Catherine Oberg
Executive Director - obergc@plazamac.org

As the Co-founder and Executive Director of The Plaza Cinema & Media Arts Center, Catherine Oberg is in charge of the development, implementation, and evaluation of programs and services offered to the community. Under Ms. Oberg’s leadership, The Plaza brings cultural and educational programming under one mission-driven roof and is fiscally supported by a combination of admission and tuition, philanthropic funding, grants, business sponsorships, and community contributions.

Ms. Oberg received a B.F.A in Film and Television Production from the Kanbar Institute, Tisch School Of the Arts, NYU, NYC. In 2013 she earned Advanced Certificates from Molloy College, LI, NY. One in Fundraising and Development and another in Not-for-Profit Management.

Prior to founding The Plaza, Catherine worked in the television industry. She has produced, directed, written, filmed, and edited for documentaries, news-magazine series, live-to-tape talk shows, and narrative dramas that have been broadcast on HBO, PBS, CNN, FOX, UK's Channel Four, Discovery Channel, Hallmark Channel, and LI Fios1. Catherine received an Emmy Award Honor for her contribution as an assistant editor on the HBO documentary "Lenny Bruce: Swear To Tell The Truth" narrated by Robert De Niro. The film received an Emmy Award and an Academy Award Nomination in 1999. She has taught editing at the School Of Visual Arts and at NYU’s School Of Continuing Education, both in NYC.

Rick Eberle
Operations Manager - rickeberle@plazamac.org

Rick Eberle has over two decades of experience in the entertainment business as a Venue Manager, Marketing Guru, Publicist, Talent Agent, Artist Manager, Musician, Songwriter, Singer, Guitarist and TV/Radio Personality. Rick's band, Iridesense has toured the U.S. opening for major acts such as Gin Blossoms, Spin Doctors and Sugar Ray and placed songs on the Nickelodeon Network shows Drake & Josh, Zoey 101 and iCarly. Rick’s music business career began in New Media where he spent time working on online initiatives for Pink, Usher, Outkast, Dido and others at Arista Records in NYC. Rick left Manhattan to begin work in marketing, venue management, booking and promotions for The Downtown Concert Venue with artists like Jewel, Fall Out Boy, Maroon 5 and Gavin Degraw. After the venue closed, he went on to handle Marketing, PR and assisted with bookings for The Crazy Donkey Concert Venue for acts like Bowling for Soup, LMFAO and Cinderella.

Rick has also had a long radio career in the Long Island, NY market beginning with a job in marketing/promotion at 92.7 WLIR FM. Then, he worked as co host of a weekly emerging artists show "Unlabeled" on 94.3 WMJC FM with Rob Rush. Rick went on to work as promotions director at 94X FM as well. He is most widely known in radio for his time at 94.3 The Shark FM where he was instrumental in the initial branding and launch of the station as promotion director and sometime overnight host and on site correspondent for online content. He also hosted "Uncharted" a podcast for emerging artists. Currently, he hosts Rising Stars Radio Monday nights at 9pm EST on 90.3 WHPC FM (NY). In Television, Rick curated his "Rick's Rising Stars" TV show (which was produced by My Long Island TV for Verizon Fios1 News) in NY which aired over 100 episodes. He has also been a music and entertainment on site correspondent at IndiMusic TV and InRavio.com.

His personal company "The Rick Eberle Agency" was founded in 2013 after being merged from Rick's music company PopCore Entertainment. Handling label services, publicity, social media, and some talent and management agency duties for venues, festivals, conventions, TV and radio stations, bands, artists, actors, authors, chefs and other companies of all sorts. Past projects have included work with: Zak Starkey (The Who/Oasis/The Beatles), Trey Songz, The Peter Tosh Estate, The John Coltrane Home, Sky Katz (Disney Channel), Eddie Money, Erik Coleman (NY Jets, NFL and College Commentator), SOHO Intl Film Festival, Daniel Baldwin, United Ink Tattoo Festival, Paul Sorvino, Susie Essman, Phylicia Rashad, Baz Luhrmann, Brian Dennehy, Ed Burns, Hugh Grant at the Gold Coast International Film Festival, Long Island Radio Group, Girl Scouts of Suffolk County, Town Of Brookhaven, Suffolk County Red Cross, American Cancer Society, Somerset Mortgage Lenders and many others.

Mary Lou Cohalan
Volunteer Coordinator - mcohalan123@gmail.com

Raised in Norfolk, Va., Mary Lou has lived in Bayport and Sayville for many years. She received her BA from Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania and her MA in Art History and Criticism from Stony Brook University. Until she recently retired, she was the director of the Islip Art Museum and the founder of the international Carriage House Workspace, both well-known exhibition spaces for contemporary art. She is now on the docent staff at the Parrish Art Museum in Southampton. Through her avatar, The Trashmanian Devil, she maintains a blog about art and ecology. Mary Lou is the Volunteer Coordinator for The Plaza cinema, and through her tireless efforts we have been able to develop a thriving volunteer staff. If you are interested in volunteering at the concession stand or doing other tasks for The Plaza, she is the person to talk to.

Martin McMillan
Technical Support - martinmcmillan@plazamac.org

Martin McMillan is our go to for technical support. He obtained a BSSE in Electrical Engineering from Duke University and holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering from Yale. Martin helps The Plaza stay up to date in technology by doing things like installing raspberry pi machines to help our outdoor screens run, or setting up internet connections so that we could have a summer documentary class at Isabella Rossellini’s farm. Most people in New York are surprised to learn that Martin grew up in Mobile, Alabama. Since then he has moved around for school and work as a physical chemist at places such as Kodak and pharmaceutical companies. Martin loves the intellectual curiosity of The Plaza’s patrons, and enjoys seeing them talk about films and think critically about what they’re watching on the screen.

Matthew Myers
Graphics, Web and Social Media - matthewmyers@plazamac.org

Matt is the resident graphic designer, web and social media manager at The Plaza. He creates all of our wonderful marketing materials and maintains our website for all of your movie and event needs. When he’s not busy creating things, he’s managing the the box office most evenings and weekends—making sure that our patrons are feeling welcomed, comfortable, and ready to see a movie! Matt graduated from Farmingdale State University with a BA in Visual Communications. He is a movie lover at heart and a dad of two. Since his girls are little, Matt rarely gets to see movies in theaters other than “Frozen” so he enjoys getting to see the occasional new film at The Plaza. When asked about his favorite part of working at The Plaza, Matt explained “I love how generous and supportive our members and volunteers are. Everything they do really shows how much they love The Plaza and want to see it succeed. It's really great to see the passion in this community!”