Meet Our Team
Our committed team is enthusiastic about fostering success for our diverse community and mission. With a spirit of collaboration, we face challenges and celebrate our accomplishments together, all thanks to your support, which enables us to create a significant impact.
Troy Holmes - Executive Director
Troy currently serves as the Business Manager for Quriosity Productions, a full-service production company specializing in video, photography, and editing. He combines his passion for the arts with his expertise in business development. Over the course of his career, he has played a pivotal role in helping numerous businesses thrive by providing the tools and guidance needed to establish strong organizational structures.
Now, Troy is focused on giving back to the community that warmly welcomed his family when they relocated to Flossmoor. He quickly became inspired by the town’s rich appreciation for the arts, from its renowned public art program to the exceptional theater department at the local high school. Through his connections with artists and art enthusiasts alike, Troy recognized a need for a centralized space in Flossmoor that would foster collaboration among artists from across the Chicagoland area, particularly for those who are often unappreciated or overlooked. His vision is to create a vibrant hub where artists from diverse backgrounds can come together to learn, share, and contribute to the growth of art appreciation for future generations.
773-315-2255
Shannon Keys - Board Member
As the Director of Regional High School Programs at The Academy Group, Shannon Keys specializes in developing and implementing transformative educational programs that empower students to thrive. Shannon oversees all aspects of high school and summer programming, including master schedule creation, staffing models, logistics, budget management, and regional operations. With a strong focus on experiential learning, she collaborates with teams and consultants to design programs aligned with the organization’s curriculum, ensuring high-quality, impactful experiences.
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Shannon is deeply committed to fostering a safe, inclusive environment for both staff and students. She evaluates program engagement and effectiveness by analyzing data, providing consistent feedback and supervision, and actively supporting her team’s professional growth. In addition to program development, Shannon leads recruitment initiatives, working closely with schools, families, and community stakeholders to create a seamless onboarding experience.
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Her role also encompasses family and community engagement, logistics, and professional development, allowing her to contribute to both the immediate success of students and the sustainable growth of the Academy Group’s programs. Shannon resides in Flossmoor, Illinois, with her husband and their two children.
Jyrell Keys - Board Member
Over the last fifteen years, Jyrell has dedicated himself to higher education. Currently serving as the Director of Award Management at DePaul University, Jyrell provides and maintains a network of support for faculty managing externally sponsored projects and creative activities.
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Through his own educational experience and research, Jyrell found that the value of arts in schools has been debated and tested for years, but today its benefits are firmly grounded in theory and research. Evidence demonstrates that arts education and aesthetic literacy/representation are crucial to closing the achievement gap. Learning experiences in the arts contribute to the development of academic skills. Proponents of arts education link six major types of benefits to the inclusion of the arts in education: reading and language skills, mathematics skills, thinking skills, social skills, motivation to learn, and a positive school environment.
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By integrating his educational experiences with personal passions, Jyrell believes that the concepts and principles around arts education can be applied to everyday life. Just as the arts can have positive and beneficial impacts on learners, public art can produce similar effects for everyday citizens. Public art can add tremendous value to the cultural, aesthetic, and economic vitality of a community.
Qadree Holmes - Board Member
Qadree Holmes is the Founder/Executive Producer of Quriosity Productions; a minority owned creative diversity boutique specializing in video production, post production and photography. Quriosity’s goal is to present to the market an MBE that can meet the challenges of working with brands while delivering exceptional service for our advertising clients. He is known for representing and employing a diverse creative talent roster including women and minorities that ultimately deliver and have a positive social impact and recognizable results. He has been doing this before George Floyd became the thing that made America wake up to the injustices in society.
Qadree is the catalyst of positive change and is dedicated to taking action to make it happen. He is always searching for new undiscovered women and minority artists. For decades he has been offering internships, jobs, and exposure to talented minority youth. By giving them opportunities, he is a fueling a solution that will allow the cycle to be broken. HIs dedication, perseverance and generous efforts to be an important role model, mentor, and source of inspiration has resulted in many, many success stories.
The generosity of his time seems unlimited. Qadree’s influence is evident everywhere. He sits on boards and committees, participates on panels, judges award competitions, makes speaking engagements, writes articles, and donates to dozens of organizations. For example, he sat on the AICP* committee that designed the mentoring program to give one-on-one support to minorities entering into the production business. He says engaging in real personal conversations is important and rewarding because he can understand their perspectives. He rises up and reaches back by be available to review portfolios, give honest insights and smart guidance about real world experiences and challenges to help them succeed.