Board & Staff

Sally Sparks (Chair) is a musician and engineer living in Asheville since 2009. A lifelong musician, she began with piano and classical guitar lessons and went onto play in progressive rock bands and earned a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Alabama and a MS in Systems Management from the University of Southern California. She spent 30 years working in advanced information technology engineering, working in Germany, Belgium, and Washington, DC.

Today, her interests focus on expanding music education access and opportunities for the next generation, advancing music technology, and her own musical projects. Sally has a long history of volunteer work focusing on the intersection of the arts, education and technology. She is on the board of the Bob Moog Foundation and a primary organizer of ContinuuCon, a conference of players and developers of the Haken Continuum Fingerboard. Her most recent music project is the album Pearl Diver, a collaboration with multi-instrumentalist Chris Stack in their duo “YONDER”. Sally also organizes the Streamside concert series, which features an eclectic, global mix of world class musicians and has now gone online as the Keep Music Live Project.

John Barnard (Treasurer) has called Asheville, North Carolina home since 2014 and has been on the Asheville Music School Board of Directors since 2019 and has served as Treasurer since 2020. John is a strong believer in the positive influence of music education, he grew up playing the drums in jazz and blues bands and over the last 10 years has taken up the clawhammer style banjo.

John attended Oxford University and holds a master’s degree in Materials Science and Engineering. His professional background is rooted in finance, having worked for many years at one of the leading hedge funds in London.  He is also a CFA charterholder and has a particular interest in ethical, equitable, and sustainable investing, having spent time in India working for an impact investment venture capital fund.

In addition to his work with the AMS board, John is a mentor to local businesses through the Venture Asheville program and has invested in and supported several local startups. 

Kim Roney (Secretary) (she/her) is a music educator, community organizer, friend, and neighbor currently serving on Asheville City Council and living on the ancestral land of the Anigiduwagi/Cherokee people as a queer person born and raised in the South. She has called Asheville home since 2006, drawn to the mountains and caring community after supporting the opening of Harvest Records. Kim has performed keys and vocals with friends including Greg Cartwright, Angel Olsen, Jaye Bartell, Erick Slick of Dr. Dog, and has recorded with Grammy-winning recording artists The War on Drugs. A founding member of 103.3 AshevilleFM, Kim served as Station Manager, Music Director, and Program Director, and has two decades experience in radio production.

Kim and her husband Nathanel are multimodal transportation advocates who walk, bike, skate, and ride the bus. They fell in love in a Rolling Stones cover band, and have coordinated two sets as Stranger Days–a Doors cover band–with Matt Shepard of Coconut Cake and Shane Parish of Ahleuchatistas. The Roneys improvise sets of music with spoken word, and have presented twice at the Black Mountain College Museum & Art Center’s {RE}Happening.  Kim has been teaching music focused on keyboard instruments since 1999, and presently works with 36 students from 12 schools across Buncombe County. She understands music can be part of personal expression, healing, and well-being, and has witnessed the outcomes of exercising empathy and building community, which is why she feels it’s important to ensure equitable access to music education by removing barriers to participation.

Jim Bixby has called Asheville, North Carolina home beginning in 1992 and has been on the Asheville Music School Board of Directors since it became a non-profit organization in 2012. He has served as treasurer in the past and currently sits on the scholarship committee as well as the fundraising committee. 

Jim has been a graphic designer since graduating from Western Carolina University. In 2003, Jim co-founded 828:design, a graphic design firm specializing in branding and digital design. Their clients have ranged from nonprofit organizations to major corporations. 

In addition to the AMS Board, Jim has also served on the Asheville GreenWorks Board of Directors as well as the Asheville AIGA Board of Directors. 

André Cholmondeley lives in Asheville and has served on the AMS board since 2020. 

He is self-employed with various musical artists as a stage tech and tour manager, and brings over 30 years of experience & skills in music & education to AMS.

In addition to volunteering on the Asheville Music School board, André contributes to the community by occasional substitute teaching.

Douglas Haynes finds music one of the best ways to bring up his two sons, both of whom have studied at AMS. His sons are now 15 and 17 years old and both play violin with the Asheville Symphony Youth Orchestra. Douglas holds 3 Master’s degrees from The University of Alabama and The University of Mississippi; they are in Elementary and Gifted Education as well as Educational Leadership. He uses this education to help youth in mentoring programs and rites of passage work locally as well as nationally. He is also the Scoutmaster for Troop 91 where he uses his education to teach youth leadership skills and how best to live in community. As well as the love of nature and physical fitness.

Douglas has chosen to make his living in real estate and has been instrumental in helping AMS find a new home with reasonable rent. He also enjoys helping AMS with various fundraising events. In the past, Douglas toured and performed as a Storyteller up and down the Eastern Seaboard from New York to Florida and as far west as Louisiana. Now, having settled down a bit, he lives with his boys and wife of 18 years five minutes from downtown Asheville on four acres, owns a tractor (who wouldn’t want a tractor?), has fruit trees and blueberry bushes, a large garden, chickens, and is a beekeeper.

Lockie Hunter is originally from the hills of East Tennessee and is proud to call the mountains her home. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Emerson College in Boston and has taught creative writing at Warren Wilson College. She serves as curator of the Juniper Bends Reading Series and as associate producer and host of the poetry and prose radio program, Wordplay, on 103.3 FM in Asheville. As a volunteer writer for local nonprofits and schools, Lockie works with youth and educators to seek intentionality and not perfection.  She is a proud member of the board of Asheville Music School. She believes that Asheville Music School deserves to be well funded and has seen the impact of the school on the lives of local youth.

Lockie has held many board positions including with Girls Rock Asheville (a nonprofit that empowers girls, trans, and nonbinary youth through music education), the Franklin School of Innovation (a tuition-free public charter school serving grades 5th-12th.  Franklin is an expeditionary learning school with an emphasis on restorative justice), and Mad Hat Inc. (a nonprofit that brings poets and writers to Asheville to expose youth and adults to a wider range of voices). Lockie was honored as one of the “volunteers of the year” by the Asheville City Schools Foundation for her work raising funds and teaching writing in the classrooms at Claxton Elementary, a title one arts-focused magnet school.  Lockie believes that if we teach our youth to speak their truths, then we have taught them to begin to be their authentic selves. She lives on a mountain with three mischievous cats, two rather naughty dogs, two petulant teenagers and one very patient husband.  Her words have appeared in publications including Hiram Poetry Review, The Baltimore Review, Christian Science Monitor, Gulf Stream Literary Magazine, Main Street Rag, New Plains Review, Arts & Opinion, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency and other publications.

Linda Kendall Fields is a resident of Fletcher, North Carolina and has been on the Asheville Music School Board of Directors since it became a non-profit organization in 2012. In addition to teaching violin and piano at AMS on a part-time basis since 2008, she has been a performing musician for over 35 years. 

Linda is also a dedicated human services professional with many years of experience in a variety of settings and states. She is currently employed fulltime at the UNC School of Social Work in Chapel Hill as a Clinical Assistant Professor and coordinator of UNC’s Cares program (2015-present).

Linda has led numerous collective impact initiatives to improve the lives of older adults and people with disabilities across the state and country and brings these organizational skills and knowledge of human services to the AMS board as well as other local groups, including the United Way of Asheville & Buncombe County (Committees & Board of Directors, (2009-2018).

Danny McClinton – As founder and owner of the Salvage Station—one of Asheville’s largest music venues, which hosts nationally touring and regional acts on indoor and outdoor stages—Danny is a longtime music fan and advocate for live music. He’s been on the board of Asheville Music School since 2018 and has hosted numerous fundraising events for the school. 

For decades Danny and his family have been deeply involved in many great organizations in Asheville, including the Community Foundation of WNC, UNC Asheville, ABCCM, Helpmate, Pisgah Legal Services, and the Asheville Art Museum. 

An entrepreneur at heart, Danny studied business at Mars Hill University and went on to operate various businesses, including Lake Lure Water Sports during his college years (teaching thousands to ski on Lake Lure), he owned and operated The Baggie Goose in Biltmore Village and is a partner in Barley’s Taproom & Pizzeria in downtown Asheville. He transformed a long-time salvage yard into the acclaimed Salvage Station in 2016, further contributing to Asheville’s great music scene. He has three beautiful daughters, one at College of Charleston and two at Asheville School.  

Tommy Seijo lives in Candler and has served on the AMS board since September of 2021.  He is employed with Asheville City Schools as an educator as well as a Realtor with Carolina Green Realty and brings over 20 years of experience & skills in music, education and real estate to AMS.

In addition to volunteering on the AMS board, Tommy contributes to the community by serving on the Affordable Housing Committee in the Land of the Sky Association of Realtors and participating as a member of the Thrive Asheville Landlord Tenant Partnership. 

Chris Youngblood has lived in the Asheville area since 2005 and joined the Asheville Music School Board of Directors in 2019.  In addition to board duties, Chris serves on the Finance Committee, as well.  He moved to Asheville, North Carolina from Nashville, Tennessee, and calls Carrollton, Georgia, home.  Along with his wife, Courtney, Chris attended and holds a degree from the University of Georgia.  While volunteering with Asheville Music School, Chris has also served Homeward Bound of Western North Carolina since 2018 on the organization’s Board of Directors.

Chris has been in Commercial and Business Banking for 20 years.  He is currently employed by First Bank in Asheville in their Commercial Banking division.  His role includes providing credit, cash management, and other banking services to companies, non-profits, institutions, and government entities in the bank’s North and South Carolina footprint.