FAA Board

Suzan Kessel is past president & co-founder of the Fairfield Arts & Convention Center, is currently Ex-Officio. Served on Fairfield Beautification Commission, FPAC TV Station Manager, State Coordinator of Iowa Artists, Country Club President, 1997 Fairfield Citizen of Year.

Art recognition include: “Best of Show’ awards at Iowa Artists, San Francisco – Golden Gate Exhibit, Midwest Art Fairs, and Governor Art Award. Gallery representation have included Lake Tahoe, Des Moines Art Center, Davenport Museum, Ft. Dodge Art Center. Numerous one woman shows, Iowa Art Council commissioned art. In collections of University of Iowa Hospital, Indian Hills Community College, Ft. Dodge Art Center, Iowa Farm Bureau, numerous private & corporate collections.

Married to Patrick Kessel; mother of Stacey Berg (Brian), Alex Kessel (Christie), Makenzie Kessel. 7 grandchildren & 2 great grands. Hobbies include golf, gardening, antiques, bowling, travel, spending time with friends & family.

David Kraemer began his teaching career in 1996, after graduating from Iowa State University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts and receiving his teaching degree from the University of Iowa. He has taught in both Minnesota and Iowa, and has been teaching art at the Fairfield High School since 2008.

David enjoys spending time with his wife and three daughters and continues to create his own artwork in a variety of mediums.

Makenzie Kessel Champ was born and raised in Fairfield, and attended college at the University of Iowa. After graduating in 2005 with a degree in Communication.

She moved back to Fairfield and began working in the family Insurance business, Farm Bureau Financial Services, as Human Resources director.

Makenzie is an active artist with media preferences in book-binding, graphic design and cartooning, although her artistic endeavors began with paint and canvas

Deb was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and has been a resident of Fairfield for 32 years. She was the Office Manager at the Fairfield Golf & Country Club from 1990-2007, and is now enjoying retirement by spending time with her grandchildren and countless crafting projects. Deb has an Associate’s degree in Accounting from the American Institute of Business in Des Moines.

She is married to Pat Doyle, a partner in the Gamrath-Doyle & Associates insurance agency. They have two daughters, Alissa, who lives in Aurora, IL with her husband, Tai Ward, and their daughter Elliott; and Katie who lives in Fairfield with her husband, Cole Boatright, and sons Benett and Brice.

Deb enjoys scrap booking, card making, bowling, and golf.

She is a second time Board Member and enjoys the work she does for the Art Association.

“It gives me a chance to expand my creative side and work with the board to make ART in Fairfield fun and interesting.”

John Preston is a full time artist and has been painting the Iowa landscape for 26 years. Considered one of the Midwest’s major landscape painters, his work is in public and private collections throughout the US, including the Chicago Federal Reserve, Amoco Oil, Equitable of Iowa, Pioneer Hi-Bred International, and Iowa State University, as well as other banks, museums and businesses.

John’s wife, Cindy, is a past member of the FAA board and enjoys a variety of fiber related arts.

Eileen Hawthorne has been a member of the Fairfield community for 28 years.
Born and raised on the east coast. Eileen holds an A.A.S degree in Advertising Art and Design and has worked for Ad agencies in New York, New Jersey and San Diego and was an Art Director for AT&T’s Marketing and Art department at their headquarters in Morristown, NJ.

After starting a family (Brian) with her husband David, they started their own freelance Ad Agency in San Diego with over 15 clients.
She and David moved to Fairfield in 1986 and had 2 more children, Sara and Galen.

Eileen began her Fine Arts education about 5 years ago at the FAA and has been studying and learning from the many talented professional artists in the Fairfield Arts.

Jan Börk and husband Bob are graduates of the University of Kansas, and have lived innumerous locations throughout the Midwest.

After living in Minnesota for 20 years, Bob retired from New York Life, and they moved to Fairfield in 2011. They have 2 grown sons. Until her recent retirement, Jan worked at Cambridge Investment Research, Inc.

Jan enjoys card making, various crafts and decorative arts, and reading. Now that she is retired, she looks forward to exploring volunteer opportunities in the community.

Werner Elmker is a man of many talents. He has been fascinated by the medias of film and music since he was 13 years old. At that time he started rigorous training in piano performance and the fine art of photography. Twelve years later, he received a doctoral level degree in piano performance and pedagogy from the Royal Danish Conservatory of Music.

He moved to Fairfield, Iowa in 1985, where he was teaching music at the local college for twelve years. In 1998 he started a private music studio, teaching piano and recording 15 CDs of original and classical piano music.

In 2014 he started a new business called Werner Elmker Audio-Visual Studio, producing professional quality videos, audio recordings and photography.