Staff & Board

Kelly Anderson

Chair, Board of Directors, Original Founding Member of YEAH!

Bio coming soon!

Jeff Clark

Vice Chair, Board of Directors

Jill Knecht

Treasurer, Board of Directors

Pat Blankenship

Member, Board of Directors; Director, The CATT and After School Programming 

Pat Blankenship is a practicing attorney in Murfreesboro, TN., and the managing member of her law firm, Blankenship, Blankenship & Hagan, PLLC. She has been involved in speech, theatre, drama and public speaking since she was in the 4th grade and it has long been her dream to bring these same opportunities to students in Murfreesboro. She has 4 children, all artists, and they all got their first stage experiences on the boards.Two of those children have and are acting professionally. She has served YEAH! as a member of the Board of Directors for three years; served as its chair for 18 months; and has taught acting classes after school for YEAH! for the last two years. Pat is currently serving as the After School Programming Director, and is in the process of procuring funding and programming for a full theatre department known as The Children’s Academy Theatre of Tennessee, “The CATT.”  

Michelle Chappell

Member, Board of Directors

Kevin Slater

Member, Board of Directors

Karen Burton

Member, Board of Directors, Webmaster,Director of Marketing, and Social Media Guru

Karen Burton is an all-around Music and Arts lover, from Theater to Music, to painting and drawing. Digital art and Marketing is what she excels at. Karen is a senior at MTSU, owns Poodles Doodles (a graphics and web design company in Murfreesboro, TN). A wanna be singer since she was old enough to mumble sounds, art is where she found her place in this world. With over 15 years in the printing industry and 5 in the digital online and social media world Karen spends most of her days playing on Facebook and creating awesome websites and print graphics. (She LOVES her job).

Karen fell in love with YEAH about 2 years ago and has recently been brought in as a member of the Board of Directors, and to help with all of YEAH!’s marketing, graphics, and website needs. She even taught an online marketing class at the 2011 Southern Girls Rock and Roll Camp and can’t wait to do it again in 2012. 

Katie Blankenship

Music Department Director, Director Tennessee Teens Rock Camp (TNTRC)

Katie Blankenship serves as the Satellite Music Director at YEAH! and oversees all of our out of town Rock Camps and Rock Block Programs. She holds a Master of Arts from New York University in Non-Profit Administration and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Santa Cruz in Cultural Anthropology. She started working with YEAH as a volunteer at the Southern Girls Rock & Roll Camp four years ago, and fell so in love with the program that she moved home from New York City to help run Music Programs all year long. 

Rachel Rogers

Director, Southern Girls Rock and Roll Camp (SGRRC) and Rock Block Summer Camp (RBSC)

Rachel Rogers has been involved with Southern Girls Rock and Roll Camp in one way or another since the program was two years old, and is beyond thrilled to be taking on the roll of director for both SGRRC and Rock Block Summer Camp. She holds a bachelor’s degree in liberal studies from MTSU where her education focused on theatre and women’s studies. She has been involved in arts education since 2004 when she began working in children’s theatre as a director and acting instructor at Murfreesboro’s Center for the Arts. She also has worked as camp counselor in several different settings and has taught knitting to both children and adults. She has been involved in too many theatre productions to count. Her passion for music has been lifelong, and she considers the opportunity to help create the YEAH camp experience for as many kids as possible an incredible gift. 

Lizzie Conner

Assistant Director, Southern Girls Rock and Roll Camp (SGRRC) and Tennessee Teens Rock Camp (TNTRC)

First a camper at Southern Girls Rock n’ Roll Camp, I fell in love with YEAH’s ideals and goals in the summer of 2008. Less than a year later, I organized Zeitgeist, a music festival of high school bands at the University School of Nashville. I quickly began to see the continuity of ideas and goals behind both Zeitgeist and YEAH: both the event and the organization strived to provide young people opportunities and tools for empowering artistic expression. So after
volunteering at all three rock camps run under YEAH during the summer of 2010, I joined the staff as Assistant Director of SGRRC and TNTRC. Also a musician, I’ve played in a folk duo called Ave Marling, an all-girl grunge trio called MOM, playing guitar, banjo, ukulele, accordion, and stompboxin’ up a storm. I continue to write/perform/tour as a solo gal now under my own name, as well as in
a brand new orchestralesque folk band called Honey Locust.

Dave Cate

Director, Murfreesboro Rock Block

Dave Cate has worked with YEAH’s Rock Block program, as an instructor and instrument tech, since its inception in 2009 and currently serves as its Murfreesboro Director. Since 2008 he has worked as a professional recording engineer, recording demos, EPs and albums for numerous local artists. He also supervises live sound production for both YEAH’s all-ages venue and the Cannon County Arts Center in Woodbury, TN, and in that capacity he has worked with an enormous variety of artists, from local acts to internationally touring performers such as Leon Redbone, The Features, and Those Darlins. 

Nikki Oliff

Director, Nashville Rock Block

Nikki Oliff is unbelievably excited to be serving as Director of Nashville Rock Block this year! Growing up between Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, MD, one of her earliest memories is of her mother asking if she wanted to take piano lessons. The answer was yes and music has been a huge part of Nikki’s life ever since. Many years and a few states later, Nikki volunteered at the first Tennessee Teens Rock & Roll Camp and realized she would be volunteering at every camp possible for as long as she could. This naturally led to becoming involved with Rock Block to keep the fun going through the year. Nikki keeps herself busy with various music projects in the Murfreesboro/Nashville area including the band a Secret Policeman’s Ball, and is currently attending MTSU where she is studying Sociology, Gender Studies, and Philosophy. 

Redford Tilson

Assistant Director, Nashville Rock Block

Redford Tilson started his first band at thirteen and has been at least one ever since. After volunteering at two Rock Block Camps in the summer of 2011 and loving it, he decided to become a staff member for the Nashville Rock Block. He has recorded four albums, and currently records and tours as the guitarist for two bands based in Murfreesboro. 

John Judkins

Director, Advanced Rock Block

John Judkins graduated from MTSU with a Bachelor’s Degree in Recording Industry in 2003 and has toured as a professional musician in 20 countries. John has been with YEAH! since November of 2009. In that time, he has managed several bands through 5 Rock Block sessions and has served a major role in 3 YEAH! summer camps. John has been a guitar instructor for the past 7 years and recently landed a professional acting position with CMT (Country Music Television.)

Issa Blowers

Director, New York City Rock Camp (NYCRC)

Issa Blowers serves as the Co-Director of NYC Rock Camp. She holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Art and Education from Johnson State College and has been involved with non-profit organizations for years. Issa’s passion for the arts and education made her a perfect fit for NYCRC. She started volunteering with NYCRC in 2009, when it was still Brooklyn Emerging Artists Rock Camp, and was so moved by the experience that she decided to come on as a Director in 2010 and now works year round to keep NYCRC going strong! 

Frances Pollitzer

Assistant Director, New York City Rock Camp (NYCRC)

Bio Coming Soon!