Board of Directors

Jamie Perosi-Doughty, Director

See Jamie's bio on the JEA Staff page here.

Peggy Jo Donahue, Director

Owner, Donahue & Associates
Content Creation and Social Networking
Peggy Jo Donahue is the owner of Donahue & Associates, Content Creation and Social Networking. She works with a variety of clients both within and outside the worldwide jewelry and gemstone industries. She previously worked as Director of the MJSA Education Foundation, MJSA Director of Public Affairs, and Jewelers of America Director of Public Affairs. Donahue also served as Editor in Chief of both Professional Jeweler and JCK magazines. She is the author of four books, and serves on a number of industry boards and advisory councils.

Rev. Dr. Joyce Phipps, Esq., Director

Rev. Dr. Joyce A. Phipps is an attorney and director of Cada de Esperanza, which provides legal representation to immigrants and their families with DHS/USCIS and DOJ. She is also minister of the Old First Church of Middletown, NJ.

Attorney Joyce Antila Phipps has also been active in a number of immigration related organizations, such as IRATE/First Friends (focusing on detention issues) and the New Jersey Immigration Policy Network as well as the Rutgers Campus Protestant Ministry, the New Jersey Council of Churches, the NJ Interfaith Partnership for Disaster Recovery assisting victims of 9-11 and massive flooding in New Jersey, the Union County Human Relations Commision, the Plainfield Health Center Advisory Board, and Faith, Bricks & Mortar (rehab housing in Plainfield), an has been active in GLBT housing and ministry works.

She is also a published author, and assists with the training and supervision of staff and law school students. Rev. Dr. Phipps develops and presents professional training and workshops for service providers, clergy, community and government leaders.

Michael Coan, Director

For over 35 years, Michael Coan has been involved with the Jewelry Industry; his training, both formal and informal, includes bench work, sales, design, manufacturing and production, including business management and ownership. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the State University of New York at Albany, in the areas of studio art, jewelry design, theatre design and Art History. From Albany, he proceeded to the University of Bridgeport, Conn to continue a scholastic interest in Industrial Design. In 1977, Michael received his Graduate Gemologist Certificate from the GIA, New York.

His work career includes a Bloomingdale's in the Glass, Silver and China department; in the fine jewelry department at Christie, Manson and Woods, under the direction of M. Francois Curiel, as a staff gemologist, catalogue production and client relations; Fred Leighton, an emporium specializing in antique, period and fine jewels, as sales assistant manager and gemologist. Michael spent nine years with the House of Julius Cohen, Jeweler, Madison Avenue, New York, as executive assistant to the owner/designer/salesman-extraordinaire, Mr. Julius Cohen. This was a private salon-based establishment in the refined style of private clientele-based retail founded in 1954 with an exclusive national and international clientele.

All the while, Michael had been honing his skill in manufacturing and price analysis, the history and psychology of jewelry and ornamentation and appraisal sciences. In 1986, Michael opened and is current president of Michael S. Coan, GG. Inc., a consulting firm specializing in price and business structuring and the appraisal of jewelry and objets de vertu. In that same year, he accepted a position of adjunct Assistant Professor in the Jewelry Design Department at the Fashion Institute of Technology, NY and, from 2001 to 2015, was the Chair of the Jewelry Design Department; currently, he is the director of the Certificate of Gemology, and conducts courses in Gemology, Diamond Grading, Principles of Appraising, Cost Estimation and Changes and Tend, and is avidly active in program development. Mr. Coan has also organized and participated in symposia related to the various aspects of the Jewelry Industry for FIT and has offered specialized seminars and workshops for various trade organizations including JA , MJSA and various mineralogical societies.