Staff and Boards

Sue coordinates our Artist Exhibit Program (AEP), including being a resource for the artists and handling all of our gallery installations.

Courtney coordinates Youth Arts programs in partnership with Clackamas County Juvenile Department and Parrott Creek Child and Family Services

Alex manages communications and oversees the general operations of the Arts Alliance.

Ted is a lifelong resident of Clackamas County. Professionally he is a Licensed Tax Consultant working with his wife Shari in her tax and accounting practice. Ted started his working career in the nursery industry and still owns a small wholesale nursery selling plants locally in the Portland/Vancouver area. Together Ted and Shari have raised two daughters supporting various artistic endeavors through music, dance and theater.

In his spare time Ted enjoys woodworking, hiking, fishing and exploring his own artistic expression on the guitar. Ted is a member of the Oregon City Rotary club and a long time believer that art and culture is central to a vibrant community. Ted is honored to work with Arts Alliance as a board member.

A long career in educational non-profit management and fundraising culminated with Karen’s retirement in 2012 as Executive Director of the Clackamas Community College Foundation. She worked as a fundraising manager at Portland State University, Reed College and Treasure Valley Community College, prior to joining the team at Clackamas.

After retirement, Karen continued her work, but this time as a volunteer, nurturing her true passion in arts and culture. In addition to the Arts Alliance, Karen serves on the boards of Clackamas Repertory Theatre and the Oregon City Library Foundation. She is also a proud member of the Rotary Club of Oregon City.

A native Oregonian with two grown children, Karen lives in Oregon City with her husband where she enjoys music, theater, gardening and reading.

Cherie McGinnis is a long time active patron and supporter of arts and culture in Clackamas County. She was the first woman ever elected to the Gladstone City Council and she was a founding member of the Gladstone Historical Society, serving as one of its early presidents. Cherie’s professional career has been focused in the political world, having served as a Legislative Assistant in the Oregon Senate and the Oregon House of Representatives as well as Senior Staff Assistant to the Clackamas County Board of Commissioners. Cherie and her husband, State Representative Bill Kennemer, enjoy traveling and collecting. Their home is filled with antique paintings of Pacific Northwest landscapes. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Clackamas County Historical Society and the Clackamas County Arts Alliance.

Bob Sterry is a voice artist, writer, singer, occasional actor and humorist. Originally trained in the UK as a research analytical chemist, he immigrated into the United States in 1973, working as a wine waiter in New Jersey, a fork lift truck driver in Connecticut, and spent his professional career in the marketing of scientific instruments and services in New Jersey, Hong Kong and around the world.

It was not until he started writing short articles and poetry in the nineties that his creative talents found an outlet, and he began to sing seriously in choirs and extemporaneous groups. In 1999 he and his wife Anne-Louise Sterry, a well-known speaker, singer and storyteller, founded a short lived but much loved faux cowboy wannabe band, ‘Anne-Louise and the Cascade Urban Cowboys’. Discovering his on-stage talent, he took the step to starting his own show of songs and spoken word. His singing is Cabaret satire with Broadway and the English Musical Hall grinning in the wings with a nod to the classical style. Recent shows were ‘The Bob Sterry Atomic Summer Show’ and ‘The Book of Bob’ and ‘A Sterry Sterry Night’ with Anne-Louise Sterry. He is passionate about cycling, cooking, language and literature.

When not singing, Bob is recording audiobooks, writing and reading more poetry, and working as partner in Sterry and Sterry, a woman-owned business providing speaking, staff development, voice acting and entertainment services.

An Englishman by birth, Kevin combines his business degree and corporate experience with a masters in theology and a lifetime of practice in the arts. Managing Partner of The Ainsworth House & Gardens in Oregon City, he is also a popular local theatre director, published playwrite and occasional painter and visual designer. He sits on the boards of several other local non profits, including Cerimon House ~ A home for the humanities ~ in Portland, New Century Players, a community theatre company in Milwaukie, and Namasté, promoting contemporary spirituality and retreats in the real world. Ordained since 2000 with The American Catholic Church, Kevin was a hospice chaplain for many years and continues to be a spiritual director, popular preacher and inter-faith speaker when invited.

William is a long-term resident of Welches, living in and caring for an historic 1920’s fishing lodge along the Salmon River nestled in the shadow of Mt. Hood. He is recently retired as a consultant and member of the faculty at Clackamas Community College where he assisted business and industry in organization development, leadership, training and facilitation. William was also the owner and operator of The Store Natural Foods & Café for 10 years in Welches “back in the day.” Early in his career he served as a School Psychologist and Child Development Specialist. As a teenager William was introduced to the guitar and since then he has continued to play and occasionally perform as a fingerstyle guitar player, singer and song writer.

William is an active globe trotter with his wife and proud father of two grown boys. Now he is interested in supporting the arts & cultural heritage of the Mt. Hood corridor and reconnecting with those far and wide who share his love of the mountain.

Lindsay believes that everyone should have the opportunity, access, and support to express themselves through the arts or through enjoyment of the arts. Music, dance, poetry and theatre were fundamental to Lindsay’s growth through her life and especially during her teenage years growing up in New York City. “Being involved with the arts gave me purpose, and a meaningful platform to process hardship and trauma. Speaking my truth through spoken word poetry and singing with my guitar got me through some of the darkest days. Expressing pain and joy through music taught me that sharing emotion is both crucial to empowerment of the self and to connecting humans with each other. When people are hurting and closing off, sometimes art can get in where nothing else can. Artistic expression is like a high-powered light beam shining right into someones soul and saying ‘you matter, you are important, your struggles and hardships are relevant and you are not alone.’” Lindsay wants everyone to have similar opportunities to heal and thrive. Being able to express herself and process, those events were crucial to her resiliency. Lindsay believes that the arts are an essential part of humanity.

Growing up as a child performer, Lindsay had early immersion in the arts from music and dance, to visual arts and theatre, which has led to her passion for making music and art accessible to everyone. During her undergraduate studies, she was able to refine this passion with additional skills in business, psychology, creative writing and music production in order to help the broader community. During those years, she produced poetry readings, concerts, festivals, hosted a radio show at Portland State University’s KPSU while holding the position of World Music Director. Lindsay has spent the past 19 years living around Oregon in Ashland, Portland, Salem and the past 6 years in Clackamas and is excited to have an opportunity to be a part of cultivating and promoting the arts in Clackamas County.

Most of Lindsay’s recent work with the arts has been behind the scenes, as opposed to on stage, but that is where she has found her true calling, connecting people to art that speaks to them. She has found deep enjoyment being a Volunteer Coordinator for various music and arts festivals, and sees this position as a gateway to access for many who would not otherwise be able to attend these festivals. After the completion of her graduate studies in law and mediation, Lindsay worked closely with children and families in the foster care system and developed a deeper appreciation for how the arts can be transformative to the trauma healing process forward in a supportive and tangible way. She is a grateful mother to a lively and fantastic 2-year-old daughter and they enjoy gardening, listening to music, dancing, and expressing themselves with paint, markers and crayons together.

Through creative adventures in a wide range of mediums and co-founding an arts nonprofit focused on building bridges between artists and communities, Owen Premore has extensive experience in the visual arts. A native Oregonian, Owen grew up in a house his father designed and built in Oregon City and later raised a menagerie of critters on a farm in Eagle Creek. He earned a BA in Art from the University of Oregon where he focused on painting and sculpture, and an MFA in Spatial Art with a focus in kinetic sculpture and interactive installations from San Jose State University. While working in a variety of mediums, Owen’s work often addresses empowerment over consumer expectations through the use of humor and ingenuity.

For over a decade, Owen spent up to a quarter of each year traveling the United States working in science museums and visiting art institutions. His time on the road provided him with the opportunity to explore creative cultures of various communities. The surprising differences in community, institutional and nonprofit support structures has become a strong area of interest. While continuing his own artistic pursuits, Owen supports artists and communities locally through his non-profit organization Art in Oregon. His nonprofit efforts strive to support and empower creative makers of all skill levels and backgrounds.

Susan Schenk is a Wilsonville based mixed media artist. Since retiring from her school administrator position with Portland Public Schools, she has honed her own art skills, creating and exhibiting art, teaching classes and writing how-to articles for national crafter magazines. Her most recent art adventures involve teaching art on a luxury cruise line. She is a member of Elysium Artists and an active member of the Three Rivers Artists Guild in Oregon City.

As a volunteer, she is a docent at the Portland Art Museum and a board member for the Creative Arts Community which organizes an annual adult residential art experience in the Columbia Gorge. As a new member of the CCAA Advisory Board, she hopes to be a catalyst for creating a more visible art community as Wilsonville enjoys phenomenal population growth.

Cyndy has been the managing director of Clackamas Repertory Theatre – a professional theatre company in Oregon City – since it was founded in 2005. Prior to that she worked at the Portland Art Museum in development. She is also an actress and singer, and has performed in plays, musicals, operettas and in film for over 40 years. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in theatre from Lewis and Clark College and a Master of Arts degree in liberal studies from Reed College.