Board of Directors

Devon Bergman is the CEO & Co-Founder of Social Standards, a consumer market research platform trusted by leading brands such as Estée Lauder, Coca-Cola, and Kraft Heinz as well as being integral in driving stock price setting by Bank of America, Barclays, Citi and Wells Fargo. He drives the company’s vision, strategy and growth as it strives to change the way data is used for consumer research. Devon has more than 20 years of experience in the consumer technology space including extensive expertise in creating solutions to structure complex data sets and build analytical tools at SAAS-driven businesses.

Before devoting his work fulltime to Social Standards, Devon’s previous leadership roles focused heavily on identifying market trends and correlating them with customer feedback to drive innovation. He served as the Director of Product Management and Marketing in the Home Entertainment & Video division at Gracenote, Inc. where he spearheaded the development of Gracenote eyeQ, an interactive program guide adopted by TV manufacturers. He also helped to drive innovative solutions for the PC Business at Dolby Laboratories.

Email: devon@rhythmx.org

Abby is the Executive Director of Rhythm X and has been a member of the admin team since 2019. Abby was a member of the percussion program at Center Grove High School and performed with Rhythm X in the front ensemble from 2015-2018. Outside of Rhythm X, Abby works as a Research Consultant at quantilope, helping clients such as P&G and Tyson use automated methodologies to deliver advanced analyses at speed. Before joining quantilope, Abby worked at NielsenIQ conducting consumer research with major retailers.

Email: abby@rhythmx.org

Don is a highly adaptable executive who has a comprehensive understanding of Operational and Sales Management, Development and Implementation, and Business Administration. Over the course of his career, he has developed a skill set directly relevant to executive level support and development, quality assurance, and leadership. Working with a variety of team-members and executives over the last decade has prepared him professionally to deal with any obstacle. He is passionate about working with startup organizations and assisting them in executing their business plans while scaling their organizations in the most profitable way possible. His experiences have allowed him to expand his knowledge regarding communication, accounting and human resource, laws and regulations, leadership, and training. His talents are in strategic planning, project management, risk management, operational development, and exceptional leadership.

Don enjoys traveling and spending time with his family and friends. Even though it has been since his collegiate days marching the drumline for the SMS Pride Marching Band, he still enjoys watching shows from the high school to the drum corps level.

Email: don@rhythmx.org

Erin has been involved in the marching arts since 2002. She graduated from Centerville High School, where she was a member of both the marching band and indoor percussion group (2002-2006). She then went on to compete and age out with Rhythm X (2008-2010) as a member of their front ensemble. 

Music and teaching have always been huge passions for Erin, and she has taught several high school front ensembles in both Michigan and Ohio. Currently, Erin works as a special education teacher in Kettering Ohio, and also holds an academic leadership, and principal license. She is excited to serve on the Board for Rhythm X and be able to support an activity that has brought her knowledge, experience, and life long friendships.

Email: erin@rhythmx.org

Bruce Jamison loves music and tried to instill this in his daughters and grandchildren. He proudly watched his grandson, Anthony, take musical skill far beyond Bruce's own. With considerable experience on nonprofit boards, he hopes to bring helpful insight to the Rhythm X Board of Directors to support what he sees as an amazing organization. He continues his 38-plus years in law enforcement by currently serving as a chief of police in higher education.

Email: bruce@rhythmx.org

Stephanie is an Associate in Maynard, Cooper & Gale’s Criminal Defense and Investigations Group. She has assisted on compliance and internal investigation cases and federally appointed CJA cases. Prior to joining Maynard, Stephanie worked as a program coordinator for the Jefferson County’s District Attorney’s Office. She facilitated collaboration between law enforcement, prosecution, and community agencies regarding sexual assault polices, training and case reviews for the county.

Stephanie is a former cymbal player and tech, participating in both DCI and WGI. She looks forward to serving on the Rhythm X Board, supporting an organization and activity that so positively impacted her life.

Email: stephanie@rhythmx.org

Mendel Lee is a music professional whose career oscillates between composition/artistic entrepreneurship and music education/pageantry arts. His work has been performed across the globe, including the World Expo 2020 Dubai, and his artistic vision has earned him recognition as a National Performance Network (NPN) Take Notice Fund grantee. His music has been described as “finding the right balance between minimalist… [static] space and forward motion and trajectory.” His solo timpani work Timpani Forces has been praised as a “…virtuosic tour de force…[whose] attention to melodic and lyrical content and the creative use of glissandi result in a unique addition to the repertoire.”

A passionate new music advocate, Mendel is the founder and executive director of nienteForte Contemporary Music, a new music presenting series based in New Orleans, LA that curates 4-5 residencies per season. He also performs regularly as a percussionist with Versipel New Music. In his spare time, he enjoys a myriad of amateur hobbies including cooking (and eating), data analytics and spreadsheets, branding/graphic design, audio/video/motion graphics production, poker, and tabletop and video games.

Email: mendel@rhythmx.org

Alayna Cate is a public education advocate and nonprofit professional serving as the Director of Partnerships for Nashville-based nonprofit, PENCIL (Public Education Needs Community Involvement and Leadership). Originally, though, her career path was in music education. Cate became a K-8 music teacher after graduating from Middle Tennessee State University with honors in 2016, but she quickly realized the magnitude of failures in the public education system after teaching in a high-poverty, high-transient public school in Indianapolis. This spurred her decision to pursue a Master of Education Policy from Vanderbilt University from which she graduated in 2020. After serving a year in Americorps with San Francisco's Creativity Explored, Cate was drawn to the nonprofit sector. Currently, Cate and her team at PENCIL manage over 700+ community partnerships across all 150+ Metro Nashville Public Schools.

Her marching arts career began with her high school's inaugural WGI ensemble where she picked up her first pair of cymbals. She continued on cymbals in 2014 with Palmetto Percussion out of South Carolina. In 2015, Cate joined the Rhythm X roster as the first-ever clarinet player for Rhythm X Winds. She marched with Rhythm X Winds in 2015-2016 and then taught the group in music and visual the following two seasons. Cate was the first WGI Winds FJM Music Education Scholarship recipient in 2015 and is proud to be X Number #381.

Cate is a graduate of 2023 Nashville Leadership Public Education (LPE) and 2024 Nashville Emerging Leaders (NEL), continuing to grow as a leader in the local public education sphere. She is also a member of Nashville's Music Makes Us Advisory Council, advocating for strong, high-quality music education in all Metro Nashville Public Schools.

Email: alayna@rhythmx.org

Ashley has been a dancer for 31 years, classically trained in Vaganova and Royal Academy of Dance ballet styles. She started her dancing career at the West Florida Youth Ballet performing multiple ballet stage productions a year before continuing to dance with the Tulsa Ballet and Jasinski Academy in Oklahoma under the direction of Roman Jasinski Jr. and Moscelyne Larkin. During this time she also trained with the Joffrey Ballet. She graduated from Syracuse University with degrees in Earth Science/Geology, English and Textual Studies and a minor in Asian Studies.

In her marching career, Ashley performed with Rhythm X Winds (2016-2018), and had the pleasure of working for several programs such as Webster HS, Centerville HS, Miamisburg HS, Blue Knights Drum & Bugle Corps, and currently working for The Bluecoats as their Assistant Production Manager.

Email: ashley@rhythmx.org