New WICA director brings arts management to stage

Verna Everitt skilled in outreach, fundraising and nonprofits

By Patricia Guthrie • September 28, 2018 1:30 am
<address> <em>“It’s all yours now,” jokes Stacie Burgua, right, to Verna Everitt. Burgua recently retired as executive director of Whidbey Island Center for the Arts as Everitt assumed the WICA leadership role this month. (Photo by Patricia Guthrie/Whidbey News Group)</em></address>
“It’s all yours now,” jokes Stacie Burgua, right, to Verna Everitt. Burgua recently retired as executive director of Whidbey Island Center for the Arts as Everitt assumed the WICA leadership role this month. (Photo by Patricia Guthrie/Whidbey News Group)

Verna Everitt, who spent 17 years in film production in Los Angeles, is now on a much smaller stage in a slightly smaller city.

Earlier this month, Everitt replaced Stacie Burgua as executive director of the Whidbey Island Center for the Arts in Langley.

Burgua retired after nearly 18 years leading WICA but she remained a producer of the recent Djangofest Northwest.

Everitt, originally from Vashon Island, left L.A. in 2007 and pursued a career in nonprofit management.

“I couldn’t be more delighted to be facing this big new challenge of carrying on the leadership that Stacie has given WICA over so many years,” said Everitt. “I’m gratified that WICA represents such a strong foundation for ongoing success and distinction.”

Everitt left Vashon at age 18 to pursue a bachelor’s degree in political science at UCLA, then co- founded Mid-Metro Productions, which created films and commercials. She ran the company with her husband, Tim, from 1990 to 2007, when the couple relocated to Vashon and took up farming.

Tim continued his film career in the realm of special effects, while Verna became community outreach director at the Vashon Center for the Arts. Wanting to concentrate her professional efforts in nonprofit management, she earned a master’s degree from Seattle University, specializing in nonprofit arts leadership.

Everitt then became executive director at the Vashon Community Care Foundation, a fundraising arm of a prominent assisted living center on Vashon Island. In that position, she provided oversight to fundraising and donor relations, community outreach, event planning, public relations and marketing, and social media outreach.

Everitt says she’s excited about the move to South Whidbey, describing it as “reminiscent of Vashon, a very close-knit community” and “breathtakingly beautiful.”

Verna and Tim Everitt have been married for 30 years and have two children—Katherine, 26, and Sam, 18.

WICA, established in 1996, is dedicated to the mission of nourishing and enhancing the artistic, social and economic well-being of the South Whidbey community. Its areas of artistic concentration are theater, music, literature, dance and the visual arts.