The Faces of Our Organization
Board of Directors
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Patricia S. Kotzen Board President
Patricia (Trish) Kotzen worked for the Department of the Navy for over 30 years, the last 13 as a member of the Senior Executive Service. Trish was the first civilian Deputy Inspector General of the Navy, a position she held for six years. She was also the Deputy Assistant Director for the Pacific Fleet Shore Installations in Hawaii for over four years and the Deputy Assistant Director for Naval Aviation Maintenance for two years before taking early retirement. Since her retirement, Trish has devoted much of her time and energy to giving back to the community. She founded the first CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) Program for abused and neglected children in Queen Anne’s County, Maryland. She also became a Community Mediator and helped to resolve many court cases before trial and many other issues before they reached legal status. Trish was a member of the Board of Directors of the Maryland Chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and led four very successful fundraising events for the chapter. Trish is one of the founders of the Crisfield Arts Syndicate.
Curtis W. Lafey
Board Treasurer
Curtis W. Lafey brings a vast experience of business knowledge to our organization from the commercial industry, as well as, numerous state and federal government sectors. He currently owns and operates a Service-Disabled, Veteran-Owned firm, headquartered in Crisfield MD, conducting construction and facility services operations throughout the Eastern Seaboard and the Caribbean. His clients include the US Navy, The Department of Homeland Security, The US Army, and other Federal Government Agencies.
Following his military service as a U.S. Army Officer, His stellar career includes upper-level management assignments in the retail, manufacturing, construction, home building, and international business arenas. Curt is one of the founders of the Crisfield Arts Syndicate.
Linda Singh
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Board Member
Linda Singh brings more than twenty years marketing experience and deep knowledge of the consumer packaged goods in the beauty space. She has worked with multi-nationals as well as with start up organizations and espouses an entrepreneurial but easygoing working style. She is the founder of Marketing Launch Partners, a consulting firm specializing in helping innovative startups scale their business to take advantage of tech accelerators and investment opportunities and the owner of The Bay Gift Vault, a specialty boutique serving local residents and tourists located in Crisfield, MD. Linda is also the Founder of Sitara Collections, an online jewelry store launched in 2007 and based in Crisfield, MD. Sitara Collections is dedicated to creating handmade gemstone jewelry for women while keeping traditional craftsmanship alive. Linda is a partner at Ascent Beauty Brands, a Marketing Consultancy specializing in marketing strategy, business development and global product development. She served as a Senior Marketing Director at Coty, Inc., overseeing all marketing activities of a $250 million portfolio across fragrances and personal care brands. Linda has an MBA, Eastern University, Delta Mu Delta.
Bill Meyer
Board Member
Bill Meyer started his television career in 1978, working in the corporate world producing programming for 17 years, including hundreds of TV shows and commercials. Following that, he went to work for the Marketing and Affairs Department for the City of Glendale, Arizona. During his 23 years there, he produced digital content and television shows, both internally and externally for the City’s television station (Glendale 11), Facebook, and YouTube channels. Bill produced/directed digital content for all major annual events that Glendale created, Glendale Glitters, Glendale Glitter and Glow.
Bill also created programming for other major events like the 2008 and 2015 Super Bowls and annual Arizona Fiesta Bowl held in the University of Phoenix Stadium. Other programming he produced was to promote the Gila River Arena and Westgate Entertainment District in Glendale. After being in television for over 40 years, Bill still loves it and will continue to produce programming that promotes Crisfield and Somerset County. He says it’s great to live in Crisfield!
Robin Rayford
Board Member
Robin Handy Rayford is a native of Crisfield and is thrilled that she and her husband, Stan, recently relocated to Crisfield May, 2021 (during the COVID-19 pandemic). Stan and Robin have one married daughter, Heather Benson. She and her husband, Eric, have one daughter, 6y/o Emily. They all love Crisfield so much that it’s their number one vacation spot.
Robin is an Adult and Child/Adolescent Psychoanalyst and continues her practice along with Stan in Troy, MI. Robin is an instructor and supervisor of psychoanalysis at Institutes and Universities in Michigan, New York and China. She also works with Stan as he continues as founding and Sr. Pastor of Restoration Fellowship Tabernacle (RFT), an interdenominational church in Detroit, MI. Robin has also served as a docent at the Detroit Institute of Arts.
Now that Robin is back home, she’s finding her place in town as an adult. She’s loving it as a recent board member of the Somerset County’s Art Council and looks forward to working with the Crisfield Arts Syndicate. Robin’s heart’s desire very much aligns with the goals of community revitalization and economic development in Crisfield, her “home sweet home.”
Eric Banks
Board Member
Eric Banks, a native of Crisfield who moved away in 1993.
For over three decades he has owned and operated multiple businesses on the peninsula of the Eastern Shore. He started a building contracting construction company thirty years ago. From his 40 years in the construction industry he has started a consultant and project management company. He's also an internet pioneer and entrepeneur in marketing through multiple online platforms. In 2002 he pursued a degree at Penn State University in Computer Technology.
During his tenure away from home he accepted the call of ministry where he was later ordained as an elder in the Church of Jesus Christ. Eric has a burning passion to address the declining landscape of the home in which growing up he saw it as one of the most thriving and vibrant communities on the eastern shore. "Growing up in Crisfield, I had the opportunity to witness a period of great prosperity and economic growth". He returned home in 2016, and his vision for economic development in the tourism and hospitality industry moved him to start a new company in the seafood restaurant industry. He has always been in support of working alongside others in politics in the local and state branches of government. In 2020 the spark for politics entered his heart to run for city council, and after the success of winning, he served as the vice president of the mayor and council for the city. He presently serves on numerious boards of directors throughout the city and has served as president of several non-profit organizations. He is the chairman of the Crisfield Downtown Waterfront Development Committee, also co-chair of the Crisfield Marketing Council for the city.
Eric's passion is to strengthen the core of the community by working together, which he believes is the most direct pathway to transform the future for a greater Crisfield. He believes that through faith we can build together and become a vibrant tourest destination from our heritage, culture and the waterways of the Chesapeake Bay.
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Brian Sutherland
Board Member
Brian Scott Sutherland began a career as a martial arts/self defense instructor in 1974. He has owned and operated schools (dojo) and retail supply outlets in the Baltimore/Washington area and has trained law enforcement personnel from coast to coast. For an extensive martial arts and employment background, click www.BoulderAikido.com/instructor .
Brian lived in Boulder Colorado as a teenager and again from 2000 to 2015. He and his wife Karen, owned/operated Boulder Fine Arts Inc., buying and selling antiquarian books and fine art internationally. Brian joined his brothers' company, Boulder Art Tile as Production Manager, soon to become Executive Director. Boulder Art Tile manufactured ceramic tiles and murals for artists, school districts, government installations, librarys, hospitals and large scale fundraising projects. He studied Creative Writing, Music Theory and American Jazz History at Front Range Community College in Colorado. He's played drums on and off since grade school, but consistantly for the past 30 years.
Life in the dry, landlocked, wildfire, and flashflood prone Rocky Mountains became a challenge. Brian and Karen stumbled across Crisfield on a business trip and fell in love with the town and its people. In 2015 they moved to a shabby 1895 Victorian house in Crisfield and spent the next several years restoring it to it's natural beauty. Brian refreshed his lifetime hobby and began creating art again in 2022. He contributes to the local community radio station, WBYC 107.3 FM, by hosting Scotty's Jukebox and Scotty's Ska and Reggae show each week. Brian still enjoys gardening, martial arts, and playing multiple musical instruments. 2024 marks his 50th year practicing aikido. Brian is eager to volunteer, whenever possible, to help improve and enrich the place he loves, Crisfield MD.
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Kathryn Endlein Redden is active within the arts as a visual artist and performer. She also instructs public speaking, leadership, grant writing, and mentoring individuals in their professional growth.
She is the Artistic Director of Lower Shore Performing Arts Company providing live performing arts events, Arts Alive education programs for adults and children in public speaking , art forms, writing, and techniques for actors. As an actress she has performed diverse roles in hundreds of shows from Truvy in Steel Magnolias to a suspect in The Thin Man murder mystery to Lovey Howell in Gilligan's Island, The Musical. She is a Toastmasters Gold Certified Speaker, and member of the Patient Council for the Hematology/Oncology Professionals Association and a cancer advocate. She possesses a BA in Art History from James Madison University and a Masters in Education at Salisbury University.
Kathryn's corporate experience is in Human Resources in various industries; Leadership Development (design and delivery); Diversity and Manpower Plannning; Strategic Planning; Business Development; Communication and Performance Management. She is now a full-time visual artist and participant in the performing arts. Kathryn is an instructor in improvization in theater and art and public speaking. She serves as a board member on Crisfield Arts Syndicate/ Gallery 413, Debedeavon Club Toastmaster as a founding member and officer of Debedeavon Toastmasters Club and serves as a member of Hematology Pharmacology Patient Advisory Board (HOPA). Her memberships include the Worcester County Arts Council Co-Op; Corbin Gallery and Studio Cooperative, Crisfield Arts and Entertainment District, Somerset County Arts Council, Salisbury Art Space, Art League of Ocean City, Tailgate Artists, Toastmasters International, and local clubs.
Her art business is Hope Feathers Studio. Kathryn's art can be seen in Worcester County Arts Council gallery and website, Windmill Creek Winery and Atlantic General Hospital John "Jack" Burbage Regional Cancer Center, all located in Berlin MD; Corbin Gallery and Studio and website and Gallery 413, both located in Crisfield, MD; Art League of Ocean City, Ocean City MD; Hair Studio 720 in Salisbury MD; Delmarva's Discovery Museum Shop, Morgan's Gift Shop, and Christmas Sweet all in Pocomoke MD.
Kathryn has received numerous awards for her art work. She has spoken at various conferences regarding the inspiration for her art and life challenge with cancer. She loves farm life as a wife, mother, and grandmother.
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Kathryn Endlein Redden
Board Member
Linda Riggin
Board Member
Linda brings to the board a mixture of community service and professional expertise. For 40 years, Linda has owned and operated Investue Healthy Concepts, a nutrition and counseling business. She has a Masters Degree in Counseling from Loyola College and is a certified Nutritional Consultant. She has focused a large portion of her efforts to addressing the mental and physical demands of Type 1 and 2 diabetes. For several years while living in Washington DC, she served on the planning committee for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation's Gala of Hope, a fundraising evening which raised more than 1 million dollars each year.
Linda spearheaded the $500,000 fundraising campaign to furnish the new Crisfield Library. In addition, she procured all of the art work and decorations for the building. Thousands of people, both visitors and locals, have been the beneficiaries of her efforts.
Linda and her husband Phil moved to Crisfield from Washington DC 14 years ago. In DC, she visited all the art museums and most of the galleries, which expanded her exposure to the art world. She and Phil became Associate members of the Kennedy Center. In addition, she volunteered regurly at the Arena Stage.
Shortly after moving to Crisfield, Linda volunteered to expand the arts presence at the former Somerset County Arts Council. She was one of the initial volunteers with Crisfield Arts and Entertainment District, helping to refurbish the Corbin Studio and Gallery. Linda volunteered for the inaugural Plein Air events, opening her home to visiting artists. She believes the expansion of art venues is one of the key elements to revitalizing Crisfield.
