Leadership | Music Resource Center

Carmelita Wood

Board Member

Carmelita Wood is a native and longtime resident of Charlottesville with a deep commitment to community service. She graduated from Lane High School, studied at National Business College for a year and a half, and went on to build a 35-and-a-half–year career at the University of Virginia, where she retired after decades of dedicated service.

Carmelita currently serves as president of the Fifeville Neighborhood Association and co-chair of the Land Trust. She is also a member of the Co-Op steering committee and the Keswick Scholarship Fund. Her previous board service includes Abundant Life and AHIP. In addition, she is a trustee at Union Grove Baptist Church in Keswick and participates in the working group for the LBS.

Outside of her community work, Carmelita enjoys crochet, bowling, and learning new things. Her depth of experience, strong neighborhood leadership, and long-standing commitment to Charlottesville make her a valued member of the MRC board.

Mike Ryan

Secretary

As a designer, Mike pursues the intersection of beauty, composition, and efficiency. As a leader, he embraces iteration and critique as grounds for collaboration and connection. And as the director of Journey Group’s editorial studio, he melds the two, creating best-in-class art direction and design for magazines and publications. Fittingly, Mike leads visual design for the company as a whole, bringing his characteristic levity and aesthetic instincts to sharpen our collective practice.

Nate Scholz

MRC Certified Instructor and Studio Assistant
nate@musicresourcecenter.org

Nathan Scholz is an Audio engineer and guitarist. He joined the MRC in 2023 as a part of the MRC certified program to teach live sound. He holds a MA in Audio Technology from American University as well as a BA in History and Music Industry from James Madison University. He has worked in the live events side of the music industry since 2014 and now can be found working FOH at venues like the Southern Cafe and Music Hall, Jefferson Theater, and Pro Re Nata Brewery, among countless others. He also performs and tours as a part of the DC area band Soul Meets Body.

Elinor Tappe

Board Member

Elinor (Ellie) Tappé serves as Executive Director of Strategic Advancement at The Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at UVA, where she helps shape and realize the strategic objectives of the School. With a 25-year history in strategic planning, development and communications, Ellie has held a variety of leadership roles in the corporate sector, as well as higher education and nonprofit. Her experience in philanthropy and communications spans more than a decade and includes UC Berkeley, Larkin Street Youth Services and The University of Virginia.

By leveraging her unique background, Ellie designs entrepreneurial initiatives that drive significant philanthropic support and deepens brand awareness. She’s recruited and coached high-performing teams on a regional and national level and continues to mentor development professionals across the country. In line with her extensive DEI training, Ellie incorporates the principles of equity, diversity and inclusion in all aspects of management, strategic planning and communications.

Mike Moore

Board Member

Mike Moore is currently a Partner and Chief Commercial Officer at WillowTree LLC. Prior to WillowTree, Mike held board-level roles in digital publishing, advertising, commerce, and product development for companies like AOL and Telegraph Media Group in London.

Mike is a graduate of Temple University and holds an MBA from The George Washington University. Mike was a member of the 1992 US Olympic Rowing Team for the Barcelona Games

Pablo DeLaLoza

Board Member

Pablo DeLaLoza is a Music Producer /Composer /Arranger and Piano & Keyboards player. He participated in countless projects starting in the early 80’s gathering new knowledge and experience from each one of them and their diversity.

He recorded with major artists like Enrique Iglesias, Shakira, Santana, Ha-Ash, Pedro Capó and Juanes, among others, and produced music for TV and Radio for many years.

Besides being a musician, he is also a C++ and Max/MSP programmer and always stays up to date with the latest technology, software and music producing techniques.

A.D. Carson

Board Member

A.D. Carson is a performance artist and educator from Decatur, Illinois. He received his Ph.D. in Rhetorics, Communication, and Information Design at Clemson University doing work that focuses on race, literature, history, and rhetorical performances. A 2016 recipient of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Award for Excellence in Service at Clemson, Carson worked with students, staff, faculty, and community members to raise awareness of historic, entrenched racism at the university through his See the Stripes campaign, which takes its name from his 2014 poem. His dissertation, “Owning My Masters: The Rhetorics of Rhymes & Revolutions,” is a digital archive that features a 34 track rap album and was recognized by the Graduate Student Government as the 2017 Outstanding Dissertation.

Carson is an award-winning artist with essays, music, and poetry published at a variety of diverse venues such as The Guardian, Quiddity International Literary Journal and Public-Radio Program, and Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory, among others. His essay “Trimalchio from Chicago: Flashing Lights and the Great Kanye in West Egg” appears in The Cultural Impact of Kanye West (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), and “Oedipus—Not So Complex: A Blueprint for Literary Education” is in Jay-Z: Essays on Hip Hop’s Philosopher King (McFarland & Co., 2011). Carson has written a novel, COLD, which hybridizes poetry, rap lyrics, and prose, and The City: [un]poems, thoughts, rhymes & miscellany, a collection of poems, short stories, and essays.

Carson is currently assistant professor in Hip-Hop and the Global South at the University of Virginia.

Paul G. Zmick, PE

Secretary

Paul leads the Energy and Utilities team for the University of Virginia in Charlottesville Virginia. Distributed utilities are provided for over 18 million square feet of facilities, including the University Medical Center. The Energy and Utilities team is responsible for energy procurement, generation, distribution, and operation, maintenance, and renewal of the utilities infrastructure, with a strategic focus on safety, sustainability, and stewardship.

Prior to UVA, Paul worked for DuPont and Koch Industries for a combined 22-years across five manufacturing sites in various engineering and leadership roles.

Two of Paul’s children attend MRC and have been able to explore music, jam with friends, and produce songs.

Lester Jackson

Board Chair

Lester Jackson, stage name ‘Nathaniel Star’, is an MRC Alum. When he’s not fiendishly recording music for his own projects, he’s writing or recording vocals for someone else’s. He has shared the stage/ studio with Grammy award winning artist. “I joined the MRC board because this place is special to me, I still see myself in these students”.

Katie Hanson

Development Manager
katie@musicresourcecenter.org

Katie joined the MRC as Development Manager in June of 2017, and previously served 2 years as Membership Coordinator. She has a Masters degree in Gifted Education from the University of Virginia, plays the bass and most brass instruments, and taught swing dancing for several years. In addition to her wife, son, and dog, she loves camping, her vegetable garden, and Excel spreadsheets (really!).

Jordan Perry

Program Director
jordan@musicresourcecenter.org

Jordan has been involved with the MRC for several years and joined the team as Program Director in 2022. In addition to being a regular solo performer, Jordan is also an active member of several area bands including New Boss, Night Teacher, and Uncle Pen. Jordan has been a music educator for 12+ years and holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Guitar Performance from the Boyer College of Music at Temple University in Philadelphia. His teaching life took him to Ramallah, Palestine between 2012-2014 where he was a faculty member of the Al Kamandjati School. Jordan is also formerly the Education Director for MIMA Music. When he’s not making sounds with friends or talking to folks about guitar playing, Jordan loves to spend time with his partner Katie and their large cat Liam.

Ike Anderson

Membership and Community Coordinator, Dance Instructor
ike@musicresourcecenter.org

Ike began his dancing career over fifteen years ago as a former MRC member and now serves as our dance and digital music production instructor as well as our Membership and Community Coordinator. He is well known in the area for his choreography for local theater and high school productions as well as for his acting. Ike enjoys watching MRC’s students grow and develop as they spend time in the Center. He brings a unique perspective to the MRC approach having experienced the program on both sides as a student and instructor.

Alice Fox

Executive Director
director@musicresourcecenter.org

Alice Fox became the Executive Director of the MRC in September 2016 but has been a part of the MRC since 2013 when she joined the planning committee for Party Like a Rock Star(PLARS). Alice has been a part of the MRC ever since. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and her Masters in Clinical Psychology with a focus on child development. Alice is also the proud mom of 3 children.

Staff

Alice Fox

Ike Anderson

Jordan Perry

Katie Hanson

Nate Scholz

Jamal Millner

Carlehr Swanson

Luke Harms

Board

Lester Jackson

Colin Frankenfield

Mike Ryan

A. D. Carson

Pablo DeLaLoza

Mike Moore

Elinor Tappe

Carmelita Wood

Hours

Location

Contact Us

This organization is supported, in part, by the Virginia Commission for the Arts, which receives support from the Virginia General Assembly and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.

Carmelita Wood

Mike Ryan

Nate Scholz

Elinor Tappe

Mike Moore

Pablo DeLaLoza

A.D. Carson

Paul G. Zmick, PE

Lester Jackson

Katie Hanson

Jordan Perry

Ike Anderson

Alice Fox