Quilt Alliance Welcomes New Board Members

The nonprofit Quilt Alliance welcomes three new board members to its leadership team: Lisa Ellis, Brenda Groelz and Steve Nabity. The newly elected members join a dynamic group of 20 volunteers that includes quiltmakers, historians, archivists, academic and museum professionals, media specialists and industry representatives.

Lisa Brehm Ellis is a quilt artist and teacher who frequently lectures on healing quilts and inspires quilters to get involved in using their love of quilting to improve health care centers and hospitals. As head of the non-profit organization Sacred Threads, Lisa coordinates a biennial exhibition dedicated to sharing our most personal quilts with themes of spirituality, joy, inspiration, healing, grief and peace/brotherhood. In 2010, Lisa started her own company, Giving Back Technology that provides information technology services to non-profit museums, galleries and other art organizations.

Brenda Groelz is the Director of Marketing and Education for Handi Quilter, Inc. She has more than 25 years experience in the quilting industry. Brenda has owned a quilt pattern and book publishing company and spent many years conducting quilt tours, teaching and lecturing at guilds and conferences on the national circuit. A former Editor-in-Chief of Quiltmaker magazine, Brenda has worked in all facets of marketing, from product development to consumer research, and has launched products ranging from special interest publications to digital quilt design collections, and from rulers to longarm quilting machines globally. She has served on NQA, IQA and International Quilt Study Center boards.

Steve Nabity received his Mechanical Engineering Degree from Iowa State and MBA from Kansas University. In 1989, Steve joined TEK Services, an electronics contract manufacturer and has been going strong ever since. In 1990, he established AccuCut, a family of stores that offers innovative cutting solutions to the quilt, education and craft markets. In 2008, AccuQuilt spun out to cater exclusively to the quilting industry. His favorite sayings are Head West!, Where's the Puck? and It's only Creative if it Sells. His team is also familiar with other 'Steve'isms' such as Since Hector was a Pup, We Don't Believe Our Own B.S and Monkey Butts. Steve is blessed with the ability to build great teams and proudly holds the title of "Chief Energizing Officer" at AccuQuilt.

The Alliance board of directors meets bi-annually to carry out the planning and implementation of the organization's projects: Quilters' S.O.S. - Save Our Stories (core Alliance project) and The Quilt Index and Quilt Treasures (partner projects with Michigan State University Museum and MATRIX: Center for Humane Arts, Letters and Social Sciences Online).

Board members met on August 3 at AccuQuilt's new headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska. The group was treated to a tour of the AccuQuilt facility including the "Dream Studio" (where every AccuQuilt employee quilts at least two hours per week), and a spacious quilt gallery. The following day Alliance board members enjoyed a trip to the  International Quilt Study Center & Museum in nearby Lincoln where Marin Hanson, Alliance board member and IQSC&M Curator of Exhibitions, provided a tour of the current exhibits and the storage and conservation lab.

  Longtime board member Linda Pumphrey (above, at left), Global Sales Manager for AccuQuilt, was honored at the "Quilters Take Omaha" fundraising event held in conjunction with the board meeting. A highlight of the event was a Q.S.O.S. interview with Pumphrey conducted by founding Alliance board member Merikay Waldvogel (above, at right).  

A new Alliance oral history initiative, "Go Tell It at the Quilt Show"�, was also demonstrated at the event by several interviewees. Steve Nabity (below) shared the story of a quilt made for his daughter Cara, who died of a rare, lifelong heart condition in 2003.