WAS-H 2023-2024 proposed slate of officers

Karen Stopnicki is a native Houstonian and lifelong artist, who while in the 4th grade convinced her parents to let her to take adult painting classes, and ultimately earned her BA in Art from the University of Texas. She currently runs a busy household that includes her husband, 13-year old son, a cat and a dog, does commissions as a professional artist, and is a consummate volunteer.

A long-time WAS-H member, she is currently serving WAS-H as President and has previously served on the WAS-H Board of Directors in a variety of roles including Public Relations Director, Annual Members Exhibit Director, and Website/Technology Director. She has also served key volunteer roles in the Mark Twain Elementary PTO and the West University Little League Auxiliary.

She will bring business acumen to her role as WAS-H President from her years in corporate advertising and marketing for local and national retailers. “I hope to marry my love for WAS-H with my background and experience to keep the organization heading in a positive direction. We have so much to offer the community, and I look forward to seeing WAS-H full of shows, classes, and events with members and guests.”

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Donna Van Fleet has passion for the arts, project management, and helping organizations thrive, and she is enormously grateful to WAS-H for allowing her to indulge these passions as Co-Vice President and IWE Chair.  A math major who took every art class and was editor of the college newspaper, Donna became an executive at an international computer company and has chaired the boards of an opera company, a school of natural sciences, an adolescent girls’ organization and a hospital.  

I look forward to ongoing collaborations at WAS-H to make life colorful!

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Janet Traylor is a native Houstonian.  She attended University of Houston and received a degree in Accounting.  She then followed her dream of working in the Oil & Gas Industry; she worked for just over six years with Tenneco Oil Company.  When Tenneco sold its position in exploration and production in 1988, she had just had a beautiful baby girl.  Great timing, she became a stay at home mom, volunteering with Service League, tutoring children in math, and holding the position of her church bookkeeper.  She was a ballet mom, Swim mom, and waterpolo mom serving on many boards as needed.  When her daughter left for college she resumed her career in Oil and Gas Accounting at Houston based Enervest, where she retired as Manager of Accounting Advisors in April 2017. 

Her first dabble in Art was in 2006 when she took some classes at the Jung Center in Chinese Brush Painting.  After retiring in 2017 she discovered WAS-H and has taken many classes and major workshops since.  She loves the interaction of the classes at WAS-H, but needs to spend more time working on her art at home on her own.  

            I have enjoyed serving as the secretary on the WAS-H Board for the year 2022-2023.  I am looking forward to getting back to the numbers by switching places with our esteemed current Treasurer Kathleen Cooper for the 2023-2024 Board.

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Kathleen Cooper spent her career in the field of tax accounting and planning, mostly dealing with the international tax issues of major corporations.  She has been the WAS-H treasurer from January, 2021 through the end of the current fiscalyear.  She is now passing the baton, and will work as the Secretary in the coming fiscal year while helping the new Treasurer get acclimated.