About Us
Welcome Home Executive Summary
501 (c)(3) Letter
Voices of a Grateful Nation Project Package
Voices of a Grateful Nation is a nationwide project designed to incorporate the power of music and popular culture to mobilize our country's compassionate spirit, intellectual resources, and entrepreneurial skills to seek out, secure, and distribute funds, goods, and services to our homecoming veterans.
Voices of a Grateful Nation in conjunction with our parent organization, the Welcome Home Project 501(c)(3), wants to retool the efficacy of veteran's care through the prism of 21st-century sensibilities, technologies, and the complicated realities of our contemporary international commitments.
We believe that the ultimate responsibility in this challenge—and by extension, the standard by which our country and its commitment to the United States Military will be judged—rests with the support we render to our homecoming troops. Retaining our current troop levels and enticing future generations to serve depend in no small part on our ability as a people to take care of our own.
Voices of a Grateful Nation, the CD Series, and the Welcome Home Project present a unique opportunity to come together as a nation through individual and private sector initiatives to meet our moral responsibilities in supporting our troops.
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THE TEAM
CHARLIE GALLAGHER: After
graduating with a Fine Arts degree from the University of Texas in 1978,
Gallagher took on a major project in Houston. He founded and served as the Executive Director of Diverse
Works, a successful non-profit visual arts and performance center now in its
twenty-eighth year. Through the
years Gallagher has established himself as a successful media consultant and
exhibit curator. He has over
fifteen years experience in the non-profit field as an executive director and
consultant. He served as Special
Counsel to the Texas House of Representatives for the Cultural and Historical
Resources Committee, he was Executive Director of the New Braunfels Museum of
Art & Music, a Smithsonian Affiliate, and has served as a chief
administrator for hundreds of successful public events, exhibitions, music
recordings and performance projects.
JAMIE OLDAKER:
Oldaker is a Tulsa-born drummer with a thirty-year pedigree that reads like a survey of contemporary rock 'n' roll highlights. He's earned 24 Gold and Platinum albums and has extensive production and management experience. He began with Bob Seger, recording the hit album Back in 72, he played with Leon Russell and was the session drummer for Russell's Shelter Records. He joined Eric Clapton in 1974 for a long-standing recording and touring career. He was the drummer on a series of Clapton recordings—461 Ocean Blvd.; Slowhand; There's One in Every Crowd; EC Was Here; and Backless—then joined Peter Frampton for his Where I Should Be album and subsequent tours. He laid down drum tracks for the Bee Gees, toured with Stephen Stills, worked with Phil Collins, played the "Live Aid" concerts and Clapton's Royal Hall concerts.
On a trip back to Tulsa he took a young Ronnie Dunn under his creative wing and kick-started his career with Brooks & Dunn. He went on to create his own country-rock band, "The Tractors," whose debut album on Arista sold over 3.5 million copies and won the Country Music Association's "Video of the Year" award for "Baby Likes to Rock It." Oldaker has recently completed production on the long awaited second album by Willis Alan Ramsey scheduled for a late-2008 release.
CRAIG D. HILLIS: Hillis is a veteran guitar player who has recorded and toured with Michael Martin Murphey, Steven Fromholz, Jerry Jeff Walker, B.W. Stevenson, Rusty Wier and an extended list of notable singer-songwriters. He has an admirable thirty-year history of record production and studio engineering with special expertise in artist management and intellectual property issues. Hillis has owned and operated successful nightclubs in Austin, Texas: He bought Steamboat on 6th Street in the mid-1980s and developed the venue into a national showcase featuring acts like Christopher Cross and Stevie Ray Vaughan.
In 1989, he built the Saxon Pub, another showcase venue designed to feature the talents of exceptional singer-songwriters. With both clubs up and running strong, he enrolled in graduate school at UT in 1994 then sold both businesses in 1996 to devote his attention to his studies. He is a published non-fiction author (Texas Trilogy: Life in a Small Texas Town, University of Texas Press, 2002) and has written for academic journals, popular magazines, and regional newspapers.
With multiple degrees from the University of Texas, Hillis is currently a Doctoral Candidate in the American Studies Department at UT. His dissertation topic focuses on Texas music history and its significance in American cultural history.
NANCY
NOVELLE HAHN: Nancy Novelle Hahn has a twenty-three
year track record inBroadcast
Television, television programming, television production, spectrum development
and digital media. She was thefirst and youngest woman in the United States
to secure an FCC license to build and operate a "24-7" format UHF Independent Broadcast Television station
and has been described as "a shining star in the industry" by Keith Larson, an FCC Bureau Chief Engineer. Her television station has won a
multitude of awards for bringing many "firsts" to its viewers. Such innovations include international
programming, variety entertainment, more movies, and an array of innovative and
entertaining shows such as Austin City Limits. Her station was also the
first to launch The Military Channel among other niche networks.
Nancy
has extensive programming experience and has produced a number of award-winning local and national shows that
include entertainment and sports broadcasts
and telethons. As a pioneer in digital spectrum development she was the chief consultant for NextWave
Broadband International and NextWave
Telecom International for constructing Wi-Max Systems in New York and London. Nancy
has developed and designed electronic devices utilizing digital terrestrial TV
& broadcasting solutions and maintains an advisory position with Isonic Electronics, a designer of Handheld
products in Tokyo,Japan, and Silicon
Valley. Additionally, she has
developed Safe-TV, A Public Safety Network for Western Pennsylvania.
Nancy's creativity transcends
the world of electronics and engineering.
She was Head of the Dance
Department at Allegheny Community College where she taught ballet, jazz, and
modern dance. As a BMI songwriter,
she has written over 50 pop songs and has collaborated
with Jose Feliciano, Steve Kipner, Sid Mills (Steel Pulse),Wayne Jobson, No Doubt's "Rock
Steady" Wyclef Jean, and many other greats. Her songs and choreography have been featured across the US
in all the SFX/Clear Channel venues, in the Christina Aguilera Tour, the O-Town
Tour, N' Sync, Backstreet Boys tours and various other popular-music extravaganzas.
She
is the designer and founder of Ballare Clothing Company, and a featured designer for The Artikol Clothing Company.
Her clothing has been featured in
Manhattan Style, Trend Setter, and Papier Doll Magazines.
She
has established an impressive
multi-media International Conservation Program for children entitled Purple
Frog Inc. http://www.purplefroginc.com/. She
has collaborated with Hollywood Film Producer Ken
Wales—the Executive Producer of Amazing Grace, East of Eden and Christy—on
a film based on an actual Civil War diary entitled, Deeds Of Men. She is
also collaborating with Jay Warhola, the cousin of American artist Andy Warhol,
on the Andy Warhol Documentary film.
Nancy was presented an Outstanding Women of America in Business Award in 1998, 1999, and in
2000. "Voices of a Grateful
Nation is an amazing project!" Nancy reports. "I am so honored to be a voice in this heavenly chorus
of heroes."
KEN KUSHNICK: After a successful run as a concert promoter and artist representative, Ken Kushnick expanded his music industry horizons by joining New York-based Sire Records in 1976. Shortly after coming aboard, he signed Talking Heads, helped bring The Pretenders and Madonna to the label and established his position as Sire's Executive Vice President. After Sire entered into a distribution agreement with Warner Bros. Records, Kushnick served as the liaison between the Sire and the mega-label. Additionally, he was responsible for relations with Sire’s foreign distributors which included overseeing Sire's twenty-person office in London.
This broad range of experience caught the eye of Mo Ostin, CEO at Warner Bros., who chose Kushnick as Head of International Operations in Europe for the Warner Group. He set up shop in London in 1982 and for the next three years he directed the promotional, marketing, advertising, and touring activity for Warner's American acts in the European Market. He oversaw the European campaigns for George Benson, ZZ Top, Rod Stewart, and his former stateside success, Madonna.
Kushnick returned to the United States in the mid-eighties to channel his skills into the artist management business as a founding partner of Kushnick Passick Management. The company’s client roster included Grammy winning producer Don Was and jazz legend, Herbie Hancock. The partners took their relationship with Don to a new level when they co-founded Storefront Entertainment, a record label distributed by MCA.
In 1996, Ken created his own company, Kushnick Entertainment, a broad based entertainment company representing recording artists, songwriters and producers. Kushnick Entertainment has consulted for many companies both in and out of the entertainment business. Kushnick advised PreVu Video, an Internet portal, on their content acquisition strategy. He also advised the World Congress on Information Technology on its 2006 Austin, Texas convention that hosted 2500 delegates from around the world.
Ken is a well-respected Music Supervisor for film and TV soundtracks. His TV projects include Miami Vice, recognized for its ground breaking rock-oriented soundtrack. His feature film projects include Look Who's Talking, Beverly Hills Cop 3, the John Travolta-Nicholas Cage film Face/Off, the 70s funk infused Muppets from Space, the Chris Rock comedy Down to Earth, and the #1 box office hit Double Jeopardy.
DANA MILLIKIN: Dana is an Emmy award winning television producer who has
produced and directed over 150 hours of prime time, non-fiction television for
networks such as NBC, ABC, Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, History
Channel and PBS. As an Executive
Producer, her credits include one of Discovery Channel’s longest running
science series, the award winning Worldof Wonder hosted by Michael Dorn, Star Trek’s Klingon officer
“Warf.” Dana also developed,
produced and directed the highly rated Animal Planet adventure series, Extreme
Contact, that chronicled the astonishing
underwater exploits of shark and alligator stunt expert, Manny Puig. She also produced and directed the
Travel Channel series, Secrets of Travel Survival; the popular Discovery Channel series, Extreme
Surgery; the Discovery Health series, Dream
Decoders; theAnimal Planet series, My New Wild Life and The Little Zoo That Could
; and a number of other network series and specials.
Dana’s
work is now airing on the new 2009 Discovery Channel series, How Stuff
Works, where, among other locations, Dana
and her crew ventured high into the Andes mountains to document the Colombian
coffee harvest and then traveled to the Peruvian lowlands to descend 1000 feet
underground into one of the largest lead mines on the planet. In 2008 she brought her expertise in
national and international news coverage to PBS as Supervising Producer for the
internationally acclaimed special, Global Watch. Her
skillful experience as an insightful storyteller who understands “on time &
on budget” has served her well for the fast turn around needed to facilitate
the timely release of this popular international release.
Dana
is a native Houstonian and a graduate of the University of Texas at
Austin. After college, she worked
as an on-air TV news reporter and producer in Houston for KTTV-TV (Channel 13)
and KPRC-TV (Channel 2). After
long and successful run on the Houston airwaves, she moved back to Austin as
Executive News Producer at KTBC-TV (Channel 7) before
relocating to Los Angeles. As
a television journalist and camerawoman, Dana has covered breaking news all
over the world, from the horrors of hurricanes in the tropics to guerrilla drug
wars in South America. At NBC Network News,Dana distinguished herself writing and producing stories for many different
correspondents including Maria Shriver and Tom Brokaw. As Executive Producer at KTTV Fox 11 in
Los Angeles, her newscasts were awarded the coveted EMMY five times. Dana is a
member of the Television Academy of Arts and Sciences and The Producers Guild
of America.
BRIAN GAVRON: Brian is a graduate of Centre College in Danville Kentucky
where he holds a BA in Music. He went on to get his MBA from the
University of Cincinnati Business School as well as his MA in Arts
Administration/Non-Profit Management from the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. Armed with two Master's Degrees and a
wealth of "field experience," Brian has a diverse range of experience
in Business, Management and Music. He began his career with the Kentucky
Center for the Arts where he assisted with programming and later helped create
an Arts Center Consulting department.
This department offered consulting services to new theaters and theaters
being renovated throughout the state and was instrumental in developing
statewide collaborative artist booking programs and cultural tourism
projects. With a special eye for
public space and community involvement, Brian served as the Assistant Project
Manager for the University of Kentucky Basketball Museum during its
construction and opening.
In
1999, Brian assumed responsibilities as the Events Manager at the historic
Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee.
For over six years he managed the daytime museum operations that hosted
over 150,000 annual visitors, the box office, usher staff, and all aspects of
theater rental and event execution.
During his tenure at the Ryman, he managed over 1,000 concerts, motion
picture shoots, television specials, and private functions. These events included an array of
international artists like Coldplay, Elvis Costello, Keith Urban, Vince Gill,
James Taylor, and hundreds more.
In
2005 Brian formed The Gavron Company, an Artist Management group dedicated to
artists whose music conveys a positive message and who are dedicated to
nurturing their aesthetic career by nurturing their relationships with family,
friends and their faith. The
Gavron Company also consults non-profit organizations assisting with legal
aspects of creating their public charities, their tactical and strategic
business structure and their program development. In a recent development for The Gavron Company, Brian served
as the Event Producer for the Time Life concert video recording, Songs 4
Worship - Country,
that was recorded at the Ryman Auditorium and released internationally in
2009. Brian currently enjoys
splitting his time between business ventures in Nashville and Austin.