FARM Board of Directors

Minneapolis based Ellen Stanley works as a publicist, promoter, DJ and organizer in our community. Formerly the Director of Publicity & Promotions for Red House Records, she is the owner of EFS Publicity and hosts the syndicated Womenfolk radio show as well as the Back Catalog Listening Party podcast. As a songwriter Ellen performs as Mother Banjo. Called “an outstanding poet” (Inside Bluegrass), she was a Midwest Finalist for the prestigious NewSong Contest and has been featured nationally on SiriusXM and CMT.com.

All of James Curley’s organizational experience and skills come from the professional side of his life where he has been a senior business development executive for multiple companies in the Natural/Organic Consumer Packaged Foods Industry, as well as a co-founder of four companies in that industry over a 40+ year career. On the music side of James’ life, he has owned his own record label (Sidewalking Crab Records), his own publishing (Bicameral Music) and has released 3 recordings, the last one released in 2012, though he is planning a new release in early 2025. James is now semi-retired from his professional life, with occasional consulting projects but no longer working full time in the food industry.

Kristen has had a passion for music enjoyment since first learning how to play her parents’ 8-track tapes as a toddler, picking out the desired tapes by color and pressing the right buttons by shape. She loved singing in musicals and choral groups growing up, has been an active attendee of a variety of local and regional concerts for nearly 20 years, and has been a regular attendee of FARM since coming to her first conference in 2018 at the encouragement of friends in the community. Professionally, Kristen has worked for Michigan State University Libraries for more than 22 years. She brings dedication, thoughtfulness, and attention to detail to all her pursuits and deeply values relationships and community.

Elexa Dawson is a practitioner of the soul.

Hailing from her Potawatomi and Cherokee country home in Oklahoma and now living in Kansas, Dawson’s honey-dirt vocal quality shines through her work with Weda Skirts and Heyleon, and her 2019 debut album “Music is Medicine”. Elexa’s 2024 album, “Wanderlust”, co-created with Okie indie-rockers Stanley Hotel, soared to the top of the charts with its soul-stirring journey across time, presenting ancestral channelings with an invigorating Americana soundscape.

In 2022, Elexa founded Good Way Gardens, a land-based arts organization bringing Indigenous values to suburban landscapes, featuring a seasonal concert series in Emporia, KS. Elexa also serves on the board of Music to Life and is an Interchange Fellow with Mid-America Arts Alliance.

Vania Kinard is the Co-Treasurer on the Board of Directors for Folk Alliance Region Midwest and she currently lives in Naperville, IL. She is a Business Manager and Creative Collaborator at American Songster Productions alongside her husband Dom Flemons. She has over seven years worth of experience in the music industry and has traveled the world while being on tour with Dom Flemons since 2016. She is a producer and scriptwriter on American Songster Radio
Show and Podcast which airs on Nashville’s country music radio station WSM.
She has over eight years worth of experience in politics, including; working on President Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign at the National Headquarters in Chicago and the 2013 Presidential Inaugural Committee in D.C. Recently, Vania started her own consulting business and is currently serving on the Chicago Advisory Board of Children’s Literacy Initiative.

Over many years, Steve Milkus has been community focused. Healthcare: Steve served as governing council member and chairperson at near westside Chicago Bethany Hospital (now closed)–responsibilities included organizing fundraising events and moderating meetings, seeking consensus; longtime (past) board member Advocate Charitable Foundation. Youth development: several years of coaching boys and girls in baseball/softball and basketball. Professionally, Steve has been a lawyer (mostly retired now) guiding disputes toward amicable, positive resolution.