Before co-founding The Performing Arts Project, Kim Slade served as Program Director of Broadway Theatre Project. In addition to working at BTP in various capacities for 20 years, she has also worked as a producer, director and actress. She produced and cast live Industrial shows for a huge range of national clients including companies such as Land Rover, Nortel, CNA and MacGregor Golf. As a member of Actor’s Equity, Kim’s performance credits include featured roles in Alice in Wonderland, Chicago, The Heidi Chronicles, Lies and Legends, The Music of Harry Chapin, An Enemy of the People, Christmas in New York, The Dining Room, The Fantasticks, Going to See the Elephant, Portrait of a Madonna, An Actor’s Nightmare and An Evening with Tennessee Williams. Kim has also produced and/or performed in numerous film, TV and commercial projects, including the children’s television program Big Fun, Little Playhouse and the feature film Curdled starring William Baldwin. Her commercial clients include Holiday Inn Hotels and Eckerd Drugstore chain. She is a graduate of the University of Tampa and studied theater at the University of Florida and the Burt Reynolds Institute and Theatre in Jupiter, FL, where she also performed as a Resident Company Member.

Juliet Gray’s acting, directing, producing and writing career has taken her to many spectacular places all over the world. Theater highlights include: a year as a company member at the Burt Reynolds Theatre where she wrote and debuted Where’s Romeo?, which Mr. Reynolds helped develop; performing stand-up at The Comedy Store in LA; working on numerous projects with her mentor Ann Reinking, including Paul Newman’s Hole in the Wall Gang Camp benefit and Broadway Theatre Project, which Juliet left after 20 years of involvement to co-found The Performing Arts Project; performing improv as a company member at Upright Citizen’s Brigade; directing and producing numerous shows and fundraisers including the annual Short Attention Span Theatre at the Red Barn Theatre in Key West and The Laramie Project, starring Romaine Patterson as herself in NYC with Back House Productions. Juliet has written more than 1,000 articles for AOL, Delta Sky, Glamour and NBC, among others, and a travel book on the Florida Keys for Globe Pequot Press. She is a proud graduate of Salem College and is the editor of 10outof12.com.

Banner Huggins is the founder and managing partner of BANNER Events, a San Antonio based family-owned business offering special event and fundraising consulting, convention management and planning. BANNER Events was founded in March 2012 and clients thus far have included local non-profits as well as national organizations such as Spurs Sports & Entertainment and The Performing Arts Project.
After graduating from Salem College with a degree in Business Administration, Banner launched her career in event planning in Raleigh, NC as a membership coordinator at Olson Management Group, an association management company. Through the years she has gained experience in convention management, finance, and strategic planning, where she became the executive director for numerous clients including Multi-housing Laundry Association (MLA), Mid-Atlantic Newspaper Advertising Marketing Executives (NAME), American Society of Cytotechnology (ASCT) and the ASCT Foundation. In 1999, Banner relocated to Florida to manage special events for the Republican Party of Florida, including elements of the 54th Presidential Inauguration and the 2003 Florida Gubernatorial Inauguration. Banner moved to San Antonio, Texas in 2003 and shortly thereafter she joined the Community Relations staff of Spurs Sports & Entertainment (SS&E) where she managed events on behalf of the Spurs Foundation such as golf tournaments, 5K race events, luncheons, in-arena and online auctions as well as the city’s premier fundraiser the annual Tux ‘N Tennies Dinner & Auction.
In addition to her work with the Spurs Foundation (newly named Silver & Black Give Back), Banner has been the Lead Volunteer for We Serve Too, a group of children at Watts Elementary in Schertz, Texas, who have a parent deployed for military service. In 2012, the group was awarded one of five $20,000 cash prizes for community programming from Silver & Black Give Back to expand their program to other schools in their school district. Other recent experience includes Banner’s participation in the Emerging Leaders Program at the Bush School of Government & Public Service at Texas A&M University and being involved with the San Antonio Non-Profit Council. She is the recipient of the OMG Outreach Award for outstanding client service and was also appointed by the SS&E Executive Management to serve on the New Perspectives Committee, to help create financially successful endeavors for SS&E such as the Overtime Concert Series.
Banner is currently working to obtain her Certified Meeting Professional (CMP) certification and spends her free time with family, mostly with her husband of 19 years, Craig, and their two boys, Cole (9) and Cody Mack (5). She lives and works in Schertz, Texas, a suburb of San Antonio.

Mary Frances Leto Granell was born and raised in Tampa, FL. In 1960 she began her dance training at the Frank Rey Dance Studio. She continued her dance studies at the University of South Florida while pursuing a B.A. in Secondary Social Studies and Humanities Education. She also holds an M.A. in Educational Leadership from Nova Southeastern University. In 1973 Mary Frances became a soloist with the Florida Ballet Theatre and performed roles such as the Spanish Variation in The Nutcracker, the Empress in The Emperor’s New Clothes, Little Bo Peep in Babes In Toyland and Swan Lake staged by William Martin-Viscount. She also had the pleasure of working with the great Myra Kynch, performing in Giselle’s Revenge and dancing the role of Anne in The Six Mrs. Tudors. Over the years Mary Frances has studied tap with Charles Kelley and Flamenco with Jose Molina. She has worked with the Spanish Lyric Theater as a performer and choreographer for SLT productions of Fiddler on the Roof, The King and I, and No No Nanette. A teacher with Hillsborough County Schools for 33 years, Mary Frances has spent 26 years teaching at Gaither High School, where she was voted Teacher of the Year in 2003. She began Gaither’s dance team, the Starettes, and has continued to choreograph for them and other Gather’s Musical Theatre Department productions. She is currently a Peer Evaluator with the district’s Empowering Effective Teachers Program. In 2001 Mary Frances became owner of the Frank Rey Dance Studio, where she continues to carry on the “Tradition of Quality” established by her teacher and mentor, Frank Rey.