Ethel Detch was a career public policy analyst, attempting to “help government work better.” For 28 years, she worked with Tennessee’s Comptroller of the Treasury, as a legislative performance auditor, the Assistant Director of Local Government, and later as the Director of Research and Education Accountability. Ethel also worked as a consultant for the Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations for nine years.

Ethel joined LWVN in 2011 and has served as Secretary, Co-Chair of Voter Services, Membership, and now helps coordinate the monthly “Hot Topics” programs.

A native of Lewisburg, WV, Ethel holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from West Virginia University and a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Tennessee. She lives in Franklin with her husband, Steve Rogers, and has two grown children, and one grandchild.

Elise Lamar is a California transplant with a BA in English from UC Riverside and a PhD in Biomedical Science at UC San Diego, which she earned in middle age. She has spent most of her life doing molecular biology research in San Diego, Houston, and upstate New York, and before arriving in Nashville worked as a grant writer for City of Hope Cancer Center in LA. She is now a freelance medical writer in Nashville, writing for scientists and biomedical institutions worldwide.

In Nashville, she has volunteered with the Frist and healthcare-related nonprofits and has a long-term commitment to the Antioch office of the Nashville Adult Literacy Council, where she is a regular in their Start Now literacy program. Elise feels deeply honored to serve on the LWVN Board. In off-hours she expends energy on dogs, growing cacti and succulents, and worrying (constructively) about the future of our planet.

Sabina Mohyuddin is a Bangladeshi American Muslim born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee. She graduated from Vanderbilt University in 1993 with a degree in Mechanical Engineering.

She is an active member of the Muslim community participating in interfaith and youth programs. In 2010, Sabina helped launch the Sons and Daughters of Abraham Project which brings together Muslim, Christian, and Jewish youth across Middle Tennessee through interfaith dialogue and outreach programs.

Sabina has published a number of articles in The Tennessean and was an outspoken critic of the 2011 anti-sharia bill in the Tennessee state legislature. She is a founding board member and current Middle Tennessee Program Manager of the American Muslim Advisory Council (AMAC), which fosters mutual trust and respect among all people through civic engagement, community building and media relations in order to protect all Tennesseans from prejudice and targeted violence. She serves as the chair of AMAC’s yearly Empowering Women conference. Additionally, Sabina serves on the Community Nashville board which combats bias, bigotry, and racism among youth and serves on the National Organization of Workforce Diversity board which helps promote diversity in the workplace.

Lara Webb is excited to serve the LWVN in this capacity and looking forward to building relationships that foster civic engagement.

She moved to Nashville in 2000 to attend Belmont University for her Master’s in Teaching. She taught for eight years in the classroom. Lara worked as adjunct faculty for both Vanderbilt University and Belmont University supervising student teachers. She enjoyed this work because it allowed her to travel all over Nashville to meet and work with teachers and principals. She has taught masters level math and science methods courses for elementary educators. Lara also presented social-emotional education workshops and co-authored the book “Doing Science in Morning Meeting” for the Center for Responsive Schools. She teaches classes for gifted students through SAVY at Vanderbilt.

Lara is married and has three sons, two of which are school-aged attending Metro schools. She is passionate about public education and has volunteered in various capacities at her children’s schools. Lara sits on the Academically Talented Parent Advisory Board for MNPS. Her boys keep her busy with their hijinks, but in her free time, she enjoys being outdoors, reading, or going to Target.

Barbara Gay holds a bachelor’s degree in French from Transylvania University, Lexington, Kentucky. She began her Master of Social Work degree at the University of Chicago, completing it at the University of Toronto in 1977, and received certification in school psychology at Tennessee State University in 1990.

Barbara has been a high school foreign language teacher, practiced social work at St. Joseph’s Hospital cancer ward in Hamilton, Ontario, and worked with the Comprehensive Developmental Evaluation Center at Vanderbilt University. A social worker with MNPS for 24 years, she also served as the department’s interim director. In addition, she administered a $1.1 million U.S. Department of Education elementary school counseling demonstration grant from 2000 to 2004.

Barbara has been a member of the LWVN since 1981. She served as director of the juvenile justice portfolio and on the education committee before becoming second Vice President in 2008 and is also chair of the LWVTN State Action Committee. She likes to read, paint and draw, swim, and ride horses.

Anne-Marie Farmer was born in Mississippi, spent a few years in Arkansas, and landed in Nashville with her family when she was eleven years old. She is the Connections Director at Woodmont Christian Church. She is also an attorney, having been a litigator at Bass Berry & Sims and later an adjunct professor at Vanderbilt University Law School and Belmont University Law School. She holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and a law degree from Vanderbilt. She is married to Jonathan Farmer and together they have two children—Henry, a 9th grader at Hillsboro High School, and George, a 6th grader at JT Moore Middle School.

Anne-Marie has previously served on the board of the League as Education Chair, as well as the boards of Disciples Divinity House and the PTOs of both her children’s schools. She enjoys traveling, hiking, reading, gardening, and watching movies with her boys.

Clare Sullivan recently retired from Vanderbilt University Medical Center where she worked as a family nurse practitioner and community-engaged research coordinator for 22 years. During her tenure she also worked under contract for the Tennessee Department of Health and Nashville Davidson County Health Department. Prior to attending nursing school, Clare worked on the occupational health and safety staff of the United Paperworkers/PACE/United Steelworkers Union, taught high school, and was an early advocate for school health in Tennessee.

She received a Master’s degree in Health Policy and Management from Harvard School of Public Health and a Master’s in Nursing Practice from Vanderbilt University School of Nursing.

In addition to her work with the League of Women Voters, she gardens and volunteers with the Tennessee Health Care Campaign and Ten Thousand Villages. She is the spouse of Mark Brooks, and parent of Adria and Cade Brooks.

– coming soon –

Perry MacDonald returned to Nashville in April 2014 after a 30-year ‘sabbatical’ in the Washington, D.C. area, where she earned a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree from Columbus School of Law and then worked as an attorney for technology-based corporations. She holds B.A. and M.A.T. degrees from Vanderbilt and worked as a public-school teacher, health educator, and administrator in non-profit organizations both before and after the years of law practice.

A longstanding League member, MacDonald remembers many Saturday afternoons in the 1970s registering voters outside the Baskin Robbins in Hillsboro Village. After moving to Alexandria, Virginia, she joined the efforts of the local League to finally move voter registration out of City Hall and into the community. Moving later to Reston, Virginia her commitment to assuring voter registration and access continued.

MacDonald volunteers at Planned Parenthood, the Tennessee Prison for Women and the St. Augustine’s/Thistle Farms community. She is currently serving as President of the Arden Place Board of Directors.