STAFF & BOARD
The Alexa Rose board is made up of individuals committed to excellence in the creative communities in which they reside. Board members serve on all grant review panels, and strive to support a diverse array of talent across the Treasure Valley.
Image right: Kendra Borden, 2019 grantee
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.
Lily Yasuda
Grants Operations Manager
Lily is a writer, educator and filmmaker. She is an alumna of Foothills School, Balance Dance Company and Boise Contemporary Theater’s THEATER LAB program. She now teaches at BCT, helping small(er) humans make art. She has performed with Alley Repertory, Homegrown and Campfire Theater companies, and enjoys flexing her creative muscles both on and off the stage. Her first feature film (LIKE LOVE) was shot in Boise in 2018, and premiered at The Egyptian Theater in February 2020. She is, above all else, a writer, and can usually be found typing anxiously in a public space.
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.