Board of Directors & Staff

Mark Kemball

Board President

Mark Kemball grew up in a musical family, developing an early love for choral music as a chorister at Guildford Cathedral under Barry Rose and as a choral scholar at Trinity College, Cambridge under Richard Marlow. He holds a M.A. from Cambridge University and, following a move to Portland in the early ‘90s, an M.B.A. from Portland State University. He has sung as a member of Cantores in Ecclesia, the Portland Symphonic Choir and Choral Cross Ties.

Linda Besant

President Elect

Linda Besant graduated from Lewis and Clark College with a Bachelor of Music degree and taught for several years in the Beaverton School District. She left music education to work for the last 40 years in the not-for-profit sector, including co-founding and serving as executive director of Shared Outdoor Adventure Recreation, a therapeutic recreation program for people with physical disabilities; then making a lateral shift to dance history, working with Oregon Ballet Theatre since 2004 as dance historian, outreach speaker and writer. She has served on a number of boards of directors, ranging from the local chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association to the board of her Buddhist community.

Paula Creamer

Board Treasurer

This Paula Creamer is not the famous golfer of the same name. This Paula Creamer led music in churches from age 15, including during her time at Mount Holyoke, where she fell in love with conducting and graduated with a BA in Chemistry. After three years of lab work in academic medicine, she changed music in her life from an avocation to a vocation, finishing a Master of Music in Choral Music from the University of Southern California, and later a DMA in conducting from the University of Washington. She taught music, chemistry and mathematics for 40 years in colleges and then Portland Public Schools. Now retired, she currently sings with Oregon Repertory Singers and is happy to be on the In Mulieribus board.

Kathleen Worley

Board Secretary

Kathleen Worley graduated from Pomona College with a BA in Theatre and received her MFA in Theatre from the University of California at Riverside. Both before and during her thirty years teaching Theatre at Reed College, she performed and/or directed at various theatres in Portland and around the country, including the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Seattle Rep, Artists’ Rep and Profile Theatre. She also sang with community choruses in various places. Shortly after retiring from Reed she was the stage director for In Mulieribus’ “Horae” concert in 2016.

Donna Dermond

Donna holds a Master of Arts in Teaching from Lewis and Clark College. She taught in both public and private schools for 20 years. After her retirement from the classroom, she ran a private tutoring practice for 10 years. She has a BA in English with a minor in music from the University of Montana. She has sung in the Southern Alberta Opera Association, Festival Singers of Canada, Trinity Cathedral choir and the Lewis and Clark College Community Chorale. Most recently she sang in Resonance Ensemble’s premiere of the African American Requiem. She currently serves on the Oregon English Journal editorial board, and is honored to serve on the board of In Mulieribus.

Robert Lockwood

Robert graduated from Yale University in 1977 with a BA in music, but aspired to become a chef. He has worked most of his professional life in food related businesses until retiring from New Seasons Market as Information Systems Manager at the end of 2019. He has continued to pursue his musical interests since graduating from college and was appointed Music Director of The Christmas Revels in 1999. He continued in that position until June 2023 when he became Music Director Emeritus. He is a published choral music composer who has also taught elementary and middle school music at the Franciscan Montessori Earth School, and has sung with several choirs around town. He founded and led early music ensembles in Philadelphia and Portland. Robert is an accomplished home chef and mixologist who loves to entertain guests with his wife of many years, Janet Gibbens.

Chad Southwell

Isabella Vickers

Executive Director

An artist and musician, Isabella serves as Executive Director of In Mulieribus and Director of Operations for Friends of Chamber Music. She has held various leadership roles in arts administration and music education (Oregon Symphony, Oregon Repertory Singers, PSU Music Department, and Childsong Music), and has served on the Boards of Friends of Chamber Music, Corvallis-OSU Symphony, and Abby’s House. A licensed psychotherapist who took a detour into software for college health and counseling, she is very happy to be back at home in music. Isabella is deeply committed to the fundamental role of the arts in our individual and cultural well-being. She believes music has the power to touch its audience in ways that transcend the barriers of language, conflict, and hardship and create a shared experience of beauty, hope, and community. She is dedicated to making high-quality live performance accessible to everyone.

Ilsa Payne

Community Engagement Coordinator

Ilsa received Bachelor’s degrees in Spanish and Studio Art from Eastern Washington University and a Master’s degree in Visual Studies at Pacific Northwest College of Art. She has led a number of community art projects supporting womens’ and youth education in rural communities in El Salvador. Recently, Payne participated in a number of local community art projects, including curating the exhibitions, “Along These Lines” at Alberta Abbey, and “The Familiar Edge of the Unknown” at The Center of Arts and Culture, both in Portland. She enjoys working as a studio artist, curator, and community engagement professional in Portalnd’s nonprofit sector. Her own art practice is centered on formal concerns of color and the concept of shifting inner landscapes, drawing inspiration from her personal experience and histories to create her large-scale abstract works.

Meet our musicians