Board of Directors and Studio Manager

Barbara Hoppe, President of the OSAG Board, has a law degree from MU and an undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan, majoring in Education and History & minoring in Political Science. She taught High School for several years in Michigan before getting her law degree. She led the effort to Save Stephens Lake and Co-Chaired the Committee to successfully pass the first Columbia ParkSales Tax in 2000. She worked for the Dept. of Revenue as an attorney for 3 years after getting her law degree and then as a Public Defender for about 25 years. She also served as 6th Ward City Council Member for 9 years, from 2006-2015. Barbara has served on many non-profit boards, including being president of the Greenbelt Land Trust of Mid-Missouri, and the League of Women Voters Columbia Boone County.

Email: Director@orrstreetstudios.com

Donna Checkett joined the OSAG Board in January 2024. She has a master’s degree in public administration and a BA in interdisciplinary studies from MU, with a second master’s degree in social work from the University of Texas at Austin. Her husband, Chris Teeter, is a local artist and former Board Member who created the 16 doors at Orr Street Studios. She is serving her 6th year as a director for the Missouri Foundation for Health and recently served two years as the Board Chair. She is a nationally recognized health policy expert, with expertise in Medicaid programs, was a past Missouri Medicaid Director for 8 years, Chaired the National Association of Medicaid Directors, held executive positions with Aetna, one of the nation’s largest health insurance companies, and worked nationally as a health policy consultant – focusing on access for low-income and marginalized populations. She also has served on other boards and committees – local, state and national.

Tom Stauder, Board Member and Treasurer, received his bachelor’s of science in education/mathematics (1983), followed by his master’s of accountancy (1996) from the University of Missouri. He is a licensed CPA in the state of Missouri. He has been a full-time faculty member of Columbia College since 1999. Prior to that he was an auditor in the Missouri State Auditor’s Office. He is also a master woodworker artist and has won many first Prizes at the Boone County Art Show and elsewhere.

https://www.stauderwood.com

Martha Daniels is OSAG Board Member & Board Secretary. She has a BA from Truman State in Mass Communications and retired from the Missouri Department of Conservation, as Exhibits Coordinator, Outreach and Eduction. She is an active artist who also does consulting and freelance services for exhibit design, graphic design, writing, editing, and illustration.

Robert Friedman, is an artist and OSAG Board Member. He has an undergraduate degree from MU. As a graduate student at MU, Friedman majored in ceramics and minored in printmaking and drawing. He was a assistant professor and gallery director at Stephens College for many years, and was one of four artists along with Frank Stack, Jeffrey Moore and Byron Smith who ran Grindstone Studios at Orr Street.

Mike Sleadd is an OSAG Board Member, one of the original Orr Street Studio Artists and has served on the Board since then. He was Chair of the Department of Visual Arts and Music at Columbia College for 10 years and taught a variety of art classes for 34 years, including graphic design, advanced drawing, printmaking and illustration. Mike received his M.F.A in drawing and graphic design from the University of Missouri, and B.A. in studio art from Georgetown College. Now Professor Emeritus, Mike works daily in his home studio and exhibits widely. He was previously on the Office of Cultural Affairs Committee, Access Arts Board, and Columbia Art League Board.

https://www.mikesleadd.com

Carrie is a geologist with over 20 years experience in interdisciplinary research on the Missouri River. She has an interest in the intersection of science and art, both through using art and design to communicate science and in using themes from science and the natural world to inspire art. She works in a variety of media explored many different types of art and craft, particularly in fiber arts, quilting, and printmaking. Carrie has worked with local festivals to create large-scale installations and participated and designed merchandise for local non-profit organizations.

Professor Peters is an Orr Street Studios Artist and a OSS Board Member (starting Jan. 2026).

He is a Ruth L. Hulston Professor Emeritus of Law and taught at MU from 1986 to 2017. He is an expert in medical malpractice law and medical malpractice reform. Professor Peters served for many years as a member and then president of the board of the directors of the Family Health Center, a clinic whose doors are open to everyone regardless of their ability to pay.

His other area of scholarly interest were the identification of educational reforms with the greatest potential to reduce racial achievement disparities. Professor Peters took a two-year leave of absence from the School of Law to be the Executive Director of First Chance for Children, a local nonprofit organization dedicated to reducing educational disparities by improving the start that low-income children get before they enter kindergarten. He currently serves on the Board of the Cradle to Career Alliance, a nonprofit that fosters better collaboration among community agencies fighting achievement disparities.

Professor Peters graduated with honors from Harvard College in 1972, received a Rotary Fellowship for advanced study at the University of Edinburgh, and went to law school at the University of California at Berkeley, where he received his J.D., Order of the Coif (top 10%) in 1976. While teaching an MU, Professor Peters spent a semester as a visiting scholar at Cambridge University in England.

He began his career as a trial lawyer in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice and then spent several years in private practice before joining the MU faculty.

Sarah Nguyen is a mixed media artist, working primarily with paper. Storytelling is central to her hand cut-fiber panels and paintings. Her work has appeared in numerous national and international solo and group exhibitions and publications. Her work has been part of exhibitions in museums and festivals including (but not limited to) Seattle’s Wing Luke Museum of Asian Pacific Experience, the Daum Museum, Pyramid Hill Sculpture Grounds and Museum, the Truman Museum, Cheekwood Estates & Gardens, and Kansas City’s 2018 Open Spaces. She has taken part in a number of artist residencies from around the world as a visiting artist and teacher including Serbia, Bulgaria, Japan, and France, as well as the United States.

Sarah has worked as an Art Instructor, Illustrator, Book Designer, and Art Installations Curator for True/False Film Fest and now is serving as Orr’s St Studios’ Studio Manager.

Sarah received her BFA in Illustration from Rhode Island School of Design and her MFA in Painting from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.

https://www.sarahnguyenart.com/