EdTA will increase the diversity of its board leadership following an election where members voiced their support for the organization’s racial equity focus.
Richard Frazier of Warner Robins, Ga. will become the organization’s first Black board president in 2025, after serving two years as vice president starting July 1.
Frazier is the artistic/executive director of Theatre Macon and works with iTheatrics as a contract artist and liasion for the Educational Theatre Foundation’s JumpStart Theatre program. He previously served on the EdTA board from 2015 to 2020 in appointed and elected director roles.
Members also elected Cheryl Williams, a Black educator and theatre professional from Smithefield, Va., to a board director seat. Once the new term begins, half of EdTA’s governing board will be leaders of color.
Williams is a longtime theatre professor and professional director, lighting designer, sound designer, and stage manager. She serves as a teaching artist for EdTA and was the project manager for EdTA’s Behind the Scenes grant-funded program that developed technical theatre curriculum for middle schools in partnership with pre-service teachers of color at Morgan State University. This is her first term on the EdTA board.
A second board director seat will be filled by Jeff Hall of Portland, Ore., a longtime EdTA volunteer and board member of EdTA’s Oregon chapter. Hall is fine arts director of Jesuit High School, where he’s worked for the past 32 years. He also sits on the advisory board for the Educational Theatre Foundation. This is Hall’s first term on the EdTA board.
Additionally, members approved two code changes to add inclusion-focused language to the organization’s code of regulations. Read what’s changed and view the current board.
In recent months, EdTA board, staff, and foundation and chapter leadership have been developing a racial equity action plan that deepens the organization’s commitment as an anti-racist organization actively striving toward inclusion and belonging for all. Members will be invited to share feedback on the plan in April.
This election helps move initiatives in the action plan forward, including a goal to have equal BIPOC representation on the board.
