SPA Board of Trustees
The Board of Trustees typically holds open meetings on the 1st Wednesday of every month at 5:00 p.m. at the Salt Lake School for the Performing Arts, located at 2291 South 2000 East. Parents and the interested public are welcome to attend!
SPA Board Meeting Agendas
Agendas for upcoming meetings and meeting minutes/recordings for previous Board meetings are available on the Public Notice Site.
Follow these instructions:
• Under Government, select Schools
• Under Entity, scroll to Salt Lake School for the Performing Arts
• Under Body, choose our school
Meet the Board
Doug has served on the Board since 2016 as Treasurer, and as Chair since 2018. His daughter Casey is a recent SPA graduate and currently attends NYU/Tisch in the Musical Theatre program. Doug’s wife Karen has long been affiliated with and supports SPA. Doug has a diverse business management background, including senior management roles at a variety of financial services companies. He currently serves as President & CEO, and Executive Director at Utah Microloan Fund; a non-profit, small business lender to Utah-based underserved businesses.
Doug also has significant experience with schools and programs through a variety of consulting and volunteer activities. He currently serves as Board Chair for Utah Association of Public Charter Schools (UAPCS). Doug will continue to apply his business, education, and non-profit management experiences to assist SPA’s mission and activities, while further evolving his interest and commitment to the performing arts.
Email: dkeefe@saltlakespa.org
Doug Keefe - Board President
Kari has a long and distinguished career as a human resources and organization development professional, and she is currently the chief human resources officer at Layton Construction. After graduating from Boise State University with a degree in criminal justice administration, Kari worked at the Idaho Engineering Laboratory, where she established a deep expertise in instructional systems design theory. Kari later joined the natural resources sector, where she worked for Rio Tinto and Boart Longyear for nearly 30 years. During that time, she took on progressively increasing responsibilities in various HR, EHS, Community Relations and organization development roles in locations such as Lancaster, California; Montreal, Canada; and Salt Lake City, Utah. For a brief period, Kari also owned her own coaching and business consulting company. Before joining Layton in 2022, Kari was the chief human resources officer for Boart Longyear, a global mining and natural resources drilling company, based in Salt Lake.
Kari serves on several Salt Lake community boards and committees, including the Salt Lake School for the Performing Arts, the University of Utah’s Executive Education Committee, Utah Women in Mining, and The Road Home homeless shelter. In her free time, Kari enjoys playing hockey and the mountains. Kari and her wife Kari, and their daughter Joey, currently live in Holladay, Utah.
Email: kplaster@saltlakespa.org
Kari Plaster
Tina Gillman is the proud parent of a SPA student. Tina earned degrees from Utah State University and the University of Utah and spent 18 years in the field of landscape architecture and urban planning before making a career shift to teaching by completing a Master of Arts in Teaching at Westminster College. She holds licenses in both landscape architecture and secondary education. She believes in the power of arts education to allow students to achieve their full potential in their artistic craft as well as in academic pursuits.
Email: tgillman@saltlakespa.org
Tina Gillman
I am a scientist by training (Ph.D. in Physics from Columbia University). I worked for more than 15 years for NASA. I left Astronomy to work at the American Association for the Advancement of Science as a manager of an initiative on the applications and implications of using Artificial Intelligence in the medical field.
COVID changed many things and encouraged many of us to re-evaluate our priorities. I decided to move to Utah so my kid could attend SPA, and I embraced a second career in real estate. I come from a family of educators (my parents, my sister, my uncle, and his daughter were or are all involved in education) and have learned to respect their mission. I believe that the primary goal of a school is to teach kids and foster in them the love of learning. I also believe in strong parental rights. I joined the board to be more involved in what was happening at the school and try to make a difference for the better.
Email: iharrus@saltlakespa.org
Illana Harrus
Tracy Ann Evans has spent 40+ years as a professional actress and director in theatre, television, and film. She has degrees in Theatre Education from BYU, Cal State Long Beach, and the University of Utah. In addition to teaching at the University of Utah, Salt Lake Community College, and Hale Centre Theatre, she teaches Fine Arts classes at Ensign College. After 23 years of working as the Director Of Education, she retired last December.
Email: tevans@saltlakespa.org
Tracy Evans
Mike Risley is the proud parent of a SPA Student. Professionally he is a Senior Application Developer with a degree in Computer Science from North Carolina State University. Despite his science and engineering background, Mike strongly believes that the arts and humanities are a critical, and sadly oft missing, part of education. Mike is an advocate for academic excellence, and volunteers time at both of his children’s schools. When not working Mike enjoys spending time with his family, coaches youth soccer, volunteers, and likes to spend time in the mountains hiking, snowshoeing, or snowboarding.
Email: mrisley@saltlakespa.org