Staff

Carlton Turner
Executive Director

carlton@alternateroots.org

Carlton Turner is the Executive Director of Alternate ROOTS, a regional non-profit arts organization based in the South. Carlton has been a member of Alternate ROOTS since 2001 and has served on the organization’s board as a Regional Representative, and as an officer. Alternate ROOTS hired Carlton in 2004 as the Regional Development Director. He held this position for 4 ½ years before transitioning into the role of Executive Director in February 2009.


Carlton is also co-founder and co-artistic director, along with his brother Maurice Turner, of the group M.U.G.A.B.E.E. (Men Under Guidance Acting Before Early Extinction). M.U.G.A.B.E.E. is a performing arts group that blends of jazz, hip-hop, spoken word poetry and soul music together with non-traditional storytelling. M.U.G.A.B.E.E. has released two albums, Earth Tones (2002) and World Domination (2006); written and produced two plays Steal Away (2001) and Batteries in the Killing Machine (2005). Carlton studied English and History at the University of Mississippi from 1992-1996.

M.U.G.A.B.E.E. is currently working on several projects around the country, including Race Peace, a multi-year collaboration with performance group Mondo Bizarro to present a performance project on issues of race and racism in the United States; UPRISE: Raising Black Men, a new community-based theater production commissioned by the August Wilson Center for African American Culture; the Fort Greene Project, a collaboration with the Irondale Ensemble in Brooklyn, NY; and Between Worlds a three-year collaboration with Atlanta-based dance company Moving in the Spirit and poet Alice Lovelace.

Throughout Carlton’s career he has worked as a lead convener with Voices from the Cultural Battlefront: Organizing for Cultural Equity, an ongoing 20-year international conversation about the role of art and culture in the struggle for human rights; a panelist and facilitator with the Center for Civic Participation Arts & Democracy Project, helping to present conversations in more than six cities; as an arts educator with the My Mississippi Eyes (MME) program for student empowerment at Lanier High School in Jackson, MS; a lead organizer for the United States Social Forum, both in Atlanta, GA (2007) and Detroit, MI (2010); and has served on the executive board of the Network of Ensemble Theaters (2003 – 2008). In 2009 Carlton visited the White House twice to meet with members of President Obama’s administration on issues of cultural policy.

Carlton Turner is currently on the board of Appalshop, on the planning committee for the Association of Performing Arts Presenters, a member of the Free Southern Theater Institute’s planning board named the Phoenix Squad, a member of the We Shall Overcome Fund at the Highlander Center for Research and Education, a member of the planning advisory board of the Parents for Public Schools in Jackson, Mississippi, an alumnus of the Advance Leadership Preparation Initiative of the Southern Empowerment Project. Carlton has served on panels for Theatre Communications Group, Arts Presenters/MetLife Awards, Mississippi Arts Commission, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Carlton currently lives in Utica, Mississippi with his wife and two children.

Keryl McCord
Resource Development Director

keryl@alternateroots.org

Keryl's primary responsibility for Alternate ROOTS is fundraising through various efforts, including grant writing, individual donor development, and management of special events.  She has been on staff since May 2009.

It has been a lively and quick five years since Keryl relocated to the Atlanta area after nine years in New Jersey. A native New Yorker with deep roots in both the North and South, this is her first time living in the South. It is different, and she is still trying to figure it all out, but at least she is not getting lost as much as in the early days!

A veteran arts management professional, stage manager, and director, her career now spans decades, and thousands of miles as she has lived and worked on both coasts, spending ten years in the Bay Area, working as Managing Director of Oakland Ensemble Theater, and serving as a board member for Theater Bay Area, a theater service organization for non-profit theater companies.

A brief stint as Executive Director of the League of Chicago Theaters led her to Washington, DC as Director of Theater Programs for the National Endowment for the Arts. Finally, the call came to serve as Managing Director of Crossroads Theater Company in New Brunswick, New Jersey. It was in NJ that she spent six years working with the African Grove Institute for the Arts, (AGIA) founded by the late August Wilson, Dr. Victor Walker, and Professor William Cook.

A think tank and service organization, AGIA was born out of the historic National Black Theater Summit on Golden Pond, convened by Mr. Wilson. Keryl was Director of Institutional Development for the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra when her life again took an unexpected turn as her husband came to GA to head up a health care firm.

It feels like home now to be working at Alternate ROOTS, an organization that has always been near and dear to her heart. Hooray and thank you Kathie D.

Shannon M. Turner
Manager of Programs & Services

shannon@alternateroots.org

Shannon's responsibilities for ROOTS include the Annual Meeting, Artistic Assistance, the Tour & Residency Program, managing our wonderful interns and volunteers, and most importantly, helping our members stay connected to their benefits.  She has been on staff since May 2009.

Having lived in Blacksburg, VA for ten years, Shannon was wrapping up her MFA at Virginia Tech when the tragic shootings occurred there in 2007. She worked in the Blacksburg community for nearly a year following the tragedy to spearhead an organization called HERE: Honoring Experiences, Reflections, and Expressions. HERE's goals were to facilitate ongoing artistic response and dialogue toward the community's healing.  She recently published an article on the Community Arts Network, about the year-long journey with HERE, which culminated with a multidisciplinary arts observance of the one-year anniversary of the shootings.

During the MFA program, Shannon was also involved in a campus/community arts & dialogue project called [classified]. [classified] was an original play devised from student and community member stories, produced for the campus and community, which explored themes of safety, diversity, harassment, and community. A full article about this performance/dialogue project can also be found on the CAN website.  Shannon was the Development Director for Synchronicity Performance Group in Atlanta, GA from January 2008 - May 2009.  Prior to her graduate work, she worked for five years for the YMCA at Virginia Tech in multiple roles including Director of Student Programs and Interim Executive Director.

She enjoys her residence in the Little 5 Points community, and along with her active membership in Alternate ROOTS since 2005, she serves on the Advisory Board for the Community Arts Network, the Board of Directors for WonderRoot, and the Steering Committee for Idea Capital.  Shannon is also a regular storyteller at Carapace, Atlanta's live, true personal storytelling event, Manuel's Tavern, 4th Tuesday of the month. (Shannon and Carlton are only related in spirit and in name, not by family of origin.)

Cecille Ericta
Manager of Finance & Administration

cecille@alternateroots.org

Cecille's duties for Alternate ROOTS include managing the day-to-day fiscal activities of the organization, office management, and assisting the rest of the staff with budgeting and reporting.  She came to join the staff in June 2010.

After graduating from the University of Santo Tomas in Manila, Cecille Ericta worked with United Nations Development Programme on the “Strengthening Institutional Mechanisms for the Convergence of Poverty Alleviation Effort” project.  Born and raised in the Philippines, she came to the US a decade ago on a work exchange program for Business Administration. While she started out in Austin, TX, eventually she found here way here to Atlanta… by way of California and a series of jobs in the private sector.  Finally able to get back to work with the community, Cecille is thrilled to be working with Alternate ROOTS.  Since 2004, Cecille has been living in Marietta, GA; she is a proud mother of two teenagers.