Glenn Newland (President)
Glenn is an avid photographer, starting at age thirteen, when he developed his first black and white photo. He studied film and photography at Webster College in Missouri, where he received a bachelor’s degree in media studies. He met his wife, Amy, in a community choir in San Francisco. Amy and Glenn have been singing in community choirs ever since, crisscrossing the country from San Francisco (where their son, Oliver, was born) to Miami to Los Angeles and finally relocating to Eugene in November 2020, where they now sing with the Eugene Concert Choir and Vocal Arts. Professionally, Glenn has worked in a variety of positions in the motion picture industry at companies such as Technicolor and IMAX. Throughout his career he managed small and large staffs on the technical, financial, and post-production side of filmmaking. He has been an active member of multiple volunteer organizations including the Nova Singers in Fort Lauderdale Florida, the Association of Independent Commercial Producers, Film Florida, The Giant Screen Cinema Association, and the National Educational Film & Video Festival in Oakland, CA. Before leaving Southern California, Glenn volunteered with the Burbank Cultural Arts Commission and, most recently has volunteered with Lane County Public Health in support of multiple mass vaccination clinics and the Community Supported Shelters organization. Glenn is passionate about learning about and encouraging new artists and promoting the arts in support of a more unified community.
Jess Hampton (Vice President)
Jess is currently the Nonprofit Learning Programs Manager at the Nonprofit Association of Oregon and a lifelong Oregonian. Jess has worked in the nonprofit sector in various capacities for over 20 years; as a nonprofit volunteer, cooperative finance manager, program and curriculum developer, leadership trainer and facilitator, program evaluator, board member of various nonprofits, nonprofit consultant and project manager. She earned her graduate degree in Nonprofit Management from the University of Oregon and strives to provide practical resources and tools that benefit nonprofit organizations that are so crucial to the heart of our state. In her personal time, Jess enjoys adventuring around Oregon with her family, playing board games and trying to teach their dog, Barbara Anne, new tricks!
Laura King (Secretary)
Laura is the executive assistant to development at the University of Oregon’s College of Education. They earned their graduate degree at the University of Oregon in Nonprofit Management with a graduate certificate in Arts and Cultural Leadership at the University of Oregon in 2022. Laura is dedicated to inclusive practices and belonging within arts and cultural production, lifelong learning through the arts, fostering community arts’ initiatives, and supporting professional development of artists and arts facilitators. During their time in Lane County, Laura has served as a program coordinator and curator for Tropical Contemporary, an artist collective and organization focused on providing exhibition opportunities to emerging and diverse artists. Laura co-developed a multi-year long artist in residency program called the Transformation Residency with local nonprofit TransPonder, which provided workspace and stipends for trans and gender diverse Oregon artists. In their free time they enjoy games and ttrpgs, metalsmithing, all things 2D artmaking and exhibiting, and growing plants.
Sherry Schaefers (Treasurer)
Lane County became home when Sherry relocated here, for a job, in 1995. She is a Colorado State University graduate and owns a State Farm Agency in Eugene. Sherry, and her husband, have four children and recently became homeowners on the McKenzie River. Actively engaged in various community organizations, Sherry is honored to serve on the Lane Arts Council Board where she hopes to make a difference.
Cindy Chan
The first job Cindy had after college was a manager at a cultural arts center in Hong Kong. Since then, she has been an enthusiastic performing arts fan and at times a contemporary dance performer herself. Cindy holds a BA in English and an MFA in Dance with a focus on dance education, from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, respectively. Later in her career, after spending over 15 years in advertising as a creative director and copywriter, Cindy channeled her creative energy into dance education and general education. She moved to Eugene in 2015 with her husband and two daughters to be close to family. In Eugene, she continues to bring dance to children and the community through working as a dance teaching artist and leading family dance workshops. Currently, she is working at the Chinese Immersion School in the Eugene School District 4J as an educational assistant, where she seizes every opportunity to create space for the students to deepen their learning through fun and engaging creative dance.
Reed Davaz McGowan
Reed has built more than 25 years of expertise as an arts leader in Eugene, San Francisco, Philadelphia and beyond. She has focused on increasing access to and funding for innovative arts programming for youth and communities. She was the executive director of Eugene Public Library Foundation following seven years as the executive director of San Francisco-based Youth Art Exchange. She recently returned to Youth Art Exchange as the Director of Development + Communications to lead a capital and capacity campaign to open two new youth arts centers on the ground floor of two 100% affordable housing sites in San Francisco. Reed earned her Master of Arts in Arts Management from the University of Oregon in 2007, researching youth leadership development in the arts. In 2002, she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Spanish from the University of Oregon. Reed participated in Bryn Mawr’s Nonprofit Executive Leadership Institute, National Guild for Arts Education’s Community Arts Education Leadership Institute, Leadership San Francisco, and the Leaderspring Center. She is also a multimedia designer, weaver, public transportation enthusiast, and an engaged parent at Buena Vista Spanish Immersion Elementary School.
Donald R. Dexter, Jr.
Donald R. Dexter, Jr. is a Modoc and enrolled member of the Klamath Tribes of Southern Oregon. A local dentist and Diplomate of the American Board of Dental Sleep Medicine, Don has a broad range of interests beyond dental sleep medicine. He is passionate about the arts, particularly photography, architecture, and the design world. For over 25 years, Don has supported the arts and artists in Lane County with curated photography shows and holiday photography markets in his dental practice. He is also known for his R0 Prayer Flag projects and photography project Eugene: From Holga with Love, where 21 local business owners and community members shot a roll of film using a medium format Holga camera. Don is working on a documentary, Modoc: Endeavor to Persevere, about the Modoc War and Modoc people. Visit Don’s quarterly photography shows and art projects at art.drdexter.com.
Elon Glucklich
Elon is a lifelong Oregonian, growing up in Ashland, home to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. For a decade he was a reporter, photographer and videographer at several newspapers across Oregon, most recently at The Register-Guard in Eugene. He currently works as a marketing specialist for the Eugene-based software company Palo Alto Software. He comes from a family of writers – his grandfather was a Pulitzer Prize winner who taught him at a young age about “the writer’s ear,” and his cousin is a Booker Prize-nominated novelist. He’s passionate about creative expression of all kinds, and about making a positive impact locally, especially for children.
Michael Jones
Michael is a video game Sound Designer and composer. Michael came to Eugene in 2008 to work for Pipeworks Studio, and has since become very active in Eugene’s game development, tech, and entrepreneurship communities. A co-founder and co-organizer of Bitforest, he helps extend opportunities for people to pursue game development through workshops, game jams, meet-ups, and hosting the yearly Indie Game Con event every fall. A musician for 32 years, Michael has a passion for the arts and is excited to represent videogame creators to show how the arts are critical to game development, and how game design thinking can revolutionize other industries looking to innovate.
Rachel Knighten
Rachel has been a Spanish instructor at Lane Community College since 2018. Prior to that, she was a faculty member at the University of Wisconsin-Fox Valley. While in Wisconsin, Rachel was involved in the local performing arts community through dance and as the parent of two youth musicians. She served on multiple boards related to education and the arts in Appleton, WI. She was also a regular cast member of the local annual productions of The Nutcracker, a major community collaboration with professional and youth musical ensembles, and guest artists. She currently serves as a CASA of Lane County and looks forward to being a member of the Lane Arts Council Board.
Joe Moore
Joe is a University of Oregon graduate and Bend, Oregon native turned local architect and City of Eugene Public Art Committee Chair. Immersed in arts and education while growing up in a teaching family, he continues to pursue the arts through personal practice and public service. He especially appreciates the ability of the arts to foster community through creative expression and shared experience. Joe is an advocate for youth, temporary, and public arts, and he hopes Lane County will continue to emerge as a leader in these areas. He is happy to support the Lane Arts Council as a steward and entrepreneur in arts education and community arts.
