Meet the Board
MEET OUR EXECUTIVE AND ADVISORY BOARDS
Meet our newly formed Executive and Advisory Boards.
The Executive Board consists of Executive Director Jorge Lara,
President Jeffrey Bennington Grindley, Vice-President R.J. Reynolds,
Secretary Megan Milligan, and Treasurer De'Anna Ernst.
Our Advisory Board includes the founders of Born And Raised Productions Mundana Ess-haghabadi and Erik Amblad and local Vegas Slammaster and organizer A.J. Moyer.
Click on a photo to learn more about each board member.
Jorge Lara
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR JORGE LARA
Jorge Lara Santiago is founder and Executive Director of The Las Vegas Poets Organization. He has been part of the Las Vegas poetry community for over 16 years, born in San Francisco, he now resides in Las Vegas where he is a manager
at Wal-mart, Editor of VIMMAG.com- Vegas Poetry + Culture, and hosts Drink + Draw/Poetry at Blackbird Studios in the 18b Arts District (Every third Friday at 7pm).
Jorge currently edited the anthology ViVa Vegas Poets and is collaborating on new music with Arash Zandi. You can see him perform weekly with Vegas jam band
Interzone Saturdays at 7pm at the Arts Factory.
For more info you can visit his personal website at
www.immortalizer.net
Jeffrey Bennington
PRESIDENT JEFFREY BENNINGTON GRINDLEY
Jeffrey Bennington Grindley was born in Las Vegas Nevada in 1981. He always enjoyed reading and wrote stories from an early age. Jeff has been an active part of the local Las Vegas open mic & poetry community for the last 10 years writing and performing around town. He has been co-hosting and organizing open mics for the last 5 years. His most recent venture has been with DJ Miss Joy hatching an event dubbed
“Human Experience
” that connects artists, musicians and writers with one another to affect change in their community. Appointed as President of Las Vegas Poets Organization in 2011 he looks forward to continuing his mission of forging a strong community with an identity all it’s own.
Rj Reynolds
VICE-PRESIDENT R.J. REYNOLDS
R.J. Reynolds moved to Las Vegas in 2006 and stumbled upon its poetry scene in 2010. A spoken word poet, he has since published a chapbook called Caught In the Afternoon, featured at the 18b Arts Festival, and won a place on the 2011 Las Vegas slam team. He currently serves as vice-president to the Las Vegas Poets Organization and hosts the monthly community arts festival
Talky Trees at the Arts Factory
. He remains an active member of the LV slam community.
Megan Milligan
SECRETARY MEGAN MILLIGAN
Megan Milligan is the secretary of the Las Vegas Poets Organization.
DeAnna Ernst
TREASURER DE"ANNA ERNST
De'Anna Ernst is the Treasurer of The Las Vegas Poets Organization.
After completing her degree in Chemistry at UPMC in Paris, France, DeAnna Ernst moved to Las Vegas
in 1996 to work inan unknown lab at an disclosed location in the desert. Always one to embrace creative outlets, stemming from her childhood in a family of world class artists and travelers, she has
written, published, and performed spoken word and visual art on almost every continent on the planet.
She is still working on Australia and Antartica.
In the past fifteen years, she has written and English Language Chap Book, "Demi-goddess In Training" and performed at many local spoken word venues in and around Las Vegas, some of which remain only
in memory. An advocate of promoting art and literacy, she brings over 20 years of volunteering with local,
national, and international non-profit Recently she married the partner and love of a lifetime at Born and
Raised Productions "Painter's and Poet's Jam." and looks forward to continuing a life of art, literacy and
mad science!
Mundana
ADVISORY BOARD MEMBER MUNDANA ESS-HAGHABADI (Born and Raised Productions)
Mundana Ess-Haghabadi serves on the Advisory Board.
Erik Amblad
ADVISORY BOARD MEMBER ERIK AMBLAD (BORN AND RAISED PRODUCTIONS)
Erik Amblad serves on the Advisory Board of The Las Vegas Poets Organization.
AJ Moyer
ADVISORY BOARD MEMBER A.J. MOYER
A.J. Moyer serves on the Advisory Board of The Las Vegas Poets Organization.
