Management
Directors
Earle Martin
Executive Director
Earle Martin is a retired senior business executive with a track record in strategic and operational leadership, managing start-up and high-growth businesses, raising investment capital, and implementing domestic and international acquisitions. He founded more than a dozen companies including PRA International (a global clinical trials management business), and NDA Partners (a strategy consulting business for drug development, biologics, and medical device companies). Earlier in his career he was involved in a number of start-up information technology companies including Artificial Intelligence Corporation, an internal start-up for ADP (value-added network services), and internal start-ups for General Electric Company (technology migration, management consulting, and systems integration businesses). He is a former Board member and Chairman of Asbury Services, Inc, a not-for-profit operator of continuing care retirement communities and Executive Producer of indie films, including a feature film starring Cuba Gooding, Jr. Mr. Martin has a degree in Biology from the University of Virginia and attended the GE Executive Management Institute in Crotonville with a focus on strategic marketing.
Eric Starck
Director
Eric Starck is a Principal at Panetiere Hospitality Sales and Marketing Revenue Consultants, a graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and consultant to Graves Mountain Farm. Panetiere brings hotel sales, catering, revenue management, conference services and marketing consulting experience to assist their clients in fulfilling their strategic revenue goals and immediate revenue needs.
Scott Eliff
Director
Scott Eliff is the owner and operator of DuCard Vineyards in Madison County, Virginia, an award-winning boutique winery in a gorgeous mountainside location. He first planted vines in 2001 and expanded into winery operations in 2010. Previously, he was founder and president of Capital Consulting & Management, Inc. (CCMI), which for over a decade helped Fortune 500 companies, mid-size firms, start-up ventures, and other organizations improve their operational performance. Early in his career he served in the Office of Management and Budget as a career staff member under two presidents and was a principal in several national management consulting firms. He has served on the Board of Directors of the Piedmont Environmental Council, the Center for Nonprofit Excellence and the Forest Lakes Community Association, as well as several private companies in which he has had equity interests. Scott graduated magna cum laude from Dartmouth College with a B.A. in mathematics and social science, and received his Masters from the University of Michigan, where he was first in his class in economics and public policy.
Management Board
Vince May
Management Board
Vince May was bitten by the bluegrass bug early in life. As a child his family attended bluegrass festivals and he’d later see numerous touring groups at the Spotswood Lounge in his native Ruckersville. Vince served 26 years in the Army and during a stint at Fort Belvoir he’d have the opportunity to see the Seldom Scene at the Birchmere where he became fascinated with Mike Auldridge and the Dobro.
Vince purchased his first Dobro in 1989 and has been playing bluegrass music since then. He has been instrumental in the conduct of both the Doc McCabe (Sedalia, VA) and the Grave’s Mountain (Syria, VA) Festival in recent years. He is also certified as a Wernick Method jam instructor. As a founding member of the Roanoke base “The Guard” band and a member of the Rose River Ramblers he can be found picking most weekends somewhere in Virginia.
Trevor Hogan
Management Board
Trevor Hogan is a technology and cybersecurity executive with 25 years of international experience in industries such as, but not limited to, Banking and Finance, Energy, Transportation, Education, and Agriculture. He has worked for some of the largest companies in the world, including PwC, Smithfield Foods, and SAIC, in various leadership roles, helping organizations transform and adapt to changing industries and integrate technology. Trevor holds a Bachelor of Science from Old Dominion University and an MBA & Master of Science from the University of Maryland.
When he was younger, Trevor was a classically trained trumpet player in several school programs and was selected for the Bridgeport, CT, and Alexandria, VA, Youth Orchestras. Today, while no longer performing, he continues his interest in music and the arts as a volunteer Chief Technology Officer and member of the Management Board for the Blue Ridge Center for Music & Creative Arts and occasionally playing acoustic and flamenco guitar in his spare time.
AnnaMaria Mottola
Management Board
AnnaMaria Mottola is a highly accomplished Artistic Director and Pianist and Director of Music Programs for the Center. She was a member of The President’s Own United States Marine Band for 20 years before retiring in 2023, where she performed regularly at the White House, state dinners, receptions, and other functions. AnnaMaria began her musical instruction at age 4. After graduating in 2000 from Robert Service High School in Anchorage, AK, she attended Arizona State University in Tempe where she studied jazz and classical piano with Chuck Marohnic, Mike Crotty, and Robert Hamilton.
Denise Kinney
Management Board
Denise Kinney is the founder and Director of Music and Mindfulness, a summer learning program for musically advanced high school students from underserved backgrounds. It is a one of a kind 10-day immersive overnight experience hosted at Graves Mountain Farm. The program provides students expanded music education, self-growth opportunities and a pathway toward professional music careers. Denise is also a Registered Nurse and holds a Bachelor's Degree in Nursing from Widener University and a Masters from Villanova University. She has worked as a Licensed Nursing Home Administrator and a Surveyor of facilities for the Commission of Rehabilitation. Over the course of her career Denise has held several senior executive leadership roles in healthcare, including hospitals, acute rehabilitation and long-term care.
Eric Franklin
Management Board
Eric Franklin is a professional photographer. While in service with the US Navy, he became a Hospital Corpsman and served with the US Marine Corps in medical trauma units in Guam and Virginia Beach, VA. He was stationed at the Naval School of Health Sciences in Bethesda, MD, where he became a Medical Photographer. His duties included, medical and scientific documentation of patients, specimens, surgeries, product work, publication, and documentation of crime scenes and victims. His work included photographing portraits of staff members to national and internal VIP’s including, Medal of Honor Recipients, President, VP, politicians and any high-profile individual visiting the campus. He was also the Leading Petty officer of the photographic lab consisting of slide, color print, black and white print, copy, and other processes and was an instructor for students going through Medical Photography School. His philosophy: “To me it is a lie that anyone one can be a photographer. Anyone can capture an image through today’s technology but not everyone can capture an ideal. My goal is to produce art and continue to create through my eyes.”
Kevin MacConnell
Management Board
Double Bass and bass guitarist Kevin MacConnell’s impressive career has taken him from playing with orchestras on concert stages to Broadway shows, from numerous recording studios to the sets of television shows, from jazz festivals to great clubs. He has performed with such jazz legends as Mel Torme, Nancy Wilson, Billy Eckstine, Joe Williams and tenor saxophonist Ernie Watts and made national and international television appearances/performances. Highly respected on the jazz scene, Kevin is also a cross genre musician in bluegrass, classical and popular music.
Renee Balfour
Management Board
Renee Balfour is an award-winning painter and woodworker from central Virginia who has been exhibiting nationally and internationally in group and solo exhibitions for over 30 years. She is co-author of The Virginia Visual Arts Resource Directory and is a past president of McGuffey Art Center. Renee is also owner of Possum’s Store in Criglersville, VA, where she has a studio and hosts exhibitions and musical performances. Ms. Balfour is a gifted teacher and arts advocate. In 2010 she established Art with Heart, and raised funds for the University of Virginia Children’s Hospital through the sale of children’s artwork. She founded Community Art Works, (formerly Art with a Mission Charlottesville) an organization dedicated to the empowerment of children through the arts, working to establish sustainable arts programming for children in Rwanda. In 2013 she traveled to Kigali, Rwanda, to teach art to children in orphanages and youth headed households and spearheaded the exhibition (Gukiza) and sale of their work to support financial, mental and emotional health of vulnerable children.