Board of Directors and Advisory Board
Get to know usExecutive Board
Denise R. Duarte
President
Denise R. Duarte is a multi-disciplinary and socially-engaged artist, a community arts development consultant, a graphic designer with D’Arte Designs and an activist.
She was in leadership or served on the Nevada Women’s Lobby Steering Committee for approximately 13 years. She was chair of Stand OUT For Equality, the advocacy arm of The Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Southern Nevada and founded Equality Days in 2009, the first officially recognized day by the Nevada Legislature for the LGBTQ community.
Currently, Denise serves as President for Women of Diversity Productions, Inc., a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization. Duarte co-authored with Dr. Marlene J. Adrian Women of Diversity Production’s inaugural Gaming Gender Equality Index, a report revealing the results of a survey of 21 casino and gaming corporations which was conducted to assess their policies, practices and commitment to gender equality and the follow-up 2018 Gaming Gender Equality Index.
During Denise’s 18-year corporate career in the insurance and financial services field, she experienced and witnessed the negative impact of discrimination and injustice as an employee and as a manager. This has fueled her quest for equality for all people.
Denise’s lifelong passions include art, activism and the exploration of the social fabric of life.
Claytee White
Treasurer
Claytee D. White is the inaugural director of the Oral History Research Center at UNLV Libraries. In this position, she collects the history of Las Vegas and the surrounding area by gathering memories of events and experiences from long-time residents. Current projects include Building Las Vegas, a collection of stories and materials from early construction companies, planners, visionaries, architects, and the trades; Latinx Voices, Asian American Pacific Islanders, and the ongoing project of the African American Experience in Las Vegas.
Claytee has written several book chapters, journal articles, and presented oral history papers at national conferences from Atlanta to Maui.
She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in social work from California State University Los Angeles, Master of Arts degree in history from the University of Nevada Las Vegas, and engaged in additional graduate work at the College of William and Mary.
A native of Ahoskie, North Carolina, Claytee is a member of the national Oral History Association, past president of the Southwest Oral History Association, former Chair of the Las Vegas Historic Preservation Commission, and serves on Advisory Boards for BlackPast.Org and the MOB Museum
M. Samela Dingus
Recording Secretary
Creatively engaged most of her life, M. Samela Dingus has been an actor, dancer, choreographer, producer, and director. She has also been an executive, tutor, teacher, and transition coach. At 51, she earned her Master of Fine Arts Degree in Arts Administration. At 58, she was certified as a Profiting from your Passions Coach, and at 61, became a graduate of Visionary Business School. In 2014, she joined the surging Boomer Generation and created ‘Your Next Option’ an organization that hosts coaching programs, presentations, and workshops.
Samela’s passion is to inspire and motivate individuals to go beyond society’s notion of who we are because of our Age. She helps individuals whom she calls Melders, formerly known as Senior Citizens, to find clarity, creativity, and focus so they can discover play, purpose, and passion beyond retirement.
Board of Directors
SHELLEY BERKLEY
Director
Chief Executive Officer and Senior ProvostTouro University Western Division
As chief executive officer and senior provost for Touro’s Western Division, Shelley Berkley serves as the administrative and academic head of the Nevada and northern California campuses of Touro University Western Division. In this role, Ms. Berkley oversees two of the fastest-growing medical schools in the western United States, as well as allied health science and education programs.
Prior to joining Touro in 2014, Shelley served the State of Nevada in the United States House of Representatives from 1998 to 2013. She was the first woman to serve the District and held the position for seven terms.
Among Shelley’s proudest accomplishments during her time in Congress was building the new Veterans Administration medical complex in Southern Nevada to provide quality healthcare to the veterans in our community. She was a vocal supporter of providing more funding for graduate medical education (residencies), and a vocal advocate of reforming our nation’s healthcare system.
Shelley was appointed and twice elected to the Nevada State Board of Regents, which governs and sets policy for the Nevada State System of Higher Education, serving from 1990 to 1998. She served as Vice Chairman and fought to keep tuition costs low and to create a law school at UNLV. Shelley is currently serving on numerous local and national boards.
In spring 2016 Shelley received the Distinguished Nevadan Award, the highest honor bestowed by the Nevada System of Higher Education Board of Regents. The award is given to individuals who have made significant achievements that have contributed to the cultural, scientific, or social advancement of Nevada. Earlier this year, Shelley was also honored with the naming of a new elementary school by the Clark County School District. The Shelley Berkley Elementary School opened in August 2017.
Jan Jones Blackhurst
Director
Executive Director, UNLV Black Fire Leadership Initiative
Caesars Entertainment Board of Directors
Chief Executive in Residence, UNLV International Gaming Institute
Jan Jones Blackhurst is a long-time political and business leader who spent most of the 1990s as the first woman mayor of Las Vegas – one of the most popular mayors in the city’s history. She then joined Caesars Entertainment, where she and her teams developed the industry’s first Responsible Gaming practices, advancing environmental stewardship and advocating for important social issues. Jan speaks extensively at many universities and helped establish the International Gaming Institution Center of Excellence at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. After leading Corporate Social Responsibility and Public Policy at Caesars for two decades, she joined the Company’s Board of Directors in 2019 where she chairs the Corporate Social Responsibility Committee. She also became Chief Executive in Residence at the UNLV International Gaming Institute, where she was a popular faculty member and key player in the “Expanding the Leaderverse” initiative. She became Executive Director, UNLV Black Fire Leadership Initiative January 2021.
Committed to education, Jan serves as Chairwoman for the Public Education Foundation; she has earned numerous awards and accolades while serving on several boards, including the Las Vegas Stadium Authority, Vegas Chamber, Gaming and Hospitality Acquisition Corp. and the Nevada Resort Association. In 2014, she was one of the first women to be inducted into the American Gaming Association (AGA) Gaming Hall of Fame.
Jones Blackhurst holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Stanford University.
Su Kim Chung
Director
Su Kim Chung has been immersed in the history of Las Vegas since she began work in the UNLV Libraries’ Special Collections Division in 1999. As head of public services, she is in charge of reference, outreach, and instruction for archival materials on Las Vegas and Southern Nevada history. Chung also serves as curator for Las Vegas and Southern Nevada-related collections on entertainment, LGBT, and women’s history. As part of her work documenting the history of the showgirls and the Las Vegas production show, Chung has conducted oral history interviews of former dancers and showgirls, and moderates panel presentations on the history of the Las Vegas showgirl and production shows as part of the Fishnets and Spotlights series at the Clark County Library. While at the UNLV Libraries, she was twice selected as McPhee Librarian of the Year, and received the service award from the Conference of Intermountain Archivists.
Chung holds a BA and MA in history from CSU Fresno, along with an MLIS and Ph.D. from UCLA’s Department of Information Studies. Her doctoral dissertation “‘We Seek to Be Patient’ Jeanne Wier and the Nevada Historical Society, 1904-1950,” was focused on the life and work of Jeanne Wier, history professor and long-time secretary of the very first repository for cultural heritage in Nevada. A portion of this work was published in the Nevada Historical Society Quarterly as “’Flies Millions Thick’: A Diary of Jeanne Wier’s Collecting Trip to Southern Nevada, July-August 1908” in 2013. She is also the author of the popular photo book Las Vegas Then and Now which documents the changing nature of the built landscape in Las Vegas.
In addition to Women of Diversity, she serves on the board of the Showgirl Legacy Foundation, and as a member of the advisory council of the Mob Museum. In 2020, together with her colleague and fellow WOD board member Claytee White, she developed the We Need to Talk discussion series on systemic racism at UNLV.
Chris Giunchigliani
Director
Born in Lucca, Italy, Chris grew up in Chicago, went to college in Kansas City , MO, where she received her BA in special education and Master’s in special education at UNLV. Chris taught middle school in special education in Shawnee Mission, KS then in Las Vegas in the Clark County School District again teaching MS in special education from 1978 to January 2019. She served in the Nevada Assembly for 16 years (1990-2006), and 12 years (2006-2019) as a Clark County Commissioner where she termed out of office. Chris was president of her local and state teachers union in Nevada. She also served for 3 yrs as a court appointed special advocate for a youth in foster care.
As a legislator, she championed restoration of ex-felon rights, insurance coverage of oral contraceptives, public education reforms and funding, solar legislation, de-felonizing marijuana, compassionate release from prisons, eliminating the death penalty for 18 yr olds, just to name a few laws.
Since retiring, Chris stays involved by serving on the NV Indigent Board and the boards of After School all Stars, Great Basin Water Network, CC Social Justice coalition, the Coalition to End the Death Penalty, Southern NV Immigration Coalition, KIDZ Uplifting Kidz, Women of Diversity Productions, Inc. and several other non-profits.
She also became a certified mediator through UNLV Continuing Education and took woodworking classes.
After unsuccessfully running for Governor in 2018, she created a PAC, “Be the Change,” which is TO EMPOWER GIRLS, WOMEN, YOUNG MEN, COMMUNITIES OF COLOR AND LGBTQ TO LEAD AND USE THEIR VOICE TO EFFECT CHANGE IN POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS AND PROGRESSIVE POLICIES SO THEY CAN “BE THE CHANGE”.
Finally, Chris created Grays Leadership Academy, named after her late husband, Gary Gray. The Academy is to focus on teaching ethics, leadership skills, campaign careers and political history.
Rozita Lee
Director
Rozita Villanueva Lee settled in Las Vegas from Hawaii in 1979 when she married longtime friend, Dr. Clifford C.H. Lee.
Erica Vital-Lazare
Director
Erica Hector Vital-Lazare a professor of Creative Writing at CSN and has received grants and awards from the Zora Neale Hurston Foundation, the Hilliard Endowment, and the Nevada Arts Council. Her fiction appears in Sojourner, Thrice and Callaloo II, and the anthology A River Underground. Her poetry has appeared in the collections Sandstone and Silver and Legs of Tumbleweeds, Wings of Lace. Vital-Lazare is the co-host of Black Mountain Radio and editor of the series Of the Diaspora with McSweeney’s Press.
Advisory Board
Joann M. Bongiorno, Dawn Gibbons, AJ Holly Huth, Brett Levner, Laura Martin, Carolyn McClure and Irma Varela
Joann M. Bongiorno
Advisory Board Member
Former Treasurer of the Nevada Silver Haired Legislative forum.
Joann was born on February 9, 1936, the only child of a Sicilian immigrate family. At age 11 in 1947, Joann accompanied by her mother, was sent to live with her Grandparents in a small village in the Sicilian hills. There she experienced the devastation, poverty and aftermath of World War II. She witnessed a childhood companion’s leg torn apart by a mine undetected in the field in which they played. Food was not plentiful even if the means to purchase was. The village held no theaters, skating rinks nor TV’s. The only entertainment and laughter was provided was by the villagers during the evenings as they gathered to sing and dance while strumming on their instruments. It was then that Joann decided music was to be part of her life. During that year, she traveled throughout Italy and wrote back to her teachers and classmates of her experiences.
Upon her return to America, she studied music at the Cleveland Institute of Music forming her first instrumental and vocal group. In 1953 a contest was held by Coca-Cola bottling company and the Department of Defense in Major cities looking to sponsor talent that would be capable of performing in military Armed Forces installation throughout Europe, North Africa and Asia. Winning the event for the city of Cleveland, Ohio, Joann’s group was then named by Coca-Cola “The Cokettes”. From 1954 through 1958 “The Cokettes” traveled as Good Will ambassadors to major cities and Government Installations throughout the world receiving certificates and medals of Esteem from the Department of Defense.
In 1958, led by Joann, turning professional, the group’s, name was changed to “The Coquettes” debuting on the “Ed Sullivan Show” with their hit record “The Music Goes Round & Round” followed by “American Band Stand”, “The Joey Bishop Show”, along with appearances on the “Grand Ole Opry”. To their credits, then called “Joann Bon & The Coquettes”, they appeared in the movie “Harry & Tonto” with Art Carney who received an Academy Award.
The Coquettes being an all-female self-sustaining vocal and instrumental entertainment lounge act, spear-headed by Joann, pioneered the way for other female groups in Nevada. In 1958, Las Vegas became her permanent residence performing in major hotels, The Stardust, The Sands, The Golden Nugget, The Rivera, The Aladdin, Caesar’s Palace and many more. Joann also became an Events Director for casinos and other acts. She performed with Bob Hope, Liberace, Sammy Davis Jr., Brenda Lee, Roy Clark and others while writing radio commercials and doing voice overs.
While attending UNLV and CCCC, She co-founded “Computer Academy”, a rental business supplying the Las Vegas Convention Center with electronic computer products. Graduating from the Nevada School of Real Estate, she founded J. Stevens Realty and Ideal Investments Inc.as owner broker. In the 1990 Joann become C.E.O. owner of Deeds Inc., and Diamond L.L.C., a real estate investment, financial, and consulting firms.
Joann was nominated by Senator Woodhouse, followed by Senators Breeden, Parks, and Lange approved by Governors: Gibbons Sandoval, Sisolak, and Lombardo to represent Nevada Seniors and Veterans, to serve the “Nevada Silver Haired Legislative Forum”. The purpose of the N.S.H.L.F. is to identify, make recommendation and draft bills on issues of importance pertaining to the aged. The forum holds public meetings, submits recommendations for legislative action to the Legislative Commission and the Governor.
Joann was instrumental in the creation and passing of Nevada’s Silver Alert bill, which acts similarly to the Amber Alert but for older endangered persons in the State of Nevada and the Pharmacy Reader bill for the blind. Elected treasurer, Joann, after 14 years, continues to serve passionately for seniors working on exposing the abusive guardianship treatment of seniors.
Dawn Gibbons
Advisory Board Member
Dawn Gibbons is an entrepreneur, politician, and community activist. Prior to serving as First Lady of Nevada, Dawn served in the Nevada Legislature as an Assemblywoman from 1999-2005. She has owned and operated several businesses, conducted her own talk show and has advocated for issues affecting women and children, including families and children with autism, domestic violence, women’s health, and human trafficking.
Click here to view complete Resume
AJ Holly Huth
Advisory Board Member
AJ Holly Huth is originally from Florida and has been a Nevada resident since 2009. She is currently the Director of Public Affairs and Civic Engagement at The LGBTQ+ Center of Southern Nevada and prior, served 8 years as the Youth Services Manager.
AJ Holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of South Florida and a Master in Science and Counseling from the University of Phoenix. She served as a teacher for a short time. The teaching experience provided insight to the needs of behavioral health and inspired AJ to seek a degree in Marriage, Family, and Child Therapy. AJ worked in the behavioral health field doing family systems work for nearly a decade before finding a home at The Center and utilizing her experience to help create positive outcomes for LGBTQ+ youth.
AJ has always had a passion for advocacy and that passion turned into a position. As the Director of Public Affairs and Civic Engagement, she works with the community to find what needs are not being met, helps find solutions through partnerships, and directs people to resources. She helps people register to vote, check their voter I.D., and find their representatives.
AJ is on the Board of Directors for Emerge Nevada and graduated from the program in 2020. Emerge helps women and non-binary folks run for office and win!
AJ is a member of the Multi-Cultural Advisory Council of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. MMAC serves as a resource for the LVMPD in developing and understanding diversity awareness and cultural competence among its staff; and to assist the department in providing a respectful, safe, reliable, trustworthy, and responsive service with integrity to diverse populations.
AJ is a member of the School Police Community Committee of the Clark County School District. The SPCC has a diverse makeup of community leaders that voice the concerns of the communities they serve, to provide meaningful feedback to CCSDPD, and work with CCSDPD to help create solutions to make our schools and students safer.
AJ lives with her wife, Holly and their dog, Ripley. They love spending time with their granddaughter and are looking forward to welcoming the little-one on-the-way.
Brett Levner
Advisory Board Member
Brett attended Columbia University’s graduate film program where she became the first woman to win the Coca Cola Refreshing Filmmaker Award in 2004, with her film Being Reel. The film went on to be screened on 21,000 movie screens across the country and was honored at the 2005 Association of Independent Commercial Producers show for “Excellence in Filmmaking.” It is currently included in the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art.
After graduating with honors from Columbia with an MFA in Directing, Brett directed the music video for O.A.R.’s hit song Lay Down, which took home the MTVu Woodie Award for Most Streamed Video. In addition, she received the Comedy Central Award for Best Comedy Screenplay for her feature-length script, “Snow Whites of Suburbia” and has produced and camera operated on several hit shows including The First 48, Bridezillas, The Shift, Flip This House and Sister Wives.
Brett directed “The Track”, a feature film about underage sex trafficking in Las Vegas, starring Sam Trammell (True Blood), Michael Muhney (Veronica Mars) and Missy Yager (Mad Men). The film was awarded “Best Local Feature” and “Best First Time Feature Film Director” at the Las Vegas Film Festival. It is currently streaming on Amazon Prime.
Brett most recently directed the award-winning music video “China Blue” for R&B singer Cam Calloway and the feature film “Riot in Bloom,” which is in post-production. In addition, Brett serves on the board of the Nevada Women’s Film Festival and is the founder/faculty advisor of the UNLV student organization, Cinefemmes, which supports women in filmmaking. Under her tutelage, her students have gone on to win numerous awards including Pacific Southwest Student Emmy Awards, an Addy Award, a Best Nevada Filmmaker Award and a Spirit of Activism Award.
Laura Martin
Advisory Board Member
Laura is the Executive Director of Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada or PLAN. Laura started organizing and coalition building in college during the invasion of Iraq. She moved from her hometown of Colorado Springs to Las Vegas to work with SEIU on electing a president committed to health care for all. Next, Laura joined Americans for Democratic Action to organize low-income communities of color around kitchen table issues. Eventually joining PLAN in 2011 – first as a volunteer, then organizer and communications director – Laura’s leadership is on display in her current role as Executive Director. She is the first woman, and first Black person to lead PLAN in the organization’s 27-year history. Additionally, Laura serves on the Western States Center board, as well as the board for Earthworks and People’s Action, and a graduate of Emerge Nevada. Just recently, Laura was chosen as a 2021-22 National Leading from the Inside Out Yearlong Fellow by the Rockwood Leadership Institute. Each year, Rockwood selects nationally recognized leaders to participate in transformative yearlong fellowships. These prestigious executive fellowships have emerged as one of the nation’s leading learning laboratories for experienced social change leaders.
Irma Varela
Advisory Board Member
Irma is the Cultural Program Supervisor at Winchester Dondero Cultural Center, part of Clark County Parks and Recreation. For over 20 years, she has been a dedicated advocate for the folk arts and its many contributions to building community. In 1997 her interest in folk arts compelled her to work in the Community Roots Project, launched by the Nevada Arts Council, where she documented Hispanic folk artists in Las Vegas. She also helped to coordinate the Las Vegas Folklife Festival for three years.
In 2001, Varela created a Day of the Dead celebration that developed, two years later, into Life in Death, an award-winning annual gathering of artists, musicians, food, and spirit from all of Mexico at Clark County’s Winchester Dondero Cultural Center. In 2004, she started World Vibrations, and in 2006 the World Steps, a series showcasing the international musical and dance talents of Las Vegas residents.
She has served as a board member of the Nevada Arts Council and as a commissioner on the Commission for Cultural Centers and Historic Preservation. She holds a degree in Business Administration and Tourism from Universidad del Valle de Atemajac of Guadalajara, Mexico, and a MA in Intercultural Relations from Antioch University of Ohio.
She was selected for the American for the Arts Leaders of Color Forum. She is an active member of the National Recreation and Parks Association (NRPA), the Nevada Recreation & Park Society (NRPS), the National Association for Interpretation (NAI), and Red Rock Audubon Society.
In Memoriam
Our co-founder and former president, Dr. Marlene J. Adrian passed away on April 20, 2022. Her vision and energy led Women of Diversity Productions, Inc. for 30 years. Her determined spirit and passion for advancing the status of women and celebrating their accomplishments will continue with new projects and our committed focus on our mission.
We have included below a lightly edited bio to help in celebrating her accomplished life. Her vibrancy, tenacity and passion for creating a better society will continue with Women of Diversity Productions. May her example be inspiration for all who desire to work to dismantle the systems that uphold inequality.
Dr. Marlene Joan Adrian, September 3, 1933 – April 20, 2022
Professor Emerita, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
President Emerita, Women of Diversity Productions, Inc.
Marlene Adrian was born on September 3, 1933 in Milwaukee Wisconsin, a wonderful city for growing up and a city that taught her about the inequities of boys and girls, which became her passion throughout her life.
Dr. Adrian was a professor in the departments of Physical Education, Kinesiology, Rehabilitation Education, and faculty of Bioengineering at colleges and universities across the northern United States and a visiting professor in Brazil.
Her research began at Springfield College’s Physiological Research Laboratory, was an Associate Professor at Washington State University until 1983 when she became Professor at the University of Illinois at U-C . During those years she taught both graduate and undergraduate students and conducted research primarily in the areas of biomechanics, sports, aging, the disabled and women. She wrote more than 100 research articles, authored nine books, contributed book chapters and presented speeches at national and international conferences. She led movement and fitness workshops for women, children with mental and physical handicaps and adults afflicted with multiple sclerosis. Her authored books include Woman in Motion, Biomechanics of Human Movement, Complete Encyclopedia of Aerobics, Catastrophic Injuries in Sport.
She taught during the pre-Title IX times and helped change the inequality in sports. One example was for women to compete nationally and internationally in all three weapons of modern fencing. Her past fencing accomplishments include Fencing World Cup competitor, member of US National Women’s Epee Team, US National Sabre Champion, Silver Medal US National Women’s Epee, Gold Medal US National Women’s Epee Team.
After more than forty years of teaching, community service and research in the academic arena, Dr. Marlene Adrian retired as Professor Emerita at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She had been Professor of Kinesiology, Rehabilitation Education and Bioengineering and Director of the Biomechanics Research Laboratory from 1983 to 1992.
Dr. Adrian co-founded Women of Diversity Productions, Inc. (WOD), a non-profit 501(c) (3) organization created in 1992 to give visibility to women and to create a woman-appreciated future. The initial project was the creation of an international research publication, “Women in Sport and Physical Activity Journal” with Dr. Adrian as editor from 1992-2006, when it was transferred to the National Association of Girls and Women in Sport.
After moving to Las Vegas in 1997, Dr. Adrian concentrated on the mission of Women of Diversity Productions by creating a collection of audio-video recordings of women via documentaries, interviews of women and their achievements and presentations by women which were made all available to the public on this website.
Two projects of historical significance were The Role of Women in Shaping the first 100 Years of Las Vegas (2005) and Nevada Women’s Legacy – 150 Years of Excellence (2014 Nevada Sesquicentennial).
After the completion of the Sesquicentennial Women’s Legacy project, WOD Board of Directors, with Dr. Adrian, organized a series of participatory workshops with speakers and discussions to address the barriers preventing women and girls to secure equality.
The last project was the Gaming Gender Equality Index survey and reports: 2017 and 2018 that she co-authored with Denise R. Duarte.
Dr. Adrian was a member of the steering committee that created and hosted Equality Days at the 2009 and 2011 Nevada Legislative sessions which successfully lobbied for rights for the LGBTQ community.
Dr. Adrian received four major awards since 2004 for contributions in Nevada.
- 2004 Woman of the Year from The Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Southern Nevada.
- 2014 Women’s Chamber of Commerce of Nevada Pioneer Award and inductee into its Hall of Fame.
- 2016 Maya Miller Egalitarian Award from the Nevada Women’s Lobby.
- 2017 Las Vegas Historic Preservation Commission’s Preservation Education Award as a Video Historian and Women’s History Advocate
In addition, she received honor awards from the Southern Nevada Women’s History Project, and the Lambda Business Association.
Dr. Adrian has held leadership positions in Business and Professional Women/USA, Lambda Business Association, Women in Communications, National Association for Girls and Women in Sport and the Research Consortium.
Dr. Marlene Adrian’s philosophy was that her life is worth living if she could improve the lives of women, and all persons or subgroups of society, who are discriminated against.