Mary Doveton (she/her) is the founder and longtime Executive Director of Theatre Lawrence in Lawrence, Kansas, growing it into a purpose built 35,000 sq ft theatre/education facility with a $1 budget. Mary holds a B.A. in Speech and Drama from Clarke University in Dubuque, Iowa and an M.A. in Theatre from the University of Kansas and has also taught theatre and produced and directed hundreds of shows. A Fellow in the College of Fellows of the American Association of Community Theatre, she adjudicated the National Festival in Charlotte, NC in 2007 and has also adjudicated state and regional festivals across the country. Mary served on the AACT Board of Directors, then as national treasurer and later as Vice-President for Education, and currently serves on the AACT Endowment committee. In 2017, Mary and Theatre Lawrence received the national Twink Lynch Achievement in Theatre Award from the American Association of Community Theatre Mary has served the state of Kansas as a Regional Mentor for the Kansas Arts Network, as well as on grant review panels for the Kansas Arts Commission. She was on the Board of the Kansas Alliance for Arts Education and President of the Association of Kansas Theatre. Mary is also proud to have been the first recipient of the Lawrence Phoenix Award for Performing Arts in 1996 and is a Rotary Paul Harris Fellow.