Nancy Cardwell
Nancy Cardwell is a bassist, writer, and administrator from Missouri. She performed with her family band, the Cardwell Family, and in the early 1990s she played bass with the Wildwood Girls. Her first husband, banjo player Frank Erdos of the Ozarks band Homegrown, died at 44, and the couple had a daughter, Erin Faith. She joined IBMA as a member in 1992 and attended her first World of Bluegrass that year at the Executive Inn in Owensboro, Kentucky. She was on IBMA's staff from 1994 to 2015. When executive director Dan Hays resigned in 2012, IBMA's board named her interim director. In 2016 she became the first staff member and executive director of the IBMA Foundation, formerly the Foundation for Bluegrass Music. During her time there, she edited its newsletter, The Cornerstone, ran its booth at the World of Bluegrass expo, and organized its education events and scholarship fundraising. The foundation's grant programs grew from two to twelve while she led it. IBMA gave her its Distinguished Achievement Award in 2021. She announced in 2025 that she would retire from the foundation in 2026.