BOARD OF DIRECTORS
TAP enjoys the guidance and support of a very involved Board of Directors, 100% of whom contribute financially to TAP each year. Our board reflects a diversity of cultural backgrounds, income and experience.

Marnie Near (Chair)
Marketing Director, Pisces Foods
Marnie is originally from California and moved to Austin in 1995. She received a BS in Theatre Arts from Northwestern University and an MBA from Duke University. Having been involved with theatre as an actor, producer and director for many years, Marnie is passionate about the arts and the enormous impact they have on people's lives. Marnie is currently the Marketing Director for Pisces Foods and Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers and is actively involved with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and The Dell Children's Hospital. She lives in Austin with her two sons J.P. and Luke and husband Dave.

Alex Wettreich (Vice Chair)
Team Lead - Client Account Executives, Convio
Born in London, Alex emigrated to Dallas as a child, eventually moving to Austin to attend the University of Texas. After graduating with a B.A in History/Plan II Honors, he worked in strategy and account management roles at traditional and digital advertising agencies in both New York and Austin for 7 years, in addition to a spell consulting on the successful launch of Meetup.com. Alex has spent the last 8 years at Convio, a software and services provider serving the nonprofit community. In doing so, he has helped his nonprofit clients develop and run efficient and effective fundraising campaigns, prospect acquisition campaigns, advocacy programs, and other constituent engagement campaigns. Alex's wife Sonnet Blanton is a former TAP staffer who produces and directs theatre in Austin, where they live with their young son.

Kendall Pace (Treasurer)
Operations Consultant
Kendall is currently an independent operational consultant serving clients in a wide array of financial and strategic projects, particularly in health, education areas.  Prior to consulting, Kendall led the U.S. health portfolio for the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation (MSDF) leading health grant investments and fostering partnerships in the children’s health area and also simultaneously led the Grant Operations department at MSDF.  Prior to MSDF, she was a Director at Dell, Inc. where she led the corporate finance, structured finance and investment management functions.  Kendall received her B.B.A. with honors from the University of Texas at Austin and has lived in Austin for the past seventeen years with her husband.   Kendall loves working with kids and volunteers with elementary-age kids weekly to lead them in accelerated math concepts.  She has three sons and also enjoys running, climbing, and many of the creative arts, including oil painting, where she maintains a website and blog on her work.

Laura Buehler (Secretary)
Community Volunteer
Laura fell in love with theatre over 30 years ago while participating in Coleman Jennings‘ Creative Dramatics Summer Camp at the University of Texas.  Laura has a B.F.A. from the Goodman School of Drama at DePaul University.  Laura was a working actor in Chicago and appeared in several plays, commercials and voiceovers.  Laura moved to North Carolina with her husband, Eric, where she became a certified Montessori teacher and was part of opening the first Montessori school in Rocky Mount, North Carolina.  Since moving back to Austin, Laura has become a parent of Asa and Leila.  She has been very active in the St. Andrew’s Episcopal School community where she served as vice-president, and president of the Parents‘ Council.  Laura is honored to be a part of TAP; an organization that brings together three of her favorite things: theatre, children, and social change.

Raman N. Dewan
Partner, Jackson Walker, LLP
Raman received a B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Mississippi in 1983. After that he joined the Air Force and was stationed in San Antonio. While in San Antonio, he obtained an M.S. in Computer Science from Trinity University. Figuring he liked school so much, he left the Air Force in 1988 and convinced his wife, Becky, to move to Massachusetts to attend Harvard Law School. Upon graduation, they moved to Austin in 1991 and have been here since. Raman and Becky have three boys (ages 18, 14, and 10) whose interests run from film making to musical theater to sports and cooking. Raman is an intellectual property attorney at the firm of Jackson Walker L.L.P. When not lugging various film equipment around for his budding film maker, Raman likes to play golf.  

Leslie Erwin, LMSW
Social Worker, Communities in School
Leslie Erwin is a native of the Austin area and currently lives in South Austin with her husband, Tommy.  She received her Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology and Spanish from Southwestern University in Georgetown, TX and her Masters of Science in Social Work from the University of Texas at Austin.  Leslie has always been an avid lover of music, theatre and dance as she grew up dancing at Ballet Austin and performing in various plays, opera theatre productions and musicals.  Leslie is now a Licensed Master Social Worker for Communities in Schools and works with elementary school children in East Austin.  In her free time, she sings in a jazz band, Blue Channel Jazz Quartet, and enjoys the live music scene in Austin.

Ann S. Graham
Independent Arts Consultant
Ann S. Graham dedicates her professional life to promoting a culturally rich and livable built environment dba as People + Art = Building Community.  As a freelance producer, she specifically looks for projects that build connections between artists and neighbors - linking artists and arts groups with financial and community resources. She is project manager for floodlines, project liaison for SunFlowers – a Garden of Energy and recently produced Real Community is Real Art, a city wide workshop on the arts and urban development. Ann was the founding Executive Director of First Night Austin, the New Year’s Eve Celebration of the Arts, which held its inaugural event on December 31, 2005.  She has served in leadership positions in the arenas of neighborhood, arts and education organizations including the COA’s Art In Public Places program, Hyde Park Neighborhood Association, and elementary and middle school parent organizations.  In addition to serving on the Board of Theatre Action Project, Ann serves on the Advisory Board of Liveable City and is co-chair of the Parents & Friends of the Liberal Arts & Science Academy.  Ann is the mother of two sons, ages 15 and 17, and her husband Arlen Johnson is a Professor of Microbiology & Molecular Genetics at the University of Texas, Austin.

Gregory S. Perrin
Chief Development Officer, University of Texas Libraries
Gregory has been involved in theater for twenty years and has directed, produced and/or performed in more than twenty plays and commercials.  He earned both undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Houston School of Theatre.  However, he is most proud of his accomplishments as a playwright. Gregory was the first commissioned playwright of the Fiesta First Ward Children's Theater Project produced by Theater LaB Houston. He has studied with Edward Albee, a three time Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, who selected one of his plays for the Edward Albee Playwrights' Workshop. Gregory also has extensive experience in nonprofit management, fundraising and consulting. He enjoys working with TAP because he believes that TAP is impacting the lives of thousands of children in a meaningful and transforming way.

Carron Scott Whittaker
Global Public Service Industry Program Executive, Accenture
Carron Whittaker, a Manager in the Public Services Industry at Accenture, is a fifteen year veteran in working with public service entities.  In her career at Accenture, she has focused her efforts on developing customer-centric solutions, implementing new policies, and reengineering processes for state and local health and human services agencies.  Currently, Carron is serving as the Global Industry Program Executive for the Accenture Public Services Industry practice and is also the Testing Center of Excellence lead for the Texas Medicaid and Healthcare Partnership.   Carron holds a BA in Social Welfare from the University of California at Berkeley, an MPAff from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas, Austin.  Although a native of Altadena, California, she currently resides in Austin, Texas with her husband and daughter.  Carron also serves on the board of Austin Children’s Choir and sits on the Corporate Advisory Committee for the Long Center for the Performing Arts.

Richard J. Smalling
President, American Innovations, Ltd.
Rich is originally from Long Island, NY but escaped as soon as he left high school. He received a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute in 1985.  Over the next six years, Rich worked as a development engineer with Borg Warner and General Electric in West Virginia, France, The Netherlands and Kentucky. In 1993, Rich received an MBA from the University of Michigan and began working for FMC in Philadelphia, where he met his wife Anne. During their first four years of marriage, Rich and Anne moved to Austin, started new careers, built two houses, had two children and started a business. Since 1994, Rich has been President of American Innovations, a provider of electronics, software and services to the oil and natural gas pipeline industry. Rich is past President and Finance chair of the Austin chapter of Young Entrepreneurs’ Organization. He is past President and currently Treasurer of the board of directors of Theatre Action Project. In his spare time, he spends as much time as possible with Anne and daughters Marina and Samantha, squeezing in golf, biking and wakeboarding whenever possible.

Susan Kirr
Independent Film Producer
Susan got involved in theatre at an early age, and it left a mark on her. She graduated from Princeton University with a degree in English and Theatre, performing, stage managing and directing in her spare time. She worked as a print journalist in Tokyo, Dallas and Austin before segueing into the film industry. She received her M.F.A. in film production from New York University and has worked in the film industry in the Southwest for 15 years. She has line produced feature films for Terrence Malick (The Tree of Life), Michael Winterbottom (A Mighty Heart and The Killer Inside Me), John Sayles (Honeydripper), Richard Linklater (A Scanner Darkly), James Marsh (The King), and Doug McGrath (Infamous), and she recently produced the indie features “Benavides Born” and “Winter in the Blood.” She resides in Austin with her husband, Rusty Martin. She believes in the power of theatre to transform a kid’s outlook and experience.

ADVISORY COUNCIL

We are supported by a fantastic group of advisors. Our Advisory Council members act as ambassadors and offer guidance on key issues.

Christopher Adejumo, Professor, UT Austin Art and Art History

Katie Dawson, Lecturer, UT Austin Dept. Theatre and Dance, Drama and Theatre for Youth

Brian Donovan, General Administrator, Inter Cooperative Council

Diana Groves, Student Intervention Specialist, AISD

Dr. Brent Hasty, Lecturer UT College of Education, Curriculum and Instruction; Director, MindPop

Sara Hickman, Parent, Musician, Texas State Musician 2010

Grady Hillman, Community Arts Consultant and Poet   

Carla Jackson, Assistant Director of the Center for
Public Policy and Political Studies, Austin Community College

Shirlene Justice, After School Director, AISD, Community Education

Gary Knight, Vice President, Financial Advisor, Merrill Lynch

Michelle Krejci, Executive Director, Ann Richards School for Young Women Leaders Foundation

Carolyn Mosely, Mother/Founder/CEO, The Ortralla LuWone Mosley Foundation

Brion Oaks, Vice President of Cultural Health, American Heart Association

Margaret Perry, Director, Armstrong Community Music School, Austin Lyric Opera

Aseante Scales, Senior Marketing Rep, Amerigroup

Karen Sullivan, Parent and Community Activist

Kennard Wright, Alumni Coordinator, UT Austin LBJ School of Public Affairs

Aimee  Zivin, Drama and Ethics Instructor, St. Andrews Episcopal School