ABOUT THE HONOREES

Located in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Pamela Enslen is an experienced counselor, litigator, mediator, and arbitrator with Warner Norcross + Judd. She has extensive experience in business, employment, and commercial litigation, allowing her to offer policy advice to many corporations, nonprofits, medical practices, and others.

In conjunction with her primary job functions, Pamela is highly involved within her community. She is on the Board of Directors for Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra and the Board of Trustees for Michigan Women’s foundations. Pamela has served as chair of the Dispute Resolution Advisory Committee of the U. S. District Court of the Western District of Michigan and the Michigan Supreme Court Dispute Resolution Court Rule Committee. She has numerous connections with the American Bar Association, including holding leadership positions and serving as an official observer during segments of the 9/11 terrorist trial procedures in Cuba. Pamela is an exemplary leader and has shown an evident passion for involvement in the Kalamazoo community.

Belinda Tate is Executive Director for the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts (KIA), serving since 2014. 

Tate is a community bridge builder who embraces the KIA’s vision that the visual arts are for everyone. She works to provide a cultural platform that welcomes and is inclusive of all people. Tate pairs strong fundraising skills with broad experience developing exhibitions and programming to make the arts relevant to a wide range of diverse constituents of all ages, backgrounds, and enthusiasms. Through engaged leadership, she provides strategic direction for a team of seven senior leaders who manage a complex institution consisting of development and marketing, exhibitions and collections, museum education and library services, and the Art School.

Tate’s contributions to the field are broad and impactful, as she is frequently asked by professional organizations and museums to address audiences of museum staff members, leaders and trustees for cultural organizations, artists across many media and career levels, as well as museum-goers and art-enthusiasts from across the country. Tate has personally curated over 35 exhibitions at the KIA and at the Diggs Gallery at Winston-Salem State University, where she previously served 15 years as Director. 

Tate received her undergraduate degree in Art History from Yale University and her MA in Liberal Studies from Wake Forest University. She has traveled extensively to more than 19 countries in Europe and Africa and has served as a Fulbright-Hays Fellow in South Africa.