Founder Jennifer Pickering and Festival Director/CFO Leigh Maher Honored by LEAF Board and Staff as They Complete Their LEAF Leadership Journey
LEAF’s year-round Staff Team and Board of Directors honor a profound milestone: 30 years of connecting cultures and creating community through music and the arts, as LEAF Founder Jennifer Pickering and her husband, Festival Director and CFO Leigh Maher, complete their leadership journey.
“It has been the honor of a lifetime to live life like LEAF for 30 years,” said Jennifer Pickering.
Jennifer and Leigh completed their LEAF leadership journey on December 31, 2025. They remain 100% committed to LEAF’s mission and to supporting LEAF’s outreach programming.
“My joy has always been being a bridge—creating platforms for artists and culture keepers who are rarely seen or heard, and curating gatherings that are truly multigenerational, multicultural, and multi-genre,” Pickering said, reflecting on the programs she and team members visioned, designed, and led across the globe, helping connect youth locally and internationally to world cultures, new skills, and creative confidence.
“LEAF Global Arts has been our life’s work, our shared collaboration, and our greatest connector to our community and the world. What began as a vision rooted in music, culture, and community grew into a living tradition—one shaped by thousands of amazing magic moments and stories.”
“Transitions lead to transformations,” shares Jennifer Pickering. “The new LEAF leadership has its own dreams, and I believe a bright future awaits. We trust that new leadership will carry their dreams forward and beautiful things are ahead for all of us.”
Jennifer and Leigh’s legacy is documented in Live Life Like a Festival, an interactive, 240-page coffee table book that captures the story of how LEAF has built a global village of musicians, teachers, change-makers, and joyful creators over the last three decades. Pre-sales of the book are available now through LEAF’s website www.theLEAF.org/book
The book honors the 30 year journey and is filled with LEAF stories, inspiring people to engage in their lives reflecting on the LEAF way. When published in Spring of 2026, a portion of proceeds will benefit LEAF International and Schools & Streets! A book launch at Lake Eden is planned.
Jennifer will continue her work through TEDxAsheville March 2026, consulting & coaching to help people achieve their dreams, and creative projects, always rooted in the belief that arts and culture are essential to human health and happiness. David Dowd, LEAF’s Board President: “On behalf of the Board of Directors, we extend our deep gratitude to Jennifer and Leigh for the vision, creativity, and unwavering dedication that shaped LEAF into a cultural home where connection and global community could flourish for over 30 years. As LEAF enters its next chapter, we are committed to stewarding that legacy forward with care, integrity, and hope.
