Melissa Barnes-Dholakia, Secretary

Melissa Barnes Dholakia is founder of MBD Partners, supporting new and existing charter schools and small districts in the areas of school design, goal setting, monitoring, and performance reporting. She works with new schools to design their educational program, mission-based business plan, and accountability measures. She also works with existing schools and small districts in refining their work in each of these areas. Prior to this, Melissa helped to build Lighthouse Community Charter Public Schools in East Oakland, where she served as co-Director for ten years. LCCPS operates two K-12 schools, supporting traditionally underserved students in achieving the college and career of their choice. Melissa earned her BA from Whitman College, MA from University of Oregon, and was a 2002 New Leaders for New Schools Fellow.

Renee Gonzalez

Renee Gonzalez grew up in Los Angeles and Orange County, California. She studied in Colima, Mexico, and then completed a bilingual cross-cultural language internship through California State University Fullerton. She taught elementary school in Santa Ana, on the Pala reservation, and in a dual language program in San Clemente. In 2007, Renee and her family moved to Bend and she began teaching English language development and mainstream classes at Jewell. She also taught in the dual immersion program at Bear Creek Elementary for six years. Now Renee is inspired to develop a culturally responsive arts-integrated curriculum for LCA’s Raices program and Amiguitos summer club. She studied Intercultural Communications at Humboldt State University in Arcata, Calif., and Arts Integration into the Curriculum through Lesley University.

Rick Stilson

Rick Stilson is the father to six awesome little musicians and spends many weekends at drum and piano performances for Cascade School of Music. He has a degree in Economics from UC Davis and over sixteen years of experience in commercial and custom home construction. He is currently the President of Stilson Builders, Inc. He is passionate about family time and has coached over twenty five youth teams over the years. Rick loves ultra trail running and gets many of his miles in while running with his wife or chasing his kids on their mountain bikes. His other passions include snowboarding, craft coffee, and the lofty idea that he would have enough free time in his week to grab a beer with a buddy.

Kurt Alexander

Kurt has an abiding passion for understanding cities and buildings, including the communities and people that inhabit them. Alongside Kurt’s passion for a built environment, Kurt comes with strong guiding principles which are underpinned by his Americorps social work background working with At-Risk Youth in Inner Baltimore City. As founder and owner of Petrich Properties, Kurt focuses on leading his business strategy to build meaningful relationships, guiding his business to fully manifest Petrich Properties' purpose, which is to create a positive impact in Bend’s Core for the generations to come. 

Kurt serves as Chair for the City of Bend’s Core Area Advisory Committee, Founder and President of the Bend Central District Business Association, Founding Board member of the Bend Central District Visionary Board, and serves on the Advisory Boards for both the Children’s Museum of Central Oregon and Central Oregon Center for the Arts.  Kurt was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, moving to Bend, Oregon, in 2010, where he lives with his wife and two young sons.

David Bourke

Dave served as a Founding Board Member of Cascade School of Music, shifting to the Advisory Board when he moved to Austin, Texas. He is the President of Bourke & Company, a management consulting firm specializing in market research and organizational effectiveness. In Austin, he is a high-level supporter of HAAM 2005, nonprofit organization that provides over 52,000 healthcare appointments for area musicians.

Chris Cochran

Chris is a founder and partner in The Mortgage Professionals of Central Oregon for 12 years, developed, owned and managed commercial real estate in Bend for 12 years and in 2011, he became a partner at Fratzke Property Management with Brian Fratzke. Chris was a long time Board Member prior to shifting to the Advisory Board.

Bob Dickey

Former President & CEO of Gannett media company. Prior to that Bob was President of Gannett's local publishing division prior to the company's split, from 2008 -- 2015. In that role, he oversaw 92 daily news brands along with approximately 400 non-daily products.

Christy Lanfri

Cristy is an advocate for arts organizations, children's organizations, and environmental organizations throughout Oregon.

Lori Nelson-King

Lori is a Marketing Writer, Editor and Social Media Manager who centers her work around creating compelling brand identities via creative, customer-centric content. As a B2B copywriter, she helps companies clearly communicate complex information, while attracting high-quality leads and turning those prospects into customers.

Sally Russell

Sally was the former Executive Director of Cascade Festival of Music 2001-2006, Broken Top Ltd partnership 1998-2000, Cascade Cycling Classic 1991-1994. Longtime member of Friends of Columbia Gorge. Community supporter of many of the nonprofits in Central Oregon, including Tower Theater, Caldera and XC Oregon.

Don Stevens

Don previously served on the CSM Board of Directors. His other non-profit board experiences in Central Oregon include the Ronald McDonald House, Mt. Bachelor Rotary Club and the City Club of Central Oregon. Don received a BS in Architecture from the University of Cincinnati, a Masters in Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania and spent a year as a Fulbright Scholar in Denmark researching Danish school design. Following the Fulbright year, Don returned to his Alma Mater, U of Cincinnati, where he taught architectural design for 15 years as a tenured Associate Professor. This teaching experience included, among other duties, lecturing on architectural acoustics. This knowledge of acoustics was basic in his practice as an architect in his designs for theaters and schools with music departments. The most recent success was the design of the Madras Performing Arts Center.

Lorri Taylor

Lori is Vice President of Taylor NW LLC, where her focus is in the Land Development division overseeing projects including the recently completed Shevlin Health and Wellness Center. Lorri and her husband, Todd, have supported multiple community projects and nonprofits across our communities in Central Oregon.

Louann Thomas

Louann holds a BS from Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington and initially worked as a Medical Technologist/Clinical Chemist. Later she joined the healthcare computer industry and was Vice President of Customer Service and Strategic Planning. She enjoys music of all kinds and as a child played the violin and piano but now prefers to listen and enjoy. She and her husband moved to Bend in 1996 and have seen quite a change in the community over the years. Louann has been involved in many of Bend’s community activities: Chair of the Bend Development Board, Central Oregon Symphony Board in various positions, Arts Central Board, President of the local chapter of Quota International, tournament chair of the Three Sisters Open Golf tournament, President of Awbrey Glen Women’s Golf Association, and an active member of Grace First Lutheran Church serving as Chair of Capital Funding and Endowments. To relax, she enjoys a friendly game of golf, travelling the world, duplicate bridge, Mah Jongg, hiking in the Cascades and making pine needle baskets incorporating artifacts into her baskets found while hiking. Louann has been a long-time supporter of the Cascade School of Music and is delighted to be a part of this vibrant organization that plays such an important role in our community for musicians of all ages.

Jim D. Wetherbee

Jim is a retired NASA Astronaut. Over his twenty-year career, he flew six times on the Space Shuttle. The five-time commander flew two missions to the Russian Space Station, Mir, and two missions to the International Space Station. With thirty-five years of experience in high-hazard operational environments, Jim is passionate about helping leaders and operators in dangerous endeavors with critical mission objectives. He is a lecturer, author, and musician.