THE BLUE HOUSE ADVISORY BOARD

Founder

Barbara Phillips

Barbara Phillips is a social justice feminist, writer, independent scholar, member of the Community Advisory Committee to the Center for the Study of Southern Culture, and board member of the Women’s Environment and Development Organization; former Ford Foundation Program Officer for Women’s Rights and Gender Equity globally and in the U.S., civil rights litigator specializing in voting rights, and law professor. She was honored as a Champion of Justice by the Mississippi Center for Justice in 2022. She lives in Oxford, Mississippi.

Members

Dorothy Abbott

Dorothy Abbott is an award-winning writer, journalist, editor, radio producer, and global activist specializing in literature, media, culture, and the arts. Her emphasis is on racial and economic justice, peace, gender equality, human rights, and sustainable development. Dorothy is the
author of eight literary anthologies, including the Signet Classic Book of Southern Short Stories published by Penguin.

Effie Burt

A lifelong vocalist, born and raised in Oxford, MS, Effie Burt is an international artist, gracing the stage from Beale Street, New Orleans to Montego Bay JA. Although she has love for jazz, blues, R&B music, her first love in music is gospel music. Retired in 2006 from John Deere Co., after 27 years, Effie now enjoys singing in many venues. She currently perform with a 10-piece. wedding band and trio jazz band. She is a member of Lafayette County Remembrance Project, Theatre Oxford, League of Women Voters, The Blue House and a Member of Trinity UMC.

Adrienne Brown-David

Adrienne Brown-David is a freelance artist living in a small, rural town in northern Mississippi. Though she is originally from St. Louis, Adrienne has lived in both Chicago (where she briefly attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago) and the Virgin Islands before settling in the south. Adrienne is a wife and mother of four daughters and the experience of motherhood greatly influences her work.

Margaret-Love Denman

Born and raised in Oxford, Mississippi, Denman is the author of two novels, including Daily, Before Your Eyes and A Scrambling After Circumstance. She most recently coordinated off-campus writing programs at the University of Mississippi. Denman was the director of the creative writing program at the University of New Hampshire for twelve years. At the age of 77, Denman walked 100 miles of the Way of St. James in Spain. She continues to write and lead and coach writers and attend festivals and conferences and residencies.

Robbie Fisher

A native Mississippian, Robbie Fisher is a film producer and attorney based in Water Valley, Mississippi, and the owner of Fisher Productions, LLC. She is a graduate of The University of the South and Suffolk University Law School. Fisher has produced a number of short narrative and documentary films in Mississippi, and has also produced commercials and music videos. Her work on feature films in Mississippi includes As I Lay Dying, Thrasher Road.and Mysterious Circumstance: The Death of Meriwether Lewis.