BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Kansas Ballet Leadership
Robin Wolgast
Board Chair
Robin Wolgast
Ms. Wolgast moved to Topeka with her family in 2009 after living and working in New York City for more than 20 years. She has an extensive background in media and marketing and has served in various organizations as vice president for marketing, senior creative director, and managing director. Most recently, after transitioning to the non-profit sector, she was responsible for securing gifts of more than $1 million as senior major and planned giving officer for Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. She is a graduate of Vassar College, studied architecture at Cornell University and continues to be an active volunteer for both schools. She also serves on boards at Topeka Collegiate School and Friends of the Topeka Zoo.
Bill Tregemba
Vice-Chair/Treasurer
Bill Tregemba
Mr. Tregemba is currently the senior vice president of commercial lending at Capital City Bank. He graduated from Baker University with a degree in Business Administration and earned a degree from the Graduate School of Banking at the University of Wisconsin. He’s worked for several Topeka banks since moving to the city in 1983. Additionally, he has served as treasurer of the non-profit MBT and is a member of the Topeka West Rotary.
Angela Smith
Secretary
Angela Smith
Ms. Smith is the manager of financial accounting at Westar Energy. She’s served as financial adviser for Sigma Chapter of Zeta Tau Alpha at Baker University in Baldwin City, Kansas; as treasurer of the Lawrence Area alumni chapter of Zeta Tau Alpha; and as a board member for MBT. Additionally, Ms. Smith has completed several years of intensive classical ballet training. She started at age 9 and continued through high school.
Kevin Doel
Kevin Doel
Mr. Doel is a native Topekan who serves as the director of communications for the Kansas Department of Commerce. He also owned and operated his own public relations practice for 19 years, which served mobile application developers. In 2006, Mr. Doel founded Topeka’s business magazine, TK Magazine, which he later sold to e2 Communications. Kevin's wife, Donna, operates her own piano teaching studio. They have two children. Caroline danced with Topeka Ballet and Kansas Ballet from age 6 through graduation, and son Connor is a student at Washburn Rural High School.
Kevin earned a BS in Management and Ethics from Dallas Christian College and completed a graduate program at The Institute for Civic Discourse and Democracy at Kansas State University.
Jennifer Goetz
Jennifer Goetz
Ms. Goetz graduated from the University of Kansas in 2003 with a degree in graphic design. She went on to receive an MBA from Baker University in 2013. A native Kansan, Ms. Goetz is an active and ardent supporter of arts, small business and community betterment. She regularly finds herself assisting small business with graphic design, social media engagement, and business growth. After the birth of her daughter Jillian in 2010, ballet quickly became an activity they naturally gravitated toward.
Jennifer also serves on the ARTSConnect marketing board, serves as the KU Alumni Marching Band Board President, is a SilverThumbs team leader and was the event director for Discover the Edge, a benefit for Kansas Children’s Discovery Center.
Deborah Sturgeon
Deborah Sturgeon
Ms. Sturgeon grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and has lived in Texas, Colorado, and Hawaii. She has been involved with Kansas Ballet since 2012 and has been the Fundraising Chair for the past three years. Her volunteer work for children has involved several organizations over the years, including Realities for Children, The Harmony house, Beta Sigma Phi, and People to People Ambassadors.
Ms. Sturgeon spent more than a decade in the marketing and sales division for Verizon Wireless. In 2005, her career brought her family to Topeka, where she worked with corporate accounts in Northeastern Kansas. She’s since returned to her love of teaching and is currently employed by the Seaman School District. Ms. Sturgeon has a bachelor’s degree from Washburn University and a master’s from Friends University in Wichita.
Past Chairs
Joe Pennington
Joe Pennington
Mr. Pennington graduated from Washburn Tech with a specialty in engineering and began working at Stevenson Company, Inc. in 1991. He’s currently on the board of the Sheet Metal Apprenticeship Program in Kansas City, Missouri.
Clark W. Trammell
Clark W. Trammell
Mr. Trammell has more than 45 years of successful experience in business, banking, transportation, and economic development. He has a BSBA from Sacred Heart Junior College (now Newman University) with undergraduate work at Wichita State University.
