Board of Directors

Executive Board

Brandon Cox
Brandon Cox is the co-founder of Cox & Kor Wealth Management.  He offers his clients a wide range of financial services including portfolio management, comprehensive financial planning, life insurance and annuity solutions, and private placements.  He strives to educate, inform, and empower clients by delivering the most accurate and timely financial information available, and providing the highest quality of products and services.

Mr. Cox is a native Texan and has been building his practice in Austin for over ten years.  He attended Texas Tech University where he received his Bachelors of Science in Family Financial Planning.

Adam Frishman
Adam Frishman currently serves as the Director of Client Development at MosterWynne, a full-service legal and consulting firm that acts as outsourced General Counsel for emerging companies, their owners and management teams. The firm’s mission is to provide the infrastructure and advice to launch new businesses and guide them through the continuum of growth from formation to expansion to exit strategy. Working alongside the firm's partners, Adam serves a unique role and provides business consulting which complements MosterWynne's legal recommendations. He is skilled in market creation and analysis, strategic messaging, B2B client development, corporate positioning, direct marketing and customer loyalty/retention.

Adam is also the co-founder of Dance Xplosion, a learning, training and performing facility in southwest Austin for all forms of dance – jazz, ballet, lyrical, tap, musical theatre, modern and hip-hop. Dance Xplosion’s goal is not to force training and technique, but rather to teach, nurture and inspire students as they explore dance and music and develop into talented and experienced dancers.

In addition to these roles, Adam is on the Executive Committee of the Austin Business Journal’s Executive Advisory Board. He is also a former 5-term Board Member of the Austin chapter of the American Marketing Association. Adam is a graduate of the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin, where he received his BBA in Marketing with Honors and a Minor in Psychology.

Grace M Holmes, Executive Board Treasurer
Mrs. Holmes holds an MA in Applied Dance in Education and Community from University of Birmingham, England.  After a 22 yr career as a professional ballet dancer (soloist with San Francisco Ballet and Birmingham Royal Ballet in England), her work turned to Outreach and Education.  She was Project Manager for Birmingham Royal Ballet, and Ballet Education Manager for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London.  There she was responsible for managing ballet and opera programs that reached over 12,000 participants per year, 7-80 years of age, bringing the arts across cultural boundaries.  She was chair of San Francisco Ballet’s Dancers Career Transition Committee, and served on the SFB/AGMA Contract Negotiations Committee for 6 years. Her commitment to the arts and outreach in schools and community continues in her work as Director of Education and Outreach for American Repertory Ensemble.

David Justin, Executive Board President
Mr. Justin holds an MA from University of Birmingham, England.  He had a stellar career as a principal dancer with Birmingham Royal Ballet in England and San Francisco Ballet, where he was Company Representative for the San Francisco Ballet in negotiations with the American Guild for Musical Artists. His work as director of Dance Repertory Theatre at the University of Texas at Austin includes the creation, administration and management of company productions and touring. His career as a dancer, choreographer and director has given him experience in bridging the gap between artistic needs and business practice. His commitment lies in creating a dance company that does not succumb to traditional boundaries, but pushes towards creative and exciting new frontiers in music and dance performance and collaboration. In addition to his position as a Professor of Dance at the University of Texas at Austin, he currently stands on the Executive Committee of the Department of Theatre and Dance, the Committee of Counsel on Academic Freedom and Responsibility, Board of the American College Dance Festival Association (Finance Committee), the International Dance Council, and is a member of Dance/USA's Leadership Circle.

Edward Phillips
Edward graduated from the University of North Texas in 1991 with a Liberal Arts Degree in Sociology, Psychology, and Philosophy. He brings a passion for music and movement to the board that began in elementary school, where he studied classical violin, and continued in high school, where he competed in gymnastics. Edward funded his college education by coaching two State Championship qualifying competitive gymnastics teams, driving school busses, and working as a student representative for Apple Computer on the university campus.

Edward also played a key role in building many successful youth oriented gymnastic programs that included starting a gymnastics program in McKinney Texas, an inner city youth outreach program in Denton, TX with Big Brothers Big Sisters, and founding an Intercollegiate Competitive Gymnastics Club.  As a gymnast Edward qualified for Division II NCAA National Gymnastics Championships, performed with a world record trapeze artist at the State Fair of Texas and was invited to coach at Karolyi's World Gymnastics Camp. This performing spirit also landed him roles in the Nutcracker for three consecutive years.

Edward's professional career of 18 years has been focused as a systems engineer in the high tech industry. His professional passion is mastering new technologies, and using this expertise to educate customers about how to solve hard problems. Edward currently works for the SAS Institute in the Financial Services division helping customers to better analyze, forecast, and predict business outcomes, and consider possibilities for transforming the way they work using technology. He has held positions at Apple Computer, Adobe Systems, Oracle, and startups in world of network security and process automation.

Edward is married and has two children who he hopes will one day have their own passions for movement and music.

Daniel Ramón, Executive Board Secretary
Danny Ramón is an associate attorney at Graves Dougherty Hearon & Moody in Austin, Texas.  He concentrates his practice in general civil litigation, at the trial and appellate level. Danny graduated from the University of Texas School of Law in May 2007, and received his B.A. in Political Science from Stanford University in 2001. While in law school, he served as a member of the Legal Research Board, a Mentor with the Society Program, and a student representative on the Minority Student Affairs Committee.

Prior to earning his law degree, Danny worked for Kirk Watson's Campaign for Texas Attorney General and was also the Legislative Director for State Representative Roberto R. Alonzo.

In addition to his involvement with American Repertory Ensemble, Danny is also a member of the Hispanic Bar Association of Austin, Texas Young Lawyers Association, and the Austin Bar Association.

K.C. Scharnberg
K.C. Scharnberg is an Assistant Account Manager at Elmore Public Relations, a public relations agency specializing in media relations and crisis communications in Houston, Texas. Prior to moving to Houston, K.C. held the position of Public Affairs Specialist for The University of Texas at Austin Department of Theatre and Dance, where she managed the complete redevelopment of the department's website, developed best communication strategies with alumni, and coordinated media relations for the department's activities and production seasons. She completed arts management internships at the UT Performing Arts Center in Austin and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC. K.C. holds a B.A. in Humanities from The University of Texas at Austin.

Brad Wolfe
Brad Wolfe is Chief Financial Officer of Santé Health Ventures, a venture capital firm that partners with entrepreneurs and executives to build valuable healthcare companies. Previously, Brad was CFO of two private equity firms with more than $1B each in assets under management, DCI/Mansur and The Broe Companies. Before that, Brad was the CFO of AON Capital Corp, a company that he helped grow from a $200M to a $4B subsidiary of the AON Corporation (a Fortune 200 company). He has more than 25 years of experience in finance that ranges from profit-and-loss responsibility, accounting, capital markets, finance, treasury, and operations. Brad holds an MBA from Kellogg, a JD from Chicago-Kent and a BBA in Accounting and Information Systems from Southern Methodist University.

Advisory Board

Dr. Ann Messer
Dr. Messer is an Austin-based family physician with a passion for dance.  Ann began her dance studies at the Boston Ballet and continued to dance through college.  She is a graduate of Rush Medical College in Chicago, and went on to her internship at Harvard Medical School in Boston, completing her family practice residency here in Austin.  Ann is currently in private practice and often lectures on medical and educational issues to our local community.  She is a member of Dance USA and IDMS.  Ann is also on the Ballet Austin Board of Directors.

Shelley Washington
Ms. Washington studied with Twyla Tharp at Wolftrap Academy, American University, prior to being invited to join Twyla Tharp Dance Company in 1975. She had previously danced as a member of the Martha Graham Dance Company. A graduate of Interlochen Arts Academy, Washington furthered her training at Juliard School.  In 1977, she performed in the film Hair and in 1985 in Singin' in the Rain on Broadway, serving as the Dance Captain for that production. In 1987 she was honored with a Bessie Award for Outstanding Performance. From 1988 to 1992 Washington joined American Ballet Theater in association with Twyla Tharp, as a Soloist an Rehearsal Director. In 1993 she was the Rehearsal Director for Tharp's Cutting Up tour, starring Tharp and Mikhail Barishnikov, for Twyla Tharp and Dancers City Center season in NYC, and for Tharp Dances' international tour. Washington continues to work for Tharp as a Rehearsal Director setting, rehearsing, staging and directing ballets for various companies around the world including: Boston Ballet, Hubbard Street, Martha Graham Dance Company, American Ballet Theater, Australian Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Ballet Rambert, The Royal Ballet, Dutch National Ballet, Zurich Ballet, Royal Swedish Ballet, Ballet British Columbia, and The Royal Danish Ballet. In addition, Washington spent the summer of 1999 in Trevor Nunn's company, The Royal National Theatre as a Movement Director and Choreographer for A Darker Face of the Earth, which opened August 5, 2006 at the Cottlesloe Theater in London, England.

Jennifer Wijangco
Ms. Wijangco is the Deputy Director of the Texas Cultural Trust, a nonprofit organization that raises private dollars statewide for arts education and awareness. At the Trust, Jennifer started strataTX, a young professionals group supporting creativity in the arts, culture, and economy.

Jennifer graduated from The University of Texas at Austin in 1998 with a Bachelor of Business Administration, major in Finance, and a Bachelor of Arts in Art, major in Art History. In 2005 she completed a Master of Arts in Arts Management, with a Certificate in Not-for-Profit Management from the University of Oregon.

In addition to her work with American Repertory Ensemble, Jennifer is a board member of Yellow Tape Construction Co., a nonprofit performing arts group and formerly served on the board of directors of the Eugene Ballet Company. She is also a member of the Working Group and Leadership Council for CreateAustin, the city's community cultural planning project.