Joseph R. Wilson Named Executive Director of Musiqa; Two New Board Members Appointed

Musiqa, Houston's nationally recognized new music chamber group, elected two new board members at its July 20th board meeting, Kathleen A. Boyd and David Medina. In addition, the board re-elected three previous board members, elected Barbara Ostdiek, Associate Professor of Finance at Rice University's Jones School of Business, as Secretary and hired Joseph R. Wilson as its full-time Executive Director. Wilson had been serving as Interim Executive Director since July 2012.

Kathleen A. Boyd brings a lifelong interest in music as well as extensive expertise in marketing, branding, and customer experience design to Musiqa. A Rice University alumna, Boyd most recently orchestrated Rice's Centennial Celebration--burnishing its brand, taking its customer engagement to the next level and indeed launching Rice into its second century. Rice raised $200 million in 2012 alone and unexpectedly has now exceeded its $1 billion "Centennial Campaign" goal by $81 million and counting.

Boyd spent the early part of her career in the airline business, where she led design and implementation of Continental Airlines' blue-and-gold globe brand identity as well as its revolutionary international BusinessFirst

product. She also forged Continental's alliances with Air France and Alitalia, based in Paris and Rome.

She began her studies at Rice University as a flute music major under Albert Tipton at the Shepherd School of Music (later changing her major to economics). Her extended musical family includes opera singers, orchestral musicians and her father, a trumpet player and the leader of a 1940's dance band. Boyd has an 11-year old daughter, Persephone Grace Boyd-Fossi, who loves music (she plays piano and composes original songs).

David D. Medina is the director of Multicultural Community Relations at Rice University. Medina also writes feature stories for the award-winning Rice University Magazine and edits the newsletter Rice At Large. As director, he works at enhancing relationships between minority communities and Rice. He has worked as a reporter for the Austin-American Statesman, the Dallas Times Herald, the Houston Post, The Wall Street Journal and Newsweek magazine. Medina received a B.A. in Spanish from Drake University, an M.A. in Spanish from Rice University, and an M.S.J. from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. He also studied in Barcelona, Spain and at the University of Colorado at Boulder and received his high school diploma from the Chinquapin School. Medina taught Spanish for two years at St. Mark's School of Texas in Dallas.

Medina was recently selected to serve on the Mayor's Hispanic Advisory Board. He also served as a fellow of the 2010-11 class of the American Leadership Forum's Houston/Gulf Coast chapter. He served three years as president of the Houston Hispanic Forum. He was co-chair of the 2009 Diversity Summit in Sugar Land. He is a former president of the Houston Association of Hispanic Media Professionals and a former vice president of the Texas Association of Chicanos in Higher Education. He is a board member of Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say, and a former board member of Ser Niños Charter School. He is on the advisory board of the Chinquapin School and Inprint. He has also coached YMCA soccer and basketball and little league baseball. He is married and has two children, both graduates of Rice University.

Re-elected for a new three-year term were Alison Bieser, James Conlan and Mary Lou Swift.

Prior to joining Musiqa's staff, Wilson was Director of Grants at Houston Arts Alliance for seven years and oversaw the Arts Alliance as Acting Executive Director in its transition from Cultural Arts Council of Houston & Harris County (CACHH) to Houston Arts Alliance. He is past president of the board of Texans for the Arts, the statewide arts advocacy agency and came to Houston in 2003 from Kansas City where he had served as Director of Programs at Kansas City Metropolitan Arts Council, Executive Director of Heart of America Shakespeare Festival and Executive Director of the historic Folly Theater. He is former board member of Association of Performing Arts Presenters, League of Historic American Theatres and has served on grant panels for Arts Councils in Ohio, Michigan, Missouri and Texas as well as National Endowment for the Arts.

"Musiqa feels very fortunate to have Joe as our Executive Director," stated Board President Ed Shoemake. "The organization has benefited from his experience, attention to detail, and appreciation and understanding of our mission. We look forward to Joe's outstanding support and direction for our upcoming the activities. The Board was unanimous on our selection of Joe. We are excited."

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