President, Jazz Alive

Since 1999, Laura's production company LAG Productions, LLC has produced and promoted jazz events at venues in the greater Cincinnati, Ohio, northern Kentucky, and southeast Indiana area.

As president of the non-profit organization Jazz Alive, Inc., Laura has coordinated educational outreach focused on the preservation and advancement of jazz with non-profit arts organizations and educational institutions.

Laura is a board member serving in various roles on several arts organizations, such as the Jazz Initiative for Cincinnati /Nancy, France Sister City Association, We Create Jazz (a 4-week women-in-jazz festival with University of Cincinnati-College Conservatory of Music Jazz Studies department), the UC-CCM Power board, and the Cincinnati Memorial Hall Society.

She founded Sistahs Who Swing™, a concept focusing on African-American women in jazz.

Jazz Vocalist and CEO, Learning Through Art, Inc.

A Cincinnati native, Kathy Wade is a renowned educator, musician, and jazz singer. She has been performing for more than 40 years all over the world, including the US, Canada, Europe, the Caribbean, and Africa. When she is not performing, Kathy is CEO of Learning Through Art, Inc. This non-profit organization provides quality performing arts programs in support of arts education, literacy, community development, and engagement with multi-cultural awareness. Kathy earned her Bachelor of Arts from Xavier University and a Master of Arts in Art Administration from the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music.

Artistic Director, SCPA

Angela Powell Walker is artistic director for Cincinnati School for the Creative and Performing Arts (SCPA). Her prior experience includes performing as an opera singer on the world stage and teaching at several universities and secondary schools, including the prestigious Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, D.C. She is a 1986 SCPA graduate.

She previously served as chief executive officer and artistic director of the Children's Theatre of Cincinnati and as an adjunct faculty member at Northern Kentucky University. She also was an adjunct at Washington Bible College and taught at Suitland High School Visual and Performing Arts, both in Lanham, Maryland. Powell Walker earned a master’s degree in music at the University of Maryland and a bachelor’s degree in music at Oberlin (Ohio) Conservatory of Music.

Owner of Sweet Petit Desserts
Co-Owner Cream + Sugar Coffee House

While serving in the Army National Guard for 7 years, Taren obtained a BS in Information Systems with a minor in accounting, all while climbing the corporate ladder as a programmer/analyst for IBM.  After leaving corporate in 2008 she decided to use her skills as a businesswoman and gift as a 3rd generation baker to birth Sweet Petit Desserts in August of 2009.  Sweet Petit Desserts provides sweet treats for individual customers and all kinds of social events that include customizable dessert bars and special gifts for any occasion. Taren is also co-owner of Cream + Sugar Coffee House in the Evanston neighborhood of Cincinnati. The vision of Cream + Sugar is to change the business landscape of African American communities, to spread love and inclusion, to inspire creativity, to enhance the business district, and more importantly, to have our children see people who look like them owning and operating thriving businesses.

NKU Alum - Southgate School Alum
2nd Vice President Northern Kentucky Branch NAACP

Virinda Garland Doddy grew up in Newport. She attended Southgate Street School for first grade before transferring to an elementary school which was integrated. After graduating from high school, she attended Northern Kentucky University and was the first Black person to receive a degree in the Human Services program. She received a Bachelor’s in Social Work and went on to get her Master’s in Theology. She was also the 2nd Vice President Northern Kentucky Branch NAACP.

In July 2020, a mural entitled “Education Empowers”, was unveiled on the flood wall in Newport, Kentucky. Designed by Gina Erardi, a Northern Kentucky University graduate, the mural is a tribute to the Southgate Street School, the first all-Black school in Campbell County that operated from after the Civil War to the 1950s. Included in the design is a portrait of a Virinda Garland Doddy in a graduation cap and gown.

Artist and Owner, Most outGROWing, LLC

Adoria L. Maxberry is a visual artist, educator, wife and mother of three, based in Cincinnati, Ohio. She facilitates unique, meaningful art experiences with a focus on creativity, exploration and reflection. Her company, Most OutGROWing LLC, is dedicated to helping others grow spiritually, mentally and creatively through art. Adoria earned a Master of Visual Arts Education and Licensure from the University of Cincinnati College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning (DAAP) and a Bachelor of Arts from Xavier University. She was acknowledged as the DAAP 2020 School of Art Outstanding Graduate Student. Adoria serves as visual arts educator at Woodford Academy, a lead teaching artist for Artworks, and voice actress and lead puppeteer on the Emmy winning, Books Alive! For Kids series "Paige's Place." Recently recognized as a 2022 Black is Excellence: Unsung Hometown Hero by the City of Cincinnati, Adoria ultimately seeks to bring God glory and encourage others.

Author

Sheila Williams is a former corporate borg who wrote stories of her own creation with one hand while revising corporate documents with the other. She thinks of herself as a story-teller, learning her craft from the stories told by her parents, grand-parents and great-grandparents around the Sunday dinner table. She is a graduate of The University of Louisville.

Sheila is the author of five published novels including Dancing on the Edge of the Roof  adapted by Netflix for the film JUANITA and The Secret Women (2020). Her most recent novel, Things Past Telling (Amistad/HarperCollins, March 15, 2022), is a tribute to the women on her family tree, spanning a time period from 1750 to 1870. She is also the librettist for the opera FIERCE, commissioned by The Cincinnati Opera (Summer, 2022), with music composed by William Menefield.