Meridian Herald

Leadership

Steven Foard Darsey

Steven Foard Darsey

Artistic Director

Steven Foard Darsey holds the Doctor of Musical Arts in Choral Conducting from the School of Music and Institute of Sacred Music at Yale. He also studied musicology and counterpoint with Peter le Huray at Cambridge and conducting with Helmuth Rilling at Stuttgart. He has conducted numerous performances and prepared choruses for Sir David Willcocks and Robert Shaw. He lectures and publishes on the history and practice of church music and his work on Georgia’s famous tunebook, The Sacred Harp, led him to establish a series of worship services with Fred Craddock based on Southern folk hymns. In August 2016, he was pleased to present a lecture for the Chautauqua Institute on the evolution of camp meeting hymnody with Timothy B. Miller.

As a composer, Darsey has written and arranged many works with publications through Lyra Sacra, Lawson-Gould, and World Library music publishers. He completed his oratorio setting of Sidney Lanier’s, “The Marshes of Glynn” in 2009. For his work on Georgia’s Ossabaw Island on this composition, he was named the Sandy West Ossabaw Fellow for 2010. In 2018 he was honored with permission from the Robert Frost Estate to publish his choral song cycle of four Frost poems.

His book, The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: Music and Worship, was published to strong critical notice. Having taught church music at Emory’s Candler School of Theology and served as Music Director for Glenn Memorial United Methodist Church, Mr. Darsey is now Artistic Director for Meridian Herald.

Jane Thorpe

Jane Thorpe

Executive Director

A retired partner of Alston & Bird, Jane Thorpe was one of the most successful and highly regarded mass tort litigators in the U.S. Her strategic defense of industry-leading corporations and industry coalitions, particularly Daubert strategies, led to national recognition on numerous occasions.

Throughout her 35 years of law practice and in her retirement, Jane has served on and chaired the boards of local and international nonprofits, including The Task Force for Global Health, Meridian Herald, and Capitol Area Mosaic, and she has served on the Boards of Visitors for both the University of Georgia and Emory University. Jane was honored by the Atlanta Business Chronicle in 2015 as Outstanding Director for her work with The Task Force for Global Health, and in 2017 was named Arts Advocate for Emory University.

While maintaining a principal residence in Atlanta, Jane and her family have a cabin in West Yellowstone, Montana, where they enjoy fishing, hiking, and other pursuits in the Yellowstone area. Jane was accepted by and attended the Iowa Writers’ Workshop in 2011. Jane is married to R. Wayne Thorpe, an arbitrator and mediator with JAMS. She has two adult children, Scott and Sara, and two grandchildren, Ella Jane and Will.

Board of Directors & Advisors

Board of Directors

F. Stuart Gulley, Ph.D, Chair
President, Woodward Academy

Caitlin Dean, Treasurer
Executive Assistant to HM Consul General, British Consulate-General, Atlanta

Poul Olson, Secretary
Head, US Marketing, for Initiative

Barbara Antley
Choral Singer

Aaron Block
Partner (Products Liability), Alston & Bird

Susan Forte
Altar Guild Chairperson, United Methodist Church

Glenn Kellum
Special Assistant, General Board of Global Ministries/The United Methodist Church

Ted McMullan
President, Covington Investments

Timothy Miller
Tenor singer and Instructor in Voice, Morehouse College

Iris Tien
Williams Family Associate Professor, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Advisory Board

Rev. Dr. Dwight Andrews, Chair
Pastor, First Congregational Church UCC, Atlanta
Professor of Music, Emory University
Composer, Jazzman, Statesman

Paul H. Anderson, Jr.
Attorney

Sally Sears Belcher
Television Journalist

James R. Gibson, Jr.
Pianist, Producer, Businessman, Professor

Gary S. Hauk, Ph.D.
University Historian, Emeritus, Emory University

Carol McGriff
Attorney

Cindy Runyon
Librarian (retired)

Rev. Allan Sandlin
Episcopal Clergy, Musician

Emily Washburn
Attorney, Educator

Wade H. Watson III
Attorney, Musician

Charles Woods
Musician, Educator