Board Members
Susan Thibodeaux, Board President
After 30 years in the defense industry, Susan retired from Raytheon as a Director of Finance.
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She has a BS from Stanford and an MBA from UCLA. In high school and college, she performed in numerous musical theater productions and has enjoyed performing in Art Express Theatre productions of Secret Garden, Christmas Carol, Carousel, Oliver! and Titanic. She has sung with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra Chorus, the Arizona Repertory Singers, St Philips in the Hills Canterbury Choir and the Helios Ensemble. She is a Board Member of the Stanford Club of Southern Arizona.
Priscilla Marquez, Vice President
Priscilla brings forty years’ experience to the board of Arts Express Theatre, cofounding Catalina Players in 1983.
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By 2009 they had produced over 125 plays. Since then, she has continued to lead and support theatre in Tucson: as a board member of University of Arizona School of Theatre, Film & Television, Act One, Winding Road Theatre, Live Theatre Workshop, Tucson Desert Song Festival, and Act One Murder Mystery. She is also a member of Southern Arizona Act One Committee.
Priscilla is delighted to join the board of Arts Express Theatre because she can support the best musical theatre in Tucson.
She has received the 2002 Arizona Theater Alliance Award of Excellence, and the Arts Hero 2019 by One Media.
Noreen Nelson, Board Secretary
Bio coming soon!
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Bio coming soon!
Diane Murphey, Board Treasurer
Diane Murphy is a seasoned leader having been in executive roles with organizations in the aerospace, health care, telecommunications, and defense industries.
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She recently retired from Raytheon after 13 years leading marketing, communication, learning, talent development, and strategic planning efforts. She has a BA in Communication with a minor in Leadership from Purdue University. While not having a background in theatre, she has enjoyed a passion for attending performances of all genres through the years, following the examples set by her parents while growing up in the New York area. Diane currently sits on the Boards of the Pima JTED Foundation and Equine Voices Rescue & Sanctuary and is excited to bring her skills to support the growth strategies of AET in our community.
James Barnhart, Board Member
Jim has lived in Tucson since 1972. His daughter’s positive and confidence building experience with Arts Express Theatre inspired him to
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be a Board Member and “pay it forward." As an active real estate agent, Arts Express Theatre benefits from Jim’s knowledge of the Tucson real estate market. He is a member of the Rincon Optimist Club, Vietnam Veterans of American and the American Legion Post 132. He has served on the organizing committees for numerous community events, including the Rincon Optimist Air Show, a Bluegrass Festival and many golf tournaments.
Daniel Cavanagh, Board Member
A University of Arizona graduate, Dan’s 50 years in Tucson have been filled with family, community service, and a varied professional career.
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With a degree in Radio-TV Communications, Dan’s work appeared in Tucson and around the world through newspapers, wire services, and radio-TV. Dan transitioned to business communications as vice president of the Tucson Chamber of Commerce. Dan served as editor of Chamber publication “Outlook,” lobbied at the local and state level, and in 1991 was elected president of the American Chamber of Commerce Executive’s Government Relations Council. With an IOM degree from the University of Colorado Boulder, Dan became the first executive of Tucson’s Arizona Builders’ Alliance, where the office won 3 National Chapter of the Year awards. He has served as President of the Southern Arizona Red Cross, Chairman of the University’s Lunar and Planetary Lab Community Advisory Board, Catalina Boy Scouts Good Scout of the Year Honoree, founder of the Cornerstone Building Foundation, and nominee for the Bill Clinton President’s Service Award.
Mario DiVetta, Board Member
Mario has been involved in the arts for 20 years in Tucson. He began his career as a student at the University of Arizona where he worked as a box office attendant and house manager with
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the Arizona Repertory Theatre and as a stagehand at Centennial Hall. Eventually making his way to Director of Marketing for UA Presents and then Broadway in Tucson where he is now General Manager. He has worked on hundreds of concerts and world music events as well as over 70 Broadway productions. His greatest accomplishment is his family, his wife Gabriela and two kids, Mario and Madison.
Michael Godnick, Board Member
Michael Godnick is a retired development and marketing professional.
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Living in Chicago for 30 years he worked as an independent consultant assisting non-profits in the areas of fundraising, governance, strategic planning and executive search. Michael served on the board of the Association of Fundraising Profesionals and received the Presidents Award for distinguished service and dedication to the fundraising profession. He was a frequent guest teacher and lecturer for a number of Chicago organizations. In addition he served on the board of Association of Philanthropic Counsel, Association of Consultants to Non-profits and Network of Non-profit Search Consultants.
Lendre Kearns, Board Member
Lendre Kearns has worked in arts management and marketing for 45 years including stints with Broadway in Tucson, La Jolla Playhouse,
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Minnesota Dance Theatre, The Guthrie Theatre, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and more. She has facilitated retreats and taught workshops in the U.S., Canada, England and Australia in a variety of subject areas among them, presenting, touring, strategic planning and marketing. She has taught at Goucher College, the University of Toronto and Thunder Bay Community College. She is a self-described “arts dilletante/worker bee”, serving on boards and volunteering her services for a number of Tucson organizations, most notably, Arts Express. She is also occasionally taking on projects including workshops and facilitating planning for a variety of organizations outside Tucson.
Rob Risely, Board Member
ROB RISLEY first dipped his toe into acting by performing in a 1978 community theater production of “Anything Goes” in Davis, California.
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On the advice of loving friends, he kept his day job, and moved to Tucson in 1981 to earn a Master’s degree in geology. After working in petroleum exploration in Southeast Asia for a number of years, Rob graduated from law school and worked on real estate, financing, transactional, renewable energy, planning and zoning, environmental and regulatory law projects in Arizona; finance of major infrastructure projects in Southeast Asia; and mineral exploration projects worldwide. After his second attempt to retire, he now works as “of counsel” with DeConcini McDonald Yetwin & Lacy in Tucson, where he focuses on mineral property transactions.
Rob values non-profit service and has worked with Arizona-based Social Venture Partners Arizona and the Si Se Puede Foundation. Rob is particularly proud of his leadership service at the Foundation for Natural Resources and Energy Law based in Denver, where he has been a passionate advocate on issues of Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion.