HOUSTON, March 18, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Ensemble Theatre welcomes Kathy Kelley, C.F.R.E (Certified Fund Raising Executive) as its new development director, responsible for all facets of the theatre's ongoing fundraising endeavors.
Her role at The Ensemble will include coordination and stewardship of the theatre's annual fund and major gift campaigns. She will also play a key role in two major fundraising events: the Annual Celebrity Black Tie Gala, and Annual Golf Tournament.
Kelley's career spans 20 years raising more than $25 million in capital and operating support for nonprofit organizations. She joined the Alley Theatre as Director of Foundations and Government Relations in 2008. Prior to the Alley she was with the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Houston Museum of Natural Science.
Kelley has written successful proposals to many local and national foundations and government agencies such as the National Endowment for the Humanities and National Endowment for the Arts. She has served in the community as a volunteer at the Association of Fundraising Professionals Ask the Expert seminar and National Philanthropy Day Luncheon, on panels for the United Way of Greater Houston, Rice University's Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership at the Glasscock School of Continuing Studies and the Texas Commission for the Arts.
The Ensemble Theatre was founded in 1976 by the late George Hawkins to preserve African American artistic expression and to enlighten, entertain, and enrich a diverse community. Thirty-six years later, the theatre has evolved from a touring company to being one of Houston's finest historical cultural institutions.
The Ensemble is one of a few professional theatres in the region dedicated to the production of works portraying the African American experience. As the oldest and largest professional African American theatre in the Southwest, it holds the distinction of being one of the nation's largest African American theatres owning and operating its facility and producing in-house. Board President Emeritus Audrey Lawson led the capital campaign for The Ensemble's $4.5 million building renovations that concluded in 1997. The Ensemble Theatre has fulfilled and surpassed the vision of its founder and continues to expand and create innovative programs to bring African American theatre to myriad audiences.