Board of Trustees
2009-2010
Gregg Ballew (CFA, CIMA®)
Chair
Senior Vice President with Westwood Trust; member of the CFA Institute and the Investment Management Consultants Association; graduate of The University of Texas at Austin (MBA) and Baylor University (BBA); in addition to The Writer's Garret, also currently serves on boards for the Dallas Symphony Association, The Dallas Symphony Foundation, The Senior Source, Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Dallas, The Resource Clearinghouse, Inc., and the Alliance for Higher Education/North Texas Regional Center for Innovation and Commercialization; member of Preston Center Rotary Club; past board member and President of Need Him National Media Outreach, Inc., Friends of WRR, 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, Dallas Children's Theater, and Plano Repertory Theatre (2nd Term, 7/09-06/13)
Catherine Cuellar
City of Dallas Cultural Affairs Commissioner; Senior Communications Specialist, Oncor; Katie Award-Winning Journalist; Past Managing Editor, Pegasus News; former Reporter, KERA 90.1 and Founding Editor of "Guide Live" with The Dallas Morning News; "Best New Media Star" by D Magazine, 2007; Pledge Drive Manager for California NPR Affiliate; Member of Dallas Furniture Bank 40 Under Forty and GAP Steering Committee; Founder and Board President, La Reunion TX; currently Board Secretary for Presbyterian Housing Program and Vice President of Camp Fire USA Lone Star Council; Alumni chapter leader, Rhodes College North Texas (Ex Officio)
Alejandrina Drew
Vice President
Arts Administrator, recently retired as Manager for the Latino Cultural Center; Former Director of the City of El Paso Arts and Culture Department; Founder and Director of the Centro de Lenguas of the Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez, México; Chancellor of Cultural Affairs for the Mexican Consulate in El Paso, Texas; Coordinator for Community Relations at El Paso Community College; Spanish and Italian language instructor in Mexico City, El Paso, Texas, Columbus Georgia and South Korea; extensive experience in cultural management presenting film, performing, visual, literary and community arts. Selected as one of the Ten Outstanding Women of America in 1980; inducted El Paso Women's Hall of Fame (Arts) in 2004; Women of Influence Award by El Paso Chapter of the National Council of Jewish Women in 1999; BA in Italian Language and Literature from UNAM; graduate work in Italian Art at the Universitá degli Study in Florence, Italy; MA in Spanish Language and Literature from UTEP; MFA in Creative Writing (Spanish) from UTEP; published Cuadernos de Ixtapa, book of poetry, and Abracadabra, patas de cabra, a children's story (1st Term, 08/09-07/12)
Fay P. Guy
Treasurer
Manager, Worker's Compensation and Employee Health for University of Texas, Southwestern Medical Center; prior, Executive Director Human Resources, DCCCD, at Eastfield College; M.A. Dallas Baptist University, Dallas, TX; B.A. DePaul University, Chicago, IL; Advisory Board member, American Institute for Paralegal Studies, Chicago, IL; Volunteer Tutor, Adult Literacy Program, Chicago Urban League, Chicago, IL. (1st Term, 07/09-06/12)
Patrick C. R. Holmes
Patent Attorney with STMicroelectronics; former managing partner with Groover and Holmes and prior Associate; Carstens, Yee, and Cahoon former Associate; J.D. 1999, Indiana University School of Law, Bloomington, IN; Chair of DBA Home Project Committee (two years); Officer of DFWIPLA (three years); Member of ABA, Optical Society of America, IEEE, and Dallas Bar Association (1st Term, 07/08-06/10)
Michelle Lewis
President
Senior Business Analyst for Saxon Mortgage; graduate of Southern Methodist University Cox School of Business and Dartmouth College; Volunteer for Habitat for Humanity, Big Brothers/Big Sisters of New Hampshire and Fort Worth, Share the Magic campaign floor leader, Fellowship Church Merge Student Ministry and Angel Tree Prison Ministry (2nd Term, 08/08-07/12)
Eva M. Liggins
Secretary
Assistant Director, 311, City of Dallas; former Director of Customer Service for the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority; Chairperson, 311 Synergy Group, a national non-profit organization that provides professional leadership to 311 government call center professionals; President, Silver Creek HOA, DeSoto; graduate of the National Forum for Black Public Administrators' Executive Leadership Institute; B.A., Psychology, Hampton University, Hampton, VA; completed graduate coursework in Experimental Psychology at Towson University, Towson, MD (1st Term, 07/09-06/12)
David Oliveros
Associate Attorney, Cowles & Thompson, P.C.; J.D., Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law; Recipient, SMU Law Scholarship of Part Tuition; Member, National Moot Court Team; past President, J. Rueben Clarke Law Society, SMU Chapter; former intern with City of Dallas City Attorney's Office; Past research assistant for the Honorable Judge Brenda Rhoades, the Honorable Judge W. Royal Furgeson, and the Honorable Judge Xavier Rodriguez; former LDS Church Missionary in, Asuncion, Paraguay with fluency in Spanish; Member, Ask-A-Lawyer, Dallas Young Lawyer Association, and J. Rueben Clarke Law Society (1st Term, 08/08-07/10)
Stephen Souris, Ph.D.
Vice President
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)
Theresa Sternat
Director of the Learning Assistance Center at Eastfield College of the DCCCD, President of the DCCCD chapter of American Association of Women in Community Colleges, lead advisor to Eastfield's chapter of Phi Theta Kappa International Honor Society; former adjunct professor of reading, writing, and American Sign Language; annual team captain for Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure; alumna Gallaudet University graduate school of psychology and Texas State University (1st Term, 08/08-07/11)
Thea Temple
Executive Director, The Writer's Garret; writer; editor; former Creative Writing faculty member Indiana University, University of Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky University, and Southern Methodist University (visiting); current faculty Western Connecticut State University; past Director of Resource Development, South Dallas-Fair Park Innercity Community Development Corporation; former Special Assistant to the Director of the Literature Program at the National Endowment for the Arts; served on local, state, and national literary arts panels; task force facilitator for the Southern Arts Federation; co-founder, Texas Partnership for Literature; 2008 "Woman of Distinction" Award from Dallas Chapter, American Association of University Women (Ex-Officio since 1995)
