Our Staff - Title Track

Title Track Staff

Get to know the hardworking staff of Title Track & what makes them tick!

Seth Bernard

Title Track Founder & Co-Executive Director

“The argument for the most influential human in the Michigan music uprising of the past decade may begin and end with one Seth Bernard.”
-Jack Clark, Red House Concerts

Born and raised on Earthwork Farm in rural Northern Michigan, Seth Bernard was brought up in the folk and farmstead culture with an enriching integrative experience of the arts, agriculture, and community. In 2001, Seth founded Earthwork Music, a renowned Michigan-based collective of successful independent musicians who focus their efforts on environmental advocacy, social justice, creative empowerment and community building.

Seth has traveled the world and blanketed the US as a magnetic performer and uplifting cultural worker and is equally at home fronting a large electrified ensemble as he is holding a crowd with nothing but an acoustic guitar. Seth has served as the Director of the Musical Ambassador Program for On the Ground where he helped cultivate partnerships and cultural exchanges between communities in southern Mexico, Ethiopia and eastern Congo and communities in Michigan with a focus on solidarity and creative collaboration. “Eggs” Bernard is a NMEAC Environmentalist of the Year Award winner for Arts Education and has worked with SEEDS and On Stage for Kids bringing nature-based experiential creative empowerment to young people across the Great Lakes region and beyond.

In early 2018, Bernard launched the Clean Water Campaign for Michigan, a social movement using storytelling and music to amplify the groundswell of support for water issues.

Seth is a prolific songwriter and recording artist with 13 solo albums and a dozen more collaborative projects in his catalogue. He’s won 8 Jammie awards as a recording artist and producer, and has been a longtime iconic leader and steward of Michigan’s music community. His newest work, Let Love Light The Way, “is a stirring clarion call, and in this moment of collective tumult, these songs are precisely the music and words our world needs. Each track brims with both heartbreak and hopefulness, extending empathy and loving kindness, yet bold with clear-eyed purpose. As Bob Dylan says, the times they are a-changin’—and in these changing times, Seth Bernard has provided us with a set of glorious new anthems.” —Davy Rothbart, writer, filmmaker, creator of FOUND Magazine, and contributor to This American Life

“I know that the future of music is in good hands with people like Seth around to be its caretaker. More importantly, I know the future of our world is in good hands.”
-Greg Brown, Folk Legend

“This music not only swings, rocks, and grooves–it matters. It’s the voice of a real community, with a sound and a message the world needs to hear.”
-Bill McKibben, Author, environmentalist, journalist

Title Track Director Seth Bernard working with students

Holly T. Bird

Title Track Co-Executive Director

Holly T. Bird grew up in Detroit, Michigan. She studied art, dance and theater at Interlochen Arts Academy, where she graduated in 1987. She attended Michigan State University, where she graduated with a B.A. in art and social science. While there, Holly worked for the Public Interest Research Group in Michigan, canvassing in support of environmental safety. In 1999, Holly graduated from DePaul University College of Law, where she served as the Native American Representative and President of the Latino Law Students Association.

After law school, Holly served as a Hearing Officer for Chicago Public Schools, presiding over matters concerning the educational welfare and discipline of children and teachers. She was appointed as a Guardian Ad Litem for the Cook County Public Guardian’s Office in 2000, where she represented over 230 children in the abuse/neglect system. From there, Holly went into private practice, representing clients in matters of family, criminal, traffic, civil, estate planning, real estate, and juvenile law. She also served as Vice-President of the Native American Foster Parents Association. Most notably, however, Holly founded and served as Vice-President, President, and President-Emeritus of the Illinois Native American Bar Association, and is credited for using her advocacy to remove offensive sports mascots from several Illinois schools. She has authored the publications: “Jumping Through Hoops: Traditional Healers and the Indian Health Care Act,” (1999) and “Making the Cross-Cultural Case; Educating the Judge about Race, Religion, and Ethnicity” (2004). Additionally, Holly has provided trainings on Native American Law and culture to the Illinois State Prosecutor’s Office, the Illinois Department of Child and Family Services, the Cook County Public Guardian’s Office, the Interfaith Council for Social Justice, and the State of Michigan Governor’s Task Force on Abuse/Neglect Children. Holly was featured in the Illinois Department of Labor’s March 2000 “Highlights of the Progress of Women and Minorities in the Workforce.”

In 2008, Holly was appointed as an Acting Chief Judge / Associate Judge for the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, where she served until 2011. In 2010, she was appointed to serve as an Associate Supreme Court Judge for the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi Indians and continues in that capacity today. Holly maintains a private practice in Traverse City, concentrating in matters of Native American, cannabis, family, juvenile, criminal, civil, traffic, real estate, probate, employment and business law. Holly also served as the Civil Ground Coordinator for the Water Protectors Legal Collective, the leading legal service at the NoDAPL camp/protest in support of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. After Standing Rock camp closed, she continued to volunteer as an attorney and Board Member, and more recently as Co-Executive Director. She also founded and serves as the Executive Director for the MI Water Protectors Legal Task Force, a project of the National Lawyer’s Guild. She has been active throughout the years in organizing demonstrations and actions to bring attention to the water, social justice, and child safety.

Holly Bird is a certified Mediator, Peacemaker, Arbitrator, and serves as a pro-tem Appellate Judge for various Tribes. In 2013, Holly was awarded the prestigious American Arbitration Association’s 2013 Higginbotham Fellowship. Holly has served as a board member and mentor for the Grand Traverse Area Children’s Garden; and volunteer for the Leelanau Children’s Center and the Pathfinder School. Further, Holly was appointed to serve on the American Indian Law Committee of the Michigan State Bar and served on the State Supreme Court’s Court Rules Committee with respect to the Michigan Indian Family Preservation Act. She is a member of the American Indian Law Section and the Marijuana Law Section of the Michigan State Bar. For many years, Holly has acted as legal counsel for various music festivals around Northern Michigan, including Dunegrass/Dunesville, Rootstock, and Pond Jam. She also serves as the Michigan organizer for Indigenous Mutual Aid during the COVID-19 crisis.

Holly is descended from the San Felipe Pueblo/Yaqui/Apache tribes and the English Isles. She resides in Traverse City, Michigan with her husband, former Grand Traverse Band Tribal Councilor Percy Bird, and three children. She is a member of the Mindimooyenh Healing Society, a regional indigenous healing medicine circle. In what little spare time she has, she likes to travel, garden, play and listen to music, attend music festivals, smash colonialism, create art, renovate old campers, play with her family on the beach, engage in her Native American culture, and promote love.

Jenny Jones

Title Track Co-Executive Director

Jenny Jones is an Ann Arbor-based artist, artistry connector, and authenticity advocate. She is energized by accentuating the gifts of musicians, to make known the opportunities that venues have for musicians, and to bring about authentic relationships between the artist, the community, and local businesses/organizations.

Jenny has over 24 years of project coordination, event planning and scheduling management, team leadership, and office administration experience in the arts management, nonprofit and philanthropic, management consulting, educational, manufacturing, and staffing fields. She is a classically trained pianist and cellist and a self-taught guitarist with two album releases; and continues collaborative artistry with Jess Merritt (The Understorey), Abigail Stauffer, and Joe Reilly & The Community Gardeners.

Jenny is a board member for The Ark in Ann Arbor, as well as the Amplify Project (Amplify Fellowship). She is a member of the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation (AAACF) Arts & Culture Committee, CultureSource’s Arts Leaders as Cultural Innovators (ALACI), the Michigan Arts and Cultural Council (MACC) Rising Leaders program, the Nonprofit Enterprise at Work 2020-2021 Champions for Change Cohort, The Ark’s Marketing Advisory Committee, and the Ann Arbor Summer Festival’s (A2SF) Planning Advisory Committee and Community Engagement Committee. She also has a background as an HR Generalist and corporate insurance coordinator, and advises a number of southeastern Michigan businesses, venues, and artists. Jenny performs advisory scouting and marketing efforts for The Ark. She was responsible for the creation of the ‘Sundays in the Garden’ summer concert series originally based at Cultivate Coffee & Tap House (Ypsilanti).

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Chris Good

Title Track Communications Director

Chris Good is an Ann Arbor, MI-based musician, community organizer, avid gardener, devoted dad, and founder/co-coordinator of the newly launched Sing Me Home Festival, based in Chris’ hometown of North Manchester, IN. Emerging at the crossroads of music, social justice, and spirituality, the intergenerational cultural celebration’s inaugural edition during April and May 2020 featured many Title Track friends and family. A member of the Earthwork Music Collective, Good writes, performs and records with a community of talented collaborators including his band, Friends with the Weather, and his solo project, Chris Good & The Sweet Insurrection.

Chris has a long history of community organizing having worked in a variety of roles with many nonprofit organizations and socially conscious businesses in the areas of peace & conflict resolution, youth empowerment, immigration reform, localism, and environmentalism. As part of the team that launched the Clean Water Campaign for Michigan, Chris has served as the Clean Water Campaign’s Communications Director since its February 2018 launch. He’s continued in this role for Title Track since its 2019 launch.

Mae Beale

Title Track Vision & Operations Strategist

Equal parts intuitive, visionary, strategist, and implementer, Mae Beale provides holistic counsel for nonprofit management around organization development, optimizing tech systems and digital practices, and tending to the important and delicate web of relationships at the heart of our commitment to fulfilling our mission.

Bree Russell-Carscadden

Title Track Bookkeeper

Bree Russell-Carscadden is a Michigan native and resident where she enjoys spending
time with her husband Don and son Russell. They go on daily long walks and find
themselves outdoors in nature, they love visiting extended family in Chicago and
Traverse City and working on home projects together. Bree spent many of her
childhood summers alongside her father, Bob Russell, who was a longtime activist for
social justice, environmental issues, peace work and one of the Co-Founders of NREC.
The influence shaped Bree into the person she is today, and she continues to
participate in this important work and honor her father’s legacy. Bree has played an
active role with NREC as treasurer, guiding board meetings and advocating for Bob’s
Resiliency book project. Bree has carried on her dad’s realist approach to solving
problems wherever they may rise. Bree strives to pass on the importance of community
involvement to her son Russell, in teachings about caring for the environment, treating
all people equally, and helping those without a voice.

Currently Bree’s full-time job is raising her son, but she has a few side jobs including her
work for Title Track. For the last six years she has also worked for August II Productions
tracking broadcasting data and editing media. In the past she has worked as a Human
Resources Manager at Harvey Automotive, and Manager of a customer service team at
Hunter Douglas, and Account Representative at TBA Credit Union.

Bree’s role for Title Track is making sure the brilliant minds and that work for and
collaborate with Title Track are compensated for their efforts, paying the bills, and
keeping the finances in order.

Carmelitta Tiffany

Grants Researcher

Carmelitta Finley Tiffany has always been an adventurous and inventive soul- she moved a dozen times throughout Michigan before her 8th birthday. She and her mom traveled light and lived freely, until a husband and four more children turned their vagabond lives into homebodies. The family moved to Pennsylvania, and after her high school education, Carmelitta moved back to Michigan, followed by a fellow who would end up being her husband.
They lived a happy life, raising two children, with Carmelitta becoming a stay-at-home mother, active in her children’s lives as PTC president, library mom, scout leader, t-ball coach, and many other volunteer positions. Once her children were raised, she began her own business in childcare. After ten years and dozens of wards, she decided to change her career and began a stint as a bakery clerk and cake decorator. At the same time, she decided to finally get a college degree, and while working full-time, she earned a Bachelors of Science degree in Business Marketing and Management from Davenport University. She even graduated with honors, and was named Graduate of the Year during her attainment of her associates degree at West Shore Community College two years before.

Her college degree gave her confidence and took her places- from business consultant for local small businesses to administrative roles in various non profit organizations. Her volunteer work filled in her always-hectic schedule, and of course raising two teenagers to become productive and successful adults in their own right was the highlight of her life.

She also took on roles in journalism, as reporter, editor, columnist and blog writer for a few newspapers in the region, which suited her inquisitive spirit. Now, although she has semi-retired, she still writes the occasional article or two.

After the pandemic brought the world to a standstill, she took on her most rewarding role ever- being Meemaw, “school marm” and mentor to her grandson Henry while he was kept home from his first grade lessons. It gave her the prime reason to retire and open her own business, West MI Editorial Services.

She has recently reinvented herself once again, becoming a grant specialist with a concentration in helping non-profit organizations like Title Track succeed in their good works. Her Grandma Ruth, being the good grandmother she was, always had tidbits of advice for her 70-some grandchildren, and “if you leave the world a better place than you found it, you can consider yourself a success” was Carmelitta’s favorite. She is proud to be a member of the Title Track family.