Championing the Arts: Welcome M-AAA’s Newest Board Members from Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas

New M-AAA Board Members Tracie Chapman, Dan O’Neill, Karen E. Partee, Kaveh Razani, and Dr. Ross Shegog

The arts have the power to transform, inspire, heal, and unite. For Mid-America Art Alliance (M-AAA), this mantra is more than a sentiment; it’s a guiding principle. 

Since 1972, M-AAA has been a steadfast champion for the arts, striving to provide more art for more people across our six-state region of Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas—and well beyond. Our board members are a vital part of our mission to strengthen and support artists, cultural organizations, and communities.

Our remarkable board of directors bring diverse perspectives, talents, and experiences to M-AAA, all converging under a shared vision of enriching the creative economy and cultural landscape of our region. From urban centers to rural settings, our newly appointed members hail from across the heartland, each with a unique story to tell and a passion for bringing art to the forefront of their communities. 

Please join us in welcoming the newest champions of creativity, catalysts for change, and advocates for a more vibrant and inclusive artistic future. 

Tracie Chapman (Mannsville, Oklahoma)  is an active member of the arts and education community in southern Oklahoma. A member of the Mannsville School Board, Tracie is a past chairman of the Goddard Center, a nonprofit arts organization that presents performances, exhibitions, and educational programs in Ardmore. She also served on the center’s fundraising committee. 

Tracie is a devoted art collector who attends arts shows nationally and has opened and operated a pottery painting studio. She is a founding member of Friends of the Oklahoma Arts Council and the chair for the state agency.

Dan O’Neill (North Platte, Nebraska) is the president and CEO of Kwik Stop Convenience Stores, a privately owned chain of 28 stores located in Nebraska and Colorado, with corporate offices in North Platte, Nebraska. 

Dan graduated from Sumner-Eddyville-Miller High School, and Kearney State College. He worked for Cash-Wa Distributing from 1981 until joining Kwik Stop as director of operations in 1996. He has served on the following boards: Lincoln County DEVCO, Great Plains Health Foundation, Heartland Singers, North Platte Catholic Schools Endowment Trust, St. Patrick’s Catholic Church Finance Board, and Community Connections. He currently serves on the board of directors for the Museum of Nebraska Art (MONA), Nebraska Educational Telecommunications Commission, University of Nebraska Foundation Board of Trustees, the UNMC Board of Counselors, the Great Plains Health Board of Directors and is a member of Noon Rotary. 

Dan is active with the Heartland Singers, the St. Patrick’s Church Music Ministry, and has been involved in many North Platte Community Playhouse productions. Dan’s wife Judy retired as the guidance counselor at St. Patrick’s High School.  Dan and Judy have three sons, two of whom are married, and two grandchildren.

Karen E. Partee (McKinney, Texas) serves as executive vice president and chief marketing officer for Texas Bank and Trust (TBT). In her role, Karen leads the bank’s marketing division in strategic marketing planning, creative design, brand management, and corporate communications, for TBT’s 21 branch locations throughout the East and North Texas regions. Notable is her passion for financial literacy and the development of the bank’s award-winning Cool Kids Savings Club in 2005—a comprehensive savings program for elementary-aged children, and the T3 Tech Support Team in 2011 to build awareness for the bank’s digital banking services.

 Currently, Karen serves as a member of both the American Bankers Association’s School of Bank Marketing and CFMP boards, and is a past co-chair of the ABA Marketing Advisory Board. She has also served as an advisory board member for both the Longview Museum of Fine Arts and the University of Texas at Tyler College of Arts and Sciences, and is a past president and sustainer of the Junior League of Longview. Karen was recognized with the inaugural Rising Star Award by the Independent Bankers Association of Texas in 2007. And, in 2017, she was appointed by Governor Greg Abbott to the Texas Commission on the Arts, where she currently serves as chair.

A published author and ADHD advocate, Karen holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism, having graduated magna cum laude from Texas Tech University, and is a 2010 honors graduate of the ABA School of Bank Marketing & Management. Karen lives in McKinney, Texas, with her husband, Bryan, and their son, Noah, who is currently a junior at Rock Hill High School.

Kaveh Razani (St. Louis, Missouri) serves as the co-director of the St. Louis Art Place Initiative, whose mission is to build wealth and equity for artists through homeownership. For the last five years, Kaveh has overseen API’s operations and has been the project manager for home construction and sales. He has helped build many of API’s strategic partnerships, where his current work is focused.

In addition to his work with API, Razani is the co-founder and operator of the community arts venue Blank Space on Cherokee Street in St. Louis and has played an active role in the management of the Cherokee Street Community Improvement District Board of Directors, where he serves as vice chairperson. 

He has co-founded several businesses in South City, among which is a collectively owned commercial real estate company focused on incubating neighborhood-based small businesses. Kaveh is a faculty co-lead of the Regional Arts Commission’s Community Arts Training Institute and is a graduate of its TIGER program.

Dr. Ross Shegog’s (Houston, Texas) research focuses on the application of communication technology in health promotion, disease prevention, and disease management to find creative solutions to the challenges of optimally impacting health behavior. His recent projects have focused on the application of computer-based education, decision-support systems, and gaming in the health domains of pediatric asthma management, tobacco smoking cessation and prevention, HIV/STI/pregnancy prevention, violence prevention, physical activity, epilepsy self-management, HPV vaccination, and risk-reduction in disaster response workers. 

Ross received his doctorate in Behavioral Sciences, master’s in public health, and post-graduate diploma in biomedical communications from the University of Texas and a post-graduate diploma in nutrition and dietetics from the University of Sydney.

We thank all of our board members, new and current, for their steadfast and exemplary dedication to the artists and arts organizations in the M-AAA region.