Cultural Ambassadors

A museum professional with a Masters degree in Museum Studies from Indiana University-Purdue University of Indianapolis, Katie is the Assistant Director of The Parthenon in Nashville, Tennessee. Previous to that position, she served three years as the Parthenon's Director of Education (2019-2022). Katie also serves as Outreach Coordinator for the Archaeological Institute of America, Nashville Society. A Steinmetz Family Foundation Museum Fellow from 2014-2018, she served as an Agora Excavation Collections Volunteer with the American School of Classical Studies in Athens. She has done extensive research in Corinth, presenting at the AIA annual meeting (2016), the American School of Classical Studies in Athens (2016), and the AIA Annual Meeting (2018).

Stacy Widelitz started composing professionally at nineteen, but came to prominence with the song "She's Like the Wind," co-written with Patrick Swayze and featured in Swayze's blockbuster Dirty Dancing. Featured on the movie's wildly successful soundtrack, it reached no. 3 on Billboard's top-40 chart (no. 1 among adult-contemporary radio listeners). He has scored features, more than twenty made-for-TV movies, written the end-title song for Disney's Pocahontas II, and was nominated for an Emmy for ABC's World of Discovery. He wrote the title song and scored all episodes of ABC's acclaimed animated series Cro, and scored One Last Dance, earning a Best Music Award at the 2004 Nashville Film Festival. Stacy served as president of Nashville Opera's board and Leadership Music, and is a 2018 graduate of Leadership Nashville.

Best known today for his monumental sculptures in Middle Tennessee, Alan LeQuire began his artistic career at the age of eleven. After graduating from Vanderbilt University, LeQuire spent a year of apprenticeship to Milton Hebald, an American sculptor living in Italy, and afterward studied figurative sculpture with Peter Agostino in the MFA program of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. From master craftsmen he learned bronze casting techniques dating back to classical antiquity. From Giacomo Manzù, LeQuire rediscovered the versatile plasticity of clay, the medium in which most of his work is first modeled. He is best known for creating the 41-foot gilded Athena Parthenos statue inside Nashville's Parthenon — the largest indoor sculpture in the Western world — as well as numerous public and private commissions throughout the region.

Sylvia Rapoport was born and raised in Nashville. She studied art and history at the University of London with graduate work at Brandeis University. Sylvia served in Congressman Jim Cooper's office as Criminal Justice and Sentencing Reform Fellow. As Founding President of Centennial Park Conservancy, she increased the organization's operating budget more than ten-fold and was responsible for launching two beloved community programs: Musicians Corner and Kidsville at the Parthenon. She also headed a $30 million capital campaign to revitalize Centennial Park. Sylvia has held volunteer leadership roles in over 30 organizations including The Equity Alliance, Anti-Defamation League, Boston Children's Museum, Nashville Children's Theatre, and the Jewish Foundation of Middle Tennessee.

Wesley Paine, actor and museum professional, has been Director of the Nashville Parthenon since 1979. She believes passionately in the ability of art in all its forms to educate, inspire, and reach across cultural and national boundaries. Her role as director of the only full-size recreation of Athens' ancient temple led to the founding of Theatre Parthenos, an organization devoted to the production of ancient Greek plays on the steps of Nashville's Parthenon. She has also overseen the production of music, visual art, and theater for museum audiences. Since the 1990s she has been an officer of the Nashville Society of the Archaeological Institute of America, offering the Parthenon as the site for lectures by scholars from across the country and around the world.

Demetria Kalodimos is an award-winning journalist and documentary filmmaker. She was principal anchor at Nashville's WSMV (NBC) TV for 34 years, before becoming executive producer of The Nashville Banner. She owns and operates Genuine Human Productions, headquartered at The Filming Station. Demetria traces her Greek heritage to Sparti (Apithea), where writer David Sedaris also has roots, and to Kerasista, Peloponnese — birthplace of the great Greek resistance leader and athlete Grigoris Lambrakis.

Applauded by school children as "Athena's Mama," Anne Roos was born of Czech parents in Prague and attended first grade there before the family left in June 1939. She settled with her physics professor husband in Nashville, TN, putting her BS degree from Harvard in Architecture and City Planning to work with her 1967 appointment to the Metropolitan Nashville Planning Commission — the first woman to serve in this capacity — for 16 years. Service on the Metro Parks and Recreation Board and the Metropolitan Historical Commission followed for a total of 41 years on Metro Boards. While on the Parks Board, Anne initiated and raised the money to build four public art sculptures, including the 42-foot Athena for the Parthenon in Centennial Park.

Dr. Nita Smith is a Nashville native and retired 33-year veteran of K–12 music education with Metro Nashville Public Schools. For the last 14 years of her career she taught vocal, piano, and general music at Isaiah T. Creswell Middle Magnet School of the Visual and Performing Arts, where she developed an award-winning choral program whose students performed at choral festivals and for local, civic, and national teacher conferences. She has served as chair of the fine arts department, faculty mentor, and cooperating teacher for pre-service music education majors from universities across greater Nashville and Middle Tennessee. Dr. Smith has facilitated professional development workshops for Metro Nashville Public Schools, Alignment Nashville's SEL Conferences, and Educators Cooperative Professional Teacher Development workshops. She holds a B.S. in Music Education from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville; an M.A.Ed. in Music Education; and an Ed.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from Tennessee State University. With HICD USA, Dr. Smith will expand the soft-power dimension of cultural diplomacy by developing educational lesson plans that accompany programs and events.

Savanna Sokolnicki is Assistant Professor of Classical Voice in the College of Music & Performing Arts at Belmont University, where she also serves as Director of Opera. Her repertoire spans Bel Canto and romantic opera through contemporary works. She has served with the Nashville Opera outreach program "Opera on Wheels" and performed in Nashville Opera productions of Il Pagliacci, Les Contes d'Hoffmann, and Amahl and the Night Visitors. Growing up in Toronto, Savanna captured the grand prize at the International Festival of Religious Song at the age of 16. She holds both a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Voice Performance from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY, and a Doctorate from the University of Kentucky. She was one of three sopranos featured in HICD USA's online presentation "Maria Callas in Three Voices," celebrating La Divina's 100th birthday.

Georgios Tsolis is a Greek composer and jazz pianist whose work bridges the classical Hellenic tradition with contemporary improvisation. Based in Greece, he brings the expressive depth of Greek musical heritage into dialogue with international jazz idioms, creating a distinctive voice that resonates across cultures and audiences.

Maestro Iloas Gkogkidis serves as conductor of the Ionian Symphony Orchestra, one of Greece's distinguished regional orchestras. His work championing the Greek orchestral tradition and fostering collaborative programming makes him a natural ambassador for the cultural bridge HICD USA seeks to build between Greece and the United States.

Miriam Laurrain is an accomplished coloratura soprano and musical theatre performer whose career spans opera stages and theatrical productions internationally. Her rare combination of classical vocal training and theatrical versatility positions her as a compelling voice for cultural exchange between Greece and the broader world.