Board of Directors

Elaine Durst

Chair

Elaine Durst is a native Portlander whose love of music was fostered in a home filled with music and singing. Her professional career included media and account management in both local and national advertising agencies. She moved into the television industry becoming Director, Marketing & Sales, assisting with the growth and application of audience research. She served on the Client Advisory Council of a national marketing research company. Elaine helped establish Oregon’s Ethics In Business Awards; she has also served on several non-profit boards, including Friends of Chamber Music and Metropolitan Family Services. Her radio dial is glued to All Classical Radio.

Isaac Montes

Vice Chair

Isaac Montes is the Founder & Principal of Hyphen Strategies LLC, an independent consultancy helping organizations build stronger, more sustainable businesses. He brings 20+ years’ experience driving business innovation and social impact for Fortune 500 companies (Nike, Warner Music Group), international nonprofits, and the UN. Isaac received an MBA and MA in Sustainable Development from The Heller School of Social Policy & Management at Brandeis University. He is a proud first-generation, Cuban–American and currently lives in Portland with his partner Jason and their 2-year old twins. 

Sarah Robinson

Treasurer

Sarah Robinson is a Portland native who has loved the arts since she was a tiny tot. Her passion for art has continued to blossom over her lifetime, and she now enjoys being crafty while listening to ICAN with her children. When she’s not behind a sewing machine or canvas, Sarah is a Senior Wealth Advisor for Focus Partners Wealth. Prior to their merger in 2025, Sarah was a Principal and Wealth Advisor for Adero Partners. As a licensed investment advisor representative and a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional, she specializes in financial planning with an emphasis on retirement income, cash flow analysis and risk management. She believes every successful client relationship is based on trust which is earned through consistent performance and exceeding expectations. In addition to supporting All Classical she currently serves as Trustee of the Albertina Kerr Foundation.

Susan Nielsen

Secretary

Susan Nielsen is a lifelong Portlander who loves both the cultural city and the natural world around it. She has listened to classical music (and jazz!) since childhood when her mother’s collection of 78 rpm records turned on a suitcase record player. These days, she lives on a small farm near Beavercreek, OR where she has over the years kept chickens, rare breeds of ducks, geese, turkeys, rabbits, and a small flock of Jacob sheep along with honeybees, llamas, and a fine old mule. In between things she is a handspinner and knitter, a hiker, gardener, hobby photographer, flyfisher, and sometimes a poet. She has served on the boards of Portland’s Storefront Theatre, of Clackamas County’s Library District, and the board of Astoria’s Liberty Theatre. Susan also supports Oregon Food Bank. She believes the arts speak for the richness of human life and knows you cannot learn to be a complete human being if you are hungry. In the challenging times we face today, she is delighted with the opportunity to serve All Classical Radio, one of the city’s enduring gifts to the people.

Greg Arntson

Director

Greg Arntson was born and raised in Portland, and is an avid outdoorsman, hiker, fisherman, and skier. Greg is currently the President of Albina Holdings, (a fourth-generation family owned company), and former VP/GM of Albina Asphalt, serving the West Coast. Greg served in the US Army, and was stationed in Germany in the early 1980s. Greg lives with his wife Beth on their farm in Brush Prairie, WA.

Nancy Ives

Director

Nancy Ives is a composer and cellist based in Portland, Oregon, widely admired as “one of Oregon’s most prominent and accomplished classical musicians” (The Oregonian). Her career of ongoing artistic leadership includes more than twenty-five years as Principal Cellist of the Oregon Symphony, collaborations with virtually all of the region’s premier performance organizations, and a history of service within the cultural community. Long recognized for her deep commitment to new music, Ives has developed a body of work that reflects a sustained engagement with the natural world, history, and human relationships to place. Her music has been performed by orchestras and ensembles across the United States and in Europe, including the Oregon Symphony, Denver Philharmonic Orchestra, and Orchestre National de Bretagne. Recent projects include the multimedia orchestral work Celilo Falls, premiered by the Oregon Symphony in 2025, as well as Immortal Beloved, a violin concerto premiered by an eight-member commissioning consortium.

Ives is the founder of Mahonia Music, a record label and publishing company dedicated to championing composers of the Pacific Northwest. She is also a co-founder of Classical Up Close, which expands access to live classical music by bringing intimate performances into neighborhood settings, and she has served on the boards of the Oregon Symphony and the Oregon Cello Society. She currently serves on the Boards of Directors of All Classical Radio and Resonance Ensemble.

Joan Kingsley

Director

Joan Kingsley is a native Oregonian with a lifelong love of all things classical—in no small part due to the fine work of All Classical Radio. As a founder of the Portland Spirit, she’s been an active member of the Portland business community for more than 30 years. She has served on the boards of the Broadway Rose Theater Company, Planned Parenthood of the Columbia Willamette, and the Community Arts Project of the Oregon North Coast. With a radio dial enthusiastically tuned to 89.9, Joan is particularly interested in engaging a younger generation with the magic of classical music.

Olivia Kingsley

Director

Olivia Kingsley is a writer and creative strategist. While growing up in Portland she studied classical voice, attended the Portland Opera, and performed top-notch theater at Jesuit High School. She attended Wellesley College, where she was a fellow at the Madeleine Korbel Albright Institute for Global Affairs. The experience fostered her interest in building local, progressive arts organizations. As a founding alumni of the San Francisco Neo-Futurists ensemble, she created theater for runs in Edinburgh, Adelaide, New York, London, and San Francisco. Currently, she directs brand strategy at Zendesk, a fast-growing software company based in the Bay Area.

Kris Oliveira

Director

Kris Oliveira is recently retired from being a Partner at Kern & Thompson, LLC, where her practice focused on providing auditing, accounting, and tax services to not-for-profit organizations, and federal and state funded organizations under Single Audit (federal compliance) requirements. She earned a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Accounting at Portland State University, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music from the University of Oregon. She is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Oregon Society of Certified Public Accountants. Kris serves on and is past chair of the OSCPA Non-Profit Committee, served on the FASB Not-for-Profit RG Committee, and was appointed to the national AICPA Governmental Audit Quality Center Executive Committee in DC where she acted as a voice and advocate for mid-size and smaller Non-Profit Audit firms and their clients. 

An avid chamber musician, Kris is past Treasurer and current Governance Committee chair of the Beaverton Symphony Orchestra, where she plays the violin. She is also a Long-Term Care Ombudsman where she advocates for the rights of residents of care facilities. Kris is fluent in Portuguese and in addition to her music hobbies, she enjoys dancing, running, walking and hiking, reading, and word puzzles.

Rick Simpson

Director

Rick has lived all over the eastern US and in Texas, due to growing up in a military family (his father was in the Marine Corps). He has a BA and MEE from Rice University, as well as a PhD from University of Texas at Austin. He worked at IBM for many years, and arrived in Portland in 2012. Now retired, his passions are classical music, photography, and travel – and has been able to combine all three on several of All Classical Radio’s cultural tours! In his spare time, Rick is also on the Board of Directors for Portland Baroque Orchestra.

Johanna Thoeresz

Director

Johanna’s love of classical music was nurtured by her Austrian parents and enriched through years of piano and flute study. A devoted listener since All Classical Radio’s founding, she has been especially proud to support the station’s move to Koin Tower through her fundraising consultancy. Recently retired as Chief Development Officer for the Oregon Community Foundation, Johanna continues to advise select clients seeking to expand their philanthropic impact.

Beyond her professional work, Johanna finds joy in hiking the Columbia Gorge, playing duplicate bridge, watercolor painting, and most of all, spending time with her children, granddaughters, and close friends attending cultural events. She brings to the station both a deep appreciation for the arts and extensive nonprofit leadership experience. Her past board service includes Tanner Place HOA, Association of Fundraising Professionals, James Beard Public Market, and Hoyt Arboretum Friends, reflecting her enduring commitment to community enrichment and cultural vitality.