Advisory Board
TalentSpotlight.net is proud to include the following individuals on our Advisory Board. They are all leaders in their respective fields and have contributed greatly to the development of this service.
Sally Herman
Managing Director
Sally Herman is a retired choral director who’s teaching experience included all levels of the education spectrum. While teaching at the Fox school district in Missouri, she taught adjunct at Washington University in St. Louis and became a full-time faculty member at the University of Missouri-St. Louis after teaching thirty-two years in public school.
Sally was a frequently sought clinician, conductor and lecturer for regional, district, state, and national conventions. She has conducted many festival and allstate choirs throughout the United States as well as ACDA divisional and national honor choirs. Her summers were spent teaching graduate courses, workshops at various universities including Eastman School of Music, as well as church music workshops. She served on both the ACDA nominating committee for the slate of officers and the adjudicating panel to select graduate student conductors to appear at ACDA national conventions. Sally has studied with many outstanding conductors such as Helmuth Rilling when she sang in the Oregon Bach Chorale.
Dr. Eph Ehly
One of America's most revered choral conductors, Dr. Ehly is Professor Emeritus at the Conservatory of Music, University of Missouri-Kansas City, where he taught for twenty-seven years. Dr. Ehly's awards for outstanding musicianship include the Luther Spade Choral Director of the Year Award and the Amoco Foundation Outstanding Teaching Award.
Dr. Ehly has been named one of the most sought-after choral conductors/clinicians. He guest-conducts in Carnegie Hall, New York City several times each year. He has conducted over 80 all-state choirs, and over 500 festival ensembles.
As a lecturer, clinician and conductor, he has appeared in 48 states, Canada, Brazil, Japan, Mexico, several countries throughout Europe and presented on more than 100 college and university campuses.
Ron Sikes
Ron Sikes began teaching in the Jefferson R-VII School District (Festus, Missouri) in 2000. His responsibilities include Class Percussion, 5th Grade Band, 6th Grade Band, 7th/8th Grade Band, 7th/8th Grade Jazz Band, and High School Band. In addition to his many teaching responsibilities, Sikes maintains a busy schedule as a composer, percussionist, drum set artist, and jazz vibraphonist. Currently, Ron performs with the Funky Butt Brass Band & Gumbohead. Along with writing music for Funky Butt Brass Band & Gumbohead, he also writes music for school bands, available through JPM Music Publications. In 2009, Ron authored and self-published the beginning band method book, “Keys to Success.”
Mr. Sikes earned a Bachelor’s of Music Education degree in 1999 from University of Missouri-St. Louis. Ron has been influenced by some of the finest educators, including Mark Trautwein, Brad Madson, Dr. Claude Baker, Dr. William Richardson, Marvin Sparks, Jeff Hamilton, Sally Herman, and Dennis Reis. In 2008, Ron Sikes completed his Masters in Educational Administration from Missouri Baptist University.
Sikes’ professional affiliations include the MBA, Phi Beta Mu, MENC, MOJAE, MMEA, MSTA, PAS and remains active as performer, teacher, and clinician throughout the area.
Kristin Leitterman
Kristin Leitterman graduated magna cum laude from the Conservatory of Music at the University of Missouri-Kansas City where she studied oboe and voice. While there she was a member of the Midwest Double Reed Society, where she placed first in the Young Artist Competition and also placed second in a National Association of Teachers of Singing competition. In addition to her studies on oboe and voice she also composed. The Conservatory Wind Ensemble and two local high schools performed her first work, Mente Sensitivo for Wind Ensemble. Throughout her studies at the Conservatory a couple other works were performed. Her newest composition project is working on pieces for oboe and voice utilizing one player.
She continued her oboe studies with Boston Symphony’s second oboist Mark McEwen at New England Conservatory, where she recently graduated, and is now currently working on an Artist Diploma at the Hartt school with the renowned oboe soloist Humbert Lucarelli and voice teacher Michele McBride. At Hartt she is pursuing a path as a recitalist bringing all three disciplines together in recitals. A recent recital brought an afternoon of music to the retired nuns of The Sisters of Notre Dame in Ipswich, MA for a Mother’s Day celebration. During the summer Ms. Leitterman has participated in numerous summer festivals including, Missouri Fine Arts Academy, Eastern Music Festival, Banff Center for the Arts, Hot Springs Music Festival and the Lucarelli Oboe Master Class. Most recently she was chosen as a semi-finalist in the Concert Artists Guild’s annual competition in New York City.
Tom Thomas
Chief Operating Officer
Before helping to develop TalentSpotlight.net, Tom Thomas founded ION Systems in 1992 and has directed the development of the firm's product strategy, internal management, industry relationships and sales outreach.
Tom was responsible for raising more than $3,000,000 in venture funding for ION Systems. One product that Tom is particularly proud of is WebEyes.
Before founding ION, Tom had many varied and interesting careers. Tom has worked for a US President (LBJ), worked in real estate and construction, been a professional athlete (tennis & squash), a cattle rancher, a college professor and since 1986 has been very involved in the personal computer industry.
Cheryl Peppers
Cheryl Peppers, Ph.D., is a management consultant specializing in organization effectiveness and leadership development. Typical projects have included organization redesign, team performance, and change management, and her clients have included Fortune 500 companies, health care, and professional service firms. Cheryl worked previously with Accenture as a Senior Manager in Change Management, with DDI (Development Dimensions International) as a Team Design consultant, and as a contract consultant for numerous consulting firms.
Cheryl’s published works include Bringing Your Soul to Work: An Everyday Practice (Berrett-Koehler, 2000) and the first chapter of a collaborative work Creativity and Leadership in the 21st Century (Elsevier Science Ltd., 2002). She participates regularly as a community volunteer, including hospice, the VA, and a recently completed three-year term of service on the Financial Advisory Committee for the City of Cape Coral, Florida.
Bill Richter
Mr. Ritcher serves as the Chairman & CEO of Guiffy Software and is also the creator of the Guiffy product. Bill is an experienced software industry veteran with over 20 years of experience in founding, nurturing, managing, developing and supporting commercial software product companies.
Most recently, Mr. Ritcher held the position of Director, GEMBASE Development with Ross Systems, Inc., a leading provider of ERP products and services. From 1988 to 1995, he served as Vice President of Quintessential Solutions, the leading provider of analytical wide-area data network design and pricing tools. Mr. Ritcher was a founder of Quintessential Solutions, and while there authored a number of successful data network least-cost design products. In 1983, Mr. Ritcher co-founded System Engineering Tools, Inc. and created SCIL, the first CM product available on 8-bit CP/M systems and the IBM PC.
Maurice Parisien
Marketing Strategist
Maurice Parisien is an experienced marketer with consultative and management experiences in marketing and communications with both small and large corporations.
Mr. Parisien’s marketing career began with 14 years in sales and brand management with Nestlé-Purina Petcare Company, Inc., formerly Ralston Purina Co. After leaving Ralston Purina in the late 80’s, Maurice founded, built and operated for 5 years, a successful marketing and communications consulting firm, Strategic Communications Group, Inc., St. Louis, MO. Consulting projects included marketing and strategic planning with for-profit, as well as non-profit businesses in various industries from consumer package goods and small manufacturing to the legal profession.
In the early 90’s Maurice was involved in assisting clients in database marketing operational assessments with a firm that was later acquired by Maritz Inc., St. Louis, MO. In his time at Maritz, as Vice President of Consulting & Management Services of the Database Marketing Division, Mr. Parisien designed a strategic database marketing planning and tactical implementation process known as BLUEPRINTsm. This assessment and planning tool was employed with a number of Fortune 100 clients to the ultimate enhancement of their database marketing and customer service initiatives.