There are plenty of reasons why dogs are called “man’s best friend.” They provide companionship and love in an unconditional way. And, like any good friend, they are there when you need them the most.

The dogs (and humans) of Gabriel’s Angels take the latter idea to the next level. Founded in 2000, the organization aims to help at-risk children through pet therapy. The goal is to use the connections between kids and dogs to help the kids develop some core behaviors — attachment, confidence, self-regulation, affiliation, empathy, tolerance and respect.

Like many nonprofits, Gabriel’s Angels had to reboot a bit after the pandemic slowed down their work and their founder left the organization. But now they’re back at it, with some exciting new initiatives to spread the impact of pet therapy to kids all over Arizona.

“I say it’s a 24-year-old startup working to reinvent what we can do for the community,” said Melissa Steimer, the CEO of Gabriel’s Angels. “We know that kids’ needs have changed through the pandemic. There are a lot of mental health issues happening. In Arizona, that’s one of the biggest challenges we’re facing.”

^{Melissa Steimer}

Gabriel’s Angels does its work by identifying and training volunteers (canine and human) who work in teams to go to crisis centers and other places where children experiencing trauma and mental health challenges can participate in programs with the dogs. The organization has ramped back up to now have more than 100 teams across the state actively working with kids.

And they may have found the secret sauce. Gabriel’s Angels is now expanding its work in schools in disadvantaged areas, where they can maximize their impact on the largest number of children possible. 

“They have more of a consistency of kids, which is really helpful, and they can pull kids out of their classroom space to have smaller group activities,” Steimer said. “A lot of schools right now are doing that anyway, because of needing counselors at schools to help these kids with whatever their issues are. We have this audience of kids that need this support, and the schools are allowing these kinds of programs to come into schools.”

Kristine Kassel is one of the organization’s volunteers — along with her dog Teddy — and is a former board chair for the organization. She has seen the impact pets can have in schools firsthand.

“I have witnessed direct impact individually and also on the larger groups of kids since Teddy and I have been at the same school for three years,” she said. “Now, we even see younger siblings of students that Teddy already worked with. There is no other program like Gabriel’s Angels. Personalized outreach from a fuzzy friend is a type of compassion like no other.”

Kassel cited the impacts of COVID and parents having to work longer hours as having a significant impact on the children she serves, as well as the access kids have to information — good and bad — through the Internet.

“The work has always been important, but I think today there is more of a need,” she said. “So the caring and outreach that a therapy team can provide to all students, especially those struggling, is priceless.”

One of the districts Gabriel’s Angels is most involved in is the Washington Elementary School District in the West Valley. Amanda Quine, the district’s director of social services, said the organization is currently working in three schools, with many more currently in the pipeline and the potential to work in all 32 of the district’s schools.

The district signed a memorandum of understanding with Gabriel’s Angels for this school year that focuses on three program areas.

“One is all about reading, where kids can practice reading to the dog in a safe environment. If they’re uncomfortable with their reading skills or abilities, you couldn’t ask for a better place to take some risks and be as vulnerable as you can when you practice those skills with a dog,” she said.

Gabriel’s Angels is also doing small group interactions where the children work on some of the core values that will help them as they grow and mature. And, teams from Gabriel’s Angels are making community visits where groups of children have an opportunity to interact with pets.

The results of the reading program have been tangible, as have the behavioral benefits for the students.

“It improves their coping skills, and in the reading group, you can see drastic improvements in reading skills,” Quine said. “Kids that have the opportunity to practice with the dog have seen significant growth academically. And those students’ reading abilities, comprehension, fluency — they are improving in all of that.”

But the improvements are more than academic. “Their whole presence is calmer, and it allows them to not only identify what those coping strategies are but to really feel them,” Quine said. “When we can feel the impact of something, it’s much more likely that we’re going to continue to practice it, because we like how it feels. We want to experience that all over again.”

Steimer said the organization is working diligently to plan for the future and expand its impact. Schools are an important part of that. She even sees Gabriel’s Angels as a resource in addressing issues such as school absenteeism and other core issues students and families face.

“Something we’ve been seeing lately is a shift in this realization that pet therapy has a place in helping to heal kids and to help kids show up at school more,” she said. “If we can bring the expertise of understanding how the pet can be brought into the solutions, that’s what we’re looking to do over the next 10 years.”

To learn more, visit gabrielsangels.org. 

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They’ve been married for 57 years

Ardie McCrone had barely started her freshman year at Arizona State University when she was set up on a blind date. Steve Evans, a junior, wore a coat and tie to the dinner at his fraternity house. “From fraternity row, we walked across the railroad tracks to the stadium for the first football game of the year,” Ardie said. “It was August, and I was wearing three-inch heels and stockings.”

A year-and-a-half later, Ardie and Steve were married at the Newman Center at ASU — a love story and partnership that has spanned more than five decades and helped shape our community.

They’ve traveled the world

Steve Evans grew up in Downey, California, a city of 113,000 people halfway between downtown L.A. and Disneyland. The Carpenters hailed from Downey, and it is the birthplace of the Apollo space program.

Evans left Downey in 1963 to attend ASU through the ROTC program. After earning a bachelor’s degree and an MBA, he headed to Biloxi, Mississippi, for 11 months of Air Force electronics and electrical engineering training. Then, he and Ardie were sent to Hawaii, where Steve served as an officer, building electronic systems in the Pacific for three-and-a-half years.

The young couple loved exploring the islands and took trips to Asia when they could. “I think that’s where Ardie and I developed a love of travel,” Steve said.

They settled in Arizona

When it came time to put down roots, they decided Arizona presented the most opportunity. Steve worked for five years at W.R. Schulz and Associates, an apartment investment company, before
co-founding Evans Withycombe Residential. The company merged with Equity Residential in the late 90s, and Steve stayed on the executive committee and board for another 10 years.

Through all the growth and change — “We remember when Shea Boulevard was gravel,” Ardie said — the couple remained bullish on Arizona. They still are. “Coming back was the absolute right thing to do in so many ways,” she said.

They rolled up their sleeves

Ardie and Steve have always been active in the community. In the early days of their marriage, Ardie joined the Junior League and supported Phoenix Art Museum. Steve started with Luke’s Men, which became Vitalyst. “For us, volunteerism leads to philanthropy. We don’t just give money to organizations. We volunteer and go to work,” Steve said.

Ardie’s first fundraising effort provides an early glimpse. When Ardie was in her 20s, a friend asked her to help canvass for March of Dimes. So she set out, pulling her kids in a wagon behind her. “Everyone gave the same amount — $1. I came home and wrote my very first check for a donation. I mean, we’d make little donations, for kids’ stuff or money in the basket at church, but this was a real check for $10,” Ardie said. “You never guess where life is going to take you.”

Indeed, that $10 led the Evanses to broad and deep commitments to the community, in education, health and human services, and arts and culture. Valley of the Sun United Way, Homeward Bound, the W. P. Carey School of Business, Trust for Public Land, Paradise Valley Mountain Preserve Trust, Arizona Community Foundation, Desert Botanical Garden, Boys & Girls Club of Greater Scottsdale, Phoenix Art Museum, Teach for America, and the ASU Foundation have all benefited from their dedication.

“Look at the boards we’ve been on. You can kind of tell where most of the money goes, because we’ve rolled up our volunteer sleeves or chaired a capital campaign,” Steve said. “I think that’s from Ardie being a candy striper when she was in high school and me being in the Key Club in Southern California. Our families were involved,” Steve said.

They raised leaders

Family is central to the Evanses’ world and a reason they invest in the community. “This is where we raised our three children, and we’ve been lucky to have eight grandchildren raised here,” Ardie said. “So, we care a lot about the health of this community and the quality of life for everyone.”

All three of Ardie and Steve’s children are active in community life. Pam Kolbe, their oldest daughter, is executive director of Desert View Learning Center and chair of the Board of Visitors. Lizzie Bayless, their youngest daughter, serves on the Board of Visitors board, too. Their middle child, Matt Evans, is active in housing, working in the same business as his dad.

“They each have different specifics, but they get it,” Steve said of their involvement.

Growing up, the Evans kids frequently came to events their parents worked on. “They learned through that,” Ardie said. “What we were doing became important enough that we were spending our time on it.”

The tradition extends to the current generation. (Their youngest grandchild is a senior in high school. The rest are in college, and one is in the U.S. Air Force.) “I can remember our oldest granddaughter was working on a lemonade stand for the Humane Society. She gave me a Ziploc baggie full of money. Before I handed it over, I had to wash it, because it was sticky from the lemonade,” Ardie laughed.

They want to widen the tent

Arizona is a great place to live, but there’s a lot of need, too. Because resources are limited, Ardie and Steve believe we have to look to nonprofits, particularly in serving the most under-resourced communities.

For decades, Steve has admired Valley of the Sun United Way’s work to monitor needs, identify social issues and bring the right people together. “They don’t just give money; they have a staff that works with the various nonprofits on these issues to give a longer-term runway,” he said.

Steve and Ardie have invested heavily in Valley of the Sun United Way’s Alexis de Tocqueville Society since they became members in 1996. At the time, the Society, made up of those who commit at least $10,000 a year, included about 30 members.

During their stint as chairs of the Tocqueville Society in 2004, local membership surpassed 400 — the largest group of Society members in the country that year. More importantly, those members provided more than $7 million to support Valley of the Sun United Way’s efforts to address the most vital human care issues in our community.

“We were really committed to it, and it grew exponentially,” Ardie said. “It was reaching a tipping point. We were just there to help it along.”

Their service to the organization continues. Steve now serves on the Valley of the Sun United Way board.

They invest in what they know

At least once a year, Ardie and Steve sit down and evaluate where they’ve been giving and what they’d like to get to in the future. It’s thoughtful, and it tends to favor organizations they know best.

“Ardie and I have done a lot with ASU. I’m currently on the board of the foundation, and Ardie is in ASU Women and Philanthropy. That’s a biggie for us, because it’s so impactful,” Steve said.

Impact and openness to collaboration are key traits of organizations they support. “And then Ardie and I look at our other interests. We support Trust for Public Land, Paradise Valley Mountain Preserve Trust, the Zoo and the Desert Botanical Garden for the same reason — conservation and outdoor spaces,” Steve said. “We want to promote healthy outdoor spaces for people to enjoy. That’s something we’re very fortunate to be surrounded with in Arizona.”

They like to have fun

An overseas laugh turned into a gift for the Valley after Steve and Ardie took a trip to Shanghai in 2007. They traveled with Chevy Humphrey, the then-CEO of the Arizona Science Center. Steve was giving the graduation speech at an MBA program on behalf of the W. P. Carey School, and together they visited the newly opened Shanghai Science and Technology Museum. “One million square feet!” Ardie said. “It was museums within museums.”

Among the fun, interactive displays was a bike rolling above them, balanced on a cable. “Chevy and I got Ardie up on it, and she was riding it back and forth on this wire,” Steve said. “We said, ‘We’ve got to have one of those in Arizona!’”

Today, the Evans Family SkyCycle — one of just eight in the world — allows Arizona Science Center passengers to experience properties of counterbalance and center of gravity, just like Ardie enjoyed in Shanghai.

They’ve shifted power to influence

When Steve turned 50, he received a book from his friend Patty Withycombe, the wife of his business partner, Keith. It was Gail Sheehy’s “Men’s Passages,” about men’s journey through middle age.

It argued that to stay relevant in the second half of life, executives must make the transition from power to influence. The book made a tremendous impression on Steve. 

“I don’t have power on a board,” he said. “But I do have influence.”

Accordingly, he and Ardie now use their time and influence to help steer and support the community.

The Evanses see philanthropy as a natural progression. “You don’t give up the volunteerism because you become a philanthropist. It just gives you more impact and extension. You grow in your life,” Steve said.

The key is getting started. “It doesn’t matter where you start, but make that transition early,” he said.

They have advice

It seems fitting that the couple whose story started at an ASU football game now looks to that university’s president to maintain their zest for the future. “I learned from Michael Crow years ago that Arizona’s growth rate is an opportunity, because the faster the rate of change, the more impact each decision has. ASU is a perfect example,” Steve said.

So, Ardie and Steve continue to use their considerable influence for maximum impact, and try to convince others to, as well. Their belief in this community is palpable, and so is their faith in what can be done. 

“Forget about giving back. Just think about giving,” Ardie said. “It just takes a lot of people doing a tiny bit to make a difference.”  

The post Cover Story: ‘We Love This Community’ appeared first on .

There is a painting in Kristen Sandquist’s office. Hand-painted from four photographs, it shows her working with children at an orphanage, holding the hands of a young boy, guiding a team up Kilimanjaro and standing triumphantly on top of the summit.

The painting was a gift after summiting Kilimanjaro for the 15^th time. (Sandquist has since summited the tallest freestanding mountain in the world a total of 25 times.) “I love it. It symbolizes everything Tanzania for me,” she said of the painting.

As Sandquist tells it, she never set out to trek one of the Seven Summits or start a career as a mountain guide. She was a former teacher and mother with a philanthropic heart. But that was before she met Kevin Cherilla.

In 2009, Cherilla, an international mountain climbing expert, was taking eight blind individuals to climb Mount Kilimanjaro and needed someone to help with fundraising. His goal was to pair each blind person with two sighted people as a team, and all money raised would go to the Foundation for Blind Children in Phoenix.

Sandquist agreed to help with fundraising, but her role quickly evolved. A woman on the team wasn’t showing up for training hikes and Cherilla asked Sandquist to consider taking her place as a guide. Sandquist had never camped and rarely hiked. She’d never dreamed of using the bathroom outside. Still, she was game and asked how long she had to prepare.

Fifty-two days later, Sandquist and the group landed in Tanzania. The hike was an epic success. Over several days, the team climbed over 19,000 feet of elevation. Every member made it to the summit, four world records were shattered, and they raised more than $400,000 for blind and visually impaired Arizonans.

But the trip was life-changing for another reason. “When we landed in Tanzania, Kevin had set up a meeting for all of us,” Sandquist said. They were delivering Braille writers to a local orphanage that housed 24 blind children and meeting the kids who would benefit from them.

“We walked around this orphanage, and it caught me very off guard,” Sandquist said. “It changed me completely. I fell in love with these kids.”

The historic trip was a jumping-off point for Sandquist. “I came back with a completely different lease on life,” she said. “I got off the plane and said to my husband, ‘I have a new plan. I want to start another nonprofit.’”

At the time, Sandquist had been in the nonprofit world for 17 years. She started her first charity in Wisconsin, called Circle of Friends, as a 23-year-old schoolteacher who noticed that many of her students came to class hungry and tired. What began as a way for students to pick up items in her classroom ballooned into a program in 26 schools within three years. “Circle of Friends is what made me open my eyes to what I really wanted to do with my life,” she said.

After a divorce, Sandquist moved to Arizona with sons Tyler and Cayden. She started Visions of Hope, a nonprofit that supported organizations as a pass-through to give back. Next up was a ladies’ clothing store called Swank. “It was a shop-for-a-cause. Twenty percent of every bit of your sale would go directly to a nonprofit that helped women needing clothing and support,” Sandquist said.

Side note: Kristen Sandquist is fashionable. Like, much more stylish than you might expect from someone who treks mountains for a living. She clearly enjoys fashion and knows what she looks best in.

Outfit change — Sandquist is climbing Piestewa Peak to be photographed for the cover of this magazine. Clad in a velvet blazer, Gucci belt and 3-inch heels, she strikes a power pose while perched atop a boulder.

Grounded, unpretentious, up-for-whatever, it is no wonder people are willing to follow where she leads. “She is laid back and classy, but with a unique grasp of herself and her foundation,” said Scott Foust, who photographed her for this story. “She had to deal with wind, heat and posing on rocks in high heels, but she took it in stride and made it fun. She understands that, in the scheme of things, this is nothing.”

All of which is to say, Sandquist has seen and done things that most folks would deem impossible. So when she decided to start a global nonprofit after her first trip abroad, people paid attention.

Three months after their Tanzania trip, Sandquist and Cherilla opened K2 Adventure Travel, a company that combines international hiking adventures with community-service trips to Africa, Peru, Argentina and Nepal. In tandem with the company, the pair runs K2 Adventures Foundation, a nonprofit whose mission is to care for children, adults and families with special needs or life-changing medical circumstances. Sandquist is the CEO; Cherilla is president.

Here’s how the two parts of K2 work together. People on K2 Adventure Travel excursions have the option to do service. In Tanzania, for example, that occurs at one of three places: Summit Happy Home, a freestanding orphanage K2 Adventures Foundation built; a prosthetic center where K2 is providing brand-new legs to hundreds of people with below-the-knee amputations; and St. Augustine’s, a school that over 500 children attend, including orphans. “What’s happening is those individuals that came on a for-profit trip will then make a donation to our foundation because they see firsthand what we’ve done with the money,” Sandquist said.

Thanks to supporters, K2 Adventures Foundation is making massive impacts, both domestically and abroad. “It’s pretty magical because it went from being such a small idea to now, where it’s huge,” Sandquist said.

Here in Arizona, the foundation has granted hundreds of thousands of dollars of award requests through its Strength to Thrive program, which focuses on mind, body and soul. For instance, people often come to the organization for adaptive equipment after being denied by insurance companies that deem the items luxury equipment. “If you lose a leg, you’re going to get a new leg. But if you were a runner, they’re not giving you a running blade,” Sandquist said.

As a result, K2 Adventures Foundation has provided running blades; ballet, ski and hiking legs; and adaptive surfboards to clients, as well as adaptive wheelchairs and horse therapy. “Just because you lost your limb doesn’t mean that you have to lose your ability to be in the outdoors, to be an athlete, or to continue on,” Sandquist said.

But K2 Adventures Foundation doesn’t only work with those already familiar with the powerful benefits of exercise and the outdoors. It recently partnered with Elevate Phoenix to provide 10 mentors and 10 mentees an opportunity to work on their mental health, physical health and nutrition. At the end of the free three-month program, participants had the opportunity to hike the Grand Canyon. “It’s one of the best programs we’ve ever created,” Sandquist said. “We watched it transform 20 individuals’ lives in three months. One woman lost 20 pounds and reversed her diabetes; another individual lost 26 pounds.”

Again and again, the team at K2 Adventures Foundation sees the monumental rebooting effects of being in the outdoors. “It refreshes people and helps them start over,” Sandquist said. “It helps clear their mind and gives a sense of peace.”

It’s an effect Sandquist has experienced herself through her years trekking terrain, both external and internal. “I never expected it to change my life. And it did,” she said. “It’s changed me physically, mentally and emotionally.”

Indeed, K2 Adventures Foundation programs are a Trojan horse of sorts, a gift that comes with secret benefits. What people realize — whether they are climbing Camelback Mountain or Machu Picchu — is that they can accomplish much more than they realize. “The training program, fitness and nutrition, teamwork, camaraderie, love and kindness make them more successful than they ever thought they would be,” Sandquist said.

Along with an unwavering belief in the limitless potential of the human spirit, the team at K2 believes in collaboration. After all, teamwork is essential to navigating the challenges posed by a mountain. So, K2 Adventures Foundation partners with nonprofits all over Arizona. “That’s one of the biggest things I pride myself on,” Sandquist said. “We will never compete. We’ll raise our own money and build our own programs. But we will always work with other nonprofits, so if there’s something that they can’t do, we can do it.”

Here is a recent example. Angels on Patrol, a nonprofit started by a former Phoenix police officer, got a call about a woman living on the streets with her dog. Jenny, a former nurse, had lost her legs and fingers from a fungal infection and was using a worn mobility chair. Angels on Patrol reached out to K2 Adventures Foundation, and Sandquist made a couple of phone calls. One was to BHHS Legacy Foundation, which supports K2’s Strength to Strive program.

“What a blessing to help Angels on Patrol get a new electric wheelchair to help improve Jenny’s quality of life,” said BHHS Legacy Foundation CEO Gerald Wissink. “As a CEO, I’m all in on the power of nonprofits teaming up. It’s not just smart strategy — it’s required. When we collaborate, we make a bigger impact, use our resources smarter, come up with fresh ideas, and tackle the tough stuff in our communities.”

^{Cayden, Tyler, Joseph & Josh}

Dedication to teamwork runs like a thread through all of K2 Adventures Foundation’s pursuits. The organization boasts one of the largest boards in Arizona. Between 36 board members, a junior board and an advisory board, it’s comprised of 56 individuals who are part of the K2 crew. “It’s a kind, warm, nurturing environment,” Sandquist said. “When you’re serving individuals with disablities, or mental health issues, or people that have lost something in their life, you have to approach it from a perspective of kindness.”

The care and focus Sandquist applies to her work help explain why she doesn’t task herself with personal brand-building. Married to attorney Jeff Sandquist, she is mother to Cayden, Tyler and stepsons Joseph and Josh and enjoys a fruitful life away from the limelight. “We’re homebodies,” she said. “I work and spend time with my family — that’s it.”

It’s a good bet her family did not predict Sandquist’s transformation from fundraiser to certified NOLS Wilderness First Responder. “It’s my way of making an impression for my family,” she said. “What are my kids and my husband going to say when I die? I would like them to say, ‘She lived her life of service. She was kind, she was giving, and she looked after others.’”

So Sandquist goes about organizing K2 Adventures Foundation’s awards, programs and board meetings, along with fundraising events and finances. All the while, she periodically takes people to the mountaintop, providing tools to trace a personal path to wellness.

Sandquist encourages others to get outside and experience the world. “If you have an opportunity to go to another place, see what kind of magic it brings you,” she said. “Because I truly believe that you come back with a little piece from anywhere you go.”

The painting in her office epitomizes this. It’s a daily reminder of what she’s experienced in Tanzania and a prompt to share those gifts with the world. It’s also a testament to 25 years of nonprofit experience that have taken Sandquist from a classroom in Sheboygan to the peak of Mt. Fuji.

“My life could have gone in many different directions,” she said. “It’s been impactful. It’s been challenging. But, boy, has it been rewarding.”

To learn more, visit k2adventures.org

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It has been a family affair for the company ever since Rod founded it with his wife, Kim. A magnetic pair, the two met on a college ski trip when Kim, an ASU student, met Rod, who then attended Scottsdale Community College. They married after they had both graduated from ASU.

A short time later, Rod discovered that he had a special skill. He was working with builders on marketing and realized that he could visualize and communicate what would work best on the land — where to place a garage or how to site an owner’s suite. “I just had a knack for that. I had an ability to verbalize it to people,” Rod said.

This talent came in handy when he was working as a real estate agent, describing what he would do with a particular lot. The client asked, “Why don’t you just build it for me?”

So Rod partnered with a builder and did precisely that, which led to the creation of Cullum Homes in 1985.

At first, the company was very small. Rod and Kim quit their old jobs and worked out of their home in McCormick Ranch for seven years. “We had no overhead and really no expenses and no employees,” Kim said. “It was just Rod and me.”

Today, Cullum Homes is an integrated design and construction firm specializing in luxury custom homes, architecture, interior design, renovations and home concierge. Their home builds are in some of the toniest neighborhoods in Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, Desert Mountain, Phoenix and Carefree.

“Traditionally, the builder is in the middle of the architect and the designer,” said Rod. “But I said, ‘I’m done with the traditional way of building homes.’” Instead, Cullum Homes does everything from home site selection to home design, so they can supervise every stage of homebuilding and ensure it is done “the Cullum way.”

“You have one contract with us,” Rod said. “We think it’s the best way to get the best value for the client. Our niche is about the finest homebuilding experience and about the performance, quality, service and experience of the house.”

It’s a mindset Lindsay learned from the start. She was born a few months after Rod and Kim started Cullum Homes and has fond memories of growing up with the company. “One time, my brother and I started a Bobcat with one of my bobby pins and drove it around a job site. We got stuck trying to climb a pile of trusses,” she laughed.

Although building was in her blood, when it came time for college, Lindsay went to Vanderbilt University to study medicine. “I wanted to be a doctor, but when I got away to college, I discovered that I missed the interaction with what we did in the family business,” she said. So she decided to study economics as an undergrad, then come back to ASU for a master’s in architecture.

It seems Rod’s special skill was inherited. “It just kind of rubbed off on Lindsay,” he said. “She has that magical way of explaining how to best use the lot and make the most functional house.”

Lindsay describes her journey. “The love of designing homes and the ability to see spaces is something I always had. But to me, it was a hobby,” she said.

Eventually, she saw it as her calling and came on board  the family business full-time.

Her husband, Paul Colwell, later joined her. The two met at Vanderbilt and spent the early part of their marriage moving from city to city with Paul’s military career. “When he was away on mission or training exercises for the Navy, I’d fly out here and be able to work and visit job sites,” Lindsay said. The couple decided Paul would stick with the Navy as long as it made sense. Post-Navy, their first choice would be to come to Arizona.

“The Navy was always something that I enjoyed,” Paul said. “But my last appointment was when we had kids, and it was different to leave and come back six months later.”

So, after a 10-year career in the Navy and a corporate stint at Honeywell Aerospace, Paul joined the team at Cullum Homes and became an integral part of the business’s day-to-day operations. A former nuclear submarine officer, he ensures checklists are followed and tries to mitigate challenges so any mistakes don’t happen twice. He is essentially applying the discipline he learned in the Navy to the chaos of construction.

Paul appreciates the challenge, and the perks it provides. “It’s been exciting to go from where Lindsay and I would not be able to communicate for months at a time to now, where we sometimes carpool to work,” he said.

With Lindsay at the helm as managing principal and Paul serving as director of business process, they are now the second generation in charge of Cullum Homes. Rod and Kim have taken a step back and now serve as founders and mentors.

“I want to make sure the mentality of Cullum Homes is that things are done exactly as they should be — durable, sustainable and the best value we can deliver to clients. To do that, you need lots of sous chefs, but one head chef. And that chef needs to be Lindsay. Lindsay has replaced me in that role,” Rod said.

Cullum Homes has grown since its early days at McCormick Ranch and today employs 87 people. Lindsay feels a responsibility to each one. “The finest homebuilding experience is not only for our homeowners, but for our team and trade partners, for everyone that touches the project,” she said. “It’s a matter of doing the right thing by all those groups, and living to that standard.”

Through their work as an integrated design-build company, they get to know their clients and understand how they live in a house. “Home is the backdrop for where life happens,” Lindsay said. “Do the homeowners like to cook Christmas dinner for 30 grandchildren, but most of the time, it’s just two people? The homes we do are showpieces in and of themselves, but they really shine because they support those family traditions.”

Traditions are important to the Cullum family. “When our kids were growing up, my parents and Rod’s parents were 2 miles in either direction. So, we have always had an extended family of children, parents, grandchildren, cousins, aunts and uncles close to us. That’s important to me,” Kim said.

Also important is giving back to the community they’ve built their business in. Lindsay recalls volunteering for National Charity League with her mom as a girl. “It’s just what we did. It’s always been a part of the family,” she said.

The Cullums have brought their philanthropy to the company as well. They’ve been involved with Habitat for Humanity for many years and recently dedicated the first Cullum Homes-sponsored Habitat house.

“We were part of the construction team,” Kim said. “That offered us the opportunity to have many shifts for our team members. It’s optional, but many of them chose to do that. The homeowner was there too, which was great. She’s a single mom with two teenagers and we’ve gotten to know them really well.”

Once a quarter, the Cullum Homes team volunteers at Feed My Starving Children. “It’s fun and competitive,” Paul said. “We take our kids, and it’s good to see them enjoying it too.”

With holidays approaching, the family is making a punch list of plans. Each year, Kim and Rod host a Christmas Eve soup supper. Paul’s parents usually come in from Texas, and everyone enjoys a late afternoon family get-together before heading off to church, to visit in-laws or to other holiday plans.

The family also tries to take in some type of artistic production for the season. It will be “Elf” at the Phoenix Theatre Company this year. “Phoenix Theatre is near and dear to us,” Kim said. “Lindsay and I just co-chaired their gala, which is their big annual fundraising event.”

Somewhere in the season, too, the family tries to sneak in a shift at Feed My Starving Children. “They welcome children age 5 and up. It’s a great introduction to charitable work for a really young child,” Kim said.

And in a nod to Rod and Kim’s meet-cute beginnings, they make time for a trip to snow country each winter. “We have been going as a family to Park City since my parents started about 30 years ago,” Kim said. “Our grandkids are now learning how to ski, and they are quite good.”

At this stage of life, Rod and Kim do a lot of honoring tradition while looking to the future. “It’s been a very long journey for us — 38 years,” Kim said. “We’ve seen Arizona grow and change and are proud to employ a lot of people. We always wanted to stay here, raise our family here, and now Paul and Lindsay are raising their kids here.”

So, has the family’s special skill passed to a third generation of builders? It’s too soon to tell, but Brendan, 7, seems to have inherited his father’s process-type personality, while Annaleigh, 8, is more creative. “She likes to debate and push the limits,” Paul said.

Together, they enjoy building with bricks during their off-time — as a family, they’re really into Legos. They just finished a Cat D11 bulldozer, and they’ve built the Home Alone house, Disney Castle and massive Hogwarts Castle.

These days, it is Paul and Lindsay who haul their kids to jobs, just as Rod carted Lindsay in his truck when she a child.          

“They both enjoy going to job sites,” Paul said. “Even yesterday, we had to stop at some sites on the way to work. We carpooled and our kids got to go with us. They were anxious to get out and see what was going on.”

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“I love opening the door to people who have never been here. They’ve walked by the house a million times, but don’t know what it is,” said Christie Swedbergh, associate director of the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing. “It has a soul of its own.”

Built in 1907, the two-story brick cottage is one of the oldest buildings on ASU’s Tempe campus. Home to three university presidents — Arthur John Matthews (1904-30), Ralph W. Swetman (1930-1933) and Grady Gammage (1933-59) — it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.

“It’s like stepping back into history, seeing all these different architectural details,” Swedbergh said. “You enter this new world where creative ideas come out of you.”

The building underwent extensive renovations in 2005 to turn it into a kind of literary mecca. A lifelong lover of the arts, Virginia Piper was a noted Valley philanthropist with a passion for great writing. So much so that in 2003 the trustees of Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust felt that an excellent way to honor her legacy while supporting advances at ASU was to give a $10 million grant to establish the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing.

The center was tasked with organizing a conference, presenting visiting writers, and developing outreach programs and initiatives to enrich the intellectual and artistic life of ASU, the Valley and Arizona as a whole.

A tall order for a small house, but one that it was perhaps built for.

“It’s a home, and it was always a home. The kitchen table is different from the lectern in an auditorium,” said ASU professor and Arizona inaugural Poet Laureate Alberto Álvaro Ríos. Appointed director of the Piper Center in 2017, Ríos has seen the building work its magic time and again. “It helps you move from where you’re standing to what you’re feeling, which is where the arts are,” he said.

Sometimes, the literary arts can be a forgotten part of “the arts,” but the team at the center sees them as worthy of much more. “They’re an essential community gathering point and way for people to engage in a world of feeling and ideas,” said Sheila Black, assistant director at the Piper Center. “Piper Trust did an unusual thing in endowing a creative writing center focused on writing education and bringing literary arts to the community. There are not many of them nationally, and certainly not funded ones.”

As a result, the team feels fortunate to have a historic space to offer access to good writing education and good writers telling their stories. “We have the ability to create these magnificent programs, and offer them for free to the public without having to build in some sort of revenue,”  Swedbergh said.

For instance, the Distinguished Visiting Writers Series brings noted authors to the Valley for readings and other engagements. “It’s exciting to see people who have read the author. They get to shake hands and tell them how much their book impacted them. It’s a huge benefit to both writers but also readers,” Swedbergh said.

To ensure all individuals can benefit from participating in the literary arts, these events are always free and open to the public and they’re held in a range of venues throughout the Valley. “We want to provide a forum for different voices and stories to be heard,” Black said. “We try really hard to be diverse, but also multifaceted. We’re always bringing in very different kinds of writers,” Black said.

But why are the literary arts important in an age of TikTok and ChatGPT?

“It’s easy to explain the benefits of science, medicine and law. People automatically know why that’s important to society, but they don’t quite understand the abstract benefit of the humanities and arts and culture,” Swedbergh said. “They enrich life and make you human.”

As a result, much of the work that happens at the center is intensely personal. The Piper Writers Studio offers intimate, accessible creative writing classes and workshops in person and online. “We help somebody tell their own story, the best way we can,” Ríos said. “If somebody comes to the center because they’re interested in writing, we can certainly get them going.”

Recently, residents at the intergenerational retirement community Mirabella at ASU took part in a memoir class. A group of 10 students, mostly in their 80s, formed their own weekly writing group after that. “A lot of them are writing books for their grandkids,” Swedbergh said, “The things they’ve seen and experienced are really interesting.”

Black likens creativity to a muscle. “People don’t often get to use creative writing, but when they do, almost everyone has good things to do on the page,” she said. “We’re helping them engage in a process of thinking about their lives.”

And sometimes celebrating them.

Poesía del Sol is a program serving another demographic — people with fewer than six months left to live. Winning the Governor’s Arts Award in the program’s original incarnation, this guerrilla arts strategy prepares students to have conversations with palliative care patients. Armed with a laptop, good paper, a printer and a frame, they find stories that families don’t know, the things that would be gone when that person dies.

“Those details matter as a way of celebrating, understanding and cherishing that person,” Ríos said. After the conversation, the student goes into the lobby and writes, prints, frames and presents a personal written work. “We would find out later, this was what was often read at their funeral,” Ríos said.

Writing offers a space to gain wisdom by reflection and to gain an understanding of your life and place in the world. It often has a wellness component. “You’re not asking people like you are in therapy to directly tackle their traumas or tell their stories. You’re often giving them tools to do so metaphorically, almost through a veil,” Black said. “People are able to express and deal with difficult emotions and circumstances in a way that isn’t as traumatic as trying to address them head-on.”

In the Veteran’s Writing Circle — which is free and open to veterans — veterans of all writing levels and interests come together in a safe and creative space. “People often find it very healing and rewarding, because they can say all these things that maybe they wanted to say, but didn’t feel they could,” Black said.

The Piper Center also actively trains teaching artists to go around the community and foster communication and connection through creative expression. It is working to help Latinx, LGBTQ+, youth and older community members to amplify their voices.

These days, the center is buzzing as the team prepares for the annual Desert Nights, Rising Stars Writers Conference. Over three days of craft and community, the center will host big names, like poet Joy Harjo, who served three terms as the 23^rd Poet Laureate of the United States.

It is part of a larger effort to revitalize the house. “When COVID hit it, it decimated the staff. Not that they got COVID, but they all went to other jobs,” Ríos said.

The center experienced what Ríos calls a “heart-wrenching” 100 percent staff turnover. “We had so much going on, and suddenly we had to totally put the brakes on,” he said. “We wanted to stay together, but the world was suddenly at a crossroads.”

Today, the new team looks forward to expanding its programs, opening the house to the public, and being a high-impact center for good in the community. “We have this talented, passionate team on board that are excited about bringing these programs back in better and bigger ways,” Swedbergh said.

Both a writer’s sanctuary and a creative hub, the Piper Center is also, at its heart, a house with a past. “Some of the doors are lopsided because the frame was put in crooked and they were doing everything by eye,” Swedbergh said.

Like every old house, it comes with history — this one, appropriately dramatic. It is listed on several Phoenix ghost sites and is reportedly haunted.

“I don’t know that any of my current staff have ever seen it, but we’ve all heard stories,” Ríos said.

Whatever it may be — no worries — the vibes are positive. “Anybody that’s come in that has an empath feeling about it says that it’s a warm energy,” Swedbergh said.

It is fitting that the Piper Center has magical allure. It beckons the broader community, making clear the value of the arts and humanities. As for alchemy, Ríos points to the sorcery of language — that “spell” and “spelling” come from the same root. “When you spell a word correctly, you ask it to come forward from an ocean of half a million words to do your bidding,” he said. “That’s magic. And that’s part of what the arts do.”

The cottage sits in the historic quarter of ASU, inviting all with the majesty and power of words. “I profoundly believe that being able to express yourself is an important power,” Black said. “It’s useful in many arenas of your life. Our job is to demystify it.”

To learn more, visit piper.asu.edu.

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Rebecca Ailes-Fine and Peter Fine met during their senior year at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. “It was pretty instant for me, but it took him longer,” Rebecca said of their early attraction.

After graduation, Rebecca moved to New York for a job, while Peter went to Aspen to learn how to ski.

“He had a gap year before anybody knew about gap years,” Rebecca laughed. “He drove a taxicab in New York to help pay for college and for his gas to go be a ski bum.”

After his so-called “bum year,” Peter moved to the Midwest to start his career in healthcare. “I liked the idea of being able to use management skills in a feel-good kind of business,” he said.

While there, he and Rebecca married and had three children, Drew, Jillian and Cameron. They loved their life in Illinois and Wisconsin — Rebecca’s extended family pitched in, and the kids excelled in sports. “I loved the Midwest,” Peter said. “Especially the people.”

Still, when Peter was recruited to become the president & CEO of Banner Health — one of the largest nonprofit, secular healthcare organizations in the country — it was an opportunity he couldn’t refuse. So he packed up and headed to Arizona in November 2000. Rebecca and their youngest son followed in January 2001, right in the midst of Wisconsin basketball season.

Cameron — a high-school junior and three-sport letterman — didn’t say a word the entire drive. But Rebecca’s parents were in Arizona (having moved here for her father’s health), as well as her sister and younger brother. Eventually, things smoothed out and Cameron wound up getting recruited to play football at Yale.

With the kids effectively launched, Rebecca and Peter discussed their new roles. “We had a conversation when he came into this job,” Rebecca said. In the past, her community involvement centered around the kids’ schools and sports. Now, her philanthropic work would be more public. “I would go into organizations that had missions I could support, that I liked what they were doing, and just started getting involved in the Valley,” she said.

First came Chrysalis, which helps people impacted by domestic violence, and Fresh Start, which helps women going through a life transition. “Fresh Start, at that time, had a connection with Banner, because Banner had the land they built their resource center on,” Rebecca said.

Nonprofits appreciated that Rebecca was an active board member, eager to roll up her sleeves. She helped start WISP, or Women Inspiring Scientific Progress, which was affiliated with the Banner Alzheimer’s Institute. “My mother was being treated at Banner for Alzheimer’s,” she said. “She’s now passed, but their resource center was so helpful that we decided to start a women’s group to provide ways to navigate the system — what to expect, and how to react to things as they were happening.”

After some time, the organization became WISH, Women Inspiring Scientific Healthcare. “There is still an Alzheimer’s channel in it and a commitment to Alzheimer’s, but we realized there’s more to it. There’s women’s heart health, gynecological and OB. There are women looking after their children’s or grandchildren’s healthcare,” she said.

She and Peter also supported the Banner music therapy program after seeing the benefit of music in Alzheimer’s patients like Rebecca’s mother. “They only had one music therapist for all of Banner Hospice, and there was much more need,” she said. Music therapy helps patients cope with their disease, reduces stress and provides a supportive tool for families.

“You really saw the connection that music made,” Rebecca said. After her mother passed away, Rebecca and Peter — whose mother also had Alzheimer’s — funded a second music therapist personally, and then made a matching gift to endow the program so it wouldn’t struggle to find funds every year.

For his part, Peter dove into the community, as well. “I was asked to go on the board of TGen, the Translational Genomics Research Institute,” he said. “I was one of the early board members, and was on there for over a decade. Then the Heard Museum board. I’m president of the Greater Phoenix Leadership board, too.”

You might say Rebecca is the right brain and Peter the left of this couple that calls themselves “complementary opposites.” She is gregarious and chatty. His is more taciturn. But together, the couple has mastered a set of his-and-her roles that have helped shape the community.

Take the Desert Botanical Garden. Rebecca got involved with the Garden shortly after moving here and joined the board in 2002. “I grew up on a farm but needed to figure out how to garden here, versus in the Midwest. Because when it says full sun, that does not mean Arizona sun,” she laughed. She is currently serving her third term on the board and has managed their big events several times.

But the connection with the Garden runs deeper than keeping desert marigolds alive. When Peter was fighting throat cancer and going through treatment at MD Anderson, the Fines rented an apartment nearby while he was undergoing radiation. “We would walk across the Garden, as long as he could. He found a sense of peace and the connection between health and wellness and gardening,” Rebecca said.

Indeed, the native New Yorker accustomed to traffic and horns used the Garden to clear his mind. “As a result, we came up with the idea of creating a garden where cancer patients can go and relax, contemplate, think,” Peter said. Located in the historic garden section, the Fine Family Contemplation Garden features a labyrinth, reflective water feature and a line from a poem written by their daughter, Jillian. “It turned into this big thing. It’s been on TV and was in a Disney movie,” Peter said.

Cancer inspired the couple’s work with another local nonprofit. Rebecca and Peter, together with Derek and Amy Hall, are co-chairing the Joy Bus More Than a Meal campaign. “It’s a huge campaign for a tiny organization,” Rebecca said. “They’ve never done one before.”

The Joy Bus eases the struggles of home-bound cancer patients by delivering fresh chef-inspired meals. They aim to raise $5.4 million to build a bigger kitchen and serve more patients, with the ultimate goal of 2,500 home visits per week by 2026. “They didn’t know what they were getting into when we said we’re gonna make this happen,” Rebecca laughed.

Turns out, the Fines’ philanthropy doesn’t end with outside organizations. About five years ago, the couple started a donor-advised fund at the Arizona Community Foundation with the hope of fostering an interest in philanthropy in their kids and grandkids. Each year, they have a meeting near the holidays, when the family comes to visit. “Each individual has to submit an organization they want to make a donation to. We have to approve it, and ACF has to verify that it is a legit organization,” Peter said. Then each person — from parents to children to grandkids — has to present their organization for a share of the money.

But then there’s a twist. At the end of all the presentations, each person gets another pot of money that they can give to the organization whose presentation impressed them the most, but they can’t give it to their own organization. “So the presentations are important because there’s more money that can come from a good job,” Rebecca said.

Over the years, the chosen organizations have skewed toward the environment. “We do lots of fun family vacations with them, so there have been things like saving the sea turtles and protecting the coral reefs,” Rebecca said. The entire family took a trip to Africa last year, and donations went to the Mara Elephant Project, efforts to preserve clean drinking water, and Uhura compostable sanitary pads.

The exercise has a few perks, in addition to inspiring a philanthropic interest in the younger generations. It’s teaching the grandchildren — Ryder, Carter, Skylar and Crosby — how to succinctly present an idea and capture an audience’s attention. It’s also ensuring a sense of togetherness into the future.

The fund goes out for three generations. After Rebecca and Peter pass away, their three children will become the advisers. After they are gone, the grandchildren will take over. After they pass, the money will flow back to ACF for their own programs. “It can be there for a long time. So for us, when we’re gone, it’s a way to force the family together once a year to do something,” Peter said.

Togetherness is big for the Fine family. When they aren’t traveling the world (Peter and Rebecca are looking forward to a trip to Venice with Skylar and Crosby this summer), they spend time reading (history for him, dystopian fiction and YA books for her).

A devoted sports fan— Peter played lacrosse in college and was a certified youth soccer coach when his sons played travel soccer — Peter enjoys talking sports with his boys. He recently took Cameron to London for an Arsenal game before his wedding in February.

Rebecca isn’t a sports nut, but has picked up an affinity over the years. “I would go to sports games with him; he would come to the ballet with me. I would go to more sports games with him; he would come to the symphony with me. He’s a huge fan of theater now,” she said.

Indeed, the back and forth is key to their recipe for a winning marriage. “I respect her interests; she respects my interests. And then we engage around our shared interests,” Peter said.

It’s a formula that has worked for the 47-and-a-half years they’ve been married, and one that’s worked for our community as well. “We’re part of the fabric of this community. Clearly, I am with the company I run, and in these interests we have,” Peter said.

He’s unique among his peers in that he has spent 23 years at the helm of a major organization. “That in itself is unusual in this day and age. It’s been interesting for me, and intellectually stimulating,” Peter said.

And while it may be Rebecca serving on a board, she is representing their shared interests. The Desert Botanical Garden, Arizona Science Center, the Joy Bus, Florence Crittenton and many more organizations — the couple puts their effort into things they are passionate about.

“We are true partners, in all aspects of the word. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have lasted the last 47 years,” Peter said.

Get on Board!

As co-chairs of the Joy Bus More Than a Meal campaign, the Fines aim to help the nonprofit dramatically expand its kitchen, pantry and dining capacity beyond what its current 1,400-square-foot location provides so that it can serve healthy and delicious food to more people with cancer. To learn more and donate, go to thejoybusdiner.com.

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Tina Marie Tentori

 Arizona Public Service

The daughter of a pastor and a nurse, Tina Marie Tentori grew up with community in mind. “My dad would take me to hospitals when he visited sick people,” she said. “I learned what it takes to have a vibrant community, that all those people are your neighbors, and it’s our job to make sure we’re meeting each other’s needs.”

Today, Tentori is director of community affairs and executive director of the Arizona Public Service Company Foundation, a role she calls her “dream job.” Headquartered in Arizona for over 100 years, APS is embedded — and vested — in our community.

“When I chose APS, it was because APS was always giving to the community,” she said. “I knew they would allow me to do the things that are important to my heart. They’d let me serve on boards and do volunteerism. They walk their talk.”

Tentori had worked at a nonprofit for 17 years before coming to APS and was able to apply that nonprofit thinking to the corporate world in order to work more collaboratively together.

“That’s when it became a match made in heaven,” she said. “I am now in a position where I can help nonprofits be successful through funding, volunteerism and board service, knowing how all of those are so important to nonprofit success.”

One thing Tentori wants people to know about her work is that it’s sincere. “I know some people can view the giving a company does in a skewed manner. But I get to oversee where the money goes, and I know it’s based on need,” she said. “It’s based on the issues Arizona is facing and how we can impact them.”

Tentori’s commitment to community hasn’t changed much since the days she was tagging along with her dad during visiting hours. “A person like me fits perfectly at APS because they care about contributing to the prosperity of Arizona,” she said. “We really want to make a difference.”

Lourdes Sierra

PNC Financial Services Group

Lourdes Sierra grew up in southeastern Arizona, close to the Mexican border. Raised in a small agricultural farming community, she spent her youth working in the fields to help her family. “It was through that hard work that I learned those valuable lessons that resonated with me throughout my life,” she said.

One of them was aspiring to pursue higher education. “That was unheard of because my parents collectively only had three years of formal education,” Sierra said. “I always viewed education as an opportunity for me to change my trajectory.”

She became heavily involved with Chicanos Por La Causa while she was an undergrad at Arizona State University. After she graduated, she stayed in the community and did education outreach campaigns for ASU to increase the number of underrepresented students who attended the university.

“I’ve always had a passion for community, even though I was a business major,” Sierra said. “At the end of the day, we only become a stronger community and a stronger country when we’re all given opportunities to achieve.”

 As vice president of client & community relations at PNC Financial Services Group, she is helping to do just that. Early childhood education is a focus area for the organization that hits close to home for Sierra. “It’s an area that, frankly, is underfunded and underappreciated,” she said. “If we’re going to meet the educational outcomes that we want to see in communities, it’s got to start at the earliest level.”

Education and community have been driving forces in Sierra’s life since she was a girl. Today, she tries to share the fruits of those labors with others — and lift communities in the process. “That’s really what I’m trying to do. I’m trying to move from transactional giving to transformational impact,” she said.

Christine Bracamonte Wiggs

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona

“I grew up around healers,” said Christine Bracamonte Wiggs. Her dad was a nurse practitioner; her mom was a midwife, so Wiggs assumed she wanted to become a doctor. Then, she learned about public health. “I was like, that’s my jam because instead of helping one person at a time, it is the opportunity to help multiple individuals and whole communities in order to have a bigger reach,” she said.

Wiggs began her career doing applied research at the University of Arizona. “Applied research is really embedding yourself in the community and finding out what the assets of that community are and what opportunities the community sees to promote health,” she said.

Today, as staff vice president for community & health advancement and president & board chair of Blue Cross Blue Shield Foundation, Wiggs leads the social responsibility efforts of an organization with resources to make a substantial philanthropic investment in the community. “Even though I moved from academia to healthcare, there’s a thread through what I’ve done, which is how we align and partner shoulder to shoulder with community members to drive health-related impact,” she said.

Through the foundation, Blue Cross Blue Shield targets some of Arizona’s most pressing health concerns, including mental health, substance use disorders, chronic health conditions, and health equity. “It’s not just giving to do good. It’s can we measure what the good is? Are we moving the needle in the right direction? It’s an important responsibility,” she said.

Wiggs points out that money is just one part of the equation. Equally important is the work to build meaningful partnerships. “Make sure that the focus is not just on the dollars, but on the relationship,” she said. “Because that is how the work gets done.”

That commitment to work continues to guide Wiggs. “My path to where I am has been a winding one,” she said. “I haven’t focused on the job or the title; I’ve focused on the work. My North Star has been waking up every day knowing that what I’m doing is making an impact.”

Tracy Bame

Freeport-McMoRan

As director of social responsibility at Freeport-McMoRan and president of the Freeport-McMoRan Foundation, Tracy Bame develops strategies and programs for the company to interact with communities. “That’s stakeholder engagement and social investment and working with communities to build wellness and resilience during the life of our operations,” she said.

Being mindful of resources is a hallmark of the company because of the nature of the business. “Mining is a finite resource,” Bame said. “Eventually, the mine will be depleted.”

Accordingly, Freeport-McMoRan works with communities to help them envision their future and identify what resilience looks like. “Community resilience isn’t something you achieve overnight or even in a decade. You have to put those building blocks in place,” Bame said. “Our philosophy is about listening to our communities and stakeholders to understand where they think the greatest needs are, and to try to invest in things that have a multiplier effect.”

Although there is a pathway to jobs like hers today, Bame says that wasn’t the case when she started out. “Now, there are a lot of degrees related to social responsibility in various sectors, including corporate. There weren’t when I graduated from college,” she said.

Instead, Bame found her way to corporate social responsibility by observing work being done at her first job at American Express. “I got interested in the concept of helping companies be good citizens,” she said.

Bame has advice for anyone interested in doinsimilar work. “There are a lot of really good degree programs related to sustainability, or corporate social responsibility. So, definitely pursue higher education, but also get to know the nonprofit community and what’s happening in the community around you,” she said.

Service to the community is paramount, according to Bame. “We always look at how people engage beyond a degree and a specific skill set. So I would say anything that anyone can do to get engaged, be part of solutions and support the community is always a good entrée to the CSR field,” she said.

Maria Echeveste

Bank of America

In her work as senior vice president and community relationship manager at Bank of America, Maria Echeveste spends most of her time listening. But she has also important things to say.

She has lived in Arizona for more than 40 years, seeing opportunities here grow along with the state. Her paternal grandmother was born and raised in the Globe-Miami area, and Echeveste sees positive change, but also understands remaining inequities.

“If I can be a leader in trying to help solve these problems or be a voice for those who don’t have one — because, unfortunately, these inequities continue — that’s what’s guiding me,” she said.

Echeveste has learned a lot in the 28 years she has been with Bank of America. “I’ve been fortunate to learn from leaders in the company that educate us about economic mobility and why advancing racial equality is so important, besides understanding it from my personal family experiences,” she said.

In her role at Bank of America, Echeveste engages in the community, develops relationships with nonprofit partners, learns about local issues and steers the bank’s leadership to be part of the solutions.

“I’m fortunate to work with a company that values listening to our employees and our communities,” she said. Instead of prescriptive solutions, Echeveste said they strive to listen and work collaboratively. “We ask those with lived experience, or who are finding solutions, what do they see? It’s not for us to say, ‘This is what we think needs to happen.’”

For all of the advances, Echeveste thinks we are at a critical point in our state. “If we don’t step back and listen in on what is going on in our community, in our schools, in our neighborhoods, and help empower others, our youth will have worse challenges than we think,” she said.

Those challenges are real. People of color still generally earn less than their white counterparts, and there’s a 14-year discrepancy in life expectancy, depending on where in the Valley you live. On top of that, climate issues, challenges in affordable housing, and access to future education resources loom.

“We cannot do this alone. It cannot be just Bank of America or one nonprofit or government institution,” Echeveste said. “It has to be collaborative.” 

Cover photo by Scott Foust Studios | Makeup by The Sparkle Bar artists Charlee Torres and Eli Medina | Styled by Risa Kostis, Dulce Badillo and assisted by Katie Anderson

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You might know Geoffrey Beene’s name from his men’s shirts or Grey Flannel cologne. What you may not know is that Mr. Beene — as he was known in his lifetime — was also an exquisite craftsman, the maker of visionary haute couture for women, who combined luxury with superb design and comfort.

“That is a blend that we do not find with many designers,” said Helen Jean, the Jacquie Dorrance curator of fashion design at Phoenix Art Museum. “Mr. Beene’s contemporaries were also making beautiful, luxurious garments using incredible fabrics. But Mr. Beene was committed to comfort.”

Today, thanks to the friendship between a New York publisher and a local philanthropist, Phoenix Art Museum possesses one of the premier collections of Geoffrey Beene’s work and is preparing to tell an important part of his story to the world.

Born in 1924, Geoffrey Beene was one of the most awarded designers of all time — a designer’s designer who dressed movie stars like Faye Dunaway and Glenn Close and first ladies like Lady Bird Johnson, Pat Nixon and Nancy Reagan. Deemed an “American Original” by the Smithsonian, Beene received eight Coty Awards, the most awarded to any one designer. Yet despite his success, the soft-spoken Beene nimbly, repeatedly pivoted to experiment with movement and form.

Phoenix Art Museum’s new exhibition, MOVE: The Modern Cut of Geoffrey Beene, examines the bold, imaginative fashions of the late designer, specifically his work in the mid-1990s. “During that time, he was doing these beautiful runway ballets, where he was working with choreographers and dancers to create fully realized balletic presentations that were his runway shows,” Jean said.

The exhibition came about thanks to the gift of Patsy Tarr, a prominent supporter of dance in New York and the founder and publisher of the award-winning 2wice magazine. Today, Tarr is a respected doyenne of the arts, but back in 1979, she was a young working woman who needed a wardrobe that would transport her from the responsibilities of motherhood by day to the sophisticated world of dance by night.

She remembers the first Geoffrey Beene creation she ever wore. “I honestly just loved how it looked on me,” she said. “I had had a baby, and it was roomy across the bosom and had a full skirt and jacket so it sort of covered me up and showed off my few assets. I just looked a whole lot better in that dress than I normally looked!”

That ballgown led to a collaboration that lasted 20-odd years. “It became easier to depend on Geoffrey Beene because it never failed. No matter what you selected, it was going to be great,” Tarr said.

Apart from the impeccable clothing, Beene and Tarr came together around their shared love of dance, which they discussed often. “He was from a completely different, earlier generation of people working seriously in the arts,” Tarr said. “One of his design ideas was jumpsuits.”

Made in solid patterns in a solid color, the garments created dancerly illusions. “If you squinted, you sort of looked like a line moving in space,” Tarr said. “I thought that was about as close as a civilian could get to looking as though they were dancing. That’s what really hooked me.”

And with that, Tarr became a walking advertisement for the modernity and versatility of Beene’s fashions. A busy mom with two young children, she literally jumped into his jumpsuits for philanthropy events at night.

Beene’s original plan had nothing to do with fashion. He was raised in rural Louisiana in a family of doctors who expected him to follow the same path. After studying medicine for three years at Tulane University, Beene transferred to the University of Southern California and worked in the display department of I. Magnin until 1947.

Beene’s early anatomy training was always apparent in his work, particularly in how he placed seam lines. His seams rarely cut straight down the body. Instead, they curved, spiraled and wrapped, tracing the body’s natural musculature and suggesting movement and speed.

“It’s creating movement in the most practical way in that it’s wrapping around the body. It’s allowing the body to move because it’s hugging the body tightly,” Jean said. “It’s creating a shape that becomes a second skin, but it’s also creating visual movement.”

Inspired by the sinuous lines of the human body, Beene sought ways to engineer beautiful modern garments that allowed the wearer to move freely through life. “Beene was committed to creating clothing that supported the woman and helped his wearer shine,” Jean said.

Count local philanthropist Ellen Katz among Beene’s many fans. What does she admire about his designs? The list is long. “The overlays of fabrics, the cut of the silhouette, the quality, the uniqueness, the styling,” she said. “He was ahead of his time and very architectural in many ways, yet there’s this wonderful, fanciful element as well. His clothes were just stunningly beautiful.”

A longtime friend of Patsy Tarr, Katz recalls the two wearing Beene’s clothing in New York in the 90s. “I would have a few pieces here and there, a ballgown or something, but that’s all Patsy wore. She usually wore black jumpsuits and put stunning boleros or tunics on top. She had an amazing collection,” Katz said.

Then, years later and out of the blue, Tarr called her friend Katz and told her something shocking: She wanted to get rid of her Beene clothes.

Katz and her husband Howard started visiting Arizona 24 years ago to play golf. (Today, they split their time between Carefree and New York.) They joined Phoenix Art Museum’s Circles of Support program to get involved in the community. It was a perfect fit for Katz, who majored in art at Northwestern University.

Katz is no stranger to philanthropy — she serves on several boards in New York and was on the Junior Council of MoMA. But Phoenix in the early aughts felt unique. “I had a feeling that maybe I could make a little bit of a difference,” she said.

By 2006, the Katzes had endowed funds to support the construction of a 25,000-square-foot wing for contemporary art, known today as the Ellen and Howard C. Katz Wing for Modern Art. Katz served as chairman of the museum for three years and created two of the museum’s most successful fundraisers: the pARTy — the institution’s annual fall gala — and the Independent Woman Luncheon hosted each spring. Together, these events have raised millions for Phoenix Art Museum. In honor of her support, Katz was named an honorary trustee of the museum’s governing board.

Still, it was a surprise when Katz’s phone rang a few years ago. “Patsy called me one day and said, ‘Ellen, get over here. I have so much Geoffrey Beene. I’ve got to get rid of it. Let’s pack it up and send it to the Phoenix Art Museum.’”

In 2009, Phoenix Art Museum’s former fashion curator, Dennita Sewell, put together a Beene exhibit called Trapeze. Tarr donated nearly 40 garments to the museum, and Katz worked with Sewell to throw a small luncheon showcasing Beene’s fashions.

Fast-forward several years, when a roof leak in her East Hampton home prompted Tarr to decide it was time to donate her collection. “I knew Ellen, and I had met Dennita,” Tarr said. “So, when the time came to give the rest of the collection away, the Phoenix Art Museum had been so good to me. And they were willing to take it all.”

Tarr’s gift of more than 350 Beene designs immediately established Phoenix Art Museum as holding one of the nation’s foremost collections of the designer’s work. It also provided a unique opportunity to examine how an individual curates their wardrobe, akin to how an art collector curates a collection.

“A gift like this allows us to tell a very important part of American fashion history,” said Jean. “Patsy has been willing to share stories and insight and connect us with other people that knew Mr. Beene. So her gift has gone far beyond sharing these objects with us. It has really allowed us to tell a much deeper and richer story.”

A hope is that this story will be heard across the country. “We hope to get some write-ups in New York magazines and newspapers. It will draw attention not just to the archive of Geoffrey Beene, but to Phoenix and to Phoenix Art Museum,” Katz said.

That, in turn, may materialize into more such donations and another chance for Katz to make the kind of difference she set out to make. “We’re excited that news of our exhibition may inspire and encourage other private collectors to reach out to us and other museums to share some of their collections,” Jean said.

Spanning three galleries, MOVE, which runs Feb. 1, 2023 to July 23, 2023, is the culmination of years of work researching objects, putting together ensembles, and interviewing people in Tarr’s and Beene’s circles. “We reached out to models and dancers and choreographers that worked with Mr. Beene so we could add more voices and share insight into wearing and moving in these objects,” Jean said.

With his owlish black glasses and avuncular style, Beene appeared more Southern gentleman than fashion pioneer. Yet MOVE lays out his thoroughly modern vision in which every detail is considered.

“The thread color is carefully chosen. Sometimes they are metallic; sometimes they are a bright color that contrasts the fabric,” Jean said. “Pay attention to all of the fabrications. It may be a polka-dot dress, but it might have four different sizes of polka dot throughout the dress, the lining, the trim and underlinings.”

It’s a look back to a time that was not long ago, yet feels worlds away. “At this point, honestly, it feels like they’re historic, because clothes are made so differently now,” Tarr said. “Geoffrey Beene was one of the last great hurrahs of the 20th century.”

Patsy Tarr swears she never set out to become a fashion collector. “I was just the regular lady in the street who needed a dress,” she said. And though today she is a grandmother more likely to wear jeans and a T-shirt, she remains grateful for the glorious years when Beene’s life overlapped hers.

“It was nothing intentional. There was no agenda. It just happened,” she said. “When I look back on it, I think this was one of the greatest strokes of fortune that ever happened to me. Because literally, for decades, I wore gorgeous clothes with very little effort. It was simply a phone call away.”

To learn more, go to phxart.org.  

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It’s a Tuesday evening at the St. Vincent de Paul campus on Watkins Road and Third Drive in Phoenix. People facing hard times line the streets outside, but it’s still a joyous scene here. Kids doing homework. Diners complimenting the food. An impromptu Zumba class.

Little do most of the guests know who is serving them this night, which suits the self-effacing Shannon Clancy fine.

Clancy was recently named the CEO of St. Vincent de Paul Phoenix, which serves Central and Northern Arizona and is the largest St. Vincent de Paul chapter in the world. Leading an organization that employs more than 300 Arizonans wasn’t on Clancy’s radar when she was growing up in a family of four kids in North Central Phoenix. She thought she would be a math teacher. Still, Clancy was exposed to volunteer service while attending Xavier College Preparatory — “That sort of faith aspect of living out the Gospel values of caring for people in need and Catholic social teaching,” she said.

While attending the University of Notre Dame, Clancy had a transformative experience. She took part in Urban Plunge, a program that allows participants to immerse themselves in poverty in their own hometowns. Over Christmas break her sophomore year, Clancy worked alongside the folks of André House, a ministry serving vulnerable populations in Phoenix. She says from the first time she witnessed homelessness, she couldn’t get it out of her mind. “I had never seen that level of suffering, and I couldn’t understand why we wouldn’t do something,” she said. “After that, I really couldn’t look away.”

After college, Clancy gave a year of service through the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, working in a transitional housing program for families in Northern California. “That was eye-opening because I worked right alongside families and saw them in their moment of need,” she said. Clancy was 22 and doing case management when an incident took place that forever changed how she viewed her work.

“There was a family that had five kids. Their oldest daughter was 16 and kind of spoke for the family because it was Spanish-speaking,” Clancy said. The family had outstayed their time in the shelter and the staff made the decision to ask them to leave. “I remember thinking at the time that we were there to help support them and, instead, we were making it worse,” Clancy said.

Unable to face the family, Clancy hid in her office. There was a knock at the door. When Clancy opened it, it was the 16-year-old daughter. “I prepared myself for her to lash out and be angry,” Clancy said. “Instead, she stretched out her arms and said, ‘I just want to thank you.’”

Clancy learned something powerful that day that has informed her work ever since. “In people’s moment of greatest need, they just need to know they’re not alone,” Clancy said. “That someone is there, even if they can’t fix it.”

St. Vincent de Paul Phoenix has been here, serving Arizonans in need for 76 years, and Clancy is the first female leader of the nonprofit in that time. “I’ve seen how much it means to other women of all ages, younger and older,” she said. “That surprised me a little bit, the depth of feeling about it. It amplifies what it means to others in terms of having role models or examples of people in the world.”

Clancy’s journey to leading the organization started two decades ago. “We were living in Baltimore and felt that we needed to be here, closer to family,” she said. She and her husband moved the family to Phoenix in 2002, and Clancy started working at St. Vincent de Paul part-time, the first of a few stints over the last 20 years. “I have four kids, so I had a little bit of back and forth while trying to contribute to what’s going on in the world, as well as take care of my family,” she said.

Having worked in several roles, Clancy is happy serving in whatever way helps the organization most at the time. To get a sense of why, you need to understand something she witnessed years before.

Back in Baltimore, she worked at a school for low-income kids that was run by several different religious congregations of sisters and brothers. “It was a really small school, but they were role models of servant leadership for me, watching how they lived out their faith and service so joyfully,” Clancy said.

Something else about how they worked stood out to her. Someone would be the principal and then, when their turn was up, they would go back into the classroom happily. “So at one point, there was a new principal, but six of the different faculty — all sisters and brothers in different congregations — had been principals. They were happy to let her be the principal and were there to support her,” she said.

Clancy found it an important model for this challenging work. “Watching how gracefully they did that and how it allowed them to serve over a long period of time was an important part of my formation,” she said. “It really wasn’t about them. It was just about the work.”

Sometimes the work can be tough to balance with the already significant responsibility of raising a family. Clancy and her husband have four children, ages 15, 18, 21 and 23. “I have two here, still in high school, one that is a senior in college, and one who’s graduated and out working,” she said.

Like many parents, Clancy sometimes looks back and wonders whether her career negatively impacted her kids, but a recent conversation with her 18-year-old daughter comforted her.

When she was younger, Clancy’s daughter volunteered at St. Vincent de Paul’s annual Circle of Angels donor luncheon. She and other kids were little angels and passed out cookies to supporters. Eventually, there was a changing of the guard, and the angel wings had to move on to a new batch of little ones. “She’s a senior in high school now and just the other day, she said, ‘Do you think I could come back one last time and be the biggest angel for one more year?’” Clancy said, fighting back tears. “What she was really saying was, ‘Could I go back one more time before I leave home and feel cherished and loved, worthy and supported, in that space with these beautifully hearted people?’”

It’s a feeling Clancy wants more people to experience. “There are so many people who feel disconnected. There aren’t enough psychiatrists or medications in our world to serve everyone,” she said. “We see every day that people find healing and growth through service and reaching out to others. I see that in my own daughter, who said, ‘Just one last time.’”

What Clancy wants — to make St. Vincent de Paul the place where everyone is healed in service — has never mattered more than now. As we come out of the pandemic and take stock of where we are, Clancy argues that it might be the moment to learn from and care for one another. “There’s an immense beauty to being able to do that for someone in their moment of need,” she said.

That is where St. Vincent de Paul’s mission is unique. In addition to “feed, clothe, house and heal,” its mandate includes providing opportunities for everyone to serve. It’s why Clancy doesn’t volunteer in the Family Dining Room very often. She believes that our community is better — that we’re all better — when we are caring for others. So she makes room and invites others to do that.

“Maybe there is brokenness to all of us,” she said. “You might not need food or clothing or shelter or healthcare, but you might have a spiritual or emotional need. You might have a need to feel safe and connected and to belong. How do we create that opportunity?”

How can St. Vincent de Paul scale that opportunity while tackling significant social issues like homelessness and evictions, medical care, food insecurity and more? That is the question Clancy is focusing on.

“St. Vincent de Paul couldn’t do what it does without donors, volunteers and partners who bring in skill sets that we don’t have,” Clancy said. “Every day, you’re reminded of what that can make possible in the world.”

Clancy envisions St. Vincent de Paul as a common ground for people who need support to come together with people who have the resources or desire to help. “The human heart needs to be reaching out to others. It craves belonging and connection. You see that every day at St. Vincent de Paul. It’s a blessing to be part of it,” she said.

As the holidays near, Clancy is gearing up for weeks of events and festivities. “It starts in November and goes all the way through, like an ultramarathon, but of great gratitude, joy and celebration. It renews your faith in people and their desire to be generous and loving,” she said.

The marathon reference is telling. Clancy is a runner who appreciates the solace and simplicity of a good run. “You just put on your shoes and go out the door. It’s important to be in nature and have that time just to think,” she said. “I realize how important that is for my own mental health and feeling settled. I want to make sure that I continue to do that.”

Clancy’s self-care plan will be tested as she assumes the stresses of leading an organization with a $75+ million annual budget. She jokes — although she’s not sure it’s really a joke — that God called her to this work to teach her that she is not in control. “I am a very independent person and usually think I can take care of myself, but that is not how it is with this work. You have to trust that it’s meant to happen in the way it is, that people will come and it will reveal itself,” she said.

Time and again, Clancy has experienced miraculous moments when someone has come along at just the right time. She hopes some day her faith becomes automatic. “I’m hopeful that eventually I’ll get to where I won’t have to be reminded anymore, that I’ll just know. I think I’m getting closer,” she said.

After all, asking people to support St. Vincent de Paul’s transformational vision requires Clancy’s unyielding faith in it herself. “Finding our purpose and what we’re meant to do while we’re on this earth, there’s great joy in that,” Clancy said. “I would hope that St. Vincent de Paul could be that place where people may be able to discover that for themselves.” 

To learn more, go to stvincentdepaul.net. 

Sidebar:

Before Shannon Clancy took the reins of St. Vincent de Paul Phoenix, she served alongside former CEO Steve Zabiliski, who led the nonprofit for 25 years. Alongside his massive impact — doubling St. Vincent de Paul’s health clinic space to treat more people, operating dining rooms that provide meals every day and establishing a transitional shelter and resource center — Zabiliski was a model of using his leadership skills while living out his Catholic faith.

Fortunately for our community, Zabiliski isn’s going far. He was named the new president & CEO of Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust, and will assume the job in April 2023.

According to Mary Jane Rynd, the current president & CEO of Piper Trust, “Steve is the natural fit to take the helm of the Trust at this critical time in our world’s history. His experience and true servant leadership will be transformative for the Trust and Maricopa County.”

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Southwest Shakespeare Company has always emphasized education and making Shakespeare understandable to the masses. But since its founding in 1994, the company has transformed from a small company of local artists to one of the Southwest’s theatrical powerhouses. It also moved beyond its home in Mesa to venues in Phoenix, Scottsdale, Tempe, Peoria and more.

Along the way, there has been off-stage drama, too, including mounting debt, dwindling audiences and a devastating fire in 2017 that ravaged the company’s production warehouse and destroyed millions of dollars worth of costumes, sets, tools and props.

Enter Mary Way. Hailing from a long line of actors, Way has significantly impacted several of the Valley’s arts institutions, and she received a Governor’s Arts Award in 2017. But she feels a special fondness for Shakespeare.

“All three of my children found a home in the arts. That was the place they could go and make friends, develop camaraderie and a creative outlet,” she said. “I knew what Shakespeare had done for my kids during their toughest years. I felt this was something I could help with.”

As executive director, Way has helped Southwest Shakespeare install a new board, raise significant capital, institute new reporting systems, balance the budget and reduce debt. She has done this work pro bono for eight years.

“I call it the breadcrumb trail of life,” she said. “You just land in a place where you have skills and an organization seeks them.

Debra Ann Byrd

Act Two: Friendship Makes Us Fresh

In recent years, Way has helped Southwest Shakespeare bring the larger world of Shakespearean and other classical theater to Arizona by presenting literary-themed productions from across the country and around the world. One of them was from the Harlem Shakespeare Festival.

Debra Ann Byrd founded Harlem Shakespeare with the express notion of changing the world. A native of Spanish Harlem, Byrd first fell in love with Shakespeare after seeing Black actors in a Joseph Papp production in New York City. Although she had a drama degree and serious training, agents told Byrd not to expect a career in the classics.

“I thought that that was not fair. I decided to go back to my community and create a program called Take Wing and Soar Productions. It would be a theatrical safe space where artists of color will hone their skills and build that confidence while building their résumés,” Byrd said. “I was setting out to change the face of American classical theater.”

Byrd came to Southwest Shakespeare in 2018 with her all-female “Othello.” (She had won Broadway World’s “Best Actress” for that performance.) She returned the following year to do her celebrated one-woman show, “Becoming Othello.”

Then COVID hit, and Byrd ended up staying in Arizona for an entire year. “That’s when the love affair with Arizona started,” she said.

Byrd and Way discovered affinities that made them a perfect pair. “She’s my sister from another mister,” Byrd said. “We play off of each other and hold each other up with our individual strengths. And, you know, make some good art in the world.”

Eventually, Way asked Byrd to become Southwest Shakespeare’s artistic director. Byrd moved to Arizona, got an apartment in Mesa and has been getting her footing in the community since. “I’m working to help the company further its mission and seeing if my brand of Shakespeare plays well here in Arizona, or whether they’re going to kick me out!” she said.

Act Three: As You Like It

Shakespeare’s works are required reading for high school students. They have been performed in almost every language, on stage and screen and at festivals around the world. So how do you attract new audiences to see plays that are more than 400 years old?

“We start with a brilliant director, so that they can, in turn, coach the actors,” Byrd said. “And we try to twist it up a little bit. Add a person of color in the lead — a lot of people haven’t seen that. They don’t know what it’s like for an Egyptian tawny-colored Cleopatra to hit the stage.”

At Southwest Shakespeare, women sometimes play title roles that were meant to be played by men. It’s part of a reckoning in the theater community with entrenched biases. “I don’t like to choose artists just because they’re people of color, but if they are people of color, and they do have the skill sets, then I’d like to give them an opportunity,” Byrd said.

At Southwest Shakespeare, representation matters. “People of color, women, LGBTQ, people of different physical abilities — when we talk inclusion and diversity, we mean all of that. So that no one feels kept out, shut out or left out,” Byrd said.

Mary Way agrees, especially when it comes to the company’s education outreach. She ticks off Arizona’s latest Census numbers, noting that she wants Southwest Shakespeare productions to reflect the full breadth of the state and their audiences. “Kids that come to our shows love it when they see themselves represented on the stage. It can encourage and change lives,” she said.

Act Four: The Short and Long of It

Shakespeare had a sixth-grade education, and both his parents were likely illiterate. Yet he is considered one of the greatest literary geniuses of all time. Mary Way sees him as a perfect role model for children. “How many children in Arizona have parents that don’t read and write in English?” she said.

As a key part of its mission, Southwest Shakespeare performs in schools across the state, bringing the magic of an expertly executed theatrical illusion to students. “The best kind of education comes when you’re being inspired and entertained,” Way said. “When the brain is open and receptive, the student teaches themselves. They take what they want or need to learn from what they’re watching.”

In his 38 plays and 154 sonnets, Shakespeare used about 17,000 words — and invented about 10 percent of them. This cavalcade of creativity appeals to kids on a visceral level. “There’s something about that Early Modern English, where they actually have to engage and seek understanding. Once you crack the code, it’s remarkable what happens,” Way said, citing studies that show that studying Shakespeare has a powerful effect on students’ critical thinking skills, engagement in school and empathy.

Education outreach is a passion at Southwest Shakespeare, and expansion is a goal. The company wants every child in Arizona to have access to the Bard, no matter where they live. “Shakespeare builds minds and characters and shows people the best and worst of the human experience,” Way said. “We can see domestic violence, broken homes and suicides, along with joy, forgiveness and true love. We can see everything in Shakespeare that exists in kids’ lives today that might help them come to terms with their story.”

Act Five: Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

Reaching every single student in Arizona is the mission and the calling. “We fall short of that just because of funds,” Way said. Producing live theater is expensive. To get to the outer reaches of the state, Southwest Shakespeare has to hire a truck, and actors need to spend the night.

“The schools do not necessarily have the budget to bring us in, but when we do come, they will remember it for the rest of their lives,” Way said.

As a nonprofit with limited overhead, Southwest Shakespeare’s operating budget is lean. “We aim to break even, but people need to be paid. We want to put the best work out to the Phoenix public, and the students should be seeing the best actors. It is an art form and takes a lifetime of learning. Classical artists go through so much training,” Way said.

Respect for actors, audiences and the work — this is where Way and Byrd’s missions align. “At the end of the day, we are telling stories, and we’re producing theater and training up theater artists, giving them opportunities to showcase their work, and showing our productions to a lot of schoolchildren,” Byrd said.

But what if Southwest Shakespeare doesn’t get the financial support to make all of that possible? “Woe be unto the city that loses their Shakespeare company due to apathy,” Way said. “I don’t think it bodes well for the educational system or the state of mind of the residents.”

Stakes are high as Southwest Shakespeare prepares for the new season. Byrd is bringing in two of her mentors and casting the best talent she can find. “We have some of the best directors in the country coming in. We have a Tony Award-winning Best Actress,” Byrd said. “We’re looking to give audiences of all ages a very exciting Shakespearean experience, where you come and we disturb the air.”

To learn more, go to swshakespeare.org.

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