leadership

Brian began his pageantry career as a French horn player in both middle school and high school on the west coast of Florida.  After high school he became a charter member of the Suncoast Sound Drum & Bugle Corps playing French horn the first year in the corps and then serving as drum major his last 3 years.  After aging out, he spent 4 years as the tour director for the corps while simultaneously attending and graduating from Southeastern Louisiana University with a BA in Business Administration in 1987.

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Brian’s professional career spans many years of sales, project management and customer service roles for family-owned businesses to fortune 500 companies.  He returned to the pageantry world in 2006 with the DCI Open Class corps Teal Sound, as President of Teal Sound Inc.. He held that position until the end of the 2010 season when the corps completed its first season in World Class.  Brian continues to give back to the pageantry arts community as a sought-after event coordinator of both outdoor and indoor pageantry events.  He has organized events for circuits all over the country including Drum Corps International, Winter Guard International, Northwest Association for Performing Arts, Florida Federation of Colorguard Circuits and the Winterguard Association of Southern California. 

After living most of his life in Florida, Brian and his wife Christine now live in Portland Oregon with their dog Boo.

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brian.fisher@seattlecascades.org

Gary began watching drum corps in 1970; he joined the Seattle Cascades as a French horn player in 1975 and march through 1978.  He has continued to watch drum corps and color guards from the sidelines and has been a supporter of the art though the years.  Gary is a Certified Payroll Professional who has held leadership positions for companies such as Starbucks, Colliers International and Comcast.
 

Gary looks forward to giving back to the Cascades using his management, organizational and team building skills.

Suzanne joined the Seattle Cascades Winterguard program in 1980-81 season and was a member of both Winterguard and Summer Corps through 1985. She was on the Instructional staff from 1986-1988, teaching M&M and the Colorguard. Suzanne marched her age-out year of Summer corps with the Spartans Drum & Bugle Corps of Vancouver, WA in 1989 and two Winterguard age-out years in 1989 and 1990, thanks to a rule change in 1989, with the Emerald City Revue. She joined the NYMA board in 2004 for one season, then ran off and got married. Returning to the board in 2012, Suzanne served as Treasurer 2012 to 2016, Secretary 2017 to 2019, and is currently Secretary/Treasurer.

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Suzanne readily acknowledges the many life lessons drum corps has taught her including; perseverance, self-reliance, the importance of sunscreen and how to do her laundry. She would also like to thank her mom for not letting her quit halfway through her rookie Winterguard season. Her mom, years later, jokingly admitted to regretting teaching that life lesson as Suzanne’s passion for Winterguard and drum corps would continue through high school, college and beyond.

 

Suzanne holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Art History and a Graduate Certificate in Accounting from the University of Washington. She has worked for Seattle Children’s Research Institute since 2004, currently as Senior Accountant in the Immunotherapy program. She lives with her husband, Eric, and their two cats, Ink and Ebony, in North Seattle.

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suzanne.sexton@seattlecascades.org

Letha has served as an active volunteer with the Cascades Drum Corps since 2009 when her son began marching with the corps. Letha also continues to support her local high school program in Ferndale, Washington where she lives with her husband, Rod. Letha attended business college in Seattle and is a certified human resources professional.  She currently works as the office manager of a construction company and manages several property associations in Whatcom County.

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letha.nelson@seattlecascades.org

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Jonathon has worked with and designed for many PNW programs. He was the Director of Guards at Kamiak High School (Mukilteo, WA) for 12 years as well as designing for Glencoe HS (Hillsboro, OR) for 5 years. In 2005 he helped found Rhapsody Performing Arts Winter Guards out of Seattle, WA which included two gold medal seasons at WGI in A and Open class. Recently he was a founding staff member of Cascadia Winterguard in Portland, OR in 2017.

 

As an adjudicator he’s worked with the NWPA, PPA, NWAPA, UCGC, MCCGA, WGAZ, CWEA, TCGC and various fall marching band competitions around the PNW, California, and Arizona. As a performer he was a member of the Cascades Drum & Bugle Corps (Seattle, WA), Northern Lights Winterguard (Portland, OR), and the Blue Devils Drum & Bugle Corps (Concord, CA), as well as still actively dancing at numerous studios, festivals, and programs in Seattle. Jonathon also served as the President of the NWPA winterguard circuit from Seattle, WA for 7 years (‘08-‘14) and still diligently works to increase, improve, and support the colorguard activity all over the PNW.

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Jonathon lives in Seattle, WA with his husband Bill and works at Amazon, Inc. as a Senior Learning Experience Designer focusing on Leadership Development.