BILOXI, MS.- The Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art has named Brenda Blount as its new Director of Development. Recently, Brenda served as the Community Business Development Manager for Barnes & Noble Booksellers, working with area schools to meet their textbook and technology needs. Blount’s primary duties were to maximize sales growth through outreach and community events. Her sales efforts and marketing plans reinforced the bookselling culture through world-class customer service focus and digital and merchandising initiatives. Brenda cultivated existing business accounts, generated new sales opportunities, and helped to make the store a valuable resource in the communities the coast serves.

A native of Jacksonville, FL, Brenda has been a Mississippi Gulf Coast resident for more than thirty years. She is a seasoned Retail and Fashion merchandising executive with more than thirty years’ experience in the retail industry. Brenda spent ten years in her position as Assistant Director and, later, Director of Retail at the Promenade Shops at Beau Rivage Resort and Casino where she managed comprehensive daily operations for the Beau Rivage, Gold Strike, and MGM Grand Detroit properties’ retail divisions. Before her time at the Beau Rivage, she was a Senior Buyer for Mercantile Stores Company, Gayfers/Maison Blanche in Mobile, AL. Brenda managed the sales operations for the entire southeast region, comprised of 28 stores across Alabama, Florida, Mississippi and Louisiana.

After the economic downturn of 2008, Brenda, along with her business partner Cecelia Shabazz, opened Dippady-do Children's Spa in Edgewater Mall, serving children from ages 3 to 18, focusing on etiquette lessons as well as beauty and spa services. During this time she also began a consulting business, "A Better You Image Transformation," assisting Gulf Coast professional women with their clothing and styling needs, which she continues to do to this day. She has been the fashion stylist and writer for Gulf Coast Woman Magazine since 2012, covering current fashion trends. Her latest work can be seen on the cover of the May – June issue of Gulf Coast Woman, Coast GLAM.

Brenda has served as president of the Lighthouse Professional Business Women's Association and is currently serving as the president of the Public Relations Association of MS, MS Beach chapter. She holds a Fashion Design degree from The Art Institute of Atlanta and a Bachelor’s degree from Tulane University in Public Relations. She is pleased to be working for the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art as this fulfills her dream of working in the arts and culture non-profit sector.

Executive Director Kevin O’Brien says “We are extraordinarily fortunate to have Brenda joining the leadership team at the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art. On a professional level, her broad fundraising and management skills will be invaluable to us, and on a personal level she absolutely lights up a room with her intelligence, humor and warmth. Our current and future donors are in for a real treat when they get to know Brenda”