phil reynolds and heather hartley

Co-Founders, President and Vice President

Phil has more than 40 years of experience in curation and performing arts executive management in North Carolina, Chicago, New York, Vermont and elsewhere. Learn more about Phil.

Heather, a native of the Blue Ridge, grew up in Boone, NC and is thrilled to return to her roots. She is a skilled arts administrator, and accomplished dancer and interdisciplinary artist with more than 25 years of experience in the performing arts sector. Learn more about Heather.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

ESTELLE WOODWARD ARNAL

Board Member, Asheville, NC

Estelle is the Foundation & Government Relations Director at Jacobs Pillow Dance Festival where she develops grant proposals, reports for the organization and serves as a liaison with government and foundation supporters. Estelle has been working in the field of arts administration for 20 years specializing in fundraising, program development, and strategic planning. She has worked as a consultant for American Dance Festival, Stephen Petronio Company, Big Dance Theater, Richard B. Fisher Center for Performing Arts at Bard College, and Kathy Westwater, among others. Previously she worked at Dance Theater Workshop in New York City as Director of Artist Services and made work as a choreographer in NYC for many years. Estelle is an avid cyclist and loves exploring the mountains with her family.

Thomas edward frank

Board Member, Asheville, NC

Thomas Edward Frank is University Professor Emeritus of Wake Forest University. A scholar of American religious history, his research and publication has focused on American Protestantism and its institutions, particularly liberal arts colleges, denominations, local congregations, and utopian communities.

 Dr. Frank is a specialist in historic preservation with particular interest in landscapes and streetscapes of American towns and cities, and how they stimulate collaboration, innovation, and artistic expression in all forms. He has taught courses in historic preservation, creativity, and spirituality and the arts. His study Historic Houses of Worship in Peril: Conserving Their Place in American Life was published in 2020. He is developing a collection of essays exploring the people and heritage of Black Mountain College, a widely known adventure in liberal arts education, community living, and the arts from 1933-1957. He is the Editor of the Journal of Black Mountain College Studies published by the Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center in Asheville, North Carolina.

Regina YC Garcia

Board Member, Greenville, NC

Regina YC Garcia is a poet, language artist, and English professor. She is a graduate of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she earned a BA in Speech Communication with a Concentration in the Oral Interpretation of Literature. She additionally earned an MA in Adult Education from East Carolina University, as well as a Graduate Certificate in Multicultural and Transnational Literature. She currently teaches English and is the Coordinator of Global Programs at Pitt Community College. Regina's literary work primarily centers around issues related to family and culture, social justice, and human rights. She is committed to effecting change through the persistent literary address of inequities, inequalities, and disparities. She is also committed to the uplift of consciousness and spirit through education and the arts. Regina is the 2021 National DAR American Heritage Poetry Award Winner and a 2021 and 2023 NCLR James Applewhite Semifinalist, as well as 2023 Pushcart Nominee for her poem The Fire That Consumes: The Burnings of Black Histories. Her publications of poetry and video poetry can be found in a variety of journals and anthologies including: South Florida Poetry Journal; Up the Staircase Quarterly; The Book of Black; Kakalak; I Tried Not to Write; Main Street Rag: The Amistad; Tulane University's Sacred 9 Project: The AutoEthnographer- A Literary and Arts Magazine: and numerous others. Her work has also been featured (voice and poetry) in The Black Light Project, a documentary which was the subject of an Emmy Award winning episode of PBS Muse: An Art Show. Garcia's first book of poetry, THE FIRETALKER’S DAUGHTER, was released by Finishing Line Press in March 2023. She currently resides in Greenville, NC, and she is a wife and mother of three adult sons.

Board Member, Durham, NC

Mrs. Green holds a BA in Public Policy and a minor in Drama from Duke University and an MS in Arts Administration from Drexel University. She began her arts administration training at the Durham Arts Council and furthered her experience working for the American Dance Festival. She was managing director of the Chuck Davis African-American Dance Ensemble (1985-1989) and Director of Touring and Presenting for the NC Arts Council (1989-1992).

In 1992, she founded PMG Arts Management, providing booking, management, producing and consulting services to well-established and emerging artists, including the renowned Ronald K. Brown/Evidence, Camille A. Brown & Dancers, Philadanco!, Rosie Herrera Dance Theatre, and Grammy nominated vocalist Nnenna Freelon’s The Clothesline Muse, among others. In 2020 she stepped back from being an agent and began consulting on short term projects.  In 2021 she assisted producer Mikki Shepard and her team as the contracts manager for the NYC Free Festival that opened Little Island.  From 2022-2024 she was the Interim Managing Director for Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE

Mrs. Green has served as a board member, consultant, panelist, or workshop leader for the NEA, APAP, NEFA, NAPAMA, the Southern Arts Federation, the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, the Michigan Council for the Arts, the International Association of Blacks in Dance and the Western Arts Alliance.

She has been happily married to her husband Isaac for 35 years this year and has two adult children, Isaac II and Anica.  In her spare time, she enjoys hiking, birdwatching, anything beach, ocean or mountain related,  jazz, wine and travel. 

Board Member, Evanston, IL

E. Patrick Johnson is Dean of the School of Communication and Annenberg University Professor of Performance Studies and African American Studies at Northwestern University. A prolific performer/scholar and an inspiring teacher, he has conducted research and shared artistry that has greatly impacted African American studies, performance studies and gender and sexuality studies. He is a 2020 inductee into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is the author of several books and has edited and co-edited collections, essays and plays, including Sweet Tea: Black Gay Men of the South—An Oral History and Honeypot: Black Southern Women Who Love Women. E. Patrick is also among the subjects and co-executive producer of the documentary film Making Sweet Tea.

As a native of Hickory, NC, he is an inaugural member of the board and a collaborator for the “Miss Sarah” Fellowship for Black Women Writers. Heather and Phil’s inspiration to create a space for artists in his home state provides the perfect opportunity for him to honor his mother and the legacy of black women writers.

LORI MCLEESE

Board Member, Asheville, NC

Lori McLeese is a North Carolina native who from 2010-2024 was the Global Head of Human Resources for Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com, WooCommerce, Tumblr, Longreads, and much more. Prior to retiring, Lori was responsible for Automattic’s global workforce working distributedly across 90+ countries. With her team, she focused on making Automattic the best place to work. Prior to working in Human Resources, she taught elementary school in the public-school systems in San Francisco and North Carolina, and abroad in private schools in Kuwait, Egypt, and South Korea. She lives in Asheville,NC and enjoys gardening, writing, hiking, and hosting friends for dinner. 

Rick Molland

Board Treasurer, Marshall, NC

Originally from the small English town of Street, in Somerset (think Clarks Shoes and Glastonbury Music Festival), Rick attended boarding schools from the age of eleven before heading on to College at the City of Leicester Polytechnic. He describes his educational experience as widely varied in a liberal arts kind-of- way.

After spending his early post college years in Liverpool and Bolton, Lancashire, working as a computer programmer and systems analyst, he moved to the United States in 1978 initially for a one-year information technology (IT) consulting job. Although the original plan had been to continue around the world working in different IT-related jobs in the southern hemisphere, Rick quickly found a taste for the American way of life and settled permanently in the Midwest, mostly in Indiana. Rick's careers included IT, consulting, eBusiness, and auditing for large insurance corporations. After experiencing the rollercoaster of working for a Fortune 100 company during a period of rapid change, he and his wife Connie ‘retired’ to Western North Carolina in 2008. They now spend their time in Madison County volunteering, hiking, and enjoying the slower life that comes with living on 27 tranquil acres in the mountains.

With his varied background in business consulting, the internal control environment of large organizations, and the application of technology solutions to business problems, Rick has worked to ensure successful outcomes in the roles he has undertaken. Throughout his career he has found that leveraging his experience to ‘give back’ through engagement in the non-profit sector is rewarding for the soul. In addition to serving on human service non- profit boards in Fort Wayne and Indianapolis, he served as the executive director of the Community Housing Coalition of Madison County before permanently retiring in 2013. Rick is a past president of the Rotary Club of Madison County, and currently sits on its Board as Treasurer.

ANNE RAWSON

Board Secretary, Mars Hill, NC

Anne Rawson brings abundant experience in non-profit management to Trillium Arts’ Board of Directors.  After graduating from the University of Maryland with a degree in Dance, she worked for seventeen years with the Special Olympics on regional (Central California coast), national and international levels. She has directed the Grants Program at the Arts Council of Fayetteville/Cumberland County (NC) and is a former Executive Director of the Madison County Arts Council (Marshall, NC).  She has served on non-profit boards in North Carolina including NC Stage Company, Southern Appalachian Repertory Theatre and NC Arts. Anne was a consultant on the Asheville Art Museum’s capital campaign. She resides in Mars Hill, NC in a more than one hundred-year-old restored farm house. Anne now enjoys gardening, collecting contemporary art, travel and hiking.

Banner: Photo of Heather Hartley and Phil Reynolds by Tanja Kuic