The Writer's Garret Board

Gregg Ballew

CFA, CIMA® (President)--Managing Director of the Wealth Advisory Group for Northern Trust in Texas and former President of Northern Trust, Dallas County; member of the CFA Institute and the Investment Management Consultants Association; also currently serves on the boards for the Dallas Symphony Association, The Dallas Symphony Foundation, Friends of WRR (board President), The Resource Clearinghouse, Inc.; and Need Him National Media Outreach, Inc.; past board President of Theatre Three, The 500, Inc., Dallas Classic Guitar Society and The Housing Crisis Center; and former board member of the Volunteer Center of Greater Dallas, the Dallas Children’s Theater, Plano Repertory Theatre, and The Senior Source / Senior Citizens of Greater Dallas; Co-Chair of the 2000 “Building to Serve” Capital Campaign for Parkway Hills Baptist Church (1st Term, 8/05-7/09)

Bridget Blinn

(Deputy Secretary) Attorney, Cantey Hanger LLP; graduate of Centre College and Washington & Lee University School of Law; managing editor of Washington & Lee Law Review, 2003-2004; Director, Children’s Ministry at Grace Vineyard Christian Fellowship; volunteer attorney at Legal Action Works, part of Central Dallas Ministries; Dallas Bar Association; Fort Worth Bar Association (1st Term, 7/07-6/09)

Roslyn Fitch

Manager of Community Recruitment Initiatives, UT Southwestern Medical Center; City of Dallas Cultural Affairs Commissioner and Chair of the Public Art Committee; Ex-Officio to the boards of the Dallas Black Dance Theater, and The Writer’s Garret; 2004 Gala Chair, African American Museum; 1999 Gala Chair, Theatre Three; current board member for North Texas Food Bank and the Community Council of Greater Dallas; Immediate Past President of the Mid-Cities Texas Chapter of The Links, Inc.; member, The Dallas Summit; former board member for Dallas Museum of Art; Dallas Symphony Association; Young Audiences of Greater Dallas; Theatre Three; Theatre Operating Company; and Girls, Incorporated of Metropolitan Dallas (Ex Officio, Nonvoting, since 2003)

Judy Hoffman

(Vice President, Marketing and Programs) Account Marketing and Communications for NMCI account at EDS; previous marketing management with Nortel, Fisher-Rosemount, Tulsa World and The Tulsa Tribune; English instructor at Oklahoma State University; Graduate of North Texas Business for Culture and the Arts (NTBCA) Leadership Arts Class; Volunteer work for Komen Race for the Cure, On My Own Time Art Show, EDS Global Volunteer Day, Northaven United Methodist Church, Zeta Tau Alpha Alumni Assoc.; Past president and board member of Business Marketing Association (1st Term, 08/06-07/08)

Michelle Lewis

(Treasurer) Senior Business Analyst for EMC Mortgage (a Bear Stearns company); graduate of Southern Methodist University Cox School of Business; Volunteer Fellowship Church Merge 6th grade student ministry, Habitat for Humanity, Big Brothers/Big Sisters of New Hampshire and Fort Worth, Share the Magic campaign floor leader, and Fellowship Church Angel Tree Prison Ministry(1st Term, 08/06-07/08)

Flozelle C. Roberts

(Vice President, Finance and Operations)--Project Engineer for Corollo.; Community Outreach Chair, Dallas Urban League Young Professionals; Golf Tournament Committee—Texas Society of Professional Engineers; Life Member of Southern Methodist University Alumni Federation; Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc; National Society of Black Engineers; Executive Women’s Golf Association (1st Term, 08/06-07/08)

Robyn Short

Founder and President of goodmedia communications, llc; Publisher of The Magic Umbrella (goodmedia communications late 2007), author not yet released; Publisher of Organizing For Multiples: A mother's guide to organizing for twins and other higher order births by Tonia Tomlin (goodmedia communications late 2007); Publisher of The Detox Plan: Detox for mind-body wellness (goodmedia communications late 2007), by Betty Murray; Editor of If I Had A Hammer- Easy Weekend Projects by Andrea Ridout (Harper Collins, late 2007); Former Editor and Publisher of HOME: your guide to exclusive living™ magazine; Former Editor for Home Improvement – Dallas magazine;Press Club of Dallas member; Co-Op America Member; Auburn University and Southern Methodist University Alumna (1st Term,07/07-06/09)

Joshua Shuart

Associate Attorney, Gardere Wynne Sewell, LLP, specializing in corporate law, mergers, and acquisitions; supporter of the literary arts; former Articles Editor for Kansas Law Review; certified in International Trade and Finance; winner of the Payne & Jones Lawyering Award for Excellence in Legal Writing; Golden Key International Honor Society recipient; studied at Oxford University; Co-Author of forthcoming Law handbook (1st Term,10/05-09/08)

Stephen Souris

Professor of English at Texas Woman’s University since 1992, specializing in modern and contemporary American literature and literary theory; founder of book club, “Professor’s Corner: A Discussion Group Devoted to Literary Texts,” at the Denton Public Library in 1999, recently expanding to Frisco and Lakewood (1st Term,04/07-03/11)

Thea Temple

Executive Director, The Writer’s Garret; writer; editor; Creative Writing faculty Indiana University, University of Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky University, and Southern Methodist University; past Director of Resource Development, South Dallas-Fair Park Innercity Community Development Corporation; former Special Assistant to the Director of the Literature Program for the National Endowment for the Arts; served on local, state, & national literary panels; task force facilitator for the Southern Arts Federation; co-founder, Texas Partnership for Literature (Ex-Officio since 1995)

Beatriz Terrazas

(Secretary / Deputy Treasurer)--Free Lance Journalist, feature writer, and documentary writer; former reporter with The Dallas Morning News; photojournalist for 12 years, winning a Pulitzer Prize for team work on “Violence Against Women: A Question of Human Rights”; recipient of a Nieman Fellowship from Harvard, and First Place Winner in the American Association for Women Journalists’ contest; finalist for the Pen Center USA West contest, and has covered national stories ranging from the UN’s Conference of Women in China to Pope Paul II’s travels to the U.S., Mexico, and Cuba; worked as outreach volunteer in Mexico teaching school to youth released from detention (2nd Term, 08/07-07/09)

Kimberly Walton

Account Supervisor for public relations agency MWW Group, Publicized the Dallas Museum of Art's groundbreaking 100 Hours event, Marketing and Public Relations committee for Wednesday's Child Benefit Corporation, member of the Dallas International Association of Business Communicators, public relations committee for Dallas 2000 PowWow, alumna of the University of North Texas (1st Term, 07/07-06/09)

Andrea Weissenbuehler

Visual Designer for EDS User Experience Group for over 12 years, focusing on the design and usability of Web sites and application interfaces; Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Design from Rochester Institute of Technology; Graduate of North Texas Business for Culture and the Arts (NTBCA) Leadership Arts Class; Volunteer work for The United Way, EDS’ Jason University (Jason Foundation), Komen Race for the Cure, On My Own Time Art Show, and most recently, the Writer’s Garret Writes of Spring Festival of Books (1st Term, 05/06-04/08)

Board of Trustees

2007-08