Meet Our Board
-
Joey Jaworski (He/Him)
Board Chair
-
Jennifer Sutton (She/Her)
Vice Board Chair
-
Kristy Towry (She/Her)
Treasurer
-
Gail Crowder (She/Her)
Secretary
-
Markesha Dunham (She/They)
AWC President
-
Adam Miller (He/Him)
AGMC President
-
Gabrielle Claiborne (She/Her)
Board Member - Board Development Chair
-
Katie Culp (She/Her)
Board Member
-
Huiling Chen (She/Her)
Board Member
-
Sarah Kody (She/Her)
Board Member
-
Willie Sullivan (He/Him)
Board Member
Melissa Arasi, Ph. D She/Her
Artistic Director | AWC
As founding conductor and Artistic Director of the Atlanta Women’s Chorus, Melissa Arasi has benefitted from a deeply meaningful musical experience. Through engaging musical endeavors with diverse women, her life has been informed and improved. In addition to her work with the AWC, Dr. Arasi recently served as Guest Professor at Kennesaw State and Georgia State Universities and as Assistant Professor of Music Education and Coordinator of Music Education Programs at Reinhardt University.
Dr. Arasi previously served as the Supervisor of Performing Arts: General/Choral Music, Theatre, and Dance for the Cobb County School District in Marietta, Georgia. Prior to this supervisory role, she was the Choral Director and Fine Arts Department Chair at Walton High School in Cobb County for fourteen years. Additionally, Dr. Arasi previously served as Visiting Assistant Professor of Music at the Georgia Institute of Technology Choral Program, where she founded and conducted the Women’s Choir. Dr. Arasi has taught private voice, elementary general music, and conducted children’s choirs in several Atlanta area churches.
Dr. Arasi received a Bachelor of Music Education from Shorter College in Rome, Georgia; a Master of Music Education and a Ph.D. in Teaching and Learning in Music Education with a concentration in choral music and a cognate in leadership from Georgia State University. Dr. Arasi was a member of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus, primarily under the direction of Robert Shaw, for five seasons. She maintains active memberships in NAfME, GMEA, and ACDA and has held leadership roles in both the state of Georgia and the Southern Division of ACDA.
David Aurilio He/Him
Executive Director | VON
We are delighted to welcome David to the organization as our Executive Director. David Aurilio has over 40 years of extensive experience in the Entertainment, Marketing/Branding and Non-Profit sectors. Career highlights include creating, executive producing and casting live shows for Universal Studios theme parks in Florida, California, and Japan to producing Film/TV projects and Live Events for ABC-Disney, NBC, Warner Brothers, New Line Cinema, 20th Century Fox and the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood that included American Idol Press Event (Season 1), NBC Daytime Fanfest, and the Latin Grammys outdoor festival to name a few.
He moved to Atlanta from Los Angeles in 2011 and has since produced the GLAAD 10th Anniversary event honoring Don Lemon, volunteers as an adjudicator for ArtsBridge and served as the Executive Director for the Spiritual Living Center of Atlanta for 8 years. A graduate of Kent State University in Ohio, David has a Bachelor of Science (BS) degree in Journalism and Public Relations.
Gabrielle Claiborne She/Her
Board Member - Board Development Chair
Gabrielle Claiborne is Co-founder and CEO of Transformation Journeys Worldwide, an inclusion training and consulting firm with a transgender and gender expansive focus. Her award-winning and certified LGBT business enterprise consultancy helps cutting-edge organizations create fully trans-inclusive cultures of safety, belonging and knowing for trans and gender expansive people.
She serves on various local, national and international LGBTQ+ Advisory Boards. In 2022, she received the Georgia Diversity Council’s LGBTQ Leadership Award and Emory University's Barkley Forum, Georgia Speaker of the Year Award. In 2020, she published her memoir meets self-help book Embrace Your Truth: A Journey of Authenticity. In 2019, the Atlanta business Chronicle acknowledged her as their Diversity & Inclusion “Outstanding Voice” Award recipient, and she delivered a TEDx talk for Centennial Park Women TEDx. In 2018, Gabrielle received the Georgia Small Business Administration’s LGBT Small Business Champion Award in recognition of her efforts in advancing LGBT business ownership. In 2015, Gabrielle was chosen as Atlanta’s Best Trans Activist, and her work has been featured in Forbes and the Atlanta Business Chronicle.
Donald Milton III He/Him
Artistic Director | AGMC
Donald Milton III joined the Atlanta Gay Men’s Chorus in January 2018, bringing an impressive background in conducting, music education and music administration. He came to Atlanta in 2008 to become the director of music for the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Atlanta, the largest UU congregation in the Southeast. At UUCA Mr. Milton runs one of the most eclectic and excellent music programs in the city. Active in the Atlanta music scene, he has served as the executive director of the Atlanta Master Chorale, artistic director of the DeKalb Choral Guild, founder and artistic director of Lux Atlanta, and founder of Sky Punch, a company that produces sing-alongs, concerts and other interactive community music events.
Mr. Milton is an active choral clinician, guest conductor, lecturer, and performer. He has presented his lecture "The Second Voice Change: The Aging Voice" in a dozen states and three countries. Inspired by many trans people in the Atlanta community, Mr. Milton has been focusing on working with trans voices, helping people express themselves fully as they truly are.
Mr. Milton studied at the University of Michigan School of Music, with concentrations in education, conducting and vocal pedagogy.
Felicia Seamon She/Her
Director of Development | VON
Felicia is a former college professor at Cheyney University of Pennsylvania (her undergraduate alma mater and the 1st Historically Black College in the nation), where she holds a degree in Recreation Management and holds a master’s degree in public administration and Nonprofit Leadership (MPA) from the University of Delaware.
Felicia has extensive experience in grant writing and youth programming from her tenure as the director of recreation for the City of Coatesville, together compiling more than 20 years of experience in developing and molding young people from all over the country. From youth ages through college students, Felicia has managed several authors including her husband (of 22 years) Jermaine, as well as various artists of various genres, including formerly managing her multi-talented daughter Jordan under the auspices of their music, book publishing, and entertainment company, Seamón Enterprises and Entertainment Co.
Because of Felicia’s life-long dedication to education, access, and exposure, she established The Seamón Family Foundation, the family’s private, national 501(c)3, which is committed to Social & Financial Investment in Arts & Culture, through youth empowerment in (1) Education, (2) Art Exposure, (3) Mental Health Awareness (Anti-Bullying & Suicide Prevention), (4) Community, and (5) Business Development.
Felicia oversees all of the Seamón Enterprises’ company divisions and their marketing, as her expertise is in assisting individuals with small business goals, professional development, marketing, business plans, grant writing, networking, and more. While engaging significantly in both the music and film industries after the family’s arrival to Georgia, Felicia’s interactions with youth artists and their parents compelled her to develop The National Parents, Professionals & Business Network (NPPBN or BizNet), a member-based, virtual network and app accessed through Seamòn Enterprises.
Felicia commits time often to give back through directorship on several local, regional and national Boards, and finds time to work independently with new & aspiring artists in areas of Event Planning, Professional Development, Management, Marketing, Promotion & more.
Kristy Towry She/Her
Treasurer
Kristy L. Towry is Professor Emeritus at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School, where she served as Vice Dean of Faculty and Research, John and Lucy Cook Chair and Professor of Accounting. Prof. Towry joined the Goizueta Business School faculty in 2002, after receiving her Ph.D. from The University of Texas at Austin.
She has extensive experience in managerial accounting and finance, including a number of positions at Fortune 100 firms. Prof. Towry's research relates to the use of accounting information for managerial decision making, with a focus on managerial control systems and financial incentives. Her research, based on the experimental method, blends theory from economics, psychology, and other social sciences to provide insights into accounting issues. She has published in The Accounting Review, Contemporary Accounting Research, Review of Accounting Studies, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and other accounting and economics journals.
She has served in a number of leadership positions, most notably chair of the Faculty Executive Committee at the Goizueta Business School and President of the Management Accounting Section of the American Accounting Association. Prof. Towry has been recognized with the Notable Contributions to the Management Accounting Literature Award, the Donald R. Keough Award for Service, the Glen McLaughlin Award for Research in Accounting Ethics, the Best Early Career Researcher in Management Accounting Award, the Management Accounting Best Dissertation Award, and a number of teaching awards.