About Us
Lea Maitlen – Board President
Lea Coppoletta Maitlen, a classically trained vocalist, holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder and a Master of Music degree from Belmont University. She is a founding member of Nashville’s Portara Ensemble. Maitlen is a specialist in contemporary vocal music and has performed the Tennessee premieres of Pulitzer Prizewinning composer Caroline Shaw’s Cantico delle creature, Richard Danielpour’s Portraits, and the soprano in David Lang’s Pulitzer Prizewinning Little Match Girl Passion.
As the Senior Marketing Manager of the Naxos of America marketing team until 2012, Maitlen produced several commercially released recording series and led various successful campaigns to launch new classical music CD recordings into the American market. Her critical successes include spearheading the American releases of ALIAS Chamber Ensemble’s Grammy nominated Hilos: Chamber Music of Gabriela Lena Frank, James Whitbourne’s Luminosity (performed by Commotio), the Elora Festival Singers’ Grammy nominated recording of the music of Eric Whitacre, and the King’s Singers acclaimed Pater Noster CD recording, in which she played an integral A&R and producer role.
Maitlen served as the Executive Director of Portara Ensemble from 2011-2016, during which the ensemble released the critically acclaimed Choral Hymns of the Christian Faith CD recording and Amorisms: Chamber Music of Paul Moravec (featuring a World Premiere commission undertaken in partnership with the Nashville Ballet and ALIAS Chamber Ensemble). Maitlen also served as the Executive Director for the GRAMMY nominated ALIAS Chamber Ensemble from 2016-2018. During this time she was the creative force behind the concept of the group’s CD release, Rhythms, Rivers, and Roads. A trained Montessori teacher, Maitlen spearheaded several innovative educational outreach programs during her time with ALIAS, including a school program focused on music by immigrant composers and a STEAM program which tied music inspired by nature to an exploration of the world around us.
Most recently, Maitlen served as Director of Marketing, PR, and Engagement with Nashville Opera, where she focused on growing creative partnerships within the Nashville community to bring opera to a wider, more diverse audience. Since she joined Nashville Opera in 2018, Maitlen has undertaken partnerships with Opera on Tap, the Nashville Film Festival, the Frist Art Museum, Tennessee State University, and the Tennessee State Museum. She is delighted to bring her experience with and passion for classical music to bear to grow the love of the art form in Middle Tennessee.
Kelly Christie — Vice President
Kelly Christie is a native of Toronto, Canada, and a graduate of York University. She spent her entire career in higher education administration, retiring in 2019 as Assistant Dean of Academic Programs and Student Life at the Owen Graduate School of Management, Vanderbilt University.
Since retirement, she has remained deeply engaged in nonprofit leadership and community service. She has served on the boards of The Vanderbilt Community Chorus, Vox Humana and Vox Grata Women’s Choir, where she also held the role of Chair. She is thrilled to return to the Vox Grata board and continue her lifelong love of music and service.
Currently, Kelly serves as Board Chair of Nations Ministry Center, which supports Nashville’s refugee community. She also serves on the boards of UKirk Nashville (Presbyterian Campus Ministries) and the Whitworth Homeowners Association, and volunteers with Habitat for Humanity, Room in the Inn, and Westminster’s Youth Program. An active elder at Westminster Presbyterian Church, Kelly chairs the Benevolence Committee and serves on both the Generosity and Music Committees.
In addition to singing alto in Vox Grata, Kelly has been a member of Westminster’s Adult Choir for over 20 years. She also plays handbells in two ensembles at Westminster.
Kelly and her husband Bill cherish their 13 nieces and nephews and 17 great-nieces and great-nephews, making frequent trips to Canada for hugs and laughter. They enjoy traveling and finding new adventures together—and back home, they’re often out walking or cozying up with their two Gaelic-named cats, Kayleigh and Keira.
Nita Smith – Secretary
Nita is a Nashville native and a thirty-three-year veteran of K–12 music education with Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS). A recent retiree, she taught vocal, piano, and general music, where she developed award-winning choral programs at Hunters Lane and Hillsboro High Schools and Isaiah T. Creswell Middle Magnet School of the Visual & Performing Arts. Under her direction, these ensembles performed at regional choral festivals and local, civic, and national teacher conferences, earning a reputation for artistic excellence and student-centered performance. As a curriculum innovator, she successfully developed both a skills-based and culturally relevant choral and piano curriculum at the K-12 level, which served as a model throughout Metro Nashville Public Schools.
Dr. Smith holds a bachelor’s degree in music education from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and a Master of Arts degree in Music Education and an Ed.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from Tennessee State University. Dr. Smith is the recipient of the Blue-Ribbon Teacher Award, a multiple-time MNPS Teacher of the Year Awardee, and the TMEA Outstanding Music Educator Award for her years of service and dedication to the field of music teaching and learning. She was in the inaugural classes of both the Tennessee Arts Academy Teacher Heroes and the CMA Foundation Music Teacher of Excellence for multiple years. Her leadership extended well beyond the classroom. Dr. Smith has served as a Fine Arts Chair at both the high school and middle school levels, an Inaugural CMA Foundation Teacher Mentor, and a cooperating teacher for pre-service music educators from universities across Nashville and Middle Tennessee. As an adjunct instructor in the Department of Music at Tennessee State University, she taught Choral Methods and Materials and supervised and mentored senior music education majors throughout their final year of music residency. She has facilitated professional development for Metro Nashville Public Schools, Maury, and Rutherford Counties, TMEA, TN-ADCA, Alignment Nashville’s SEL Conferences, and the Educators Cooperative, where she has also contributed as an advisor and keynote panelist. In 2024, she represented Middle Tennessee as a reviewer for the Tennessee Fine Arts Standards Revision Committee for secondary vocal music.
Her most recent publication includes a chapter entitled ” Glory!! Teaching Figurative Language through Contemporary Freedom Songs. In Wong, S., Romney, M., Tu, T., and Mattson, J. (Eds.), Freedom Songs: A Resource by Teachers for Teachers. Fairfax, VA. Mason Publishing.
Karen Weir
Karen Weir worked with customers in the contact center industry for twenty-five years before her retirement in 2000. She was a principal at Carrefour Research, a consulting and software development firm, from its inception. Prior to Carrefour Research, Ms. Weir worked in operations management in the call center industry, most recently as Vice-President for Implementation and Training at TCS Management Group.
Ms. Weir holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Davidson College, where she was actively involved in the theatre department and newly formed Women’s Chorus. She also holds an MBA from Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management with a concentration in Operations Management.
Ms. Weir’s volunteer interests include singing and ringing handbells at Westminster Presbyterian Church, as well as singing with Vox Grata. She has served on the Board at Outlook Nashville, as the Nashville Chapter President of the Davidson College Alumni Association and currently serves on the Board of Nations Ministry Center for Refugees.
Sandra Shepherd
Sandra Shepherd serves as Associate Pastor for Christian Discipleship at Brenthaven Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Brentwood. When she and her husband Scott lived in rural northeast Alabama, Sandra taught in public school, performed in musicals with a town-and-gown theater, and sang in the church choir. Nashville has been home since 2011, and although she sings with the church choir here, Sandra says she always needs more singing, so she jumped at the chance to join Vox Grata in 2018. She claims it as one of her best decisions to be part of this group of amazing women singing quality music and benefitting worthy causes.
Susan Carey
Susan Carey is a native Tennessean and lifelong choir participant. She grew up in East Tennessee where her mother directed the choir at their small, rural Presbyterian church. Susan was excited to join the church’s adult choir in the 5th grade and especially to sing alto since she could read music and enjoyed harmonizing. Susan studied voice and sang in church and school choirs in high school and college and moved to Nashville in 1986 to attend law school at Vanderbilt University. After graduation, she was in private practice for 20 years and has spent ten years at HCA. She has served as president of the Carson-Newman University Alumni Board and of the Nashville Bar Association YLD. She is a member of the adult choir and college of elders at Westminster Presbyterian Church where she has served as Moderator of Presbyterian Women, Clerk of Session and a Bible study leader. She is married to Scott Carey; they have two adult sons, Sam and Jack, as well as two kittens, Sal and Pablo.
Terry Quillen
Terry Quillen is a native Nashvillian, a graduate of Vanderbilt University, and a veteran journalist and communicator. She has shown a lifelong commitment to telling the stories of our community and guiding others in finding their own voices.
Terry enjoyed a career at The Tennessean of more than 30 years, most of it as an opinion editor. She provided readers with content that analyzed the hows and whys of local, national, and international news and included columnists who spanned the political spectrum. Over the years, Terry met with scores of public officials — local, state, and federal — as a member of the editorial board, which decides the newspaper’s editorial stands and political endorsements.
As the newspaper industry began to contract, Terry took a buyout and became a communications advisor. Notable among her clients were the Pew Charitable Trust and the Forward.us initiative supporting DACA protection for young immigrants. She also served as public information officer for elected officials at the state and Metro levels.
Since retiring from government, Terry has had the honor of working as Administrative and Communications Coordinator for Second Presbyterian Church, a Nashville congregation known for its commitment to “the radically inclusive call of Jesus.”
Terry and her husband, Mike Hines, live on a wooded ridge in Cheatham County with their three well-loved rescue dogs. Terry and Mike like to travel, mostly to France, where Terry studied and lived for a time, and to Los Angeles, where her daughter and son-in-law, Olivia and J.R. Lind, and granddaughter, Zoë, live. Terry and Mike are relentless Nashville Predators fans.
Becky Yates
Becky Yates is retired after a 25 year career in publishing, followed by 10 years in non-profit ministry leadership. In her publishing career, she began as entry-level clerical, working her way up to Vice-President of Supply Chain and Asset Management for a large Christian publisher in Nashville. She moved to Birmingham where she served as Publisher for New Hope Publishers, followed by COO for a publishing start-up. Beginning in 2012, Becky quit the corporate world to live into her passion of serving others in the non-profit world and through the church. She retired in 2019 after serving 4 years as a local pastor in the United Methodist Church. A constant in her life has been her love of choral music. She began singing in church choirs at age 6 and continued throughout her life in church choirs, school choirs, and community choirs. She joined Vox Grata after attending a concert and being impressed by the outstanding musicianship, commitment to excellence, and a passion for Vox Grata’s mission and vision.
Nicole Allen
Nicole E. Allen declared her intentions to become a signer or a psychologist when she was in 7th grade exploring future career aspirations in an assigned paper (she found this delightful artifact of her plans when sifting through memorabilia). Nicole ultimately pursued the latter professionally, completing her doctorate in Ecological Community Psychology in 2001; she has spent the last 25+ years in academia. Since 2022, Nicole has been a professor and administrator in the Peabody College of Education and Human Development at Vanderbilt University, where she aims to foster human and community flourishing through leadership, research, teaching and service. Her research examines the community response to gender-based violence with a focus on advocacy, social contexts and institutional change.
Singing has remained one of the greatest sources of joy in Nicole’s life and the perfect balance to her work life. Her earliest memories of music are of her mother singing lullabies in the hallway outside of her room so she and her siblings could all hear about scarlet ribbons, magic dragons and pretty horses. She also absorbed the ethereal and beautiful musical traditions of the Greek Orthodox Church, eventually memorizing the hymns, beginning with those that alerted her to the end of the long liturgy! Her musical journey began in childhood singing in school choirs, participating in school musicals and eventually joining her mother in the church choir. Nicole has continued to sing in ensembles throughout adulthood. While an undergraduate at Cornell University, she sang in and directed (for a year) Nothing But Treble, one the university’s two women’s a cappella groups at the time. During her tenure as a faculty member at the University of Illinois, Nicole sang for many years with Amasong, Urbana-Champaign’s premiere lesbian/feminist choir. In recent years, she has been learning about community singing initiatives that bring people together in song, regardless of singing experience or ability.
When Nicole arrived in Nashville in the fall of 2022, she searched for women’s choirs so that she could find community and have a musical outlet. She was fortunate to find Vox Grata and see them perform their beautiful concert, Solace. Nicole was thrilled when she was able to join the ensemble in spring of 2023.
Nicole is honored to serve on the Vox Grata board and to contribute her experience and passion to this community of women singers dedicated to excellence and meaningful service.
Erica White
Erica White is originally from Michigan and is currently a Financial Analyst in Vanderbilt University’s Treasury Department. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Applied Mathematics from Vanderbilt University where she served as Treasurer and Secretary for Vanderbilt University Concert Choir, President and Color Guard Section Leader of the Spirit of Gold Marching Band and was a member of Tau Beta Sigma – the marching band’s service sorority. Erica is pursuing a Master of Science in Analytics at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Erica has cultivated a lifelong commitment to choral music and has been a member of the Nashville arts scene since 2018. She joined Vox Grata in 2024 and is honored to support an organization whose artistic excellence and community engagement closely reflect her own values. In addition to her work with Vox Grata, Erica serves as Alto Section Leader and a board member of the Vanderbilt Community Chorus. In her free time, she enjoys baking and crocheting.
Jeanette MacCallum – Ex Officio, Founder & Artistic Director
Jeanette MacCallum is the Director of Music Ministries at Second Presbyterian Church in Nashville, TN and founder and Artistic Director of Vox Grata, a Nashville community women’s choir. Previously she served as an Adjunct Professor in music theory and history at Belmont and Lipscomb Universities. In addition, she served as the Director of Choral Activities at Saint Cecilia Academy in Nashville, TN, from 2002 to 2012, where she conducted various ensembles and taught AP Music Theory. During her time at St. Cecilia, the Advanced Choir received superior ratings at all regional and state adjudication festivals in which it participated. In addition, the St. Cecilia Advanced Choir performed at ACDA and TMEA state conferences. Mrs. MacCallum led the St. Cecilia Choir on performance tours to Carnegie Hall, Canada and Italy. In 2007, the Saint Cecilia Choir performed by invitation at the Ospedale della Pietà and the Ospedale dei Derelitti in Venice. Her students earned positions in numerous All State and ACDA Honor Choirs.
A native of Princeton, New Jersey, Mrs. MacCallum’s passion for choral music began as a member of the distinguished Princeton High School Choir. She received her musical education at the Eastman School of Music and Belmont University, and received the Master of Church Music degree from Belmont. A singer, pianist and conductor, Mrs. MacCallum has directed choirs at the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University, as well as at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Nashville, TN. She is the past president of the Tennessee chapter of the American Choral Directors Association. Jeanette is the author of “The Sacred Choral Works of the Venetian Ospedali,” published by GIA in “Conducting Women’s Choirs: Strategies for Success,” Debra Spurgeon, Editor and Compiler. (2012)
