BOARD OF DIRECTORS

    Kate Becker Capital Campaign Director
Kate is a co-founder and the original Program Director of the Vera Project. In 1992, she founded the Old Fire House Teen Center in Redmond, which served more than 25,000 young people annually in the decade she administered the program. Kate has been working with adolescents since she was an adolescent. In September 2005, the Recording Academy awarded Kate the prestigious Grammy Honor award for her work with young people in the music community.

    Garth Brewe
Bio coming soon.

    Samuel L. Chesneau
While a student at the University of Washington, Samuel was one of the co-founders of the Student Hip-Hop Organization of Washington (SHOW), a non-profit UW campus organization, and has been an active force in the hip hop community as a music journalist and by working with several organizations promoting shows, organizing special events and assisting artists in management functions.

    Timie Ann Dolan
Timie is currently the Marketing Manager for public radio station, KEXP. She started in record retail out of high school and eventually moved from Eastern Washington to Seattle 7 years ago. She has worked locally at Easy Street Records and for Universal Music Distribution before joining KEXP 4 years ago. Outside of music Timie enjoys spending time with her husband Scott and 2 step sons, Piper (8) and Gage (6), with whom she shares a love of all things Star Wars and Black Sabbath.

    Ryann Donnelly
A recent high school graduate, Ryann now attends the University of Washington and spends most of her free time involved with music in Seattle. In addition to working with the Vera Project as a Board Member and active volunteer, she sings for Schoolyard Heroes (a semi-prominent local band) and studies opera in West Seattle. Through the Vera Project she hopes to see all-ages music thrive in the City of Seattle.

    Jerry Everard
Jerry is a lawyer-turned-nightclub-owner-turned-lawyer who became involved with the music business in Seattle in the late eighties when he co-founded Seattle's landmark music venue, the Crocodile Cafe. After selling his interest to the other founder in the early nineties, Jerry moved up to Capitol Hill, and opened up MOE's Mo’roc’n Cafe /Nightclub. After departing the music venue business for a couple years in the late nineties to start a family, Jerry returned with his wife Jane to purchase the Rendezvous Café and Jewel Box Theater in 2001. In 2004, Jerry and his partners reopened MOE as the music club Neumo’s Crystal Ball Reading Room and recently opened Spitfire in Belltown. Jerry still holds his day job at the law firm he started with fellow defectors from Davis Wright Tremaine and also runs several private real estate companies.

    Thomas Goldstein Mayor Greg Nickels’ Appointee
Thomas Goldstein, a Baltimore native, founded and is Directer Emeritus of the Service Board (tSB). Thomas is an organizational development consultant, (semi-)motivational speaker, and brown-belt fundraiser. Back in the day he was a founding board member of Bike Works and general election candidate for Seattle City Council. He aspires to land a very small acting part in Michel Gondry's next video.

    Terry Granillo Treasurer
Terry is a professional accountant and CPA. He works as Director of Finance & Administration at First Place in Seattle. He is a graduate of Seattle University's MBA program. Terry has been involved with Vera in an advisory role since 2000, and joined the Board in December 2001.

    Danielle Henderson Vice President
Danielle has worked with youth and music in Seattle for more than 10 years. She coordinates marketing for Pyramid Communications, a full-service communications firm specializing in nonprofits and progressive issues. Prior to joining Pyramid, Danielle managed the volunteer and internship programs, grants and employee recruitment at One Reel, where she initiated the Free For All program partnership between One Reel and Vera. Danielle began her career at 15 as a founding member of an all-ages, nonprofit concert production group with whom she traveled to Vladivostok, Russia, to speak with youth about music and activism. She continued her involvement in music as a manager of local hip-hop and soul artists, coordinating album releases and a west coast tour. Danielle speaks Japanese and moonlights as an interpreter, model, and server at her family’s Caribbean restaurant. She graduated from Garfield High School and holds a B.A. in political science from the University of Washington.

    Calla Hummel
Calla has been volunteering at Vera since she was in middle school. She is now a student in the International Studies department at the UW and still loves Vera like her own mother. Calla has been involved in community organizing since she was 14. Since then she has directed two of the the Bend-It! Extravaganza’s queer youth art festivals, been a lead intern with Seattle Young People’s Project, worked as RainyDawg Radio’s Promotions Coordinator, taught racism, safe sex, homophobia, and youth organizing workshops through three different organizations, and generally tried to be an engaged young person. In her free time, Calla is a sound-engineer-in-training at Chop Suey.

    Kate Jackson
Kate is the Public Relations Manager for the not for profit One Reel, producers of Bumbershoot, Teatro ZinZanni, WaMu Family 4th, and the Summer Nights Concert Series. Before joining One Reel, Kate worked at Vandenberg Communications. From the Vote for Change Tour to Seattle’s YouthCare, Kate’s background is in strategic communications in arts and entertainment and the not for profit sector. She brings with her experience from a wide range of event planning, youth voter activation campaigns, philanthropic strategy, and national and regional press campaigns. Kate has also been a key organizer of one of the Vera Project’s largest fundraisers to date, A Drink for the Kids. Kate views the Vera Project as an integral part of the artistic health of the city of Seattle, and looks forward to being a part of its evolution.

    Megan Jasper President
Megan currently works at Sub Pop as the label’s General Manager. She was a board member for SCBWI (Society of Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators) for four years and spent ten years as a volunteer and/or board member for The Service Board. Megan loves working with musicians as well as kids and in her free time she spends time with her son, Vito Pepperoni.

    Glenn Lorbecki
Glenn is a producer, studio owner, composer, musician, educator, and dad. His career spans four decades and includes such projects as the Violent Femmes, Dizzy Gillespie, Goo Goo Dolls, Weezer, White Stripes, Franz Ferdinand, and other Grammy-nominated projects. Glenn is the President/CEO of Seattle’s Glenn Sound studios, and performs with Tony Gable and 206.

    Cindy "Sid" Peterson
Cindy is passionate about young people's rights to cultural expression and political voice, and to this end, has helped create access to relevant resources for over 12 years. She is currently directing the Kirkland Teen Union Building and has worked with various organizations in the region including the Redmond Old Firehouse, Bellevue's Ground Zero, and the Seattle Young People's Project. She is active with a variety of community groups and projects including The Descendants Project, The Bikery, Travel Queeries, Bent, and Skate Like A Girl. Cindy was an original Vera Project volunteer and was a founding Board Member in 2001-2002. She left the Board of Directors in 2002 to finish her law degree at the University of Victoria in British Columbia. She is excited to be back for another term. Viva Vera! She also plays the guitar, keyboard, and keytar, and is an aspiring graphic designer.

    Chris Price
Chris is a Seattle native and grew up in the south end. With over 12 years in the IT side of business and banking services, he currently holds the position of First Vice President for Washington Mutual Bank' Finance organization. Prior to that, he worked with "Avenue A" a local internet marketing and advertising company; helping to build their technical business. Having lived in Seattle for a majority of his professional career Chris have also grown up through organizations like Microsoft and KPMG Peat Marwick. Chris and his 4 year old son and currently live in the Green lake area; his son will be attending pre-school this year.

    Sarina Roscigno
Sarina is an 18-year old student in Renton, WA currently attending Bellevue Community College through the Running Start program. Since moving to the Seattle area in 2000, Sarina has become heavily involved with the local all-ages music community, primarily through her involvement with the Vera Project over the last two years. Outside of Vera she runs the "painfully small" record label Bathtub Recordings and continues to book and promote shows in area basements, living rooms and other venues. Sarina is one of three representatives of Vera's youth constituency that serve on the Board.

    Leigh Sims
Leigh handles media relations and community outreach at Sightline Institute, a think tank on Northwest issues from sprawl to human health to wildlife. She brings more than 10 years of experience with non profits organizations including KCTS Public Television and Mamafest, an annual breast-cancer awareness, music, and snowboarding event. When she¹s not geeking out at the think tank, or at a show herself, Leigh and her husband, Steven Severin, produce and promote rock and hip-hop shows around town as Wake Up Productions, and are part owners of Neumo's music venue.

    Bill Spence
Bill brings years of small non-profit organizational experience to the Vera BOD. This experience includes co-founding an advocacy organization, serving on a variety of non-profit Boards, and holding several different staff position with Transportation Choices Coalition. Bill works with young adults as the Manager of Workforce Education at Seattle Central Community College, and is a part time musician.

    Ari Spool Secretary
Ari is originally from Andover, MA. After moving to Washington, DC when she was 17, Ari worked at the University of Maryland’s Usability Department with Alison Druin on an informational hierarchy system for children. At 18, Ari graduated high school and moved to Seattle, eventually finding work at the Vera Project, a collectively run not-for-profit music venue for young people. This position led to other work, including writing for Music for America, a national non-profit dedicated to getting young people politically involved, and ROCKRGRL Magazine, a magazine devoted to women in the music industry, and interning at Sub Pop Records and with the writer Everett True. Ari is now a staff member at the Stranger, working in the music department and regularly rocking out hardcore.



THE VERA PROJECT STAFF

    Shannon Roach Executive Director
Shannon brings a decade of youth and arts administration experience to the Vera. Before her work at Vera, Shannon was the Program Coordinator of The Old Fire House, a governmental nonprofit with a primary focus on music and the arts. Shannon's other experience includes work with The Henry Gallery and On the Boards Theater. Shannon has an unwavering dedication to the power of music and the arts as means to encourage and support young people.

    Melissa Quayle Programming Director
A Seattle native, Melissa has spent time as Production Manager of Neumos, Marketing and Office Manager at Jasiri Media Group, and has worn almost every hat in the realms of event planning, promotion and management in venues ranging from small clubs to large festivals. Melissa started as a youth volunteer at Vera in 2001 and worked as a Show Manager from 2003 to 2005. She spends most of her time double dutching and teaching others how to jump rope.

    Vanessa Gibbons Operations Manager
A Seattle native, Vanessa attended college in NYC at Eugene Lang College after graduating from Garfield High School. She has been involved with and led many community projects with organizations such as The Service Board, AmeriCorps and Vera. Vanessa is committed to supporting positive organizations in the Seattle scene.

    Nick Turner Development Manager
Nick moved to Seattle after attending Pitzer College in Claremont, CA. Since then he has been working at local independent record stores, co-hosting Sonic Reducer, KEXP FM's weekly punk radio show and playing music. Nick began volunteering at Vera in 2001, worked as a Show Manager from 2002 to 2005 and assisted with grant writing on a volunteer basis in 2004.