NWTO Board of Directors
2024-25

Julie Thu

CO-PRESIDENT

  • Julie is a native Texan who currently lives in Austin. She is a graduate of Stanford University, where she won a National Championship with the women’s tennis team and was a two-time NCAA semi-finalist individually in both singles and doubles. After college, she played on the WTA tour, competing in several Grand Slams. Julie eventually settled down in Houston where she did marketing and promotions for the Houston Rockets NBA team. When the Rice University Women’s Tennis Coach position opened up, she made the move to college coaching. She ultimately gave up college coaching to stay home with her two boys, and currently teaches privately and volunteers in the Austin community. Julie began competing again in National age-level tournaments in her 30s, and she has represented the United States on numerous Cup Teams at the ITF World Championships.

Joan OELSCHLAGER

CO-PRESIDENT

  • Joan graduated from Cornell with a BS in Human Ecology while also captaining the women’s ice hockey team, a love she continued as a founding member of the Washington Redcoats women’s hockey team (1975-83.) Joan was a kitchen and bath designer in the 80s, including President of Kitchen and Bath Works in Greenwich, CT. Joan began playing tennis after graduating from college and continued to play while moving all over the East Coast as well as Spain and Brazil. Tennis clubs became an important connector in new cities as well as an opportunity to play some ITF tournaments in other countries, with Joan winning 40s doubles in Curitiba. Joan has played Interclub and USTA League tennis wherever she has lived. She has coached high school girls tennis, captains both Addie Cup and Intersectional Teams for the Mid-Atlantic Section, and has seeded Women’s tournaments for the past 7 years. Joan spends seven months of the year in Deerfield Beach, Florida and the other five months in Alexandria, Virginia near her son and grandkids.

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LOU ARMSTRONG
Lou ARMSTRONG

  • Lou is a native Floridian, who currently lives in Fort Lauderdale, Fl. with her husband is a former Multimedia Sales/Marketing Director for the Sun Sentinel Newspaper, former USPTA Pro, former USTA Local League Coordinator and High School Tennis Volunteer Coach and current USTA Local Volunteer. Lou has earned the USTA Local League Coordinator of the Year award, received the 2018 Broward’s League Volunteer of the Year award and the 2019 USTA Florida Exceptional Adult Tennis Provider of the Year. Her devotion to USTA Leagues comes from more than 15 years of organizing and playing, and her efficiency in growing local programs come from her connection to players and the community. Coming from a marketing and events background hasn’t hurt her ability to connect with clubs and bring in new players, captains and fellow volunteers. Lou started playing tournaments at age 50 traveling to play the ATA (American Tennis Association) national tournaments. She was then introduced to the NWTO by a local player who needed a partner to travel to an out-of-town tournament.

Lois Harris

Past PRESIDENT

  • Immediate past Co-President of NWTO, Lois Harris was born and raised in a (very) small town, Green Valley, Illinois. There were no tennis courts, and there still are none. She received a B.A. in Spanish and French from Illinois State University where she played varsity badminton—pre-Title IX. She received an MBA in Accounting from George Washington University. After working in the nonprofit sector for many years, she retired in 2011 from her position as Director of Accounting for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. An introductory tennis course at ISU was the beginning of a lifelong love affair with the game. She has competed in league and tournament tennis for many years and coached part time at the high school and junior college levels while devoting her volunteer time to the public school system and the various youth sports in which her children participated. She also enjoys “collecting” antique and vintage tennis items such as jewelry, figurines, fans, and prints.

Heidi Clemmer

treasurer

  • Born into a tennis family, Heidi is the 5th child of (deceased) teaching pro emeritus, Frank “Buddy” Goeltz, who amassed 49 gold balls while winning the “grand slam” -- grass, clay, hard, and indoor titles -- in both singles and doubles, TWICE. Heidi played junior tennis and collegiate tennis. She played on the Mid-Atlantic 18 Intersectional team. She represented Maryland in the Seventeen Magazine Tennis Tournament of Champions in the 18 and under and 21 and under divisions. She won a Mid-Atlantic Collegiate doubles title and a Maryland State Collegiate singles title at Salisbury State. She won the 35 and over Mid-Atlantic Clay Court doubles title with her sister, Suzanne Parrott. After graduating from Mary Baldwin College, cum laude, with a double major in Economics and Sociology, Heidi pursued a business career. Among her titles were Public Relations Officer, Telecom Manager, Customer Service Manager, Project Manager, Regional Manager, and Design Manager. Heidi retired in 2017 with a TS clearance as a government contractor for the intelligence agency in Maryland. She currently serves as the treasurer for her church.

Teresa Merklin

  • Teresa grew up playing junior tennis before hanging up her racquets to pursue a non-tennis career. After a brief 28-year hiatus, she returned to competitive tennis and rediscovered her passion for the sport. Teresa is employed full time as a Fellow for a major defense contractor where she is attached to an Aeronautics Cyber Range that performs cybersecurity penetration testing of DoD weapons systems. As a Fellow, she leverages her 30+ years of career experience to advise and influence technical initiatives and corporate strategy. Teresa holds a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, a master’s degree in Software Engineering, and an MBA. She volunteers on an action team for USTA Texas as well as a local Community Tennis Association. In her spare time, Teresa is a prolific tennis writer of an eclectic daily tennis blog. Her husband Troy is also an enthusiastic tennis player, and together they have two daughters.

Liane Bryson

  • Liane’s love for tennis began at age 10 in her native Berlin, Germany, where she quickly mastered the sport, winning the club junior championship—and besting her older sister. After a hiatus, Liane picked up a racket again at age 21 when she settled in San Diego. She found success in local tournaments and even played in qualifying events for the Virginia Slims circuit. Liane married and raised two daughters while pursuing a career teaching Rhetoric and Writing Studies at San Diego State University. During her tenure at SDSU, she was the literacy liaison between SDSU and San Diego City and County schools, working with districts to improve literacy and college readiness skills instruction for underserved student populations. All the while, Liane continued to compete in local and national tournaments, winning her first gold ball in singles at 35. Since retiring in 2017, she has added to her stash of bronze, silver, and gold balls including three world championships with partners from South Africa, Germany, and the U.S. She has won the last seven consecutive National Championships on three different surfaces and is especially proud of her gold ball in the Mother-Daughter Grass. Despite having had three hip replacements and one knee replacement, she has represented the U.S. on four World Cup teams and currently holds the #1 world ranking in 75s doubles.

Betsy Kuhle

  • Born and raised in Decatur, Illinois, Betsy played junior tennis from age 12. In 1976 she graduated from the University of Illinois with a degree in Finance. In 1989 she received her Master’s degree in Business Administration from Western Michigan University. In the summer of 1976 Betsy began her tennis teaching/coaching career at John Gardiner’s Tennis Ranch in Carmel, CA. In the fall of 1978, she was named the Head Pro at Santa Catalina School for girls in Monterey, CA. This job allowed her the opportunity to teach and play tournaments in Northern California. In 1980 Betsy moved to Kalamazoo, Mi where she was a teaching pro for two years at West Hills Athletic Club. In the August of 1982 her love for the game allowed her to obtain a full-time coaching job at Western Michigan University as the Head Women’s Tennis Coach where she remained for 33 years winning 15 conference championships. In 2006 Betsy was inducted into the Western Michigan University Athletics Hall of Fame. In 2017 she was inducted into the Mid-American Conference Hall of Fame having the most wins of any coach in that sport in Mid-American Conference history, 545. In 2016 Betsy was honored by the USTA as a “Blue Ribbon Tournament Director” having run USTA and Intercollegiate Tennis Association tournaments for over 25 years. Currently Betsy splits her time between Springboro, Ohio and Rancho Mirage, CA playing as many National Women’s Senior Tennis events as possible. Betsy’s entire family plays tennis and her goal is to continue to play “the sport for a lifetime” for the rest of her life.

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Christine (Chris) Grant

  • Chris played state and national Junior and Division III Tennis (Swarthmore College) in high school and college. She also played competitive squash and badminton, dabbling in platform and table tennis. She resumed competitive tennis after completing careers in business, law, and public health including stints as a New Jersey Cabinet member and Commissioner of Health and Senior Services,and held executive positions at a national philanthropy and multinational pharmaceutical companies and as Chair of the American Bar Association’s Science and Technology Section. She was the 1999 recipient of the Rolex Intercollegiate Tennis Association Achievement award. Chris treasures the several “National balls “earned in senior tennis. She’s been a member of the NSWTA since the 2000’s and resides in Princeton, New Jersey with her husband. She’s committed to help maintain a welcoming, enjoyable, experience for women of all ages who have tennis rackets and will travel to play!

Nell Graham Sale

  • Nell Graham Sale was raised in Charleston, West Virginia, where she played junior tennis until going to college at 18. Like many women her age, there were no women’s athletics at her college. She picked tennis up again in her 30s and played USTA league tennis for many years in Denver and Wilmington, Delaware, and since 2002, in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, New Mexico. In 2008, she and three other women founded an all-women’s law firm, Pregenzer, Baysinger, Wideman & Sale, PC, from which she is now retired. Nell’s law practice concentrated on taxation, estate planning, elder law and disability planning. Nell is a Certified Elder Law Attorney as designated by the National Foundation for Elder Law, a former board member of the Special Needs Alliance, a national network of disability trust lawyers, and a fellow in the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel. Nell is also one of the founders of the New Mexico Planned Giving Roundtable.

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  • Davida was born and raised in Framingham, MA. When she was a very little girl, she tagged along with her dad to the local outdoor club with six, velvety red clay courts, where she swept the porch and talked with people while he played tennis. At 10, she started playing with a junior wood racquet. She loved the sport and stuck with a one-handed backhand. In her teens and early 20s, she taught tennis at an overnight camp in Maine and locally at public courts. In 1982, Davida was fortunate compete in tennis and squash at Dartmouth College and graduated with a B.A. degree in psychology. After then earning an MBA from Babson College in 1992, she focused on squash for a decade, but in 1996, she turned back to tennis and discovered USTA leagues. Over the past 26 years, she has competed on a multitude of teams and tournaments and has proudly represented New England at the Addie Cup, Friendship Cup, and Intersectionals. She has also enjoyed coaching her town’s high school tennis teams. Recently, after 30 years in PR and content marketing in the tech sector, Davida pivoted to a new career as a racquet sports professional at The Longfellow Clubs. Building communications and engagement with customers is on her roster, but most of her work at Longfellow will entail teaching people of all ages and abilities the physical, technical, and mental aspects of the fabulous sport of tennis. And pickleball instructor is also in her future. Davida and her husband Brad live in Ashland, MA and are proud parents of two terrific 20-somethings, Abby and Ari, and a Goldendoodle named Toby. Davida is grateful for the health and social benefits of tennis and considers tennis a life-long work-in-progress that keeps her sharp and always learning.

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ANDI POLISKY

  • Andi was born in Chicago and raised in Appleton, WI. She was fortunate enough to play junior tennis and never stopped. After graduation from the University of Wisconsin, Andi headed to Los Angeles and then San Francisco where she worked for 45 years at various ad agencies and in broadcasting sales. She was a weekend tennis warrior and played senior tournaments.  Andi was lucky to have made great tennis friends throughout the state that she still gets to call pals. She moved to Palm Desert in 2003 and continued working part-time and making new tennis friends and reconnecting with old ones after retirement. In 2013 she began organizing women’s tennis tournaments in the desert after she won her first “ball” at age 66. Never give up hope! Now Andi is the TD of the women’s National Hardcourt Championships (35-85) and the National Women’s 90’s Grass event…loves those ladies and she continues playing national events when possible.

Kathy Settles

  • Kathy was born and raised in Davis, CA and played collegiate tennis at UC Irvine. Having spent the first fifteen years of her career working in Ponte Vedra Beach, FL as a Player Relations Manager at the ATP World Tour, Kathy and her husband Paul, moved to Claremont, CA in 2004 where Paul began coaching the Men’s Tennis Team at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges. Kathy joined the coaching staff of the CMS Women’s Tennis Team and in 2016 took over as the Girls and Boys Varsity Tennis Coach at Claremont High School. Kathy and Paul have four children and have made playing family tennis a priority. They have won several USTA national championships in various Husband-Wife, Mother-Son, and Father-Son divisions. In August of 2023, both Paul and Kathy represented Team USA at the ITF Masters World Team Championships in Lisbon, Portugal where both teams won a bronze medal. Besides playing tournaments and coaching tennis, Kathy runs a boutique Floral Design Business in Claremont called, 5683 Blooms.

Karen Fellabaum

Secretary

  • Raised in Orchard Park, a small Quaker Village in upstate New York, Karen grew up on skis and in swimming pools during the infancy of synchronized. Early on, she discovered a love of foreign languages and cultures which ultimately informed her career path. Following graduation from the State University of New York-Geneseo, Karen and her husband departed on what would essentially be a journey of overseas living. While abroad, she was intermittently attached to her husband’s American International Schools as well as U.S. Consulates and Embassies in Europe, the Middle East, South America, Africa, and India. Retirement in Florida afforded her the opportunity to fully develop a lifelong interest in tennis, as she initially participated in leagues, followed by age-level competition. As an Amenities Committee member, Karen is committed to the NWTO mission of promoting the sport and ensuring opportunities for women to compete.

Bryn Auld

  • Bryn was raised in Atlanta, GA where she started playing tennis at the age of 11. She quickly fell in love with the game and thoroughly enjoyed all of the friends she made playing Southern and National tournaments. She is a graduate of Florida State University with a degree in marketing and was a member of the tennis team her freshman year. After college, she moved to Los Angeles and reached a leadership role in the real estate finance sector with Countrywide. Bryn was then given the opportunity to move to San Francisco and join an executive team focused on marketing for Washington Mutual. Following her adventures in California, she moved to Florida to start a family and started playing tennis again. In addition to reviving her tennis game, Bryn received her USPTA certification and began teaching local ladies team clinics and the Trinity Prep Boys Varsity Tennis Team. Bryn joined the board of The Lakewood Center (a center for adults living with chronic mental health issues) in 2015. She is also on the board of her daughter’s school as well as on the tennis committee of Interlachen Country Club. She currently lives in Winter Park, FL with her husband, 10-year-old daughter, and their four fur babies. She enjoys going to junior tennis tournaments with her daughter and hanging out at the beach. She is excited to help expand the younger demographic of the NWTO membership and increase tournament participation.