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Board of Directors
President Jerry Jones
Growing up in a small rural community northeast of Shawnee, Jerry Jones attended a small four room school that had two teachers for grades 1st through 8th. She learned at an early age that community involvement was a way of giving back to those that had worked to improve the quality of life so many take for granted.

Jones was employed at the Oklahoma State Labor Department, then at Tinker Air Force Base before joining her father-in-law, Leo Jones, in his appraisal business. After twenty-three years as a real estate appraiser, she says that she has appraised everything from funeral homes to pig farms and never knows what the next assignment will offer. A certified general real estate appraiser, she currently serves on the Education, Experience and Testing Committee of the Oklahoma Real Estate Appraiser Board. Previous volunteer work was with the Disciplinary Committee.

Encouraged more than ten years ago by Jerry Glasgow, a Downtown Shawnee business owner, to join a bus tour to Okmulgee and Eufaula, Jerry’s involvement with the Main Street program began with an appreciation of how the historic buildings could be renovated. She has been active with the program since that time, serving as committee chairman, a member of the board of directors, then on the executive committee. Jones will finish her third year as president of the board in January.

She recently completed five years as a state officer for the Oklahoma Business and Professional Women’s Federation, finishing as state president in 2004-05. She credits the many opportunities to networking with professional women across the nation for her continued work in supporting the education of women in the professional, political and personal aspects of their lives. Jones is a member of the Cartwright Hi-Noon Business and Professional Women’s Club of Shawnee.

Jones is a member of the National Association of Independent Fee Appraisers, Shawnee Board of Realtors, Oklahoma Association of Realtors, Norman Board of Realtors and the Oklahoma City Association of Professional Mortgage Women.

She enjoys spending time with her family, husband, Robert, daughter Sarah and her husband Jeff Weeks with their son Blake; son Miles and his daughter Madison.

Jerry Jones, President

Tera Leigh, Vice President
Shawnee resident Tera Leigh has a diverse business background. She is an attorney in California, ran an internet marketing firm for f ve years, taught New Media marketing for UCLA and Cal State Long Beach Extension programs, and provided PR and marketing consultation services for dozens of businesses. In 1999, she signed her first book deal, co-licensed a product line, and began to write for magazines.

Since that time, Tera has developed an international following for her work, written two more books and contributed to ten others. She has developed her own product line, and continued to write for magazines about business issues, travel, and living a creative life. She is a columnist for PaintWorks and Quick & Easy Painting magazines. Her designs and writings have been published in dozens of other publications, ranging from Romantic Homes to Country Marketplace magazines, and she has been a guest on TV shows such as DIY Scrapbooking, The Christopher Lowell Show, as well as interviews on the Dallas and Chicago ABC-TV Sunday Morning shows. Tera also hosts an online radio show on the topic of creativity and the arts.

In 1998, with a group of hardworking volunteers, Tera founded and remains president of Board of Directors of the Memory Box Artist Program, Inc., www.memoryboxes.org. To date, the program has provided over 85,000 boxes to hospitals for neonatal loss, free of charge. Tera has also served on the Board of Directors of the Society of Creative Designers, Craft & Hobby Association Designers Section, and numerous business sub-committees.

She has a web site at www.teraleigh.com and can be reached via e-mail at [email protected]. Tera Leigh, Vice President

Kathy McMillan, Past President
Kathy McMillan serves on the Downtown Shawnee Board of Directors and Executive Committee as Past President of Downtown Shawnee, and has been a member of the board for seven years. She has also served the organization as Interim Director, Director and chairperson of the “Jazz on Bell” Festival.

Kathy grew up in Concordia, Kansas, graduated from Concordia High School and has a BA in English from Fort Hays State University. She moved to Oklahoma in 1998 and considers Shawnee and the state of Oklahoma home. Kathy has been married to her husband, Marion, for 34 years. They have a daughter, Melinda McMillan-Fox and son-inlaw Christopher Fox of Tulsa, and a son, Erik McMillan of Shawnee.

Kathy’s hobbies include reading, skiing, and gardening (she is a Master Gardener) and anything that involves spending time at the lake. She splits her time between Shawnee and the McMillan home at Lake Eufaula. Other than family, her greatest loves are her Golden Retrievers, Shelby and Dexter.

In addition to Downtown Shawnee, Kathy also serves as secretary for the Shawnee Educational Foundation Board, is a committee member for the Unity Hospital Spring Benefit, and has been active in fundraising efforts for the new Shawnee YMCA. Kathy McMillan, Past President

Gloria Trotter, Secretary
Gloria Trotter is co-publisher of The Tecumseh Countywide News and The Shawnee Sun. Her community activities have included serving as two-time past president of the Tecumseh Business & Professional Women, two-time past president of the Tecumseh Chamber of Commerce, past member of the YMCA Board of Directors, the Greater Shawnee Area Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, and the Red Cross Board of Directors.

She currently serves as secretary of the Downtown Shawnee Board of Directors, on the Red Earth Book Festival Steering Committee, and sings with the Sine Nomine Choral Society and the Broadway United Methodist Church Choir.

Statewide, she is active in Freedom of Information Oklahoma, of which she is a past president, and the Oklahoma Press Association, where she is a member of the board of directors.

She has won many statewide writing awards, and her newspapers have won the OPA Better Newspaper Sweepstakes Award more than a dozen times. In 2004, she was honored with the Charles E. Thornton Outstanding Journalism Alumni Award by the University of Memphis Journalism Alumni Chapter. In 2005, she was the winner of the National Newspaper Association’s McKinney award, the Association’s highest award to a working newspaperwoman. She was the first Oklahoman ever to win the award.

A native of Bristol, Tenn., Trotter is a graduate of Memphis State University. She and her husband Wayne are parents of an adult son, Greg.

Photo by Kelli West with West Impressions Photography 473-2570

Linda Brown, Treasurer
Linda Brown is the treasurer for Downtown Shawnee Inc. She is a longtime resident of Shawnee and she has been married 39 years to her husband Richard. She has two grown children, Jeff and Leslie, and one grandchild, Janie. She attends L i berty Baptist Church.

Brown has worked for FirSt National Bank for two years as a Customer Service Representative and has 28 years of banking experience.

She serves on numerous boards throughout the community, including SEFF (Safe Events for Family Fun Inc.) that sponsors Boo On Bell. She serves as an offi cer for the Cartwright Hi-Noon Business & Professional Women and serves on the Centennial
Committee for Shawnee.

She is a dedicated volunteer for many organizations such as the Volunteer Health Clinic, RSVP (Shoes That Fit Program), Heartland Hospice, Clean Up Day in Downtown Shawnee, International Finals Youth Rodeo, Relay for Life, March of Dimes and the Art Wine & Jazz Festival. She is currently attending Leadership Shawnee through the Greater Shawnee Area Chamber of Commerce.

Vicky O. Misa, Board Member
Born and reared in Shawnee, Vicky Misa grew up in the center of town with her parents, Dennis and Kathy Charvat, longtime business owners of Charvat Electric. She attended several schools in the Shawnee school system throughout her education.

Misa was brought up and encouraged to have a sense of community and spent many years in Camp Fire, where she served in various roles such as a volunteer at the local library (when it was still the Carnegie on Broadway) and as a candy-striper at Mission Hill Memorial Hospital.

She has been employed at several Shawnee businesses. She worked through high school at Ben Franklin’s and at Shawnee Garment for many years. She was a preschool teacher at Rock Creek Baptist Preschool and Immanuel Baptist Preschool. Having a love for children and a desire to make a positive impact on them, Misa was eager to return to school in her early thirties where she earned a bachelor’s degree in journalim with a minor in art from Oklahoma Baptist University.

She is now a published and awardwinning writer, both in journalistic and creative writing fields. She is currently in the process of writing and illustrating several children’s stories and is working on an epic novel as well. In her spare time she enjoys oil painting and reading anything she can get her hands on.

Misa has been married many years to longtime Shawnee resident David Misa. They have three daughters, Heather, Sylvia and Cassandra, and a son, Johnny. Their oldest daughter is now a sophomore at OBU. She still lives on Broadway and is currently the wire editor of her hometown newspaper, The Shawnee News-Star.

Rita Sloan, Board Member
Rita Sloan has lived in Shawnee all her life and has enjoyed every minute of it. She has two sons, Brad, 19, and Joey, 10. She has worked in radio seven years for the One Ten Broadcast Group and does a live show called the Country Shopper every day from 11 a.m. to noon that airs on 105.9. She has done numerous live remotes thought the local communities. She also does sales for the radio station. She has worked for her boss Linda Jones in different capacities for the past 13 years. Working in radio has giver her the chance to meet several country artists and some really great people in the tri-county area.

Bruce Travis, Board Member
Bruce E. Travis was born in Lincoln Park, Michigan, and served in the United States Navy during WWII. He is married and has four children and ten grandchildren. Bruce has been a goldsmith for more than 50 years and has owned a jewelry store in the Shawnee area for more than 30 years. Bruce is a member of the 1st Christian Church in Tecumseh, Tecumseh Masonic Lodge, and volunteers for the American Red Cross and Shawnee Emergency Management as well as Downtown Shawnee, He enjoys music, dancing and fishing.

Candy Swinney, Board Member
Candie Swinney was born and raised in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. She moved to Shawnee in 1970. She is married to Marty Swinney, owner of Swinney’s Pump Service. She has four children, eight grandchildren and another one on the way.

Candie has been a police officer for 32 years; she is currently the Public Relations Officer for the Shawnee Police Department. She has had numerous hours of schooling and training and
is a state certified law enforcement instructor.

Her hobbies are hunting, fishing, motorcycles, rehabilitation of wildlife, anything related children, and cleaning — she loves to clean.

Candie is the founder of Santa’s Kid’s (22 years and still going strong), a member of Blue Knights (an all-police motorcycle club), Southern Cruisers, Kiwanis, Dunbar Association and of course Downtown Shawnee Inc. She volunteers for the Cancer Society, Boo On Bell, March of Dimes, Centennial Committee, Art, Wine & Jazz Festival, American Heart Association, Santa Fest, Downtown Shawnee’s Promotion Committee and is signed up as a Big Sister.
Candie Swinney
Photo by Kelli West with West Impressions Photography 473-2570

Ronda White, Board Member
Ronda White was born and raised in Portsmouth, Virginia. After high school, she joined the Army as a communication specialist and served four years, including a tour in Panama. In 1983 Ronda and her family moved to northwest Oklahoma City where she was active in her church, volunteered in the Putnam City PTA, PCN Band Boosters, volunteered as a Boy Scout Cub and Webelo Den Mother, tutored elementary students in reading, and was an Alzheimer volunteer facilitator.
She worked for the U.S. Postal Service, operated her own business as a Mary Kay beauty consultant, worked in retail management and then as a licensed Realtor. She moved to Shawnee in 2003 and in June of this year joined the staff of The Aldridge Apartments, where she handles marketing, leasing and social activities. She is also currently completing her B.S. degree in management.

Ronda has two children: Terrell, who attends college in Maryland, and Summer, who attends Shawnee High School and is on the pom squad. Ronda is a Pom Booster, and works with the Shawnee Drama Team and Shawnee Little Theatre.

Her hobbies include cooking, reading, watching movies at home, and sewing.

Photo by Kelli West with West Impressions Photography 473-2570

Jennifer Freed, Board Member
Jennifer Freed was born in Shawnee, grew up in Seminole, and returned to Shawnee 29 years ago. She is married to Rodney Freed and they have three children, Jason of Portland, Oregon, Joshua of Shawnee, and Jessica of Tulsa. They also have three grandchildren.

Freed is presently the Bereavement Coordinator at Heartland Hospice of Shawnee. Her duties there include following approximately 300 families, teaching a grief recovery seminar, and facilitating grief support groups. Prior to this position, she was involved in healthcare marketing, geriatric assessment work, and was the fi rst executive
director at Project Safe.

She attended Oklahoma State University and received a B.S. in Clothing& Merchandising and a M.S. in Education. She is a member of The American Academy of Bereavement and the Association of Death Education and Counseling.

Freed has been on the board of directors at Project Safe, Big Brothers/ Big Sisters and has volunteered at the Mabee-Gerrer Museum.

In her spare time, she enjoys gardening, reading, traveling, decorating projects and spending time with grandchildren.