Board Members
Officers
Jill Hall (formerly Jill Hall Rose) - President
Jill earned her Juris Doctor degree from the University of Ky and has been in private practice in Lexington for over 30 yrs. In addition, she is the Owner-Operator of a General Motors dealership in Ashland, Ky.
Throughout her career, Jill has served in numerous appointed positions in the judiciary and executive branches of state government and the LFUCG. She has also held leadership roles on corporate and nonprofit boards both in Lexington and statewide.
She and her husband, Austin Mehr, moved to the Historic Western Suburb in 2016, and fell in love with downtown living! They have 3 adult children, one grandson and a fur baby named Donut.
Kimberly L. Dawahare – Vice President
Vice President was born and raised in Kentucky. She is raising (2) sons and practicing law. She earned her JD at UK and has been actively practicing in Kentucky since 1992. Aside from her legal practice, she serves as a member on other Board of Directors. Due to Kimberly's fondness of Historic properties, she has acquired and renovated several properties located in the downtown historic districts. She is currently in the process of renovating her home on W. Short Street.
Gale Williams - Treasurer
Gale is a native Kentuckian and lives at 620 West Short Street with her husband Tom and dog Colonel. Gale has a strong financial background and is the Business Operations Manager for a large, diversified construction company. She has a degree in accounting from George Washington University.
Toni Greider - Secretary
Toni Greider has lived at 730 W. Short St. since November of 1999. During a long career at UK, she served in various leadership roles in organizations both on and off campus. During her last 10 years at the University, she served as the Executive Secretary for an international information organization.
Board members
Will Freeman
Will grew up in Lexington and has a BA in Economics and a master’s degree in finance from the University of Virginia. Upon graduation, he worked in New York for 3 years as an investment banking analyst He then received a job offer to join the Strategy team at AppHarvest, and moved to Lexington in January 2021, and bought a house in the Western Suburb in the fall of 2021. Will enjoys living downtown and frequently walks to businesses, restaurants, and bars in the area.
Rebekah Gray
Rebekah lives on West Short Street and is a Director, Project Services, at Gray Construction. She graduated from Vanderbilt University.
Ashlee Harris
Ashlee Harris grew up in Western KY, graduated from the University of Kentucky and Lexington has been her home ever since. With a background in Marketing/Advertising, she now heads up Operations at an interior design firm, serves on the board for the Lexington Dream Factory, and helps facilitate CreativeMornings Lexington. She moved to West Short St. in 2020 and loves living and working in our beautiful downtown.
Alma Kajtazovic
Alma Kajtazovic is currently an owner and operator (with her sister) of Sorella Gelateria, located at Jefferson and Short. Sorella Gelateria is a small, locally owned gelato shop specializing in hand crafted, small-batch Italian gelato and sorbet and is Lexington’s first artisan gelateria. The sisters always wanted to combine their love of culinary arts and business experience. They named the shop Sorella, which means sister in Italian.
Prior to owning her own business, Kajtazovic worked for five years as Finance Director at LexArts. In addition, she spent ten years in property management and advertising. Alma has a BA in Finance from UK and an MBA from EKU. Kajtazovic along with her sister helps numerous nonprofits by offering gelato and other services to charities and community events.
John Newton
Born and raised in New Jersey. Lived 20 years in the San Francisco Bay Area. Moved to Kentucky after seeing a tv show about it. Work for Ricoh as a customer liaison for CommonSpirit Health. Based out of St Joes but serve their hospitals in ND, MN, and Nebraska. Married to Marianne 42 years, two children Jack and Bridget. Both UK graduates.
Gregory Pettit
Gregory grew up in Lexington and has a BA from Princeton University and an MBA from Columbia University. After a long career in corporate communications in NYC, Gregory moved back to Lexington and bought 704 West Short St. in 2012. He has served on several non-profit boards in Lexington, and can be seen walking two little black dogs, Emmalou and Toby.
Analy Scorsone
Analy has lived on West Short Street since 1998. Retired Kentucky Community and Technical College administrator, she enjoys cycling, jogging and downtown life. She received her PhD from the University of Texas Austin and master’s degree from the University of Kentucky.