Celtic Junction Arts Center

Cormac is a Dublin native with a 50 year legacy behind him in Irish dance, music and language. An original cast member of Riverdance, The Show, he is the founder of both the Celtic Junction (2009) and O’Shea Irish Dance (2005) and performs around the world on accordion for major Irish Dance championships. He has been the Celtic Junction venue’s concerts and booking manager for ten years, bringing master artists and world-class touring bands to St. Paul.  Cormac has twenty years of touring production experience and a decade of managing commercial construction projects. Cormac brings all of his experience to bear when he and his wife purchased and remodeled the building known as The Celtic Junction and continues to do so as CJAC’s Building management and operations. Cormac is also a member of Dublin’s An Coimisiún, serving as the representative to the MidAmerica region.

Write Cormac at Cormac@celticjunction.org

Jo Ann Vano is a media consultant committed to supporting community organizations. She previously served as president of the board at KFAI radio and is a founding board member and president of the board of the African Development Center of Minnesota. She also serves on the board of the Center for Irish Music and is chair of CIM’s Harvest Home and Minnesota Irish Music Weekend. Jo Ann serves on the Celtic Junction Arts Center Board of Directors as its Vice-President and also provides additional assistance with marketing and print media. Jo Ann is a dedicated student of the Irish button accordion and plays regularly in sessions around the Twin Cities.

Write Jo Ann at development@celticjunction.org

Nathan recently joined the Celtic Junction Arts Center Board of Directors as Treasurer. Nathan is currently working as the church administrator for the University Lutheran Church of Hope near the University of Minnesota campus. Nathan previously spent the last 30 years managing stores in the college bookstore industry in the Twin Cities. He has helped transition physical store locations and train management teams in over a dozen locations during his career. He is a guitar enthusiast and has always loved Irish music and culture. He is currently volunteering as a photographer for Irondale Bands and Irondale Nordic Ski Team. He also volunteers as a swim team coach for a local school. Nathan is an avid outdoor enthusiast who enjoys teaching canoeing, kayaking and outdoor/environmental wilderness skills with his family and friends.

Write Nathan at treasurer@celticjunction.org

Jim brings years of interaction with the Minnesota Irish community. An award-winning journalist, he worked for nearly 30 years at the St. Paul Pioneer Press as both an editor and reporter, among which duties he was an entertainment reporter covering pop, rock and country music, which lead to an appreciation for traditional ethnic music of all types, including Celtic music. He holds both Bachelor and Master of Science Journalism degrees (with an emphasis in popular-arts criticism) from Iowa State University. As a freelancer, he also edited and wrote music and record reviews for the St. Paul-based Irish Gazette newspaper. His other journalistic experience includes being editor of The History Channel Magazine (a licensed publication produced in the Twin Cities area with and for A&E Television; was also executive director of The History Channel Club), and editing a B2B magazine for the Industrial Fabrics Association International. His other volunteer work includes reading for clients of the Minnesota State Services for the Blind. Tarbox also announces shows for various local and regional “pageantry arts” competitions, including the annual Youth in Music marching-band competition, which includes the Minnesota state high-school championships. He also serves as drum major for St. Paul’s Brian Boru Irish Pipe Band, with which he has performed since 1975. His past board experience includes serving with the Minnesota Media and Publishing Association and Minnesota Brass Drum and Bugle Corps.

Greg sits on the Celtic Junction Arts Center Board of Directors where he serves as community outreach liaison. Greg has many neighborhood connections due, in part, to his three years serving on the Hamline-Midway Coalition Board of Directors. He is a founder and chair of the annual Midway Holiday Pop Up Shop - a successful Small Business Saturday event.  He discovered our community via his children’s involvement in Irish music and dance - he’s been a “Dance & Music Dad” for eight years. Greg has worked on a wide variety of CJAC projects, from grants for recycling to sourcing and setting up the PCs used in CJAC’s McKiernan Library. Greg, along with his wife Christine, manages sales and inventory at the CJ Cafe. Greg holds a degree in Retail, Merchandising, and Management from MCTC. 

Steven Griffith taught in the theatre and dance department at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota for 27 years. For many of those years, Steve was chair of the department. While at Gustavus, he taught courses in Irish theatre and history, theatre design, stagecraft, and arts management. Steve has designed for over 150 theatre productions. He lived in Dublin in the early 1990s while doing research on the Abbey Theatre. Steve has led 10 college study abroad tours to Ireland and visited the island many more times. He has a BA and MFA in theatre, and a Ph.D. in higher education policy. From 2006 to 2016 Steve served as Senior Vice President and Academic Dean at Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa. He currently teaches drama classes in the Celtic Junction Arts Center's Irish College of Minnesota and is serves on the board of Out of the Irish Mist Celtic Theatre in St. Paul.

Áine McCormack is a lifelong resident of the Twin Cities and a graduate of the University of Minnesota (B.A. Sociology and History). She is a community health professional with the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study (ARIC) in the University’s School of Public Health and a freelance writer. Áine writes on local history (Ramsey County History Magazine), her Irish roots and family history (Irish America, Irish Lives Remembered), and vision loss (Dialogue Magazine). Áine first visited Ireland in 1988 on the Irish Way summer program for American high school students and returns every few years to connect with friends and family. Áine volunteers as a Peer Mentor at Vision Loss Resources in Minneapolis and lives in St. Paul’s Cathedral Hill neighborhood.

Mary McCormick spent her career in international business law. She began with the law firm of Baker & McKenzie. For seventeen years, she was in-house counsel, first as Asia Pacific Group Counsel for Honeywell, Inc. (computer and controls divisions), and eight years later, International Counsel for Cray Research, Inc. (supercomputer manufacturer). Thereafter, she had a private solo practice and served as an international arbitrator for the American Arbitration Association. She taught International Contracts for five years at the University of Minnesota Law School, and Legal Aspects of International Business for three years at Metropolitan State University. She has lived in England and toured Ireland three times. She has been taking writing classes for the past ten years.