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Peggy Kelly has served since 1991 as a Board Member and currently is Vice President of The Harry E. Bovay, Jr. Foundation, a private foundation supporting rural communities, education, and technology. As Director of the Clinical Services Division of Jewish Family & Career Services (JF&CS), a not-for-profit human services agency in Atlanta, GA, she oversees the Division’s program offerings, assessing existing programs and future trends to make decisions in the best interest of the agency and its clients, and manages a team of 23 professionals. Her previous experience includes work as an Employee Assistance Counselor for large health care agencies, private companies and in the public sector. She is a licensed professional counselor in the state of Georgia and holds a BS in Business Administration from the University of Arkansas and a MS in Behavioral Science from the University of South Alabama, where she graduated Magna Cum Laude.
Russell Norris (Treasurer) is a licensed CPA in North Carolina where he is employed as a Tax Manager for Grant Thornton LLP in Charlotte. A member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the North Carolina Association of Certified Public Accountants, Norris also serves on the Engage Charlotte Young Professionals Council Board – Charlotte Chamber of Commerce, on the Bright Blessings USA Advisory Board, and was a 2009-2011 member of the Generation Y Council Board – CenterCity 2020 Plan. He is an active volunteer in youth programs in the Charlotte area, including fundraising work for Bruns Avenue Elementary School, as an instructor for Junior Achievement, and with St. John’s Baptist Church. Norris earned a B.A. degree in Religion, with a minor in Chemistry from Wake Forest University, and a M.S. in Accountancy from the Cameron School of Business at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.
Robert K. Rutt is a tenor and pianist currently working as a member of the faculty and music director for mainstage productions of the American Conservatory Theatre (ACT) in San Franciso, CA. At ACT, Rutt has been musical arranger/pianist for numerous Young Conservatory composer tribute productions and Homefront, a new musical, and is currently working as musical director for Show Choir - the Musical. In the MFA program, he has been Musical Director for productions of Little Shop of Horrors, Sweet Charity, The Full Monty, and musical director for A Christmas Carol on the mainstage. He also teaches singing for the ACT MFA Program, and regularly accompanies classes for the Young Conservatory, Studio ACT, and the MFA Program. He has sung with Bel Canto Opera, The Beggar’s Opera, New York Lyric Opera, Manhattan Opera Theater, and was 1st tenor with San Francisco Opera chorus in 1990-93. Rutt made his Metropolitan Opera debut as Acrobat for their 1982 production of Parade and their 1984 production of Les Troyens, and also played Monsieur Reyer in the 1st National San Francisco Company of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera from 1993-99. As a pianist, he has toured the U.S. and Canada with The Cosmopolitans, an operatic trio; played in recital and cabaret, and was Assistant Musical Director for the Bel Canto Opera production of Les Deux Journees; Musical Director/Pianist for Airline Theater Wing’s production of Kiss Me Kate, and Music Theater International’s production of I Do! I Do!. He holds a Bachelor of Music Performance Degree in Voice with a minor in private studio teaching and piano accompanying from Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa, and has studied both voice and dance privately in New York and San Francisco.
Loretta Washam (Secretary) is a retired human resources executive who worked with various departments and divisions of the Bell Telephone System from 1956 to 1991. Washam’s experience includes management level work in the EEO and Affirmative Action areas in AT&T’s human resources division in New York; Marketing Statistical Analysis, EEO compliance, training and assessment of management employees in Southern Bell/BellSouth Headquarters in Atlanta; and as Director of Management Training for North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky for BellSouth - headquartered in Charlotte. Her work also focused on team-building and regulatory compliance. As a longtime member of Charlotte’s Amity Presbyterian Church, she has served as an Elder for two separate 3-year terms and chaired the church Session’s administration committee, where she managed two pastoral transitions and recruitment and evaluation of staff. She currently serves as chairperson of the Endowment Fund Committee at Amity. Loretta holds a B.A. degree from Brevard College.
William Watkins (Chairman) is a performing arts professional who has produced or co-produced theatre and live performance events including the 2008 Oscar Hammerstein Award for Lifetime Achievement in Musical Theatre, Off-Broadway’s musical Thrill Me, and cabaret revue performances in New York and the Philadelphia area. For network television, he has produced news pieces broadcast nationally on CBS. As a performer he has appeared on stages in New York and regionally as an actor and singer, including seven productions of the American Composer Series, and on television’s Saturday Night Live. Watkins is a former member of the board of New York’s York Theatre Company. He is an ordained elder and serves on the Session of Charlotte’s Amity Presbyterian Church as chair of the Worship and Music Committee. He holds a B.A. degree in Communications from Southwestern at Memphis (now Rhodes College), a M.Div. degree from the General Theological Seminary, and has studied voice, acting, and dance privately in New York. Watkins served for several years as a chaplain for AIDS patients in urban hospital settings and with HIV-positive homeless and I.V. drug users for an interfaith project of a social services agency in New York. He is a member of Actors Equity Association, SAG-AFTRA, and ASCAP as both a composer/arranger and publisher.
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