Nancy Avery Dafoe
President
Author and educator Nancy Avery Dafoe (CNY Branch) has written 16 published books across genres. Her most recent include the poetry book with Jamie Tate, titled “Got Some River in Us.” Her memoir, “Unstuck in Time,” won an Indie Book Director’s Choice Award. She is also an editor, and her work appears in numerous anthologies. She serves on the Board for Cortland Arts Connect in addition to serving as Second Vice President of the NLAPW.
Jamie Tate
1st Vice President
A member of NLAPW for more than 20 years, Jamie Tate has served as art chair and president of Delta Branch, national art chair, and national ethics chair. During her tenure on the national board, she served on various committees, including long-range planning, finance, Biennial, and governance. Tate has also served many nonprofit arts organizations as a board member, founding member, and 18 years as director of the Mississippi Art Colony.
Karen McAferty Morris
2nd Vice President
A member since 2017, Karen McAferty Morris has been the letters and Vinnie Ream chair since 2022, and has served as poetry editor, Florida State Association president, Pensacola Branch secretary, and the branch’s first poet laureate. Her work placed in the top three in the 2017, 2019, and 2019 Vinnie Ream competitions. She has helped organize numerous branch activities, such as art and poetry shows and public poetry readings. She has attended the past three national Biennials.
Grace Joy Reid
3rd Vice President
Grace Joy Reid has been a piano teacher for over 30 years and has arranged and composed over 100 works for piano, voice, and other instruments for small ensembles. Currently, she is the pianist for the McLean Symphony and arranges and composes music for several groups. Reid has served as Washington, D.C., Branch treasurer, secretary, vice president, and president from 2009 to 2020, and is currently national fourth vice president.
Wilma Davidson, Ed. D.
4th Vice President
A journalist, ghostwriter, editor, and former university professor, Wilma Davidson is also president of a communications consulting firm where she coaches corporate clients how to put their “best foot forward — in writing and in person.” The author of published books on communication, she has recently collaborated with another Pen Woman to publish a memoir and two children’s stories (third one percolating). She is currently the president of the Sarasota Branch.
Janie Owens
5th Vice President
Janie Owens was president of the Daytona Beach branch, then served on the Florida State board in three officer positions. Currently, she is Florida State president. On the National level, Owens served two terms as secretary and, most recently, was first vice president. In her spare time, she writes cozy novels and nonfiction, being traditionally published nine times and self-published five. Owens enjoys living in Florida with her husband and their six pets.
Evelyn B. Wofford, Ed.D.
Treasurer
Evelyn B. Wofford is a 48-year career educator who has a doctorate of education in curriculum and administration, which required numerous courses in leadership, personnel and institutional management, school finance, and school law. As the vice mayor of the city of Drew, Mississippi, for 12 years, Wofford was chair of the budget committee. She is currently NLAPW treasurer and past president, and has served as Mississippi state president and vice president, and Delta Branch vice president and president.
Jessica Rigouard
Recording Secretary
Jessica Rigouard is the NLAPW secretary. She previously served as the governance chair. As a federal investigator for over 30 years, Rigouard conducted personnel security investigations for the Department of Defense as well as investigations related to the federal crop insurance program for the Department of Agriculture. She is a North Carolina State Bar certified paralegal and currently serves as a deputy clerk of court in Pitt County, North Carolina. She has held numerous offices as a member of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs.