Our Board of Directors

Double Scoop, first launched since 2018, became a federally recognized nonprofit organization in 2021. Our inaugural board of directors is an inspired, hard-working team that’s planning and implementing our next phases of growth and sustainability.

Melanie Dolezal, Reno

In 2005, Melanie moved from Santa Cruz to Reno, where she found the art scene intimate and welcoming. By 2010, she was fully entrenched in the Burning Man art volunteer community as a builder, development consultant and fundraising coordinator. She’s worked with Reno Art Works, The Pier Group, and The Generator, Desert Research Institute and the UNR Small Business Development Center. Melanie is also the Finance + Development Director for Junior Achievement of Northern Nevada.

Elaine Parks, Tuscarora + Reno

Elaine is a ceramicist and a Los Angeles native. She received her MFA from California State University, Los Angeles in 1999, then moved from a town of 14 million to Tuscarora, a town of 14. Her work has been exhibited at the Nevada Museum of Art, Oats Park Art Center, Marjorie Barrick Museum, Sierra Arts, The Holland Project, and galleries in California and Germany. Elaine taught art for seven years at Great Basin College in Elko and twice received the Nevada Arts Council Fellowship Award. She is co-director, instructor, and board member of the Tuscarora Pottery School.

Brandon Russell, Fernley

Brandon cut his teeth on a 15-issue arts zine published on some of the better coin-operated photocopiers between Oakland and Mendocino, California before venturing to Reno in 2004. The desert changed him, and his focus narrowed to poetry and cryptozoological religious fervor in the mining camps of 19th century rural Nevada. His physical labor has at various times been in service to Manzanar National Historic Site, Tahoe Rim Trail Association, The Pier Group, and The Generator.