Morton Theatre

Pattie Strickland

Serves on Committee(s):
Marketing/Public Relations Committee, Chair

Member since March 2011

Ms. Strickland is been employed at the University of Georgia Terry College of Business. She is also a member of the Junior League of Athens. In her spare time, she enjoys traveling with her family, reading and watching movies. Pattie lives in east Athens.

Kathleen Hogan

Serves on Committee(s):
Fundraising Committee, Chair

Melanie Burden

Serves on Committee(s):
Fundraising Committee
Membership Committee, Chair
Finance Committee, Chair

Ms. Burden hails from Newport, Rhode Island and is currently a resident of Athens, Georgia. She recently retired from the University of Georgia after thirty years of service. Ms. Burden is the past president of the Morton Theatre Corporation and has been affiliated with the Theatre over the past seven years. She currently serves as the Treasurer and Membership Committee chair.

Ms. Burden also serves as secretary to the Board of Directors at The Cottage, Sexual Assault Center and Children’s Advocacy Center and as a Board Member for the Athens Area Arts Council. A member of the Athens Chapter of the Links, Incorporated since 2006, she currently serves as treasurer.

In her spare time, Ms. Burden enjoys gardening, dancing, reading, photography and fishing.

Attawa Childres

Services on Committee(s):
Finance Committee
Programming/Outreach/Volunteer Committee, Chair
Nominating Committee

Member since July 2012

Ms. Childres shares the following personal motivation that guided her decision to serve as a member of the Morton Theatre Corporation Board, “I believe there is a tremendous need to maintain the tradition on which the Morton Theatre was built to provide an affordable community performing art facility.”

Currently, Attawa is serving her second year as President of the Board of Directors for The Cottage, Sexual Assault Center and Children’s Advocacy Center. In this role, she has been instrumental in implementing a “Protecting our Children” program to educate the underserved community on ways to protect their children. Ms. Childres is also a 30-year retiree from the University of Georgia and now working part-time as a grants coordinator in the College of Public Health Dean’s Office where she assists faculty with proposal development and submission.

She has over twenty (20) years of grant administration experience in University including project planning and management, contract negotiation experience, information systems support, and problem resolution. She has managed and trained staff groups of employees. Her most recent achievement includes receiving the “2012 UGA President’s Fulfilling the Dream Award” at the MLK Freedom Breakfast.

Scotty Gannon

Serves on Committee(s):
Fundraising Committee
Marketing/Public Relations Committee

Member since July 2012

Mr. Gannon received his MFA in Drama Performance from the University of Georgia and his BFA in Drama from University of Oklahoma. An actor, instructor, lecturer, and writer, Scotty has performed and worked with theaters and organizations across the southern states. Currently, he works as a professional actor in film and theater in Atlanta and Athens including his solo performance of "SpUnOwT," which he wrote. He served as lead instructor for "Ain't It Good Productions" teaching Acting, Auditioning, and Nutrition and Fitness. While working as the acting instructor at Suwanee Performing Arts Academy, he created a curriculum using personal narrative to teach a deeper understanding of theater. He has served as an assistant director for "Life on Campus," working with student leaders to create a theatrical orientation program and has guest lectured on "Marginalized Identity Representation in Theater History." He also worked with Atlanta Coalition of the Performing Arts (Now AtlantaPerforms). Scotty is passionate about developing performance that allows communities to not only receive performance, but more importantly, create it.

Freda Scott Giles, PhD

Serves on Committee(s):
Programming/Outreach/Volunteers Committee
Finance Committee
Nominating Committee

Dr. Giles earned her PhD at the City University of New York. A specialist in African-American Theatre, directing and acting, she is the author of articles focusing on early African-American Theatre, drama and theatre of the Harlem Renaissance, and contemporary African American theatre practitioners. She has presented papers at national and international conferences, such as Black Theatre Network, ATHE and ASALH. She has several play scripts to her credit, and has directed a number of productions in New York and Georgia. A professional actor and member of Actors Equity Association and SAG-AFTRA, she has performed a number of roles off-Broadway as well as in film, television and radio. Before coming to the University of Georgia, Freda taught at State University of New York at Albany and City College, City University of New York. She currently teaches courses in African American theatre, African theatre, and directing for the stage.

Robert Harrison

Serves on Committee(s):
Fundraising Committee
Programming/Outreach/Volunteers Committee
Nominating Committee

Member since July 2012

Dr. Robert Harrison is a graduate of University of Georgia (EDD Adult Education, EDS Student Personnel and MED Rehabilitation Counseling) and of Mississippi Valley State University. He is the current Executive Director of the Institute for Community and Organizational Development, Inc. and Director of the Vistas Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired. In the past, Robert was the Project Coordinator for Friends For Life Mentoring, NETSPAN Community Technology Network, Adolescent Health and Youth Development Statewide Training, IHDD, UGA, as well as Educational Opportunity Center, Talent Search, Upward Bound – UGA. He is a former panel member of the vision committee of the Athens-Clarke County Department of Human and Economic Development and former board member of Hope Haven, Inc. Robert is currently a board member of the Morton Theatre, Renaissance Development Consortium, Inc., and Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.

Julia Menefield Lankford

Vanessa Smith

Serves on Committee(s):
Fundraising Committee

Ragonda Menefield-Stallworth

Serves on Committee(s):
Membership Committee

Betty Brown Williamson

Serves on Committee(s):
Membership Committee
Nominating Committee, Chair

Ms. Brown-Williamson is the CEO of We Care Enterprises, Inc., the management company for several entities including Gardenview Funeral Chapel, LLC and Grandview Car Wash in Athens, Georgia, and Williamson Mortuary, LLC and Riverdale Crematory, LLC in Riverdale, Georgia.

Betty has been serving the Athens are since 1974 as a long term health care owner and administrator. Though she retired in 2009 from day-to-day operations, Betty serves as a consulting and interim administrator in the state of Georgia and remains an active member of the Georgia Health Care Association. In addition to her work with the Morton Theatre Board, she is also an active member of the Ebenezer Baptist Church West, current member and past chairman of the Stillman College Board of Trustees, the Athens Technical School General Education Advisory Board, The Links, Inc., and a life member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority and the NAACP.

Betty is a loving mother and grandmother to her daughters and three wonderful grandchildren.

Sige Burden, Jr.

Serves on Committee(s):
Programming/Outreach/Volunteers Committee

Mr. Burden is a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and holds a BS degree in Business & Human Resource Management from Troy State University and a Masters degree in Human Resources and Organizational Design from the University of Georgia. He has been employed for 14 years with the University of Georgia Human Resources Division and currently holds the position of Senior Managing Director of the Faculty & Staff Relations Department. Sige is Past President of the Black Faculty & Staff Organization University of Georgia, Past-President of the Morton Theatre Board of Directors and a military veteran. He is currently a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Sigma Phi Psi Boule’, and of Saint Joseph Roman Catholic Church.

Kathryn Lookofsky

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Past Presidents

Linney Bailey
Larry Blount
Dr. Katherine Boardman
Melanie Burden
Sige Burden
Hue Henry
Bill Herringdine
Janice Mathis
Warren McPherson
Mrs. Ronnie Morton
Dr. Ronald Schoeffler
Rodney Thomas
John Vance

Board Members 1981-1995

Linny Bailey
Leslie K. Bates
Robert T. Billups
David R. Bishop
Julius Bishop
David Boardman
Katherine B. Boardman
Essie Bone
Ned Bridges
Joe Burnett
Laura Ludwig Cater
Joel Cordle
E.H. Culpepper, III
W.E. (Del) Delaper
Kenneth Dious
Cathi Doherty
LaGrange Dupree
Steven Elliott-Gower
Thomas Ellis
Barbara F. Epting
Leroy Ervin
Sissy Erwin
J.W. Fanning
Bill Foster
Tom Glaser
Lane Greene
Louis T. Griffith
Bill Herringdine
Jim Hill
Mary W. Horton
Jewel John
Milton Leathers
James Locklin
Nancy Lukasiewicz
Jeanette Lund
Carol Lunde
Janice L. Mathis
Rowena McCoy
Mary Frances McDow
Lee Hunt McNaughton
Keith McNeely
G. Barton Middleton
Jimmy Morris
Clarissa Myrick-Harris
Connie Nelson
Ronnie Norton
David H. Nunnally, Sr.
Jill Jayne Read
Thomas L. Riis
Henry Rosenthal, Jr.
Marsha Rosenthal
Elmer Schact
Ronald W. Schoeffler
Howard Scott
Edward T. Shelton
Jim Simmons
Robert Spell
Mary E. Stakes
W. Joseph Stell
Howard Stroud
Cordelia Taylor
Michael Thurmond
John W. Townsend, Jr.
Joanna Traylor
Matthew Ware
John Waters
Gene G. Weeks
Mark Wheeler
Bruce Williams
Jerry-Lynn Williams
Roycelynn Williams
Sally Pat Williams
Homer Wilson
Jackie Wright