Celebrating Our Honorees | Montgomery College, Maryland

Honorary Degree Recipients 1996–2019

2015 Honorary Degree Recipients

Mr. Eliot Pfanstiehl
Chief Executive Officer Strathmore Hall Foundation, Inc

Mr. Eliot Pfanstiehl

Mr. Eliot Pfanstiehl is the CEO of Strathmore Hall Foundation, Inc., a multidisciplinary arts nonprofit based in Montgomery County. He has held this position since the foundation’s inception in 1983. Mr. Pfanstiehl led the successful effort to build the world-class music center, which opened in 2005 and celebrates its tenth anniversary in the 2014–2015 season.

Strathmore serves the community through a variety of arts and education programs, and maintains three presenting facilities. Its core campus is composed of the 2,000-seat Music Center at Strathmore, as well as the Mansion at Strathmore, which features an intimate Music Room. The latest addition to Strathmore is AMP, a 250-seat cabaret-style venue located several miles off the main campus in the burgeoning Pike District of Montgomery County. Nearly 100,000 patrons attend Strathmore-presented events each year. The Strathmore Student Concerts, a hallmark, have introduced more than 150,000 children to classical and jazz in the concert hall since 2004.

Mr. Pfanstiehl has been a founder, president, or chair of Montgomery County Arts Council, the Round House Theatre, the League of Washington Theatres, and Strathmore. His past board service includes the Friends of the Kennedy Center, Round House Theatre, Black Rock Arts Center, Cultural Alliance of Greater Washington, and Maryland Association of Nonprofit Organizations. He has served as chair of both the Maryland State Arts Council and Maryland Citizens for the Arts.

He was the founding president of Maryland Leadership Workshops and is the program facilitator for Leadership Maryland, Leadership Montgomery, Leadership Allegany, Leadership Washington County, and Leadership Southern Maryland. He is a graduate of the inaugural class of Leadership Washington.

Mr. Pfanstiehl has led more than 300 board and strategic planning retreats for a range of nonprofit civic, arts, and social service organizations, government agencies, and businesses.

He has been named Washingtonian of the Year and one of the Washington Business Journal’s People to Watch.

Born in Washington, DC, he and his wife, Cynthia, an anthropology professor at Montgomery College, live in Silver Spring. They are the proud parents of four grown children. He earned a BA in psychology from George Washington University.