Kenneth Howell

Founder/Board Member

My late wife, Alexa Rose, brought this electrical engineer to a life and home filled with art and whimsy. Alexa was a puppeteer, a poet, a pianist, a linguist, a humorist, a watercolor artist, and so much else. Her connection to and her desire to support Boise Valley’s Art Community and its individual artists was the inspiration for this Foundation. My own creative work is seemingly a knack for renovating and restoring notable, architectural properties from Boise’s past. What began simply as an endeavor to support my family, has grown to where it supports not only my immediate family, but also aids an extended family of community artists. Alexa’s vision and her Foundation will hopefully continue for generations to come.

Karen Bubb 

Director/Board Member 

As Boise’s Cultural Planner, Karen Bubb leads implementation of Boise’s Master Cultural Plan. For 19 years she was Boise’s Public Arts Manager, leading the implementation of the Percent-for-Art policy and the development of a robust public art collection. In 2012 she received the Governor’s Arts Award for Excellence in Arts Administration. She teaches Design Thinking at BSU’s Executive MBA program; is co-founder and board member of Surel’s Place, an artist-in-residence program; and Trustee of Alexa Rose Cultural and Mitchell Foundations. Bubb’s MPA is from BSU, and BFA from University of Oregon. She is currently a BSU PhD Student in public administration and policy with a focus on cultural issues. She is also a visual artist.

Jack Forem 

Board Member

Jack Forem is an author, ghost-writer, and educator. Passionate about the unfoldment of full human potential, especially the creative and spiritual dimensions, he studied with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in India as a young man and was trained as a teacher of Transcendental Meditation (TM). He served as head of the TM organization in New York, taught training courses for TM teachers in Europe, led conferences and seminars on the development of creativity, leadership, and higher states of consciousness, and wrote several books including a best-seller on TM. He is also on the Board of the Kagan Foundation that gives grants to teachers to further their education.

Bob Vestal 

Board Member

Robert Vestal has been an Idaho resident since 1977. He is an internist, gerontologist and clinical pharmacologist, and served as professor of medicine and pharmacology, now emeritus, at the University of Washington in Seattle and associate chief of staff for research at the affiliated VA Medical Center in Boise. With his wife, Jyl Hoyt, a retired public radio journalist, Bob established Star Garnet Media to assist organizations and businesses communicate their message using photography and videography. They share an abiding love of the visual and performing arts. Having known Alexa Howell and appreciated her artistic expression for many years, Bob is honored to serve as a member of the Alexa Rose Foundation board of directors.

Jacqueline Crist

Board Member

Jacqueline Crist is Managing Director for the James Castle Collection and Archive (JCCA) in Boise, Idaho. Prior to assuming the position with JCCA, Crist founded the J Crist Gallery in 1995 and until 2011 worked with numerous individual artists throughout the Pacific Northwest. Crist also served at the Idaho Commission on the Arts as Artist Services Director from 1990 to 1995 after returning to Idaho from Los Angeles where she was a curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art from 1981 – 1990. Throughout her career Crist has developed commissions and exhibitions with both regionally and internationally recognized artists such as Richard Serra, Robert Irwin, Andy Warhol, Ann Hamilton, Tony Labat, Amy Westover and Chris Burden.