Board of Directors

Since joining the Greater Dallas Chapter in 1987, Karen Hamilton has served in all chapter officer positions. At the region level, she honed her EGA experience by serving as treasurer, assistant director, and director, as well as chairing two South Central Region seminars (in 2006 and 2016).

Hamilton assumed the role of EGA’s national Director of Membership & Marketing in September 2015. During her term, she led the effort to rebrand EGA, which resulted in the current logo and branding platform, as well as launching the online promotional presence for the organization. She also implemented the Festival Program for chapter membership recruitment efforts and participated in developing the long-range planning strategies for EGA.

She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Biology from the University of Texas at Austin and has completed many courses in grant writing, fundraising, and nonprofit management. Following ten years of client service work in the advertising field, Hamilton spent thirty-four years in nonprofit management before retiring in late 2020. As Associate Vice President for Advancement & Administration for the Dallas Zoo, she was responsible for membership, marketing and communications, crisis communications management, advertising, development and fundraising, volunteers, and special events. She also was a member of the senior management staff for the organization, which included long-range planning, budgeting, crisis management, and board relations duties.

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Marge Kelly lives in Morristown, New Jersey, with her husband Mike. She has been a member of EGA for more than fifteen years. Marge has been very active in the Metropolitan Region and currently is the region director. Other Metropolitan Region positions she has held include assistant region director, region secretary, nominating committee chair, and region seminar registrar. Her main focus has been in the areas of education, communication, and attracting new members. She started stitching string art and crewel embroidery while in college at the College of St. Vincent, where she majored in mathematics. A friend of hers got Kelly started on counted cross-stitch years ago by telling her “It’s so mathematical. Looks like graph paper.” She has been hooked ever since. She is an avid canvas stitcher and does goldwork, too.

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Kathy Melville did not find EGA until the mid-1990s. When she was young, her mother had her stitch a stamped cross-stitch sampler. That was the extent of her stitching until she took a needlepoint and crewel embroidery class through adult education. “Finding a meeting notice for an EGA-chapter meeting changed my life,” Melville commented. “Meeting like-minded stitchers and taking classes has been very rewarding.”

When Melville moved to Montana, she found a chapter in Billings. She has held various positions in the Midland Empire Chapter. Chapter members have nominated her for the Gold Thread Award. Later, in Cheyenne, Wyoming, she attended her first region board meeting. Melville became region historian and later secretary and region director. In 2003, she attended her first region seminar and the national seminar in Rye, New York. Melville feels a strong commitment to EGA. She has many unfinished projects, but the opportunities to learn new techniques has been tremendous. In the beginning, Melville was familiar only with cross stitch, crewel, and canvaswork; she was amazed to find Hardanger, or nué, and reticella and thanks EGA for keeping them alive.

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Pam Coller has been an EGA member since the early 1980s. She has served in many chapter and region officer positions in the South Central Region and Greater Pacific Region. She also has been on several region seminar committees as well as the 2013 national seminar committee. She previously served as EGA Treasurer (2015–2018) and currently is serving as National Seminar Committee Treasurer.

Coller attended Eastern Michigan University and is an enrolled agent (federally licensed tax practitioner). Before retiring in 2016, she was self-employed as a tax practitioner for twenty years. Prior to that time, Coller worked as an accountant at several CPA firms. She has worked with several nonprofit organizations and has a thorough understanding of nonprofit accounting and tax regulations.

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Since selecting an embroidery kit as her gift for buying Buster Brown shoes at age ten, Weigl has explored almost every embroidery technique. She is an avid needleworker in counted thread, canvaswork, Japanese embroidery, and beading. She is a Master Craftsman in Counted Thread, her favorite genre. Weigl has taught embroidery at the local, region, and national levels. She has served as region director and held almost every local chapter office for the Molly Pitcher Stitchers.

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Val Reece is a founding member of the El Segundo Blue Chapter and has held numerous chapter board positions over the past thirty years. She served on two EGA National Seminar Committees sponsored by the Pacific Southwestern Region.

As EGA Group Correspondence Course Chair, Reece had an opportunity to observe firsthand the work performed by the EGA Director of Education. She has also held several volunteer positions in many other organizations.

Reece retired nine years ago as senior software engineer for Northrop Grumman. Other work included teaching high school math and being a game show contestant.

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An EGA member for twenty-five years, Wendy Lynn has served in a variety of local, region, and national positions, including assistant region director and, currently, as Region Director of the Great Lakes Region. On the EGA Board, Lynn serves on the Personnel Committee and as Youth Membership Chair. Lynn’s focus is trying to make EGA structure and function relevant to both existing and prospective members at the local, region, and national levels.

She graduated from St. Xavier University in Chicago with a B.A. in Organizational Design and from the University of Illinois Chicago with an MBA in Accounting and Finance. Lynn spent thirty-eight years in corporate positions, primarily in human resources. She retired in 2008 as a vice president of CNA Insurance to become president of an all-girls Catholic school in an underserved community in Chicago. Later, she worked for Shedd Aquarium until her final retirement in 2017.

A Chicago native, Lynn and her husband, Art, retired to Wisconsin and are currently living on Washington Island.

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