Les Anderson, Nathan Godley, Starr Holland, Dottie Kluttz and Bill Udry have joined the American Traditions Vocal Competition Board of Directors. Artistic Director Mikki Sodergren, along with this 21-member board, will lead the ATC in its 25^th anniversary competition, which runs Feb. 19-23, 2018.  

Les Anderson received his bachelor’s degree in business and economics from Northwestern University and an MBA in finance from Columbia University. Anderson worked for Chemical Bank, now JP Morgan Chase, for almost 30 years. He has had a varied career with both domestic and international responsibilities, including opening an office for Chemical Bank in Tehran, Iran. While living in New York and New Jersey, Anderson served on several nonprofit boards, including Summit Speech School for hearing-impaired children, the Summit Child Care Center, his church vestry, and professionally, the Fifth Avenue Association. In Chicago, he was a board member of the Samaritan Institute, a faith-based counseling service. In Savannah, he is the co-founder and director of Saving Lives in Chatham County and a member of Christ Church Episcopal, where he serves on the Endowment Committee. Anderson, along with his wife Kathie, have hosted ATC contestants in their home each year for the past 16 years.

A native of Savannah, Nathan Godley is a graduate of Armstrong College and Candler School of Theology at Emory University. Godley, a retired United Methodist minister, purchased 17Hundred90 Inn and Restaurant in downtown Savannah in 2010, along with his wife and son. They now run this historic inn and restaurant as a local, family-owned business. Godley is an active member of Trinity United Methodist Church.

Starr Holland received her doctorate from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, where she specialized in brain degeneration and pain disorders. She was the founder and President of Starr Clinical Communications, Inc., which was a physician accreditation and education company specializing in neurological diseases including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. She has since settled into a second career as an assistant professor of biology at Armstrong State University.

Dottie Kluttz holds a BSN degree from the University of Virginia. Throughout her nursing career, she taught pediatric nursing at the University of Virginia, Emory and Armstrong State University. In 1993, she joined Hospice Savannah and in 2001 she created their Story Keeping program. This program records the life stories and memories of patients through audio. In 2004, Kluttz received a Georgia Medical Hero award for Innovation in Medicine for this Story Keeping program. Her passion is storytelling and she has presented her ideas at both national and state nursing conferences including the McGhee Lecture at The University of Virginia School of Nursing. She has received acclaim for her work in articles written for The University of Virginia publication, The Legacy, and was chosen as one of the “Heroes Among Us” by Coastal Senior Magazine. She also presented a TED X talk at the annual Savannah event in May 2014. Kluttz is now involved with the Organizational Story Movement which teaches organizations the value of storytelling.

Bill Udry is the former executive vice president of the New York Institute of Technology, former administrative director of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, and former executive director of The Eye Research Foundation. He received his M.A. from the University of Cincinnati and attended Cincinnati College of Music. Udry is currently a volunteer docent for the Telfair Museum, and a member of The Landings Club.

“We are very pleased these individuals have joined us for our silver anniversary,” Board of Directors President Daniel Cohen said. “I know with the aid of these talented individuals our organization will continue to grow and prosper as Savannah’s premiere professional vocal competition.”