Robert S. "Bobby" Kadis, Raleigh – Chair

Bobby was appointed to the Arts Council board in 1993 and has served as its Chair since 2005. He is a founder and former President of Centrex Properties, Inc., a commercial real estate development and management firm. Bobby is a potter and is a trustee and past Chair of Penland School of Crafts and currently serves on the board of the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies. He is a past director of the Goldsboro Community Arts Council (now Arts Council of Wayne County), past president of the Wayne County Boys Club and trustee of its endowment fund, and former member or director of a variety of other community organizations.

Jim Barnhill, Greensboro

Born in Asheville, Jim Barnhill received his Bachelor's degree in Art Education from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1977. After his undergraduate work, he spent a year of study in Marburg, Germany and traveled extensively. In 1982 Jim received his Master of Fine Arts degree in Sculpture from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, studying the figure under the late Peter Agostini. He works from the live model, sculpting both fully in the round as well as in relief. Jim has successfully executed work for corporate, public, liturgical, and garden settings. More than a mere copy of the human body, his work seeks to marry the abstract principles of design and composition to the natural form of the figure making his work both engaging and inviting. He currently teaches as an Assistant Professor of Art at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in Greensboro, N.C.

Kristin Bernhardt Cooper, Raleigh

Kristin is a part-time attorney and full-time mother of three daughters. She also shares her Raleigh home with her husband, Roy, two Shelties, and two cats. Kristin grew up in Oklahoma where her father was a family doctor and her mother was a painter. She is very involved with local community theater and is on the Board of Directors of North Raleigh Arts and Creative Theatre.

Marchell Adams David, Rockingham

Marchell is the City Manager of Hamlet. She is an Adjunct Professor at UNC-Pembroke and a former member of the UNC General Alumni Association Board of Directors. She led the successful $11.3 million relocation and restoration project of the Hamlet Passenger Depot. She is currently leading the efforts to restore the historic Hamlet Opera House. When restoration is complete, the Opera House will take on its new role as the Hamlet Performing Arts and Community Civic Center. Marchell was named the Lumber River Council of Government's Manager of the Year in 2005 and currently is on the Board of Directors for the Hamlet Performing Arts and Community Civic Center and is a member of the Richmond County Arts Council.

Jill Dinwiddie, Charlotte

Jill has thirty years of experience in higher education administration, government service, and non-profit leadership. She has directed the administrative, counseling, and programming centers for foreign students and scholars at UNC-Chapel Hill and the University of Texas, Austin. After moving to California in 1990, she served as Northern California Finance Director for Dianne Feinstein's 1992 U.S. Senate campaign. From 1995-99 she was a principal of Belvedere Partners, a Bay Area search firm. She was Vice Chair of the East Bay Community Foundation Board, a Director of the Chabot Space and Science Center and on the Advisory Board of the Institute of International Education. In October 2003, Jill and her husband Bernie Hargadon moved to Charlotte. Jill worked on Erskine Bowles campaign for U.S. Senate and on Bev Perdue's campaign for Governor. She has just been appointed Executive Director of the N.C. Council for Women/Domestic Violence Commission. Jill has served on the board of Lillian's List of North Carolina and Carolinas Concert Association and currently serves on the Board of Levine Museum of the New South and Planned Parenthood Health Systems.

Laura Edwards, Chapel Hill

Laura is president of New Rhythms, Inc., an independent video and film production company. She is a trustee and treasurer of the Julian Price Family Foundation, development chair and board member of Penland School of Crafts and co-founder and development chair of Lillian's List of North Carolina. Laura is active in the annual Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in Durham.

Philip Gerard, Wilmington

Philip is a writer and professor of Creative Writing at UNC-Wilmington. He was a North Carolina Arts Council fellowship award winner in 1993 and has served on the Council's literature panels as well as selections panels for the Ragdale Foundation and the Arizona Commission on the Arts. Philip has also served on the board of Associated Writing Programs, including as chairman of the Program Directors' Council and president of the board. He was the Blumenthal Series Winner in 1989 and 1994, Bread Loaf Fellow in Fiction in 1982 and 1987, and a nominee for the Ernest Hemingway First Novel Prize in 1986. Philip also has received several awards and other recognition for teaching excellence. He is the author of eight books of fiction and nonfiction, has scripted eleven documentaries for UNC-TV and currently has a novel and a collection of essays in progress.

Lee Carol Giduz, Lenoir

Lee Carol is the Executive Director of the Caldwell Arts Council in Lenoir. She is a 1999 fellow in the prestigious William C. Friday Fellowship program. She is active in her community where she serves on the Advisory Board for the J. E. Broyhill Civic Center. Statewide, Lee Carol serves on the Advisory Board for the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, the grants panel for the Blue Ridge National Heritage Area, and is an executive board member of Western Arts Agencies of North Carolina (WAANC). She is a past board member of ARTS North Carolina.

Murray C. "Tripp" Greason III, Winston-Salem

Tripp is the pro bono director of the law firm Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, PLLC. He currently serves on several boards including Winston-Salem Exchange Club/SCAN Child Abuse Prevention Center of North Carolina, Inc., the Partnership for a Drug-Free North Carolina, the Board of Trustees for the Arts Council of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County, the Downtown Arts District Association, the Winston-Salem Downtown Rotary, the Wake Forest University School of Law Community Law and Business Development Clinic Advisory Board, and the Board of Directors for the National MS Society. Special recognitions include the Trail Lawyers for Public Justice Award for his pro bono work on behalf of 9/11 victims and the 2008 Business Leader Media Pro Bono Impact Award. Tripp is an American Bar Foundation Fellow.

Harry Harrison, Asheville

Harry is executive director for the YMI Cultural Center in Asheville. He has also served as President and CEO of the African American Museum in Philadelphia, Vice President for Education and Public Programming and then as Vice President of Museum Operations at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit, Michigan. He served as Interim Executive Director of the Afro-American Cultural Center in Charlotte, N.C. Over the course of 19 years, he served in various capacities at the South Carolina Arts Commission. Recent civic appointments include the African American Heritage Commission, the Blue Ridge National Heritage Area, UNC-Asheville Foundation, Inc., Public Art Board for the City of Asheville, and Progress Energy-Community Energy Advisory Council.

Stephen Hill, Kinston

Stephen is president of Hillco, Ltd., CEO of Discovery Insurance Company and Chairman of Mother Earth Brewing, all in Kinston. He is a former president of the Community Council for the Arts (Lenoir County), and is chairman of Arendell Parrott Academy. Stephen has served on several non-profit boards and is in the process of the revitalization of his second building in downtown Kinston. Stephen was the recipient of the Paul Harris Fellow Award by the Kinston Rotary in 2009. Stephen is a member of several national and North Carolina associations. Stephen graduated from Lee's McRae College in Banner Elk and attended Appalachian State University. After college Stephen worked for the United States Congress where he met his lovely wife Holly.

Marie Junaluska, Cherokee

Marie speaks Cherokee fluently and writes the Sequoyah syllabary. She presents educational programs throughout North Carolina and the southeast where she introduces the Cherokee language, leads activities based on Cherokee history and culture, and teaches songs in Cherokee. Marie is an outstanding translator and educator and has worked with Special Collections at Western Carolina University and has served as a consultant on many projects including the permanent exhibits at the Museum of the Cherokee Indian and the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.

Lee Keesler, Charlotte

Lee is the retired former President & CEO of the Arts & Science Council in Charlotte. While in that role, he served as president of the Greater Charlotte Cultural Trust and as Vice Chair of the United Arts Fund Council of Americans for the Arts. In addition to the N.C. Arts Council board, he currently serves on the Board of Trustees of Queens University of Charlotte. He is a former SVP and Commercial Bank Executive for Wachovia Bank's Carolinas and Georgia regions prior to joining ASC. A native of Charlotte, Lee is a graduate of Duke University and holds a Master's Degree in Business Administration from Wake Forest University's Babcock Graduate School of Management. He and his wife, Garrell, have a son, Andrew, and a daughter, Anne Chambers.

Pedro Lasch, Durham

Pedro is Assistant Research Professor (Drawing, Painting and Multimedia) in the Department of Art, Art History and Visual Studies at Duke University. In addition to his individual work in a wide range of disciplines including drawing, painting, video, installation and performance, he leads on-going projects with immigrant communities and art collectives. His work has been published and shown internationally at both alternative and mainstream institutions, such as The Queens Museum of Art, The Baltimore Museum of Art, MassMOCA, The Gwangju Biennial (South Korea) and many others. He received his BFA from The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, New York, NY. Lasch was born and raised in Mexico City, and has since lived in New York and Durham. For Fall 2009 and Spring 2010, he will be based in London on a research sabbatical from Duke University.

Bernard "Bernie" Mann, Greensboro

Bernie is owner and publisher of Our State: Down Home in North Carolina magazine. A long time promoter of North Carolina's rich cultural tradition and the arts, he was honored with the Charles Kuralt Media Award for his contribution to the promotion of North Carolina in 2003. Prior to his role as publisher of Our State magazine, Bernie owned and operated 12 radio stations in North Carolina, Virginia and Arkansas. He is a past board member of both the N.C. Shakespeare Festival and Eastern Music Festival, past President/board member of the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra and past President of the Greensboro Rotary Club. He received his BA at Adelphi University in Garden City, N.Y., and attended Harvard Business School in Cambridge, Mass.

Assad Meymandi, Raleigh

Assad is a physician in private practice of neurology and psychiatry in Raleigh. He is Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry, UNC Medical School in Chapel Hill. Besides practice and teaching, he lectures and writes editorials and articles for lay and medical journals and is founding editor and editor-in-chief of Wake County Physician, now in its 15th year of publication. His monthly column "Meymandi At Large" is now syndicated. He has served on the boards of the North Carolina Symphony, the Raleigh Chamber Music Guild, the Triangle Opera Company, the Opera N.C., the N.C. Ballet and other civic organizations. Assad is a trustee of the National Humanities Center, where the Meymandi Philanthropic Program has endowed the Meymandi Fellowship to bridge the gap between basic sciences, the arts and humanities. Four Nobel Prize laureates have been among the Meymandi Fellow at the Center. He also serves on the board of the N.C. Humanities Council and is a former board member of the United Arts Council of Raleigh and Wake County and the Raleigh Oratorio Society. He received the Raleigh Medal of Arts in 2000 and was a recipient of the Order of the Long Leaf Pine in 2004. The Meymandi Concert Hall in Raleigh's downtown center for the performing arts is named in honor of Assad's mother. His passion for live theater led to his endowing the Meymandi Burning Coal Theater at Murphey School in Raleigh. The Meymandi philanthropy program has named many University Chairs. Among them are the Dr. Assad Meymandi Distinguished Chair of Psychiatry at UNC-Chapel Hill and the Dr. Assad Meymandi and Family Andre Malraux Chair of 18th century French Literature at the Sorbonne, University of Paris, France. He is in the process of endowing the Meymandi Chair of Ideas and Curiosity for the UNC System where the best and brightest members of the faculty from all 16 campuses may benefit from the endowment and reach their maximum intellectual potentials. The N.C. Museum of Art pavilion for touring exhibits in the new museum complex is named for Meymandi's father.

Violeta Moser, Charlotte

Violeta is an independent market research and training consultant. She assists her clients to develop culturally sensitive marketing strategies and training programs for the Hispanic/Latino sectors. She is President of the Board of the Latin American Women's Association and serves on the boards of the YMCA and Child Care Resources. Violeta is a William C. Friday Fellow for Human Relations and an alumna of the American Leadership Forum and Leadership Charlotte.

Janet Parks, Fayetteville

Janet is a painter and art educator who developed and coordinated advanced studio art curriculum and innovative humanities and art programs for North Carolina and Virginia school systems. She continues to assist exceptionally gifted students with professional portfolio preparations, career selections and scholarships in the arts. Janet is chairman of the Beth Bryan Creative Arts Scholarship of the Cumberland Community Foundation, a member of the Fayetteville Art League and past president of the Arts Council of Fayetteville/Cumberland County and the Fayetteville Museum of Art.

Richard Ritter, Bakersville

Richard is a prominent glass artist who has served on the board and taught at Penland School of Crafts. Among his many awards are fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1984 and the N.C. Arts Council in 2001, and he was invited to contribute to the first permanent White House Crafts Collection. Richard received the Governor's Award for Volunteer Service in 1999 for his months-long recovery efforts after Bakersville suffered from a devastating flood.

Thomas S. Sayre, Raleigh

Thomas is a well-known artist who lives in Raleigh. He is one of the founding principals of Clearscapes, a multi-disciplinary design firm. He is the recipient of numerous awards including the Design Guild Regional Award from N.C. State University's College of Design, the Sam Ragan Fine Arts Award in 2008, and the Raleigh Medal of Arts in 2000. He was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts grant in 1995. Thomas has recently completed public commissions in Oregon, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, Phoenix, Arizona, Maryland, and in Turkey and Thailand.

Joan Womble Stone, Greensboro

Joan is a president-elect of the Weatherspoon Art Museum Association board. She is a former president of the board of Green Hill Center for North Carolina Art and her husband is a current board member.

Louise Toppin, Durham

Louise is professor and chair of the voice area at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and director of Videmus, a nonprofit arts organization committed to educational and collaborative projects on the repertoire of African-American, women and under-represented composers. She has received critical acclaim for her operatic, orchestral, recital and oratorio performances in the United States, Japan, China, Uruguay, New Zealand, Czech Republic, Sweden, England, Spain, Scotland, Bermuda, the Caribbean and Colombia. She can be heard on 15 commercial recordings of American music (on Albany, Centaur and Cambria records). Her newest solo CD, Heart on the Wall (art songs with orchestra by African-American composers), is due for release in spring 2011. She was a finalist in the Munich International Competition and the Metropolitan Opera regional auditions. She has appeared in recital on many concert series including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center. Dr. Toppin is a graduate of UNC-CH (B.M. piano); Peabody Conservatory (M.M. piano, M.M. voice); and the University of Michigan (D.M.A. voice).

Richard Whittington, Greensboro

Rich has served as managing director of Triad Stage since its inception nine years ago. He earned an MFA in Theatre Management from the Yale School of Drama and has a BFA in Acting and Directing from Marymount Manhattan College. He has previously served on the boards of ArtsNC and Downtown Greensboro, Inc. and has served on numerous grant panels throughout the state as well as for the National Endowment for the Arts. Rich has taught Theatre Management at Greensboro College and N.C. A&T University and has guest lectured at UNC Chapel Hill, N.C. School of the Arts, Wake Forest University and UNC Greensboro. A native of Dallas, Texas, Rich previously served as Managing Director for the Ensemble Company for the Performing Arts (ECPA), as Artistic Administrator for the Dallas Theater Center and Associate Producer of Dallas' The Big D Festival of the Unexpected. Prior experience also includes work at the Roundabout Theatre in New York and StageWest in Springfield, Mass.

Lynn York, Chapel Hill

Lynn York is a writer and a teacher. She is the author of two novels, The Piano Teacher (2004) and The Sweet Life (2007). She teaches writing at NC State University, High Point University and Duke Continuing Education and has led workshops for adults across the state and regionally. A graduate of Duke University, she earned an MBA and MA in Communications from the University of Texas at Austin. She is a managing partner for LBG Properties, LLC and serves on the board of the Arts Society of the North Carolina Museum. She has been a Scholar at the Sewanee Writers' Conference and a Fellow at the UNC Institute for the Arts and Humanities. She lives in Chapel Hill.