NYU, ultimately earning a master's degree in English Literature and then a doctorate in Comparative Literature. Earlier in his career, Dr. Kabat was the director of the Humanities Program at Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland, teaching courses in European Ancient and Modern Literature and Film. After 25 years as a college professor, he obtained an MBA from Wharton and went to Spain, where he worked as CFO on a project to build the Hotel Arts in Barcelona. He then moved to Canada to work on a new TV technology start-up in Toronto and became CEO of the MedicAlert Foundation in Canada and the US. Finally, he joined the Canadian Cancer Society as CEO of the Ontario organization responsible for budgets of more than $100 million yearly for research and programs to help persons with cancer. When he retired from the Cancer Society, he and his wife went on Semester at Sea, working with some 600 college students as a mentor while sailing around the world. Returning to Toronto, he was asked to chair the board of the Toronto Polish Film Festival, which is now entering its 15th year. But last year, he and his wife, Grazyna, decided to move to Virginia, and immediately, they started to consider how to create a Polish film festival here. Fortunately, he encountered the Kosciuszko Foundation, and together, they created the Washington Polish Film Festival, with Dr. Kabat as chair of the board of directors.

Executive Director

Barbara Bernhardt is a Vice President of the Kosciuszko Foundation and a Director of the KF Washington, DC, office. Before her position at the Kosciuszko Foundation, Barbara's career was a tapestry of diverse experiences. She spent a decade teaching German at the American University while also working as a freelance writer and translator. Her work spans original writing (including short stories and poetry), essays, literary criticism, theater reviews, interviews, and translations. She served as a US correspondent for leading theater magazines in Poland.

Since arriving in Washington, DC, in 2000, Barbara has been an unwavering member of Polonia, dedicating herself to promoting Polish culture in the US.

Art and culture have always been her passions, and she is thrilled to serve as the Executive Director of the Kosciuszko Foundation Polish Film Festival in Washington, D.C.

The WPFF Artistic Director

She also serves as the President of the KF Washington DC Chapter. Before joining the Foundation, Anna worked in public relations and public affairs in Washington DC. Her career began as a print and TV journalist in New York, and she also worked in Polish media in Poland. Anna has experience in documentary filmmaking, specializing in scriptwriting and video editing.

Peter is a literary and political historian at UCLA where he teaches interdisciplinary courses on Willa Cather, Civic Engagement, and Understanding the War in the Ukraine. He also serves as Vice President on the Board of Governors of the National Willa Cather Center and has programmed Cather-related events at Symphony Space, the New York Society Library, and the Boston Athenaeum. He earned his doctorate from the University of Southern California and attended Bard College and Jagiellonian University (on a Kosciuszko Foundation scholarship). Peter also served as mayor and council member for 14 years in his Hudson Valley hometown. He is the author of Revolution in Eastern Europe: The Collapse of Communism, published by John Wiley & Sons.

Zbigniew Kantorosinski was born in Poland and came to the United States in 1963. He grew up in Salem, Massachusetts, and attended Northeastern University in Boston and Jagiellonian University in Krakow when Poland was under martial law. He participated in student demonstrations in support of the Solidarity movement. After completing his studies, he moved to Washington, D.C., and worked for the Library of Congress

He began his career there as a Slavic bibliographer and retired in 2019 as Chief of the Germanic and Slavic Division. In December 2017, Mr. Kantorosinski received the Amicus Poloniae award from the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Washington, D.C., in recognition of his efforts to promote development and cooperation between Poland and the United States. In retirement, Mr. Kantorosinski has produced/co-produced three Kosciuszko TV presentations on Polish history, art, and culture and looks forward to working at the Polish Film Festival in the nation’s capital.

Klaudia Lewis was born in Kraków, Poland, and immigrated to the United States at age 13 with her parents. The family settled in Boise, ID. Klaudia earned her undergraduate degree in Accounting from the University of Portland in Oregon, followed by a Master's in Business Administration from George Mason University in Fairfax, VA.

After college she joined the US Army Reserves and was trained as a Medic and Operating Room Technician. She was attached to the 396th Combat Support Hospital (CSH) in Vancouver, WA. She served 8 years before discharge in 2000.

She has held various key financial roles in startups and major corporations in the high-tech and cyber security space, as well as in DoD Government Contractors. Klaudia worked abroad in Belgium for Micron Electronics as a Plant Controller for one year. She traveled to eleven European countries and enjoyed learning about different cultures. Her career also took her to six states before she settled in Virginia in 2003.

In March 2023, Klaudia founded Forsa Finance LLC and swiftly attained Federal Government contractor status. She leverages decades of financial expertise to deliver top-tier financial planning and analysis solutions, optimizing business profitability and efficiency to the private sector and government contractors.

Also in 2023, Klaudia founded Polish Language and Culture Women's Club, which focuses on fun social activities for women in the Washington DC area, including dinners, parties, cultural activities, and recreation.
In 2024, Klaudia founded DownBeat District LLC, a company that focuses on music and event promotion and organizing. Klaudia lives in Alexandria, Virginia, with her husband and teenage daughter.

Teresa and Krzysztof Lyson are retired physicians. They have years of experience in leadership and volunteer roles in several professional and cultural organizations. Most notably, they help to organize the Polish Film Festival in Austin, TX, for four consecutive years, 2016-2019. They hope to make the Washington, DC, Polish Film Festival a great success.

Agata Peszko, a versatile artist and designer, earned her Master of Art degree in Krakow, Poland, followed by a Graphic Design diploma from the Ecole de Design D’Arts Appliqués Autograf in Paris, and a Diploma with distinction in Applied Commercial Interior Design from the prestigious KLC School of Design in Chelsea, London. Furthering her education in Europe, she studied fashion photography at the London School of Fashion and Design. Over years of practice, she has also mastered the ancient craft of wool felting, enabling her to seamlessly blend tradition with modern design and fashion trends. Her design and artwork earned acclaim in exhibitions and commissions, reflecting a refined aesthetic sensitivity, and appreciation for pushing artistic boundaries. She continues exploring new tools and techniques, including cutting-edge AI technology to celebrate the convergence of art, design, technology, and film into stunning artistic expressions and original branding strategies for the clients.

William Rich first went to Poland in 1986 as a Kosciuszko Foundation Scholarship recipient, spending a year abroad at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. A few years later, he wrote his MA thesis on the Polish free market economic reforms at the Ohio State University and returned to Poland upon graduation in 1992. He spent the next ten years in Warsaw managing US government foreign assistance programs throughout Eastern Europe, as well as performing consulting assignments in academia and for Polish television. Together with his wife Joanna and daughter Marta, Mr. Rich moved to the Washington, DC area in 2001. He continues to work as a senior manager and subject matter expert in federal contract administration and regulatory compliance on US international development projects, predominantly in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.

John Paul Schutte served over thirty years as a U.S. diplomat before retiring in 2022 as a career member of the Senior Foreign Service. During his career, he served in a variety of capacities, including as Economic Counselor in Kyiv and London, Counselor for Political and Economic Affairs in Warsaw (a.i.), Cultural Attaché in Bangkok, Human Rights Officer in Tashkent, and economic affairs chief in the State Department's Office of European Union and Regional Affairs. In 2023, he returned to the State Department for a temporary position working on U.S. humanitarian assistance to Ukrainian refugees in Europe following Russia's full-scale invasion.

Mr. Schutte currently lives with his wife, Lilianna, near Alexandria, Virginia. Before joining the State Department, Mr. Schutte received a Bachelor's Degree with honors in European History at Northwestern University in Chicago and a Master's Degree in Western European Studies and International Economics from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington. He has also studied in Munich, Bologna, and Paris.

Malgorzata Schwab is an Information Technology executive leading multi-industry digital transformation focused on enabling innovative business strategies through AI-augmented technologies. She earned a Masters Degree in Computer Science at the Warsaw University of Technology in collaboration with the Polish Academy of Science. She then received an MBA degree from the Webster University in St. Louis, Missouri and is currently a PhD candidate in Artifical Intelligence at the University of Colorado in Denver.

Malgorzata has been engaged in community outreach teaching at several local community colleges and as a speaker for the Western Summit of Women in Technology. Born in Lublin but calling Colorado her home-away-from-home, she has been deeply engaged at the Polish Club of Denver and as a contributing author for the Polish newspaper "Zycie Colorado."

Enthusiastic about all of the above, Malgorzata leverages her experience to help out with the festival, hoping to develop a path to clone this fabulous idea at the Rocky Mountain chapter of The Kosciuszko Foundation.

Artist Anna Socha VanMatre was born in Poland and educated at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts, where she received her master’s degree. She focuses on the dividing line between reality and the abstract by showing paradoxical forces, natural and human-made, ever-changing yet unifying, brutal yet beautiful. Her works are held in museums, libraries, and private collections in Europe, Israel, Africa, the US, and Asia. Recent exhibitions include the series TO THOSE WHO…, dedicated to victims of the Holocaust, WWII hero Jan Karski, environmental protection organizations, and Ukrainian freedom fighters. Her fourteen-panel composition Metamorphoses - Fire and Water was permanently installed in the Philharmonic Hall in Kraków in tribute to Krzysztof Penderecki. She has given presentations about her philosophy and techniques at universities in numerous countries.