2024 Board

President: Amena Butler

Art Committee

Amena Butler is Contemporary Mixed Media Artist and Contemporary Historian based in Oklahoma City. Amena grew up overseas in a Military family. She learned early on the value that art can bring to someone’s life. Amena started learning Asian Arts & Crafts at a young age, including Traditional Printmaking. She has a degree in History and a Master’s Degree in Museum Studies. “Art tells the history of a people, the story of a civilization, and is essential to improving the quality of life”.

“I also understand that shifting the perceived traditional narrative on racial and cultural diversity is not always appreciated or recognized. Embracing differences and acknowledging various perspectives is key to decolonizing the mind and achieving equity and accessibility in institutions.”

Amena enjoys working with different mediums and techniques to convey a feeling and visual language in her art. “Color has an impact on our sense of well-being, which is instantly recognized by our subconscious”.

She is a member of and currently serves on the board of the Edmond Art Association, Inclusion In Art, and Owens Art Place Museum. Amena is a member of and serves on the committee of ICOM-International Council of Museums, UMAC-University Museums and Collections, American Association of Museums & Galleries, and Oklahoma Archives Association.

Amena’s works are in private and public collections, including the National Collage Society, the Melton Art Reference Library, the Oklahoma Department of Libraries, Cedar Hills Dallas Community Center, University of Central Oklahoma, Langston/OKC University, and Edmond City Offices.

Secretary: Kimberly Cambell

Development & Marketing Committee

Kimberly Campbell, is a proud alumna of Lindenwood University where she was a 4-year member of the Lion Line Dance Team.The crowning achievement over those four years was winning the first, National Championship title for the program during the 2008 National College Dance Team Championships televised on ESPN and ESPN2. 

Her extensive dance training consists of ballet, tap, jazz, modern, hip hop, kick, pom, pointe, and musical theater. Upon graduating from high school, Kimberly became an instructor and later assistant head instructor for Universal Dance Association traveling and teaching high school dance camps across Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kansas, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Iowa. Currently, she holds a Bachelors in Dance with a minor in Business, a Master of Arts in Nonprofit Arts Administration, and has completed 57 hours toward a Master of Fine Arts in Dance. 

Kimberly has been actively judging for 15 years through an array of high school and college auditions along with various levels of dance team competitions Some of her judging experiences include the Oklahoma State University Pom Team auditions; state competitions in Wyoming, Missouri & North Dakota; the Oklahoma City University Spirit competition; and the inaugural NAIA Cheer and Dance regional event and National Championship. 

In 2011, she established the University of Jamestown’s Knight Line Dance Team, and directed the program for 4 years. While in Jamestown, she joined NDADD and contributed to the Fall Workshop and began judging events. During the 2013-2014 season, she took on the role of Judge Coordinator and Co-Site Manager for NDADD. Under her leadership, the judging curriculum was strengthened, solidified, and revamped with the assistance of the National Dance Alliance’s Rachel Domangue. 

As a middle school dance teacher, Kimberly works with 125+ 5th-8th grade students at John Marshall Enterprise Middle School. Exposing, engaging, and empowering students through dance each day provides perspective on the importance of arts education in developing the whole person. Her innovative classroom methods and ability to coach peers have propelled her into the lead elective teacher role in her second year of teaching. 

Currently, she serves as the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics’ (NAIA) Resource Advisor for Competitive Dance, Assignor of Championship Officials for Competitive Dance, and Onsite Coordinator of Championship Officials for Competitive Dance. In this multifaceted role, she is the liaison between coaches and judges, the training and curriculum developer for judges, and one of the official interpreters of the rules governing competitive dance at the National Championship event. She is excited to work with coaches and officials to bring forth creative solutions to assist the development and progression of dance in the NAIA.

Marcus Mallard

On Sabbatical – Communications Committee

Marcus Mallard is a Professor of English, Film, and Digital Media as well as the Program Coordinator for the Film Studies and Digital Media program at Rose State College. He has worked within the arts, education, and the medical fields across the state of Oklahoma. He attended Oklahoma Panhandle State University completing degrees in Fine Art and English. While a student, he excelled in painting and photography. It was here where he fully developed his love of cinema, film analysis, and filmmaking. While at OPSU, Marcus was part of a student project in creating and producing a short documentary film tracing the history Cimarron County in Oklahoma that was aired on local television stations as well as developing his exploration of horror films, genre studies, and socio-cultural readings of film. He was also a part of a student mural project, and the mural “Sacrifice at Home and Abroad” is displayed on the exterior of McKee Library on the campus of OPSU.

Marcus completed a Masters degree in English and Film Studies at the University of Central Oklahoma where he successfully defended his thesis that explored the evolution of the American Dream as depicted in the works of horror-genre and zombie movie director George A. Romero. He also briefly attended the University of Kansas focusing his studies on filmmaking, where his short films earned him student nominations for drama and sound editing. After leaving the University of Kansas, he returned to Oklahoma to obtain a second master’s degree in Speech-Language Pathology. Marcus worked as a Speech-Language Pathologist in skilled nursing facilities, rehabilitation hospitals, and with Moore Public Schools.

Even when working in the hospitals, Marcus has taught various classes across the state of Oklahoma. He has taught writing and cinema classes at OPSU, UCO, OCCC, and was hired full-time at Rose State College in August 2021. Marcus released his first edited anthology in 2016 with co-editor Dr. Philip Simpson entitled The Waking Dead Live!: Essays on the Television Show, and he have new work featured in the anthology Animated Mischief: Essays on Subversiveness in Cartoons Since 1987 due out in Spring 2023, which examines the Netflix series Big Mouth through the lens of theories of developmental psychology and identity formation. He has also presented his research at both the Southwest Regional and National Popular Culture Association conferences regularly since 2008 focusing on genre studies, teaching horror films as historical and literary artifacts, audience reception, tribalism, transgressive and subversive texts, and American history.