Staff Highlight: Lee Carol Giduz, Executive Director
Lee Carol has been leading BRAHM through a period of growth and evolution as its executive director since 2015. Through her team-oriented nature, BRAHM has truly become a reflection of its staff, board, and community. Lee Carol’s management style is to encourage personal and professional interests among the team, which has resulted in diverse yet relevant events, exhibitions, and programs.
Lee Carol’s beginnings with BRAHM date back to 2004, when she was asked to facilitate a Board Retreat aimed at developing a long range plan and vision. This was after BRAHM had acquired non-profit status, but well before money had been raised for the building. Lee Carol continued to offer her thoughts in meetings and panel discussions along the way. After BRAHM’s first director retired in 2014, Lee Carol was asked to join the search committee where she was able to lend her perspective as an arts non-profit professional (having worked for the Caldwell Arts Council for 21 years and serving two terms on the board of the NC Arts Council). By this time, Lee Carol had gotten to know BRAHM and some of the board members and founders, as well as the Blowing Rock community. When, during the search process she was asked to apply for the position herself, it felt like the right time to make the transition. “I am thrilled with my decision. The job is really about people and community. So many people care deeply for BRAHM and it exists because of them.”
Lee Carol is also grateful to have come to BRAHM in a formative time. “In the beginning, they were figuring out how to get the Museum going. Those of us involved now are defining it, which is a wonderful opportunity.”
Born in Kentucky and raised in Ohio, Lee Carol came to North Carolina for college, met her husband Bob, and never left. She has a multitude of interests, many of which are in outdoor recreation. She and Bob are avid cyclists. And, in the early 1980’s, Lee Carol was an outdoor educator at UNC Charlotte, where she led courses and trips in white water canoeing, rock climbing, backpacking, and other activities. While she has many hobbies that she loves, her biggest passion will always be the equestrian world (she was an eventer years ago and loves attending equestrian competitions as a spectator). Naturally, she also enjoys creative endeavors. While on sabbatical in 2014, she took a chair making class at the John C. Campbell Folk School. “I love that type of process and the chair itself. It represents a time of renewal in my life.” Encaustic paint is another medium she has explored with the guidance of her friend and Lenoir-based artist Jane Wells Harrison. “Encaustic is a very different type of creative process [than chair-making] in that it is unclear what the final product will be. It pushes me out of my comfort zone and challenges my brain. I enjoy being pushed… a little bit.”
Lee Carol and Bob have three grown children and three grandchildren who they love spending time with, especially at their family lake house in Kentucky. Margot, their lovable GoldenDoodle, is usually in tow.
