Our Board
Ruth Knoll - President
Ruth has had a long history of starting organizations and community service. She was the prime mover and shaker for the creation of Summers-Knoll School, in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She worked several years with Books For Africa and helped found several libraries in Tanzania.
After moving to Clinton about 6 yars ago, she has been on a one woman crusade to revitalize the central business district. She has enabled the Clinton Farmers' Market to start operations this year and is the driving force behind the Clinton Arts Center.
In her free time Ruth thinks she is a potter, dabbles in gardening, and enjoys traveling with her family.
Ruth received a BS in Computer Science from the University of Michigan in 1980. Long enough ago that the degree should be in a museum. She had two children, Andrew and Hannah, both graduates of Kalamazoo College in physics and both successfully employed.
Howard Oesterling - Vice President
He attended Adrian College and earned a B.S. degree.
Lesson learned: Attending college was the best four years of my life.
He earned a masters degree and a specialist degree from Eastern Michigan University. Lesson learned: Smart people have more questions than they have answers.
He has been an elementary, middle-school, and high school teacher. Lesson learned: Working with the young keeps you young. He was high school principal for nineteen years.
Lesson learned: Today’s teenagers are smarter and know more than any generation before them.
He was superintendent of schools for eight years.
Lesson learned: Making hard decisions keeps you awake at night.
He has been an invited public speaker for schools, service clubs, and businesses all over Michigan. For fifty straight years he has been a keynote speaker at the Rotary Youth Leadership Conference.
Lesson learned: If you do a good job you get invited to do another speech.
He has been on the staff and president of the board of the at the Maurice Spear Campus, Adrian, Michigan
Lesson learned: Wards of the court are no different than any other kids except they have been caught doing something wrong.
He has been a member of a service club for forty years.
Lesson learned: Service above self is a good way to live.
In retirement he became a videographer and has made over 300 films.
Lesson learned: Make each project better than any you’ve done so far.
Dorris Kemner - Board Member
Claudia Kretschmer - Board Member
Claudia Kretschmer is the owner and head coach of Gym America which was founded in 1979. In her 30 plus years of experience she has produced many National level competitors. She has also qualified gymnasts to the TOPS National Team. Claudia’s great passion has been the development of the Xcel Program which she pioneered in Michigan. She is married to co-owner Ed Kretschmer and has two sons Kyle (18) and Kevin (30). Claudia resides in Saline, Michigan.
AWARDS
Michigan Female Coach of the Year - 1992
Michigan Contributor of the Year
National Instructor of the Year - 2003 & 2005
Region 5 Contributor of the Year 2010 & 2012
Contributor to Bahamas Gymnastics 2012
Michigan Parks and Recreation Association - Community Service Award - 2013
National Instructor of the Year - 2013
National Service Award for USA Gymnastics
Anat Shiftan - Board Member
Shiftan studied English Literature and Philosophy (BA 1980) at the Hebrew University, Ceramics at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, (1980 -1982), Eastern Michigan University (MA 1984) and at Cranbrook Academy of Art and Design, (MFA 1986). Shiftan worked at Pewabic Pottery, Detroit Michigan (1986 to 1999) as Instructor, Production Manager - Senior Designer and Director of Education. She taught at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design (1999-2002) and is teaching ceramics at SUNY New Paltz, NY since 2003 where she is currently head of the Ceramics Program.
Awards and other career highlights:
Shiftan received twice the Michigan Grant for Individual Artists and exhibited her work extensively. Shiftan has collaboratively organized: Contemporary Issues in Clay: A British Perspective, (2006) andWhy Clay (2008), and organized Beyond Hand Made (2008), all symposiums examined theoretical, social and economical trends that are the context in which creative practice in visual arts occurs today.
Link to examples of artwork: