They spent their formative years in a building known simply as “The Hut.” It was a detached portable that housed a myriad of melodramatic misfits and their extra “theatrical” teenage melodramas. If you found yourself there before school, after school, or even during lunch you were one of Brinker’s babies. And if you were one of Brinker’s babies, you received an artistic education like no other.
The expansive reach of Lisa Brinker’s influence transcended the typical with Isiah though. In him, she nurtured a passion for teaching that has gone on to serve Columbus and the Muscogee County School District for almost 15 years.
Since deciding to make Columbus, Georgia, her home, she has graduated from Columbus State University with two degrees (a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts in Theatre and a Master’s of Business Administration), been elected Student Body President of Columbus State University, and spent the better part of a decade working in the Marketing Department of the not-for-profit organization RiverCenter for the Performing Arts. She now brings this decade’s worth of marketing experience to the real estate industry and looks forward to assisting clients to market their homes. But buyers fear not! Carla also enjoys showing newbies around town. She’s been embedded in the community since 1995 and will make sure to tell you where you can find the best steak, burger, pizza, etc. in town. You pick your poison, and she’ll make sure to show you a home within spitting distance! Or just a short drive…whichever you prefer.
Thankfully the Columbus Museum’s Contemporaries Board typically met at night. Carla enjoyed her many years as a member of The Columbus Museum Contemporaries and is still coming to terms with being called a Young Arts Patron.*
*”As a marketing person, I enjoy a good rebrand as much as the next guy, but there’s just something about being called a YAP that doesn’t feel quite right.” – Carla Gridley
She now heads up the marketing efforts of the nation’s fourth largest provider of child care— Childcare Network.
Maestro for a Moment is not Isiah and Carla’s first collaboration with the Youth of Orchestra of Greater Columbus. During their tenure on the Board of the Columbus Ballet, Isiah and Carla spearheaded an initiative that partnered the Columbus Ballet’s performance of The Nutcracker with live orchestration by the YOGC. That year it was the only all-youth performance of The Nutcracker in the nation.
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