People:Faculty

John Ellis

John Ellis currently serves as Managing Director of the Diana Wortham Theatre at Pack Place in Asheville, where he is responsible for programming, daily management, strategic planning and fundraising.  The intimate 500 seat theatre presents more than 200 events a year including those presented by the theatre itself under the banner of Mainstage Series as well as those by more than 30 different local arts organizations.   The theatre is the home venue for the Asheville Lyric Opera, Asheville Puppetry Alliance,  Asheville Ballet, Terpsicorps Theatre of Dance and the Western North Carolina Jazz Society.

Prior to moving to Asheville in 1997, he served as executive director of the Broome County Arts Council in Binghamton, New York where he was responsible for raising approximately half a million dollars a year in support of the arts in that area.  In Binghamton, he served on the boards of the United Way and Partnership 2000 an organization created to deal with the downturn in the economy of the region.  For Partnership 2000 he chaired a task force charged with identifying the quality of life issues which most directly affect economic development.

Before moving to upstate New York, he lived in West Virginia for 15 years serving as director of the Stifel Fine Arts Center in Wheeling, West Virginia for 10 years, and director of the Creative Arts Center at West Virginia University for five years.  In Wheeling, he chaired a design team to create a signage program to assist in the development of tourism in the region.

He began his career in arts administration as a post-graduate intern at the Connecticut Commission on the Arts.  He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from Drake University and a Master of Arts degree from the University of Connecticut.

He currently serves on the board and executive committee of the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce, and is a member of the Tourism Product Development Committe of the Buncombe County TDA.    He is also the immediate past president of the North Carolina Presenters Consortium, a trade association with more than 200 members.