Board of Directors

Amy Reitnouer Jacobs co-founded The Bluegrass Situation (BGS) in 2012 with actor/comedian/producer Ed Helms (The Office, The Hangover). Today she serves as the executive director for the company, which encompasses online editorial/content creation, event promotion, and targeted audience marketing. In addition to producing a festival, BGS has curated stage takeovers at Bonnaroo, Newport Folk, MerleFest, Americana Music Fest, Bourbon & Beyond, The Long Road (UK), and others. The website has also become an advocate for change, diversity, and representation within the broader music community. Amy is also an artist manager for Aubrie Sellers, Matt the Electrician, and Mikael Jorgensen (Wilco).

Reid Wick has served music communities across the South for many years. He is the Recording Academy’s New Orleans-based Membership & Industry Relations representative, where his responsibilities include membership, advocacy, creating professional development and networking programs across a five-state region. For the two years post-Hurricane Katrina, Wick administered the MusiCares’ Hurricane Relief Fund. Wick served Loyola University’s College of Music as marketing communications manager and instructor in Music Industry Studies. He has served on numerous boards and co-owned an indie record label. He received the 2018 Cutting Edge Music Conference Lifetime Achievement Award. Wick is an active New Orleans musician.

Laura Thomas is the agent and owner of ComboPlate Booking, which opened in 1999. In addition to artist-based tour services, volunteerism and community have been integral to Laura’s business. Since 2001, Laura has presented volunteer musicians at a monthly soup kitchen concert in Austin, Texas. In 2002, Laura started South By Soup Fest, a multi-day showcase at the soup kitchen. Since 2005, Laura has organized a day party raising funds for the same soup kitchen.

Alka works for the Canadian Federal Government with the Canadian Arts Presentation Fund as the Senior Programme Advisor. She worked at Folk Music Ontario as the Executive Director from 2013 – 2021. Prior to that, she worked as the Interim Executive Director at the Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival and spent many years as the Senior Manager of Operations with the Toronto International Film Festival. Alka has also worked at CBC Radio as the Associate Producer for Outfront and in campus/community radio in Ottawa, Guelph and Toronto.

Rosalyn Dennett is the Executive Director of Folk Music Ontario, Canada’s largest arts organization and conference dedicated to Folk music. She established herself on the international music scene as part of the highly-acclaimed quartet Oh My Darling, and her work with Ken Whiteley, Donovan Woods, Fred Penner, Kaia Kater, and many more; performing in 11 countries and recording on over 25 albums. Rosalyn’s passion for the music industry led her to work for MusicOntario, the Canadian Independent Music Association, Canadian Live Music Association, Music Canada, and the Canadian Federation of Musicians, as well as serving on the board of Folk Alliance International, Folk Music Ontario, and AFM Local 1000. In 2016, she founded Stump Media, a boutique label and management company, and in 2020, she co-founded The Arts Hub and Smiths Falls Music, which sees over 150 music students annually. She is a driven community organizer, with a deep understanding of the Folk music ecosystem.

Enrique Chi is a singer/songwriter and the founder of the internationally recognized and Latin-Grammy nominated band Making Movies. Enrique has dedicated his platform to raise awareness of the political and cultural issues that divide America. He founded a nonprofit organization, Art As Mentorship, to expand on the music education and community outreach work that the band was already doing, launching the Rebel Song Academy in 2018 for youth songwriters, and produces an annual festival in Kansas City entitled Carnaval.

Lynn Cingari is and agent at Wasserman Music and has worked at the agency (and its predecessors, Paradigm Talent Agency and Monterey Peninsula Artists) since 1998.  Getting her start at an agency in Los Angeles, Lynn decided that Monterey Peninsula Artists was a better home, and she began working as the assistant to legendary agent Chip Hooper. Today, Lynn is proud to represent a host of amazing artists, such as Allison Russell, Aoife O’Donovan, Bruce Hornsby, Chris Thile, Nickel Creek, Punch Brothers, Shawn Colvin and The Wood Brothers, among others.

Susie Giang is an agent with Ground Control Touring based in Portland, Oregon. Giang’s current roster includes Ani DiFranco, Gregory Alan Isakov, Haley Heynderickx, Leif Vollebekk, My Bubba, Field Medic, Baskery, Peter Mulvey and Shook Twins, along with many other talented artists. Susie attended her first FAI in 2005 in Montreal and has taken on the Folkie Badge ever since. Previously, Giang was at APA in Portland and Fleming Artists in San Francisco.

Kevin Dalton is a Certified Financial Planner ™️ with 15 years of accounting experience in the music industry in his role at Wiles+Taylor & Co. and at Copyright Exchange where he analyzed earning trends and valued copyright catalogs. Kevin represents an array of artists across many genres. He resides in Nashville with his wife and two children.

Catalina Maria Johnson, Ph.D. is a Chicago-based journalist, broadcaster and music curator. She hosts and produces her own radio show, Beat Latino, which airs in Chicago and other US cities as well as Berlin. Catalina also regularly contributes to NPR, Bandcamp, Billboard, Downbeat and other outlets. Thanks to the tenacious insistence of a Mexican mom and a German/Swedish dad, Catalina received the gift of a bilingual and bicultural heritage. Her cultural journalism explores the immensely rich diversity of the global music scene in all its variations, and in particular, music as it intersects with culture, identity and migration.

Michael Kornfeld is an award-winning communications and public relations strategist, a former contributing writer for The New York Times, and served on the boards of both the LI and NYC chapters of the Society of Professional Journalists. His online publication, AcousticMusicScene.com, has provided news and commentary for the folk, roots, and singer-songwriter communities since 2007. Mike is the current board president of the Northeast Regional Folk Alliance (NERFA) and serves as president of the Folk Music Society of Huntington, a presenting organization on Long Island. He is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Stony Brook University and a recipient of its Distinguished Community Service Award.

Sara Leishman was brought up on house concerts and CKUA Radio. Her love of music but dislike of practicing led to her interest in the business of music. With a communications degree and NFP work experience she secured the job of Development Director for the Folk Festival Society of Calgary (Calgary Folk Fest, Festival Hall and Block Heater). For 7 years she obtained sponsorship and donations before becoming the Executive Director in 2017. From 2011-2018 she served on the Board of CKUA Radio and in 2015 successfully completed the Rozsa Arts Management through the Haskayne School of Business.

Deana McCloud is the Executive Director and Chief Curator of the Woody Guthrie Center in Tulsa. A member of the Tulsa Arts District Business Association, and the Tulsa Regional Chamber, she is also a board member of the Oklahoma Center for Community and Justice and the Oklahoma Center for Poets and Writers. McCloud was a charter member of the board for the Tulsa Office of Film, Music, Arts & Culture and currently serves on the executive board for Tulsa Regional Tourism. Deana is a National Board Certified educator. For 17 years she was a member of the Woody Guthrie Coalition, booking and producing concerts for the Woody Guthrie Folk Festival in Okemah, Oklahoma. She currently serves on the festival’s advisory board as well as the advisory board for the Woody Guthrie Journal.

Gary Paczosa is a multi-Grammy winning producer and engineer. He is best known for his work with Alison Krauss, Dolly Parton, and Sarah Jarosz. He has served on the Grammy board and also works as head of A&R at Sugar Hill Records in Nashville.

Chris Porter has been a music industry professional for over 30 years. After working in college radio, he moved on to artist management and independent record label ownership. That soon led to opportunities booking various venues in Boston throughout most of the 1990s. In 1997 his career continued in Seattle as the music programmer for One Reel, producers of the long-running Bumbershoot Festival and other special events and concerts. After 18 years, Chris left One Reel/Bumbershoot in 2015 and now devotes time to his own company – Porter Productions. Porter offers talent buying, booking management, consulting, and production coordination for various festivals, special events, and venues around the U.S. Current projects include Hardly Strictly Bluegrass (San Francisco), WERS’ Wicked Good Festival (Boston), The Town and The City Festival (Lowell, MA), and The South Lake Union Block Party (Seattle). Chris is also a DJ and sports fan event producer.

Caroline Randall Williams is an award-winning poet, novelist, and cookbook author (Soul Food Love) as well as an activist, public intellectual, performance artist, and scholar. Born and raised in Nashville Tennessee where she is deeply connected to the music community she studied at Harvard and Oxford and joined the faculty of Vanderbilt University in 2019 as a Writer-in-Residence in the Department of Medicine, Health, and Society while she continues to work and speak to the places where art, business, and scholarship intersect, moving people closer to their best lives and corporations closer to their ideal identities. Named by Southern Living as “One of the 50 People changing the South,” the Cave Canem fellow has been published and featured in multiple journals, essay collections and news outlets, including The Massachusetts Review, Essence, and the New York Times.

Carolina Rojas is the Marketing Director at Circulart (the premier market for Latin American music), where she is also responsible for international relations and strategic alliances for the organization. She is also the Director of the Magdelena Festival in Honda, Colombia. She had led projects for the Colombian Ministry of Culture, ProColombia, and REDLAT, and has spoken on industry panels at conferences including Womex, Musica Mundo in Brazil, China’s Sound of the Xity, and Folk Alliance International. She is the co-founder of Cóngolo Travel, and has a degree in Business Administration and a post-graduate degree in marketing from Eafit University, in Medellín.

Lisa Schwartz served as President of the Philadelphia Folksong Society from 2007 until 2015, and is currently the Festival Director, following nine years as Marketing and Press Relations. Under her direction, the PFS has focused on inclusivity, increased membership and attendance, a broadening scope of music, fiscal responsibility, and an increase in sponsors and grants. Lisa is a senior sales and marketing specialist with more than 30 years of experience providing marketing, project management, and consulting services in the new home construction, education, arts marketing, manufacturing, and retail arenas.

Matt Sever (Matt the Electrician) is a quirky, sincere folk/pop singer songwriter based in Austin, TX. He has self-released 8 studio albums, and 2 live CDs since 1998. With his newest project, Matt gets by with a little help from his friends. Throughout 2015 and 2016, he focused on a string of 7-inch vinyl singles. Matt regularly tours all over the world, playing theaters, festivals, clubs and house concerts, and is a fixture in clubs of his hometown.

Ashley Shabankareh (she/her/hers) is a musician, arts administrator, and music education and creative economy advocate. Ashley currently serves as the Collaborative Action Strategist for Artist Corps New Orleans, Director of Learning and Development for Upbeat Academy, and the Education Specialist for the New Orleans Jazz Museum. She also serves as the Vice President for the Jazz Education Network and Board Chair for the Music and Culture Coalition of New Orleans (MaCCNO). Ashley is a trombonist and vocalist and performs with Marina Orchestra and The Asylum Chorus. Previously, Ashley served as the Director of Programs for Preservation Hall Foundation.

Gerald Torres is a leading figure in critical race theory, environmental law, and federal Indian Law. He previously served as the Bryant Smith Chair in Law at the University of Texas School of Law and taught at The University of Minnesota Law School, where he served as Associate Dean. He is also a former president of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS). Torres has served as deputy assistant attorney general for the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., and as counsel to former U.S. attorney general Janet Reno. He is an avid Blues-man.

In 20 years of music, Guillermo Subauste has worn many hats. Lead guitar/vocals in a Peruvian punk rock band, promoter for acts like STOMP and Beyonce, and FOH engineer for Grammy-nominated Adammo. A scholarship to the Banff Centre gave him his first taste of Canadian winter. When the 3-month program got extended to 2 years after being hired it led to collaborating with artists like Jane Bunnett and Joni Mitchell. Now in Toronto, Guillermo has engineered, produced, toured, and performed with The Sadies, Sarah Harmer, Measha Brueggergosman, The Honeyrunners, Blue Rodeo, Conor Gains, Royal Wood, Good Lovelies, and more.

Aberdeenshire singer, Iona Fyfe, has become one of Scotland’s finest young folk singers, rooted deeply in the singing traditions of the North East of Scotland. She is the youngest ever winner of Scots Singer of the Year at the MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards. Iona is a fierce advocate for the official recognition of the Scots Language and is a fine exponent of Doric dialect, winning the title of Performer of the Year at the Scots Language Awards in 2020. Iona led a successful campaign to pressure Spotify to recognize Scots and add it to its list of languages.

Ann Powers is NPR Music’s critic and correspondent. Throughout a long career she has worked at many publications including the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Village Voice. A former curator at Seattle’s Museum of Popular Music, she is the author of three books, most recently Good Booty: Love and Sex, Black and White, Body and Soul in American Music (2017), and co-editor of the classic anthology Rock She Wrote: Women Write Anout Rock, Rap, and Pop. Her essays have been widely anthologized and she has also written for television, radio and podcasts. In 2017 she co-founded NPR’s Turning the Tables, an ongoing project that sheds light on marginalized, underestimated, and forgotten voices in popular music.

Having worked at Concord since 2004, Ayappa oversaw the Radio Department for Vanguard & Sugar Hill Records prior to joining the Concord Promotion team. He now leads the Folk/Roots division for Concord and its family of labels, serving artists in both traditional and innovative spaces. He graduated from The University of Tennessee with degrees in American Studies and Political Science and received his Master of Public Policy from UC LA (with a concentration in Art & Social Action). He adores his wife, daughter, and son (in chronological order). His favorite band is Counting Crows.

Brandi Waller-Pace is a musician and educator based in Fort Worth, TX. A former general music teacher, she is the Founder and Executive Director of Decolonizing the Music Room. Brandi earned a bachelor’s and master’s in Jazz Studies from Howard University and is pursuing a PhD in Music Education at the University of North Texas. She presents both nationally and internationally. Brandi is the organizer of the Fort Worth African American Roots Music Festival and has co-produced and curated events with Bluegrass Pride, The Bluegrass Situation, and PineCone. She performs as a solo artist and with her duo Pace & Barber.

Beau Bledsoe performs and records classical music, jazz and folkloric music from around the world as he seeks to integrate different musical cultures with diverse audiences. Through his many varied projects and ensembles, Beau has toured extensively throughout Europe, Russia, South America and North America in addition to producing fifteen recordings under his recording label Tzigane. Beau is currently artistic director and founder of Ensemble Iberica which explores the music of Spain, Portugal and other areas of the world connected to the Iberian diaspora.