thank you all for the help!
my first choice from investigating all the info that came from your specific recommendations and the online list above would have been Fran, not only because of her obvious knowledge, but because she has been so helpful to me here on AZ.
but it's impossible to ignore the logistics of Roy Pastor being barely an hour east of me on Rt 2, which i ply regularly anyway. so i put an email in to Roy on Saturday morning; haven't heard back yet.
again, thank you all for the recommendations, and i'll keep you posted on the further adventures.