Maryland Public Television Foundation Board Announces New Leadership, Members

The MPT Foundation today announced new leadership roles for its volunteer board of directors. During a recent meeting, the foundation’s board gave unanimous approval to the election of Richard Bodorff as chair and Rhea Feikin as vice chair. The two directors step up to take over after several years of stellar leadership provided by John Wolf and Kathryn Lindquist, respectively, in the top two volunteer offices of the 41-year nonprofit organization.

In addition, retired physician Dr. Shailaja “Shaila” Didolkar was appointed to the volunteer board of directors.

The MPT Foundation is nonprofit fundraising affiliate of Maryland Public Television. Incorporated in 1981, the foundation today comprises more than two dozen members drawn from Maryland business, civic and cultural communities to assist MPT in securing private contributions and foundation grants.

Dick Bodorff

Richard “Dick” Bodorff  joined the MPT Foundation board of directors in 2019. He is also the vice chair of MPT’s governing body, the Maryland Public Broadcasting Commission. His nearly 50-year career as a communications attorney in private practice began in the General Counsel’s Office at the Federal Communications Commission following a clerkship with then Commissioner Richard Wiley. His current position with Wiley Rein LLP includes numerous public and commercial media clients.

Bodorff’s current nonprofit involvement includes the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, the YMCA of the Chesapeake and the Broadcasters Foundation of America, where he has spent more than a decade on the organization’s board of directors. He has supported numerous organizations throughout his career, including stints as vice chairman of the board of America’s Public Television Stations, general counsel and secretary for the Broadcasters Foundation of America, and chairman of the boards of the Commonwealth Public Broadcasting Corporation and Academy Art Museum.

Rhea Feikin

Rhea Feikin joined the MPT Foundation board of directors in 2020, shortly after her retirement from the statewide public TV network. Many MPT viewers know her from her many decades of appearances as a pledge host for the network’s on-air fundraising campaigns, and for her role as host of MPT productions including MPT on Location (1991-96), ArtWorks This Week (2002-13), Impressions with Rhea Feikin (2007-14), Artworks (2013-20) and Chesapeake Collectibles (2011-20). Her first job at MPT was on the 1970s series Consumer Survival Kit. She came out of retirement in recent months to work on an upcoming MPT documentary featuring Jewish delicatessens in Maryland, a film that will have its debut this year.

She has served on the boards of the Baltimore School for the Arts, the Gordon Center for Performing Arts, the United Cerebral Palsy Foundation, and the Baltimore County Adult Education Committee. Feikin served as chair of MPT’s first comprehensive fundraising campaign, which concluded in 2020, and was a founder of Baltimore’s Center Stage in 1963.

John Wolf and Kathryn Lindquist remain on the MPT Foundation board of directors after 14 combined years of leadership and 22 combined years of volunteer service for the organization. Wolf, an attorney in the Baltimore office of Baker Donelson, served as chair of the foundation for eight years during two separate terms. He joined the board in 2011 and continues to serve in what is currently his 11th year of volunteer service. Lindquist, a principal at Park Lake Holdings, also joined the board in 2011. She served as vice chair for a six-year term beginning in 2016 and remains a member of the board in what is now her 11th year of service in that role.

Originally from India, Dr. Shailaja “Shaila” Didolkar moved to the United States in the early 1970s and enjoyed a career as an obstetrician-gynecologist and medical school assistant professor in the Baltimore area, serving institutions such as Johns Hopkins, University of Maryland and Union Memorial Hospital.

Didolkar is a founding member and served on the board of the Greater Baltimore Hindu-Jain Temple. She is also a member of the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin, an organization for which she served as a team leader for continuing medical education in India.

She and her husband, Dr. Mukund “Mike” Didolkar, raised two children watching MPT shows. The Didolkars have been MPT members for over two decades and have a continuing passion for MPT’s educational mission and its focus on the environment. In 2021, the couple created an endowment at MPT to support early childhood education and environmental programming.