Leadership
Dr. Cassie Patterson
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Dr. Cassie Rosita Patterson (she/her/hers) received her PhD from the Department of English with a Graduate Interdisciplinary Specialization in Folklore at Ohio State University. Dr. Patterson served as the Associate Director of the Center for Folklore Studies and Director of the Folklore Archives from 2012-2021.
Dr. Patterson is a first-generation Salvadoran American who grew up in southern California and moved to Ohio to attend graduate school at Ohio State University in 2007.
Dr. Patterson co-created the Ohio Field School (with her colleague, Dr. Katherine Borland), an integrated community engagement program, archival collection, and service-learning course that asked, How do Ohioans create a sense of place in a changing environment? She quickly fell in love with southern Ohio and decided to move to Scioto County to delve deeper into collaborative, community-based participatory and action research approaches.
Dr. Patterson lives in Shawnee State Forest with her partner Brian and two dogs, Willa and Sounder. She enjoys reading, exploring the woods, and chronicling the vernal pool in her backyard.
Photo credit: Profe Elena Foulis.
Julia Biggs
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Julia is a passionate advocate for the intersection of culture, health, and community heritage. As the founder of Kitchen Collective, a nonprofit shared kitchen based in Portsmouth, Ohio, she works at the forefront of local food security and community empowerment.
Julia’s professional background is rooted in a commitment to well-being and safety, holding a Bachelor of Arts in Community Health from Morehead State University and a Master of Science in Occupational Safety and Health from Eastern Kentucky University. Her academic and professional experiences provide a unique lens through which she views the sustainability and vitality of regional food systems.
Deeply invested in the stories behind our plates, Julia is dedicated to preserving Appalachian foodways and celebrating the traditions that have shaped the region’s identity. As a member of the Southern Ohio Folklife Board of Trustees, she looks forward to highlighting the heritage of the past while exploring the evolving future of food and its role in our shared culture.
Iraís García
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Iraís García is a Marketing and Design professional with more than ten years of experience managing design projects across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Iraís is also experienced in leading the marketing campaigns for Southern Ohio Folklife where she maintains the branding and development of graphic material for social media.
Iraís is a native of Guadalajara, Mexico, and has lived in the Southern Ohio region for more than two years. While in Ohio, she studied at Shawnee State University and participated in many events sponsored by the University’s Center for International Programs and Study Abroad. In addition, Iraís has a Bachelor’s Degree in Interior Design from the University of Guadalajara’s School of Architecture and Design.
Iraís is passionate about embracing the Latin community in Southern Ohio and finding ways to shine a light on Latin culture within the community.
Chris Moore
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Chris Moore has served as a board member and treasurer since September 2026.
A long time member of the Portsmouth and southern Ohio community, Chris has built his career around relationship-building, community engagement, fundraising, and organizational development.
Chris currently serves as a Business Development Officer with First State Bank. Previously, he served as Executive Director of the Shawnee State University Foundation, leading fundraising and advancement efforts in support of the university and its students.
He is a 1999 graduate of Central Washington University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Political Science. Chris is active in civic and community organizations and believes strongly in the role localinstitutions and nonprofits play in strengthening communities. As Treasurer, he brings hisexperience in non-profit leadership, fundraising, and financial stewardship to Southern Ohio Folklife’s work
Liza Jane Boggz
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Liza Jane Boggz is a multi-generational Appalachian artist, born and raised in Portsmouth, Ohio and living in commune with other local artists and musicians.
Lucky to have experienced the area's influential art and punk scene of the 90's, Liza is in pursuit of photos, music and stories to document a time and place that became a subcultural movement.
Currently, she is in the process of studying and rendering a series of artworks depicting and incorporating the myths, legends, symbolism and folklore of the area.
Sarah Craycraft
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Sarah is a PhD candidate in the Department of Comparative Studies, where she specializes in folklore and contemporary East European studies. Her dissertation investigates intergenerational connections to place and projects as format for Bulgarian village revitalization. She is passionate about the creative, activist, and grassroots networks of young people in Bulgaria and Appalachia, as well as the (self) documentation of this work.
Sarah approaches the study of youth cultural practices and rural initiatives through a comparative lens, asking how the critical comparison of experiences can offer greater insight into the particularities of distinct contexts.
She is the co-creator of "Open Wardrobes," a documentation and photography project which explores the textile collections and intimate stories of women in Bulgarian villages. Sarah grew up in grew up in Brown County, Ohio.
Sarah Diamond Burroway
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Sarah Diamond Burroway is a writer and native of northeast Kentucky who lives in the blue-collar community where she was born. She believes everyone has a story and that all stories have value and deserve to be told. Her essays and poems have appeared in Still: The Journal, The Bitter Southerner, Worcester Journal, the Women of Appalachia Project's anthologies, and other publications. Sarah’s plays and monologues have been produced in Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, New York, and California. She earned a Master of Fine Art in Creative Nonfiction from Eastern Kentucky University's Bluegrass Writers Studio ('19.) Her thesis manuscript is a collection of personal and narrative essays titled, “23: The Appalachian Foothills People, Place, and the Opioid Epidemic.”
A former radio journalist and higher education administrator, Sarah leads grants and contracts for a nationally-facing nonprofit which is focused on public data for good. She loves living near the Ohio River and the people of the Central Appalachia region.
ID: Headshot of Sarah Diamond Burroway appears smiling in this photo, and wears dark framed glasses. Her light red hair is graying and touches her shoulder. A bouquet of heirloom flowers is seen in the photo, offset behind her. She is wearing a black shirt, a salmon-colored cardigan, and a silver chain around her neck.
Dr. Sophia Enriquez
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Dr. Sophia M. Enriquez (she/her) is a Chicana-Appalachian scholar and musician. Dr. Enriquez is Assistant Professor of Music at Duke University and teaches in the porgram for Latinx Studies in the Global South. She earned her PhD in Ethnomusicology at Ohio State University in 2020. Sophia's dissertation, “Canciones de Los Apalaches: Latinx Music, Migration, and Belonging in Appalachia,” explores the interactions of Latin-American and Appalachian folk music traditions and Latinx community and migration in the Appalachian region/U.S. South more broadly. Her work also documents her family's musical migration narrative from the U.S.-Mexico border, to the Mississippi Delta, to Southern Ohio. Building disciplinary relationships across Latinx studies, Appalachian studies, and ethnomusicology, Sophia's work sheds light on the complexities of the shifting U.S. cultural landscape and offers new perspectives on Latinx community and belonging through music.
Sophia has been involved in a number of public folklore projects and is passionate about building relationships across higher education institutions and local communities. As a teacher, Sophia encourages students to explore these communities and the value of the arts and humanities in a global context. Her teaching praxis is informed by Latinx and Women of Color feminisms that provide students with the tools to make sense of complicated histories and contemporary concerns.
Sophia is a practitioner of Appalachian and Mexican folk musics (including bluegrass, mariachi, and canción ranchera) and performs in Columbus, Ohio as part of the Good Time Girls, a female folk trio that writes original music inspired by intersectional experiences.
Zachary Greene
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Zachary Greene is the Director of Academic and Inclusive Excellence at the Richard A. Gillespie College of Veterinary Medicine of Lincoln Memorial University. He spent seven years teaching Spanish and World Cultures at J. Frank White Academy, where he won several awards for his teaching and community engagement with students. He is a Fulbright Scholar, a licensed teacher, and a licensed administrator. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Spanish, a bachelor’s degree in Humanities, and a minor in Theology. He completed his master’s degree in education (Curriculum & Instruction) at Carson-Newman University and holds an Education Specialist degree (Instructional Leadership) from Lincoln Memorial University.
As a Appalachian Spanish-speaker with years of experience in Latin America, he organizes The Mountain Fiesta, a seven-year-old community engagement project and festival that builds and maintains cultural bridges between diverse populations in the region. He has devoted the last fifteen years of his life to advising, teaching, and developing young people into compassionate and engaged members of their community and our world.
Franklin Harris IV
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Franklin Harris IV is a graduate of Portsmouth High School who is currently attending Ohio University. He is a First Gen college student pursuing a Bachelor's Degree in Computer Engineering.
Franklin enjoys art, tinkering with electronics (especially computers), reading, and music.
He has previously worked with Community Action on their Summer Food Program and as a Custodial Assistant for Portsmouth Elementary. He has also worked with Future Plans with the Grit Program.
His mission is to live his life to the best of his ability.
Former Board Members
Elena Foulis . Founding Chair of the Board, 2020-2026
Barbara Bradbury . Founding Secretary of the Board, 2020-2026
Susan Eleuterio . Founding Treasurer of the Board, 2020-2026
Steve Free . Founding Board Member, 2020-2026
J.D. Emnett . 2023-2026
Edwin Martell . 2023-2026