Board of Directors

Demar Anderson

Demar Anderson specializes in creative and strategic planning, brand storytelling, marketing and driving business growth. As the Senior Vice President of Marketing at Allison+Partners, she is responsible for showcasing the agency’s culture, thought leadership, solutions-oriented service offerings and award-winning work. Demar describes herself as a “humanitarian at heart” and does pro-bono and volunteer work for non-profits that support human rights issues. Demar also served as a board member for the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA, Chicago chapter) as the Skyline Awards and Diversity & Inclusion Co-Chair. She holds a degree in Journalism/Public Relations from Georgia State University in Atlanta.

Leilani Lattin Duke

President

Duke was the Founding Director of the J. Paul Getty Education Institute for the Arts and the Director of the Los Angeles Times’ Reading by 9 child literacy program. In addition, she was a Chairman and Trustee on the American Craft Council, and an Administrator at the National Endowment for the Arts, California Confederation of the Arts. She received her B.A. from Denison University and her M.A. from Syracuse University.

Robyn Hollingshead

Robyn Hollingshead has spent her career in philanthropy and nonprofits with a special focus on arts and cultures. She most recently completed 13 years with the Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies, where she served on executive and program leadership teams as Managing Program Director leading strategy, planning, grant distribution, and reporting to the board for the organization’s Arts & Cultures, Animal Welfare, and Teachers grant making domains as well as local giving, board discretionary, and public media. Hollingshead previously was Program Manager of The Philanthropy Workshop West (TPW), an executive, intensive yearlong philanthropy education program for high-net-worth individuals housed at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Hollingshead also previously was the Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Friends of Hôpital Albert Schweitzer Haiti, a Mellon family philanthropy which expanded awareness of the culture and art of the Haitian people and of their need for health services, economic development, and improved environmental conditions.

Lois Jecklin

Since 2005, Jecklin has been personal manager for composer/conductor Bright Sheng, whom she represented as part of her roster while president and owner of Jecklin Associates, an artist management and representation firm doing business worldwide from 1988 to 2004. From 1990 to 2004, she also served as assistant to the director of the Walter W. Naumburg Foundation, New York City, placing the winners of their international competition with presenting organizations throughout the U.S. In 1973, at the invitation of Deere & Co. and the Quad City Arts Council, she helped to found Visiting Artists Inc., an Iowa/Illinois multidisciplinary arts presenting organization, and served as its President and CEO until 1988.

Diane Kimberlin

Diane Kimberlin is an attorney and shareholder in the Los Angeles law firm Littler Mendelson where she has practiced since 1985. She has been recognized as one of the Best Lawyers in America from 2007 through 2022. Kimberlin is a long-time member of the Board of Directors of Regis House, a community center near downtown Los Angeles, dedicated to empowering community members by offering low or no cost educational, recreational and social service programs. Since late 2015, Kimberlin has served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Counsel for Justice (CFJ) of the Los Angeles County Bar Association. The CFJ raises funds to provide legal services to needy members of the community through its four projects: the Domestic Violence Legal Services Project, the Veterans Legal Services Project, the Immigration Legal Assistance Project and the AIDS Legal Services Project. Kimberlin is a member of ProVisors, a business networking group, and currently serves as the inaugural “ambassador” from her home group to ProVisors Southern California Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee.  ProVisors’ DEI Committee reaches out to peers in under-represented communities to broaden the organization’s membership mix and become a force for equity and positive change. 

Ann Ruhr Pifer

Treasurer

– Owner of The Grand Hand Gallery
– Chief Operating Officer, AdoptAClassroom.org
– B.A., Economics, Smith College
– M.A., International Relations, Johns Hopkins

Steven Poster
ASC

Vice President

Poster is a cinematographer with over fifty film credits including Donnie Darko, Stuart Little 2 and The Box. He is also a photographer. He is the President of the International Cinematographers Guild, Local 600 of the I.A.T.S.E., a 6000-member national labor organization. He is a member of the Motion Picture Academy, a judge on its Nicholl Foundation Fellowship, and on its Public Presentation Committee. He is a past president of the American Society of Cinematographers, the oldest professional organization in the motion picture business, and was on the Board of the International Documentary Association.

Therman Statom

Therman Statom is a glass artist currently living in Omaha, NE. Statom is best known for his painted ladders, houses, chairs, etc., constructed out of plate glass, blown glass objects, plywood, and found objects. He studied glass at Pilchuck Glass Center and received his BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. He holds an MFA from Pratt Institute of Art and Design and has taught at Pilchuck and the University of California, Los Angeles. He has also received commissions for countless permanent large-scale installations, including the Los Angeles Central Public Library and the Toledo Museum of Art.

Consuelo Jimenez Underwood

Consuelo Jimenez Underwood is most well known for her textiles and installation work which represents her own history as a migrant agricultural worker, signifying her hybrid culture as well as the arbitrary lines that divide her homes. Artistic expression is deeply tied to traditional Huichol weaving, a heritage she incorporates into her large mixed media textiles. Borders and barriers are the vocabulary she uses to describe and celebrate the lives of migrant workers and indigenous people who are marginalized and downtrodden. Underwood taught at San Jose State University. She received her BA and MA from San Diego State University and MFA from San Jose State University. Her work is in the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Oakland Museum of Art.

Julie Appel

Julie Appel, CID, is an interior designer and a certified member of the California Council of Interior Designers. Julie worked at Hutner & Appel Architects from 1982 to 1997, and worked at Appel Group Interiors from 1997 to 2020. As a Director of Interior Design, she has been involved in the design of over one million square feet of space. She has spent her professional career designing communal spaces for such institutions as the Jewish Home for the Aging Medical Clinic, Tarzana, Ca; St. John’s Outpatient Surgery Center, Santa Monica; Cathedral Center of St. Paul/Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Los Angeles and Warner Brothers Records, Burbank. 

James Bassler

James Bassler is a weaver whose work draws inspiration from pre-Columbian, Andean, and Mexican textile traditions. He received his BA and MA from the University of California, Los Angeles, where he taught for 25 years at the UCLA School of Arts and Architecture. He also helped to establish the fiber/textile program at the Appalachian Center for Crafts and has taught at the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, and the Penland School of Crafts.

Veralee Bassler

Veralee Bassler is a ceramic artist. She graduated from UCLA Art Department with a concentration in ceramics and taught in the LAUSD for 25-years.

Cathleen Collins

Cathleen Collins served on the Craft in America Board from the inception of the project until 2008. Collins attended Manhattanville College, graduating with a B.A. in English and received her J.D. from New York University School of Law in 1984. Since retiring from practice of law, she has served on various boards.

Corinna Cotsen

Corinna Cotsen served on the Craft in America board. She is a craft advocate, collector, and printmaker; founder, Edifice Complex, trustee, Washington University in St. Louis; chair, Los Angeles Regional Cabinet for Washington University; board member, Craft Contemporary Museum; graduate, Washington University School of Architecture and the School of Engineering and Applied Science. 

Steve Grafe

Steve Grafe has been Curator of Art at Maryhill Museum of Art since 2009. Grafe contributed text about American Indian craft to Craft in America: Celebrating Two Centuries of Artists and Objects (2007) and served on the Craft in America board.

Jay L. Kim

Jay L. Kim is the Executive Vice President and General Counsel for Heartland Financial USA, Inc. Kim is on the Board of Trustees for The Nature Conservancy Minnesota/North Dakota/South Dakota.

Anna Le Borde

Anne La Borde is a health care executive and consultant with doctorates in Clinical Psychology and Psychoanalysis.

Wendy Maruyama

Wendy Maruyama is a furniture maker and artist. Maruyama received her B.A from San Diego State University and her M.F.A. from Rochester Institute of Technology. Maruyama is a Professor Emerita at San Diego State University.

Jane Milosch

Jane Milosch is founding director of the Smithsonian Provenance Research Initiative in the Office of the Under Secretary for History, Art, and Culture, Smithsonian Institution.

Gerardo Monterrubio

Gerardo Monterrubio is a ceramic artist. After obtaining a BFA in Ceramic Arts from California State University, Long Beach, he received his MFA from UCLA and currently teaches at Long Beach City College.

Ren Moore

After a 30 year career in high technology, Ren Moore is returning to his roots as an anthropologist and advocate for the arts. As the youngest son of Eudorah Moore, Ren grew up immersed in the arts and crafts world and from a very early age, Ren was exposed to the importance and beauty of design and those things crafted by hand as well as the lifestyle of the craftsman.  

Laura Oskowitz

Laura Oskowitz is passionate about the crafts, particularly fiber arts.  She is a knowledgeable collector and has amassed a significant collection of art jewelry and textiles.  

Cynthia Sears

Cynthia Sears is the founder of the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art and writer. Sears served on the Craft in America board.

Barbara Tober

Barbara Tober has been Chairman of the Museum of Arts and Design for 15 years and is now Chairman of MAD’S International Council. Having spent over four decades in the corporate advertising and magazine world, she believes that the support of the arts by the business community is essential to a civilized society.  

Hidde Van Duym

Hidde Van Duym is an artist working in watercolor, 3-D box construction, and book arts. Van Duym served on the Craft in America board.