Building Bridges

Ron Ballard, Chairperson

Ron first attended Building Bridges in January 2003 and started serving as a facilitator in 2004. He joined the Steering Committee in the fall of 2004 and is currently the Chairperson. He also serves in the areas of strategic planning and community partnerships. Ron is co-owner of Productive Consulting Resources and works in the community as a volunteer.

Linda Block, Secretary

Linda Block coordinates the Lead Poisoning Prevention Program at UNC-Asheville and has worked as an environmental educator in Baltimore City, central Pennsylvania, and Houston Texas before arriving in NC. She earned her master's degree in Environmental Studies from Johns Hopkins University. Linda volunteers locally as a community mediator with The Mediation Center, as a big sister with Big Brothers/Big Sisters, and as a facilitator for Building Bridges (since 2003). In every place she has lived, Linda has actively worked with organizations towards the healing of racism. She speaks Spanish fluently and has studied in Mexico.

Liza became involved with Building Bridges after relocating with her family from Florida in 2006. She holds a masters degree in social work from the University of Central Florida and has spent many years working in education and social work.

 Lael Gray

Lael Gray came to Building Bridges as a participant in 2004 through her work at the Asheville Jewish Community Center. She has since served as a facilitator for Building Bridges and joined the Board of Directors in October of 2009. Lael is currently employed as the Marketing Coordinator for the Asheville JCC and as a freelance graphic designer. She also serves on the Board of Directors for Smart Start of Buncombe County, the Development Committee for Evergreen Community Charter School, and the Marketing Commitee for WNC Jewish Federation.

Lewis has lived in the Asheville-Buncombe County area since moving here in 1971. He has served on a number of Boards and Commissions and has been involved with Building Bridges as a participant, facilitator and member of the Steering Committee and is now Past Chairperson of the Board. He also assists in the training of facilitators for each Building Bridges Session. He was the Training Coordinator for the City of Asheville.

Kathryn Liss

Kathryn Liss is a mediator and educator. She was director of training for The Mediation Center in Asheville from 1993 to 2002. During that time she also was a participant, facilitator and served on the Building Bridges steering committee, at times co-chairing it, training facilitators and helping rewrite the manual. She was also very involved in the Asheville Buncombe VISION dialogues. She has been training people in mediation, conflict resolution and prejudice reduction for more than 20 years. She has a Masters in Intercultural Communication from the School for International Training and lived in Kenya for a year.  

Fred Simms

Fred retired after 30 years in sales and marketing in the electrical equipment manufacturing business. He and his wife Jackie moved to Asheville from St Louis, Mo in 1990 following a change in Fred's job location. Jackie spent 8 years with Building Bridges and originally brought Fred to the fold about 9 years ago. He also served as the volunteer Executive Director of Building Bridges.

Beverly Wedhoff

Beverly is a 19 year resident of Asheville. She attended Building Bridges II and is a former Building Bridges co - chair. Beverly received an undergraduate degree in Psychology from The University of Tennessee at Knoxville and holds a Master's degree in Public Affairs from Western Carolina University. Beverly has worked in various advocacy roles. She is currently an educator and just earned her Master's degree in Special Education.

John Wood

John Wood is an anthropologist and former journalist who spent years working in Africa before turning his efforts to studying (and trying to end) racism in America.  He is a professor at UNC Asheville.

Stuart Zitin

Stuart attended the first two sessions of Building Bridges in 1993, and again a few years later, and has facilitated numerous times. He’s been a member of the Board of Directors since 2005, chairs the Program Committee, and acts as Program Coordinator. He has lived in Asheville since 1990, he’s been married since 1982, and has a daughter and a son. He is a general contractor and owner of Building for Life, focusing on green, environmentally sound, energy efficient projects and affordable housing.

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