Leadership

Our Board of Directors

Jarrod Hartzler – President

Jarrod is Executive Director of Ohio Alliance for Arts Education and is a former Arts Management Fellow at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He serves as a member of the Board of Directors for Ohio Citizens for the Arts and Wayne Center for the Arts. His past positions include Executive and Artistic Director of Tuesday Musical and Managing Director of Wooster Chamber Music Series. Jarrod serves in a number of capacities for Buckeye Book Fair, including chairing committees and advising the organization on arts education.

Karin Wiest – Vice President

Karin is a licensed attorney with a BA from the College of Wooster, JD The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law.  She is a member of the Kiwanis Club of Wooster, the Wayne County Bar Association and serves on the boards of The College of Wooster Women’s Advisory Board and the League of Women Voters, Wayne County.

Russell T. Cross – Secretary

Russell received his B.Sc. in Psychology and Linguistics at Lancaster University in the UK. He is the Language Systems Product Manager at PRC-Saltillo, a Wooster company that provides speech technology for those with communication disabilities. Russell serves on the editorial board for two scholarly journals in the fields of linguistics and technology.

Laurie Bower – Treasurer

Laurie Bower is the office manager for Tru-Weld Equipment.  She has degrees from Mount Union College and the University of Akron.  She enjoys reading, quilting, and community theater. 

BreAnn Fennell

BreAnn Fennell is a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd-grade looping teacher in Ashland, Ohio. She obtained her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in education from Ashland University in Ashland, Ohio. She is a Training and Development Specialist for the Teach Better Team. BreAnn is the 2021 Ohio Teacher of the Year for District 5. She has served the state of Ohio as a Teacher Leader Liaison for two years and continues to serve as a Teacher Leader Ambassador for the years 2022- 2023. BreAnn serves on the board of directors for Discovery School and on the board of directors for Buckeye Bookfair. BreAnn Fennell is the author of the children’s books: Play? Yay!, Play? Yay! Baby Talk, and Choose Your Cheer. She is also a contributing author to the books Finding the Edu Balance, That One Kid, and The Labyrinth of Leadership. BreAnn has been also been published in Principal Navigator Magazine. BreAnn is also a defender of play, a collector of books, and a loving mom of two boys.

Antwon Duncan Milcsewski

Antwon is a Cleveland native and he is no stranger to the stage having performed with concert dance companies such as Ohio Ballet, Cleveland Contemporary Dance Theater, and Verb Ballets. Musical Theatre is one of his greatest passions and some of his favorite roles include; Larry in A Chorus Line at Porthouse Theater and Plato in Cats at Carousel Dinner Theater. Mr. Duncan is a University of Akron alumni where he received his BA in Dance. Since leaving the stage he has spent the majority of his time as an educator and working at various local studios including Starmaker Performing Arts Center and Martell School of Dance. Antwon’s Master’s degree is from BGSU and he is celebrating his fifth year as a Career Technical Educational teacher at Canton McKinley Senior High School. When not choreographing for the musical, dance team, show choir, or dance concert Antwon can be found carving out time for family and friends. He is ecstatic to be using some of that time to serve on the board of Verb Ballets (Ohio’s contemporary ballet company), and now join the Buckeye Book Fair as they continue to spread the importance of literacy.

Elizabeth Nelson

Elizabeth Nelson is a retired children’s and reference librarian from Medina County District Library. She is an advocate of poetry and volunteers with reading groups and libraries throughout Northeast Ohio.

Tricia Pycraft

Tricia Pycraft grew up in Shreve, Ohio, and began her career at Critchfield, Critchfield & Johnston, Ltd. Attorneys at law as a college intern during her summer break from Denison University. The experience inspired her to attend law school and she began practicing at Critchfield in 2002 after passing the Ohio bar examination. Tricia also represents a variety of financial institutions, businesses, and homeowners associations in collections matters of all types, from obtaining traditional and cognovit judgments and pursuing collection or foreclosure, and negotiating payment plans.

Our Staff