Meet the Team

The Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts employs two full-time and one part-time staff who also produce and manage First Night State College. Scroll down to learn more about:

• Pamela Etters, Executive Director
• Carol Baney, Director of Operations
• Jennifer Shuey, Director of Development

Our work is also supported by Doris Mack, Performing Arts Consultant, Ryan Gavlock of Happy Valley Accounting & Tax Services, and Rachael Lowe, Digital Media Assistant. Our website has been designed and is supported by Courtney Shelton Hunt of Denovati Digital, who also provides social media and other digital engagement expertise and guidance.

We are currently accepting applications for our summer internship, which runs from May 15 to July 21.  Download the Internship Job Description here.

Pamela Snyder Etters was named the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts’ new Executive Director in early 2023.  Pam comes to Centre County from neighboring Blair County, where she served as the Executive Director of Citizens for the Arts in Pennsylvania for two years.  Prior to that she was the Executive Director of the Altoona Symphony Orchestra for nearly nine years.  

As an artist herself, Pam combines her experience in arts-related nonprofit leadership with her belief in the arts as a platform for youth empowerment and social connection.  She is the founder and lead muralist within the Murals Talk Foundation—a program that uses mural construction to build bridges over cultural, social, and economic gaps for youth. 

Pam is also the head women’s soccer coach at the Altoona campus of the Pennsylvania State University and involved in several Altoona community and cultural associations, such as Arts Altoona, the City of Altoona Beautification Committee, Explore Altoona, and the Blair 9/11 Committee.

She lives in Altoona with her husband Travis and their two daughters Emma and Tobin.  

Carol Baney has been with the Festival for nearly twenty five years. She is a native of Bellefonte, Pennsylvania. After attending public school in Bellefonte, she received an associate in arts degree from the Hagerstown Business College in Maryland. She has continued her post-college education and earned an associate in liberal arts degree from Penn State in 2009.

In March 2013 and again in 2014, one of Carol’s dreams–to visit Africa–came true when she volunteered at the Urkundo Home and Learning Center in the Muhanga District of Rwanda.

In her spare time, Carol creates jewelry which she sells at festivals in the mid-Atlantic region. This is not just a creative outlet, but also gives her the opportunity to learn about the festival business from the artists’ perspective.

Jennifer joined the Festival staff in April 2015. Prior to that, she served almost 15 years as the Executive Director of ClearWater Conservancy, a well-respected land trust and natural resource conservation organization in central Pennsylvania. Jennifer grew up in the village of Hublersburg in the Bellefonte area and earned a B.S. of Landscape Architecture from Penn State.

Jen is a pastel painter who creates art to help people appreciate the natural and agricultural landscapes of central Pennsylvania and encourage conservation.  She is a Signature Member of the Central Pennsylvania Pastel Society, a juried member of the Farmland Preservation Artists of Central Pennsylvania, and a member of the Artists Registry of the Bellefonte Art Museum and the Art Alliance of Central Pennsylvania.

Jen remains committed to conservation and connecting people to nature. She serves on the Board of the Centre County Farmland Trust and is a trustee of the Hamer Foundation.

Jen lives with her high school sweetheart husband Chris in Pleasant Gap, with their two kitties, Hammie and Moe.  The cats – and their names – came from Hameau Farm, in the Big Valley, where Jen first picked up a pastel at an artists’ retreat.

As the Arts Festival’s Director of Development, Jennifer helps the Festival’s past, current, and future supporters find the best ways to make a difference in the community as part of the Festival family.

You can see some of Jen’s art on her website.  A selection of Jen’s pastels is also available at Art a la Carte at 107 South Allegheny Street in Victorian Bellefonte.

Rachael Lowe is the Festival’s digital media assistant. Rachael was the intern for the Festival in 2019 and assisted with the virtual shows in 2020 and 2021. She is a 2019 graduate of Penn State and now works for Insomniac Events as a merchandise manager for festivals. She has traveled all over the country working festivals like Coachella, EDC, and Okeechobee, just to name a few. When she is not traveling to shows, Rachael works at her hometown music and arts venue in Philadelphia, The Mann Center for the Performing Arts, as a merchandise associate.

Rachael has always had a passion for live events and working behind the scenes to create a memorable experience for people. During her time at Penn State, she was heavily involved with their annual music festival, Movin’ On.

In her free time, Rachael loves going to cycling workout classes, reading, and attending concerts that she isn’t working!