WAMO’s board of directors is a diverse group with a range of experience in the arts, business, community planning development, and nonprofit management. A brief biography for each board member is presented below.
Officers
President
Elizabeth Burden
For 20 years, Liz has worked with non-profit organizations, as a staff person and as a consultant; her expertise lies in organizational development, strategic planning, program planning, curriculum development, and facilitation. She has worked with and in a diverse range of organizations, in the arts, media, as well as health and human services. The common thread that runs through all her work is helping people to be catalysts for change within organizations and in communities.
She is also a visual and media artist with a studio in the Tucson Historic Warehouse Arts District. Her artwork is an extension of her first career in broadcast journalism. Installations feature traditional and non-traditional media—painting, sculpture, video, web, and other art forms. Her work is about race, about being a woman of color in the world, and the festering wound, the not-quite-healed scar, the damaged psyche, the unfinished discussion, and the barely-started dialogue that is race in America. In doing her work, she attempts to use old and new media in new ways, to look at old realities anew, and to confront those realities, reflect upon them, shape them, and transform them through art. She received her BFA in Studio Art from the University of Arizona, and BA in Journalism from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Vice President
Simon Donovan
Simon is well-known in Tucson–as well as nationally– for his public artworks; his Diamondback Bridge has been voted “Best Public Art” in the Tucson Weekly’s Best of Tucson poll every year since 2003. In addition to that work, he has received many other public art commissions, including Tucson Modern Street Car Stations, Master Plan and unique stop public art (current); Mountain Avenue Improvement, Tucson, Engraved boulders with Native American poetry; and the Woods Memorial Branch Library, 101″Flying books”. Simon’s fine art practice includes painting, sculpture, installations, video, and live performance.
He earned his BFA from Rhode Island School of Design and his MFA from the Transart Institute at Donau University, Austria. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2002 Arizona Arts Award (Community Foundation of Southern Arizona); Federal Highway Award of Excellence in Design, 2002; 2003 Public Works Project of the Year, American Public Works Association; and Americans for the Arts, Public Art Review 2003.
Collection with his works include the Tucson Museum of Art, City of Tucson, City of Phoenix, City of Mesa, Town of Oro Valley, Tucson International Airport Authority, and The White House, Washington, DC.
Secretary
Elizabeth Albert
Treasurer
Kathy Wooldridge, Toole Shed Studios representative
Members
Kathy Bennen, El Presidio Neighborhood representative
Kathy came to Tucson from Nogales to attend the University of Arizona. She has been a resident of El Presidio Neighborhood for 12 years and recently purchased a home directly across from the USA building on 6th Street. She chose to live downtown because she loves the vibrancy and sense of community this area has to offer.
Sally Krommes
Sally works for Tucson Pima Arts Council as its Public Art & Events Coordinator.
Robert Lanning
Alec Laughlin, Citizens Warehouse representative
Iris Patten
Currently an assistant professor at the University of Arizona in the School of Landscape Architecture and Planning. Iris earned a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Maryland in Environmental Science and Policy, a Masters Degree in Urban Planning from the University of Florida and is completing her PhD in Design, Construction and Planning, with a focus on Urban and Regional Planning, also from the University of Florida. She specializes in land use analysis and scenario modeling, community planning, and international planning
For the past four years, Iris’ research has included applying the Land Use Conflict Identification Strategy (LUCIS) to various growth management dilemmas in the state of Florida. LUCIS is a land use simulation strategy that considers the intrinsic value of land when determining the most appropriate locations for future development. Her research includes using LUCIS to determine the attractiveness of regions to accommodate knowledge based industries and has applied LUCIS in regional visioning exercises across the state of Florida.
Current research includes understanding the connection between land use and economic growth and the impacts to growth and land use suitability after regional and local events (i.e., transit and changes in growth policy) occur. She is the principal investigator for completion of the first comprehensive plan for the Tohono O’odham Nation in Arizona. Previous research has been funded by the US Environmental Protection Agency and state and regional agencies and organizations.
Kurt Tallis
Painter and sculptor Kurt Tallis is also the Marketing/Event Director for the Fourth Avenue Merchants Association. In this role, he is responsible for management and operations of the twice-yearly Fourth venue Street Fair. He is also a businessman, the president/owner of a medical practice run by his wife Dr. Monica Diamos OD. Kurt is a member of the boards of directors for the West University Neighborhood Association and for the Old Pueblo Trolley, and is founding member of FEAT (Festival Events Association of Tucson).
Ann Vargas
Kylie Walzak, BICAS representative