Board of Directors

Your Holly Board of Directors

Ivana Pelnar-Zaiko-Board Chairman
Ivana retired from a career as non-profit executive that included positions as vice president of leading private colleges and a major international consulting company. She also had advised universities and arts non-profits in Germany, Denmark, Bulgaria, and the country of Georgia with a lecture and workshop program in fundraising and non-profit management through the US Department of State. In Dahlonega, Ivana is active as volunteer, part-time consultant, and board officer with local non-profits.
Ivana’s volunteer activities include the Holly, where she served on the Board of Directors and was instrumental in obtaining major grants for the 2014-2015 renovations of the historic building.

Nathan Gerrells-Vice Chairman

Nathan Gerrells is proud to serve as the Artistic Director of the Holly Theatre. Previously he served on the Holly Theater Board of Directors from 2013 to 2016, where he was instrumental in building the Holly Performance Academy's programs and directed the often sold out summer camp series including The Lion King Jr., Wizard of Oz, and Beauty and the Beast Jr. He also directed the Holly Mainstage production of White Christmas. Nathan was one of the first recipients of the "Freddie Gershon" award for excellence in children's theater directing at the 2007 Junior Theater Festival held each year in Atlanta.

By day, Nathan is the Assistant Principal at Long Branch Elementary School. He has 11 years of experience in Education including winning Lumpkin County Teacher of the Year in 2013. He is proud to call the Holly his second home; he has worked in just about every aspect of the theater since high school. This is a special place, and he wants to see us continue to expand our programming and build upon the base of community support.

Jim Bailey-Treasurer

Jim Bailey is a native of Fannin County, Georgia along with his wife, Pat. He retired as an executive in the aerospace industry after 40 years of service. Subsequently, he and Pat were able to once again return to the mountains of North Georgia. Jim has a Bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering and holds a Masters Degree of Business Administration in Finance. He has had the good fortune to perform in the Holly Theatre productions of You Can’t Take It With You, Til’ Death Do Us Part, and Christmas Belles. He is excited to have this opportunity to serve the community by advocating and supporting the education and entertainment mission of the Holly Theatre.

Dawn Phipps-Secretary
Originally from Newburgh, Indiana, Dawn graduated with a Bachelor’s degree from Ball State University in Speech Communication, Theatre, and English education. She received her Master’s Degree in secondary education from the University of Southern Indiana and Educational Leadership from Oakland City University. In her home state, Dawn had a successful teaching career, teaching theatre and English as well as participating in local theatre productions both on stage and behind the scenes. In 2001, Dawn and her husband moved to Forsyth County, Georgia where she has been a teacher and administrator with Forsyth County Schools, currently serving as Director of High School Education. Last year, Dawn joined the Holly Theatre family acting in The Addams Family, Company and directing Christmas Belles as well as serving on the Holly’s Artistic Committee. Dawn is delighted to be a member of the Holly community and hopes to continue to collaborate in the mission and vision of the Holly Theatre by serving the community in the development of Theatre Arts programming, education, and entertainment.

Drew Ferguson

Drew Ferguson first became involved at the Holly Theater around 1994 and served as a volunteer in several capacities both on- and off-stage through dozens of performances, children's shows and summer camps over the ensuing decade. Since then, Drew has accrued ten years of experience working in higher education, where he currently serves as Director of the Office of Assessment at Brenau University in Gainesville, GA and is in the final throes of earning his master's degree in computer science at Georgia Tech. In his role at Brenau, Drew oversees the systematic assessment of academic degree programs as well as of administrative effectiveness across the university. Drew's enjoyment of spreadsheets and their many uses in organizing data has been called "excessive", "a cause of mild alarm" and "beautiful, if it weren't so sad - or maybe that's what makes it beautiful, like the ending of Lost."

Having experienced it for himself, Drew knows how important the Holly is in the north Georgia community for people of all ages, but perhaps especially for youths looking for their tribe, and is excited to continue helping the Holly reach new heights while maintaining its original values and vision!

Craig Lovell
Craig is a native of Dahlonega; he joined the Holly Theater family as a performer in 2003, and shortly began working as movie staff on the weekends. Working in and around the Holly gave him the confidence to pursue an audition with the Walt Disney Company in 2007 which began an 8 year adventure at the “Happiest Place On Earth.” His time with Disney was spent entirely in the Entertainment Department where he was blessed to bring many characters and shows to life. He was also fortunate enough to join the Character Programs and Development Team where he assisted in the creation and development of new character offerings across all Disney properties, foreign and domestic. His expertise was finding the “problems“ in creative ideas. This meant looking for every conceivable reason why a specific idea could not work and then finding solutions before that problem could ever surface in front of guests. He also created training documentation to be delivered all over the globe furthering understanding of Disney’s Entertainment offerings. In 2015, he was offered a position with the Cleveland Indians professional baseball team. His role was to recreate and manage a Customer Service team that could rival those found at major franchises across the country. He brought the same expertise with him, looking for problems before problems would arise.This attention to detail allowed him to create a self sustaining team that remains today. During his time with the Indians, he partnered with their Marketing and Communications teams to assist in the creation and implementation of new strategies centering around ticket sales. The new creative techniques they came up with allowed single game ticket sales to rise to over $23M in 2016. This was up from $18M in 2015. He believes that his customer service and sales background, as well as his ability to target problems before they arise, would be of great use on this board. He’d like to assist in every way possible while focusing on our future in both the ticket sales and marketing areas. He fully believes we are on a straight path for growth in the future and would love the opportunity to play a small role in the success of the Holly. For everything the Holly and its people have done for him and his career, he can think of no better way for him to give back and hopefully inspire the next generation.

Cathy McMullan

Cathy McMullan is married and has four children. She has lived in the Dahlonega area since 1985 and has been teaching at Long Branch Elementary school since 1999. Her love of working with children led her to volunteer during the senior summer camp in 2013. Since then, she has returned to work with the summer camps each year and has costumed many shows for the theater. She hopes to continue using her creativity to help the Holly be successful and to grow the children's theater program.

Mary Norman
Mary Norman currently serves as full-time Lecturer of Marketing within the Mike Cottrell College of Business at the University of North Georgia. Prior to joining UNG in 2014, Mary spent twenty-nine years in the consumer packaged goods industry. Mary served in multiple sales and marketing leadership roles with The Coca-Cola Company for 15 years. Prior to her time at Coca-Cola, Mary held key management positions within The Gillette Company, a Division of Procter and Gamble, developing and marketing leading products for the North American marketplace. Mary earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree and also a Master of Business Administration Degree, with a concentration in International Marketing, from The University of Notre Dame. While serving her company and customers, Mary has continued to serve her community. She has been active in fundraising efforts in support of the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption and the Susan G. Komen Foundation, in addition to serving as a Corporate Agent for her Alma Mater. Mary is passionate about education and applied learning. Mary currently is a student mentor, serves as the Faculty Advisor for the UNG Chapter of the American Marketing Association, and has spearheaded the Confidence UNG women’s leadership initiative within the College of Business. Mary and her husband recently purchased a home in Dahlonega that they are enjoying renovating. She is excited to have an opportunity to serve the local community, using her marketing experience to support the mission of the Holly and expand engagement and support for one of Dahlonega’s special historic treasures.

Alan Sibert
Alan moved from Florida to Georgia in 1991 and to Dahlonega in 2010 when he became Director of Purchasing at UNG, from where has recently retired. He first studied theater as a student at St. Petersburg (Florida) Junior College and served as president of the student theater organization. He was also able to take more theater classes and work on productions while a student at the University of Vienna (Austria). After serving in the Army and working in a variety of other jobs, Alan reconnected with theater in Monroe, Georgia as the technical director (and member of the Board of Directors) for OnStage (www.onstagewalton.org). After moving to Dahlonega, it did not take him long to get involved with the Holly. In both community theaters, Alan’s focus has been upgrading the technical equipment and designing lighting for shows…as well as training other people to do the same.

Bud Stumbaugh
An entrepreneur, corporate executive, and a former eight-term state senator, Bud recently moved to Dahlonega with his wife,Tania. He wants to help the Holly Theatre thrive. His interest in working for the Holly is motivated by 2 primary things. One, the theatre is a terrific way to enhance the skills, courage, and even the personality of children and adults in our community. Very few things are more noble than helping people step up and step out! As he and Tania saw in the many performances they attended while building our house here, the Holly does that extremely well. Two, the Holly adds fun in the lives of people in our community. There are many opportunities to frown in the sometimes stressful world in which we live. The programs at the Holly decrease frowns by providing smiles. He wants to insure we continue to do that long into the future. He is responding to the need for directors with fundraising, marketing and management experience. He can help us secure a stable future as a dynamic communicator of the Holly’s attributes both one-on-one and as an accomplished public speaker before small and large groups. He also has a lot of experience fundraising for the university on whose board he serves as well as for the Epilepsy Foundation and political campaigns. He will be happy to ask others to give to the Holly just as he will be doing.

Hal Williams-Chairman Emeritus
My family roots run to the original settling families in the 1828 gold rush. Dahlonega has been home to Carol and I since the mid 1960’s. As students at NGC we began our married life here and raised our children and grandchildren here. We retired here in 2008, after owning several successful businesses, working for the Chamber of Commerce and the US Army.

As a member of the original Holly Theater Board I have enjoyed my over 25 years of experience both on stage and as a board member at the theater. Since 1948 the Holly has been the cultural center for Dahlonega and proudly continues as a leading performing and education center for Georgia. I am honored to continue to be associated with this exemplary theater community.