Board of Directors

Charlie Hersman (he/him) joined PGMC in 2016, shortly after moving to Portland. He found the chorus while searching for gay men’s choruses in the area and knew he would join before even lining up a job or a place to live. Charlie brings an extensive background in business and organizational leadership to the board.

He owns Break Free Technology Consulting, where he draws on 20 years of experience to help companies and organizations navigate their strategic technology journeys. Deeply committed to supporting organization leaders from marginalized communities, Charlie is a super connector who is passionate about creating inclusive, high-trust partnerships that lead to meaningful growth.

David Silver (he/him) David Silver joins the PGMC Board of Directors with over 30 years of senior leadership experience in progressive human resources, training, and organizational & strategic business development. David moved to Portland from Kauai last year and immediately joined the chorus as a “proud baritone.” On Kauai, he served as Chairperson of the Board for the Kauai Performing Arts Center and sang with 2 community choirs for 10 years.
David’s passion for PGMC is driven by the incredible chorus talent and artistic leadership, its mission to honor and uplift the LGBTQ+ community and the chorus’s positive, embracing nature. A long-time supporter of the arts and social justice, he looks forward to contributing his expertise towards growing our effective and efficient organization, building our presence in Portland and beyond and supporting outreach. His focus is making PGMC an even better place to participate and/or work and strategically building towards its future. In a long-distance, long-term relationship, David happily resides in Vancouver, WA with his dog Ronnie.

Grant Vermillion (he/him) is a long-term supporter of PGMC, having attended nearly all of PGMC’s performances over the last decade; and is excited at the opportunity to officially join the organization as a Board member. Professionally, Grant works in the Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning (AI/ML) space as a Senior ML Scientist, where he helps companies, organizations, and governments leverage state-of-the-art AI/ML techniques and their existing data to solve problems and streamline processes. Grant has also served as Board Treasurer for Transpose PDX–a gender-affirming community choir in Portland–for the past two years. He hopes to bring this diverse skillset and his advocacy for the LGBTQ+ community to PGMC to help the chorus find new data-driven opportunities and to build and strengthen relationships with other queer organizations in our community.

Matthew Woodburn (he/him) is the Senior Account Manager at Kaiser Permanente and has been a member pf their marketing and development team for more than ten years. Matthew’s introduction to PGMC came when he had the opportunity, as a high school student, to play the role of Bobby in Prayers for Bobby. Matthew is passionate about exploring his authentic and sober self and helping others find ways to live their best lives. Matthew’s favorite piece for PGMC to sing is For Good, from Wicked.

Lori Abrahams joined the board of PGMC during the winter of 2026. Prior to that, for over 5 years, she was an active member on the board of Silicon Valley Gay Men’s Chorus. She brings many years experience performing in choirs. Her years in choirs have taken her on 5 European tours, 2 tours of Canada and several tours of the west coast. Lori’s day job is an instructor in the Elementary Education Department at SJSU. She is a supervisor in charge of student teachers helping and guiding them on their journey to earning a Multiple Subject Teaching Credential.

Lori currently sings with PGMC and has since the fall of 2022. She is happily a Tenor 1 and she couldn’t be more excited to add her expertise to the behind the scenes of such an amazing performing group.