Biography

Bernice Steinhardt, President and Chairperson

BERNICE STEINHARDT is the President of Art and Remembrance, a non-profit arts and educational organization. In founding Art and Remembrance, Bernice and her sister, Helene McQuade, were inspired by the art and story of their mother, Esther Nisenthal Krinitz, a Holocaust survivor who depicted her experiences as a young girl in Poland in a series of beautiful and deeply moving fabric panels. Recognizing the power of their mother’s art to change hearts and minds, they created Art and Remembrance as a testament to their mother’s legacy and a means to share her work and those of others like her who depicted their experiences as victims of war, oppression and injustice. Since its founding in 2003, the organization has created a traveling exhibit of Esther Krinitz's art, which is currently on display at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore. Art and Remembrance has also published an award-winning book, "Memories of Survival," and recently completed a film about Esther Krinitz, "Through the Eye of the Needle." The film debuted in December 2011 at the Washington Jewish Film Festival, where it won the Audience Favorite Documentary award.

Until her retirement from federal service in July 2011, Bernice was a senior executive at the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), the investigative and analytic arm of the U. S. Congress. Over the course of two decades, she directed GAO's work on environmental, energy, and public health programs, as well as governmentwide management issues, testifying numerous times before the Congress. For several years, she was also responsible for leading GAO's strategic planning. Her work led to major improvements in the effectiveness of federal policies and programs as well as savings for taxpayers, for which she received a number of awards.