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The Board of Trustees of the Kennedy Center, more formally known as the Trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, maintain and administer the Center and its site.
The honorary chairs of the Board of Trustees are the First Lady and her living predecessors. Members of the board are specified by 20 USC 78h and as of 2001 included:
- Ex officio members such as the Secretary of Health and Human Services, the Librarian of Congress, the Secretary of State (substituting for the Director of the United States Information Agency after that agency was abolished), the Chairman of the Commission of Fine Arts, the Mayor of the District of Columbia, the Superintendent of Schools of the District of Columbia, the Director of the National Park Service, the Secretary of Education, the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution,
- Ten congressional representatives appointed for six-year terms, consisting of the chairs and ranking minority members of the House's Committee on Public Works and Transportation and the Senate's Committee on Environment and Public Works, three members appointed by the President of the Senate and three appointed by the Speaker of the House;
- Thirty general trustees appointed by the President of the United States for six-year terms.
Recent examples of political appointees to the board include Anita Arnold (of Texarkana, Texas), Democratic fund-raiser and tobacco heir Smith Bagley, billionaire Ronald Burkle, socialite Buffy Cafritz, Senator Jon Corzine, former Secretary of Commerce William M. Daley, Bush appointee Bo Derek, Ronald Dozoretz M.D., former Reagan chief-of-staff Kenneth Duberstein, businessman Melvyn J. Estrin, lawyer George Farias, former Speaker of the House Thomas Foley, attorney David Girard-diCarlo, Vinod Gupta (of Omaha, Nebraska), Anne Sewell Johnson of (Austin, Texas), Bush fund-raiser Brenda LaGrange Johnson, AOL co-founder James V. Kimsey, community activist Marlene Malek, philanthropist Alma Johnson Powell, former Ambassador to Ireland Jean Kennedy Smith, and former Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger.
The board awards the Kennedy Center Honors.
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