Faculty and Staff
Community School of the Arts selects professional faculty with credentials and/or degrees in their fields of instruction. We require our instructors to be active participants in their disciplines in the community and to be dedicated to the school’s mission.
Jennifer Willard, Executive Director
Jennifer Willard, a native of Alaska, was appointed the first executive director of the Community School of the Arts in July 1992. A graduate in music history and voice from the University of Tennessee and a doctoral candidate in music history at the University of Chicago, she began her career in arts management in 1979 with the Music of the Baroque concert series in Chicago. Since then, she has held management positions with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Fort Worth (Texas) Opera and Birmingham (Alabama) Opera Theatre, where she was the company’s first executive director. Prior to returning to Knoxville, Willard served as fine arts coordinator for the University of Alabama system, where she oversaw all fine arts and humanities projects for the campuses at Tuscaloosa, Huntsville and Birmingham. She is a member of Leadership Knoxville (Class of 1998), earned the YWCA Tribute to Women Award in the category of fine arts in 2001, received the Long Haul Award from the Tennessee Alliance for Progress in 2010, was inducted into the University of Tennessee Educators Hall of Honor in 2013 and is a Cornerstone Foundation Scholar at the University of Tennessee Haslam College of Business.
Jenn Ritter, Administrative Director
Jenn Ritter most recently worked as a project assistant for ImagePoint, Inc. During her six years with ImagePoint, she provided administrative support to teams that managed the accounts of DaimlerChrysler and Nissan North America. She also was a member of the planning committee for the company’s annual United Way fundraising campaign. Before moving to Tennessee in 2003, Jenn was administrative assistant to the Community Services Director for the City of Delano in Delano, California, for eight years. While living in Delano, she also served on the Board of Directors for Harvest Holidays, Inc. and the Filipino Community of Delano, helping to organize and promote community-wide celebrations and events.
Dr. Lacey Phelps, Director of Marketing & Development
Internationally celebrated trumpeter, Dr. Lacey Phelps, is the founding Executive Director of DFW Brass. A servant leader and optimist, she is dedicated to encouraging, inspiring, and empowering transformation through music and arts. In the past two decades she has recorded and performed in more than two dozen countries in the world’s most prestigious venues, including The Vatican, Carnegie Hall, and as a soloist throughout the United States, Bulgaria, Cuba, Italy, Greece, Mexico, and Panama. She has taught band, choir, music theory, private lessons, chamber music, and other courses at the secondary, collegiate, and graduate levels for more than two decades and is an active clinician throughout North & South America, and Europe. In addition to trumpeting, Phelps loves working as a fundraising consultant with her husband, Champion Auctioneer & Tenor Soloist/Conductor, Dr. Josh Phelps who is the Director of Music Ministries at Church Street United Methodist Church in Knoxville where they live with their 3 fur babies: Gracey, Champ, & Harvey. Visit JoshandLaceyPhelps.com for more information.
Nathan Barrett has been playing drums and percussion for more than 25 years, performing with various musical and theatrical groups in East Tennessee and Austin, Texas. Since 1996, he has served as accompanist, performer, choreographer and music director for Circle Modern Dance, where he is currently a member of the Core Company and Circle's Artistic Committee. Nate also is a member and student instructor with Capoeira Fundo da Mata. As half of the acclaimed electronic pop/rock duo Hudson K, he has performed at Bonnaroo, Rhythm & Blooms and many other festivals.
Nathan Barrett
Percussion
Charlyna Hamilton, a native of Chicago, earned her Master of Music in piano pedagogy from the University of Tennessee, where she was awarded a graduate teaching assistantship. She also graduated from Tennessee State University in Nashville with a Bachelor of Music in piano and vocal performance. Char has been teaching private lessons for more than 10 years and was trained with the Yamaha Method since 2012. In addition, Char is a trained Music Together specialist and an active member of the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA).
Charlyna Hamilton
Piano
Greg Horne has been performing and teaching music for more than 25 years. He performs as a multi-instrumentalist with regional and touring artists and has written and produced albums of his own songs. Greg, who holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in music from the College of Wooster, teaches songwriting at the Crown Guitar Workshop & Festival in Montana and was a senior faculty member of the National Guitar Workshop, a well-known summer program with campuses across the country. He has written over a dozen educational books published internationally by Alfred Music, including methods for acoustic guitar, mandolin, ukulele and songwriting.
Greg Horne
Guitar
Ashton Ludden earned her Master of Fine Arts in printmaking from the University of Tennessee in 2013 and her Bachelor of Fine Arts in engraving arts and printmaking from Emporia State University in 2009. Her works have been exhibited nationally and internationally, as well as at conferences, including the 2012 Animals, Ethics & Law Symposium and the 2013 International Veterinary Social Work Summit with keynote speaker Dr. Temple Grandin. She was an artist-in-residence at the Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław, Poland, in 2012. Ashton was awarded the 2013 Frogman's Graduate Scholarship Fellowship and the 2013 Emporia State University Liberal Arts & Sciences Outstanding Recent Graduate Award. Currently, she is the 2D coordinator for pentaculum at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, an active artist member of the Vacuum Shop Studios collaborative and the head sign artist for Trader Joe's in Knoxville.
Ashton Ludden
Visual Arts, Printmaking
Ben Maney studied with renowned jazz great Donald Brown at the University of Tennessee and is a pianist, keyboardist, singer, songwriter and composer living in Knoxville. Having worked for more than 20 years as a pianist and keyboardist with a myriad of bands, Ben has had the good fortune of opening for such famed musicians as Johnny Winter, Béla Fleck, Delbert McClinton, John Scofield and Acoustic Alchemy to name a few. As a full-time member of the Mitch Rutman Group, he appeared at the Dominican Republic Jazz Festival in Puerto Plata and at Bonnaroo. His original compositions are licensed by ROBA Production Music in Hamburg, Germany. Ben and his music also were featured in the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra's Symphony in the Park concert at Ijams Nature Center in 2016.
Ben Maney
Piano, Jazz, Composition
Mary Pulgar holds a master's degree in violin performance from Michigan State University and a Bachelor of Music in violin performance from Duquesne University, where she graduated magna cum laude. She currently plays first violin with the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra and is professor of strings at Carson-Newman University. Prior to moving to Tennessee, she played with several professional orchestras, including Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre Orchestra, Pittsburgh Opera Orchestra and Wheeling Symphony Orchestra. Mary has appeared as soloist with Orquesta Sinfónica del Delta Amacuro in Venezuela, where she also provided a number of master classes. She spends her summers performing at music festivals and has been a member of the Des Moines Metro Opera Orchestra since 2006.
Mary Pulgar
Violin
Faculty
Board of Directors 2025-2026
Anthony Wilson, President
Sherri Bevis, Vice-President
Brandon Hackett, Treasurer
Judy Thompson, Secretary
Steve Boyce
Laurie Craig
Dallas DeArmond
Marc Gamble
Anne Jackson
Tasha Mahurin
Catherine Nance
Ann Reego
Nathan Rowell
Judy Thompson
Chase Womble
Diana Samples, Member Emeritus