Key Artistic and Administrative Personnel

Staff

Claire Jagla is an emerging nonprofits arts management leader. She has been working as Muse Machine’s Secondary School Program Manager since her 2017 graduation from the University of Cincinnati’s dual Arts Administration/MBA program (College-Conservatory of Music/Lindner College of Business). Previously, she taught English conversation in Korea as a Fulbright Grantee and taught language arts and special education in Dallas, Texas, as a Teach for America corps member. Jagla earned a Bachelor of Music in vocal performance from DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana.

Michael Kenwood Lippert serves as the Director of the Muse Machine Preschool and Elementary Program. Under his direction, Muse Machine residency artists have teamed with thousands of classroom teachers and elementary school students to create curriculum-based art that has been observed and celebrated by over 300,000 community members. Lippert is a member of Actors Equity Association and is a founding member and resident artist with The Human Race Theatre Company in Dayton, Ohio, and has appeared in numerous roles for the company. The recipient of the 2011 Ohio Governors Award for Arts Education, Lippert is also a seasoned arts-integration consultant who works with educators and students in ways to reform education by integrating the arts across the curriculum. In addition to his residency work in classrooms, Lippert has created and facilitated theatre and arts education residencies for a myriad of other education, arts and cultural organizations nationally. Lippert was named to the Dayton Theatre Hall of Fame in 2018.

Douglas Merk is producer of student performances and director of student programs and marketing. Merk has produced more than 45 musicals, plays and musical revues. Since 1997, he has conceived and codirected Muse’s summer concert revues. He is executive director of four Muse recordings. Merk is known for his quiet leadership, artistic vision and creativity, and thoughtful coaching and mentoring of Muse Machine student performers. He leads the Muse creative team, always setting the tone of mutual respect for all. As a designer, Merk creates many images for Muse Machine and other theatre and concert events, album graphics and the publishing industry. An award-winning actor and designer, Merk was named to the Dayton Theatre Hall of Fame in 2018.

During the summer of 2014, after a long career in education, museum administration, arts administration and elected public service, Mary Campbell Zopf joined Muse as its seventh executive director. As executive director, she is responsible for overall leadership, including design and oversight of strategic planning efforts, development and fundraising, programming and evaluation, budgeting and daily operations. Before joining Muse, she worked for the Ohio Arts Council (OAC) as its deputy director and director of education for 26 years. During her tenure, OAC’s arts education program grew in prominence and was considered one of the best in the country. She helped develop Ohio’s first standards in the arts, spearheaded a statewide effort that emphasized the importance of arts assessment and helped expand the OAC’s International Program through a number of grants, including a $1.2 million U.S. Department of Education grant.

Contract Positions: Administrative

Robin Brown serves as the schedule coordinator for Muse’s Secondary School Program. Brown taught for 35 years in the Versailles school system, where she served as the Muse Machine advisor for elementary, middle and high schools for six years. During her time as a teacher, she also served as the high school marching band color guard director for 28 years; and she’s currently directing her ninth musical as the high school’s musical director. She has a long history with Muse Machine, as a parent, grandmother and aunt of several children who have been involved in Muse activities for nearly 20 years. Brown also held positions as secretary and treasurer of the Muse Machine Parents Association; served as costume coordinator for the musical (having made many costumes over the years); and volunteered in the office since 2006 in various capacities. Brown has held many positions with the Towne & Country Players of the Versailles Community Theatre. She became interested in theatre while a student at Morehead State University in Kentucky, and subsequently performed in many musicals and plays. Brown earned a degree in Elementary Education from there and a Master’s degree in Special Education from Wright State University.

Contract Positions: Preschool & Elementary Program Teaching Artists

The following three teaching artists work under the direction of staff person Michael Kenwood Lippert:

Michael Bashaw is a sculptor/multi-instrumentalist who is well-known for his performances, sculptures, collaborations and workshops, and has been a featured artist in hundreds of venues and events. His sculptures are found in many private collections and public installations and his work has been inventoried by the Smithsonian Art Museum. Bashaw has performed with his Sound Sculpture Concert Ensemble and his quintet Puzzle of Light throughout the U.S. and in Europe. His hands-on, multi-media workshops and residencies stress communal aspects of visual art and music. He focuses on cross-cultural influences in the arts, the physics of sound and the uses and meanings of music all over the world; and he uses a vast array of traditional, ethnic and homemade musical instruments. In 2012, Bashaw was recognized for his outstanding work as an artist when he was named Ohio Arts Council’s Governor’s Award for Individual Artist.

Heather Lockwood is a professional visual artist/teacher and is part of the Muse Preschool and Elementary School team conducting in-school residencies. Lockwood started in visual arts as a preschool art and music teacher, motivating all of her students to stay outside the box. After moving to the Dayton area, she became an instructor for the Dayton Art Institute. She opened Lockwood Creation Studio in Beavercreek in 2017; and it was awarded “Best Experience” at Artfest that same year. Lockwood has exhibited and created many artworks for Orlando Museum of Art, Sea World Orlando, Dayton Society of Artists; and she was featured in Devore Magazine. Lockwood has worked as a teaching artist for Art Reach Orlando, a non-profit organization that specializes in using the arts to engage children in anti-bullying therapy.

Beth Wright is a teaching artist with the Muse Machine Preschool & Elementary Program where she conducts artist residencies for students using movement, rhythm, choreography and improvisation. For nine seasons she was a member of the Dayton favorite Rhythm in Shoes, and enjoyed performing for audiences and teaching young dancers through senior citizens nationwide. Wright has also performed in collaboration with Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, Crosspulse, The Tap Factor, and Hammerstep. She has served as adjunct faculty at Sinclair Community College, Stivers School for the Arts, and Pittsburgh’s Civic Light Opera Academy. Wright teaches dance through several area dance studios.

Contract Positions: Student Performance Creative Team

The following three creative professionals work under the direction of staff person Douglas Merk to oversee the annual winter student musical and summer concert:

Rufus Bonds, Jr. is the director of Muse’s annual winter student musical. Bonds is an actor, singer, director and writer who has performed in London, on Broadway and at Carnegie Hall. He won a Drama Desk Award for Best Supporting Actor. Bonds has toured nationally in several musicals, including The Color Purple and The Lion King; and has directed projects such as The Wiz and Into the Woods. Bonds is also a Eugene O’Neill semifinalist for his play The Sisters of Rosewall High. He attended the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music and is currently in his final year to earn his MFA at California State Fullerton University.

Lula Elzy is a distinguished choreographer, director, educator and accomplished modern dancer. She is also the founder and artistic director of the Lula Elzy New Orleans Dance Theatre. Its production of Mamma Mia! in January 2019 marked Elzy’s 20th season as resident choreographer for Muse Machine. She is the 2017 recipient of the Big Easy Classical Arts “Lifetime Achievement Award“ in honor of her launching and sustaining one of the first African-American-led modern dance companies in the history of New Orleans. She toured Europe as choreographer for Porgy and Bess, West Side Story and Cabaret. She has amassed an impressive array of honors and awards, including a 2015 Tony nominee for Excellence in Theatre Education; recipient of the Disney Channel American Teacher Award; a Kennedy Center for the Arts Artist/Teacher. Her screen credits include Mudbound, Treme, The Widow Paris, Love and Curses, Interview with a Vampire and Angel Heart. Additionally, Elzy is an instructor and dance consultant for the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music in New Orleans.

Jeffrey Powell serves as music director for Muse student performances. He has served as assistant conductor for The Lyric Opera of Kansas City, The Kansas City Symphony and for San Francisco Opera’s Western Opera Theater. Powell has also served as vocal coach for the Des Moines Metro Opera and The Bay View Music (MI) Festival. Since coming to Dayton, Powell has worked with The Dayton Opera, The Cincinnati Opera, The Human Race Theatre Company, The Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus and Wright State University Music Theater. Powell’s opera and music theater conducting includes titles such as Madama Butterfly, The Merry Widow, Sweeney Todd, Grease, Man of La Mancha, etc.

Contract Positions: Curriculum

Carolyn Wheeler serves as Muse’s curriculum specialist, and leads a project with Muse advisors for writing and publishing arts-integrated lesson plans that lead to their earning graduate credit. She earned a B.S. in Education degree from the University of Dayton and both a Master’s degree in Education and an Educational Leadership degree from Wright State University. Wheeler worked in the Dayton Public Schools as a teacher and building-level administrator. She was selected by the Kennedy Center as Ohio’s “Arts Educator of the Year” in 1991.  She led a Dayton elementary school in obtaining a significant venture capital grant from the state of Ohio designed to use the Theory of Multiple Intelligences in the instructional process across all subject areas. She has been an adjunct instructor for three area colleges and universities. Wheeler worked with Ohio School Net, assisting with their development of technology integration into classroom instruction and as editor-in-chief for the development and posting of lesson plans to its website. In 2005, as director at Muse, Wheeler designed and oversaw a large staff development project for Muse artists with the Kennedy Center.

Contract Positions: Evaluation

While not on staff, Muse’s third-party evaluator Michael Sikes is a vital professional voice in documenting and measuring programmatic impact. During the last four years, his work has helped Muse strengthen its evaluation strategies and improve professional practice in this area. Sikes is a nationally respected program evaluator with more than 25 years of experience in working with arts and cultural programs, including over 15 years work with the Ohio Arts Council on the evaluation of multiple projects, including Going Global: Expanding Cultural Collaborations (sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education) and the Andes Exchange (sponsored by the NEA). Additionally, Sikes has provided evaluation assistance and training to federal agencies (USED, NEA, the Smithsonian), National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, state and local arts agencies, and numerous arts and cultural organizations across the country and internationally. Sikes has his Ph.D. jointly in Art Education and Arts Administration and a certificate in Program Evaluation from Florida State University.