Dance/USA — The national service organization for professional dance. | <A title="" name=top>Speaker Information</A>

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	JEN ABRAMS Jen Abrams worked as a grassroots volunteer coordinator for the Obama campaign from October 2007 through November 2008. She built a volunteer base of over 1000 people independent of any official organization. In addition to her NYC campaign work, she brought nine canvassing groups averaging 100 people each to Northeast Philadelphia, a conservative stronghold. Her volunteers helped win every ward in that area. Jen is a choreographer who has been making and performing dances in Chicago and NYC for fifteen years. Her work has been presented at Dixon Place, LaMama, BAX, HERE, WAX, and at WOW Café Theater, where she has been a member for nine years. Most recently her work has been seen at Dance New Amsterdam and as part of the DancenOw 2008 Festival. She teaches Contact Improvisation through Movement Research. Jen has worked in nonprofit arts management since 1993, and is currently Managing Director of Risa Jaroslow & Dancers. back to top
	AMANDA ADAMS Amanda Adams, tax manager, joined Blazek & Vetterling in 2003. Amanda currently serves a broad range of nonprofit clients including social service agencies, civic, business, and cultural organizations, private foundations, and health-care related organizations. In 2007, she co-authored an article entitled “Transfers Between Private Foundations” that appeared in Trusts & Estates magazine. She has also co-authored (with Jody Blazek) Revised Form 990: A Line-by-Line Preparation Guide (2009). Amanda received her Bachelor of Arts degree from The University of Texas at Austin in 1999, and is currently pursuing her Master’s of Accountancy degree at The University of Houston, with an expected graduation date in the summer of 2009. She is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Texas Society of Certified Public Accountants, and the Houston Chapter of CPAs. Amanda is also a member and officer of The Woman’s Club of Houston. back to top
	EMIL ANGELICA Emil is a principal consultant with over 30 years experience providing consulting and training services to nonprofit organizations and government in the areas of board and staff development, strategic planning, program evaluation, community development, and nonprofit management. He has worked on a broad range of mergers, collaborations, and partnerships as well as a number of capacity building projects for refugee and immigrant organizations. Emil has authored a number of books on nonprofit management and is known as a national speaker and trainer. In 1999 he completed a commission as a CASP Fulbright Scholar in Cyprus. He has an MBA from NYU, and a BA in philosophy from Trinity College. back to top
	ALICIA ANSTEAD For the last 20 years, Alicia Anstead has been an arts and culture journalist, consultant and educator based in Boston and New York City. Her reporting has taken her to Europe, Africa, South America, Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Although her primary work has been on arts and culture, Alicia has written about politics, health, education, the environment and, in 2003, she reported from Iraq. She is also editor of the national magazine Inside Arts, published by the Association of Performing Arts Presenters in Washington, DC. In addition to being an award-winning writer, Alicia works as an advisor to boards of directors, a fellowship adjudicator, an arts consultant, lecturer, film collaborator and host of onstage conversations with world-class artists. She is a fellow with the National Arts Journalism Program at Columbia University, the National Endowment for the Arts Cultural Editor Program at Duke University and the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University, where she is a conference and programming consultant. She also teaches arts journalism at Harvard Extension School. back to top
	ALAN BROWN Alan Brown and Jennifer Novak are leading the research and assessment component of Dance/USA’s Engaging Dance Audiences initiative. As a principal of WolfBrown, Alan’s work focuses on understanding consumer demand for cultural experiences and on helping cultural institutions, funders and agencies see new opportunities, make informed decisions and respond to changing conditions. He has studied audiences, visitors and patterns of cultural participation in almost every major market in the U.S., and has led numerous strategic planning efforts. Alan and Jennifer co-authored the 2007 study Assessing the Intrinsic Impacts of a Live Performance and recently completed a large study of patterns of cultural engagement for the James Irvine Foundation. back to top
	MICHELLE BURKHART Michelle N. Burkhart was appointed director for Dance/NYC in June 2008 after having worked in the capacity of Development Officer since 2006 and interim director as of October 2007. Prior to Dance/NYC, Michelle worked with Complexions Contemporary Ballet where she held the position of executive director. Previously, she worked as administrative director for Ballet Hispanico. Michelle has over 10 years experience in not-for-profit management, six years in for-profit corporations, and a 12 year career as a professional dancer. Additionally, Michelle is an adjunct professor at New York University where she teaches various courses in the Arts Administration Graduate Program and has designed curriculum for the program. She has served as a not-for-profit business consultant/advisor for various organizations across the country. She was named a Tenenbaum Leadership Institute Fellow at New School University in 2008. She holds a B.S. in Organizational Behavior from University of San Francisco as well as a J.D. with specialization in sports and entertainment law from Golden Gate University. back to top
	SUZANNE CALLAHAN, CFRE Suzanne Callahan, CFRE, founded Callahan Consulting for the Arts in 1996, which serves arts organizations and funders through planning, fundraising, and evaluation. She has run arts funding programs for almost 20 years, including Engaging Dance Audiences and the National College Choreography Initiative (both for Dance/USA.) and prior to that at the NEA Dance Program. Her book Singing Our Praises: Case Studies in the Art of Evaluation was awarded Outstanding Publication of the Year from the American Evaluation Association. Callahan is a frequent trainer in fundraising and evaluation for foundations and associations, and has served as panelist for the Rockefeller Foundation and the NEA, among others. The firm’s 60 clients have included Americans for the Arts, Chicago Community Trust, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and The Pew Charitable Trusts. She holds an M.A in Dance Education and a Certificate in Fundraising from George Washington University and a B.A. from Northwestern University. back to top
	MICHELINA CASSELLA KULAK Michelina Cassella Kulak, PT is a 1964 graduate of the University of Connecticut, School of Physical Therapy. She is currently Director, Department of Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy Services, Children’s Hospital, Boston MA. She was the Associate Director in the above departments from 1974 to 2002. She has a Harvard University appointment--Lecturer in Orthopaedic Surgery, which she has held since 1990. She is currently on the Faculty of the Boston Conservatory, Dance Division. Her previous academic appointments include Associate Director of Simmon’s College, Program in Physical Therapy (1974-1981. She has been a special instructor in Physical Therapy at Boston University and Northeastern University and is currently a guest lecturer at the Massachusetts General, School of Allied Heath Professionals. Ms. Cassella is the Director of Physical Therapy Services at Boston Ballet Company and Boston Ballet, Center for Dance Education. She has held that position since 1991. Ms. Cassella has written several articles for professional journals, most recent ones are dance medicine related. She has recently written chapters for several textbooks: The Pediatric and Adolescent Knee (authors, Micheli and Kocher). Sanders/Elsevier, 2006; The Adolescent Athlete (editors—Micheli and Purcell). Springer, 2007; and The Young Athlete (editors—Hebestreit and Bar-Or). Blackwell, 2008. She has lectured extensively both nationally and internationally on the topics of Dance Medicine and The Physical Therapy Management of Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis. In 2002 Ms. Cassella established The Adaptive Dance Program for Children with Down syndrome at Boston Ballet. The program is now in its sixth year and has an enrollment of 40 students. back to top
	RODNEY CHRISTOPHER Rodney Christopher, Vice President of Client Services, celebrated eleven non-consecutive years of employment at NFF in November 2008. He is responsible for and participates in a range of activities at NFF nationally. Previously, he oversaw all aspects of Advisory Services. Mr. Christopher was on staff from 1992 to 1996, and returned to NFF in 2001 to manage the Nonprofit Recovery Fund, which raised and distributed over $10 million to help New York City nonprofits recover financially from the economic effects of September 11th. He represented NFF on the selection committee for the inaugural New York Times Nonprofit Management Excellence Awards, and has served on the boards of the Artists Community Federal Credit Union, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, Gay Men of African Descent, the New York Technical Assistance Providers Network, and the Simon’s Rock Alumni Association. In his years away from NFF, Mr. Christopher became a published author and worked in television production. He has a BA summa cum laude in Social Sciences from Simon's Rock College of Bard and an MS in Urban Policy Analysis and Management from New School University. back to top
	HEATHER HEROD COLE Heather Herod Cole minored in Business Administration while earning her Master’s Degree in Physical Therapy from Ithaca College. She has extensive post-graduate experience in orthopedics, manual therapy and dance medicine, and is pursuing certification in orthopedic manual therapy via Maitland Seminars. Heather is an active member of the American Physical Therapy Association and the International Association of Dance Medicine and Science. As a member of Dance/USA’s Taskforce for dancer health, Heather designed a data-entry system for companies utilizing the post-hire health screen for professional dancers. She is a physical therapist and health care committee member for the Nashville Ballet, as well as the Treasurer for Nashville in Motion. As a former dancer, musical theatre performer and athlete, Heather sustained injuries and understands the impact injury can have on quality of life. Passionate about helping people overcome their physical impairments, she treats patients at Susan Underwood Physical Therapy in Nashville, Tennessee. back to top
	JOE CORTRIGHT Joe Cortright is President and principal economist with Impresa, a Portland consulting firm specializing in regional economic analysis, innovation and industry clusters. Joe is also a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, and is the chief economic analyst for the Oregon Business Plan, a multi-year, private sector-led effort to develop the state economy and senior policy advisor for CEOs for Cities, a national organization of urban leaders. He has served as an advisor to state and local governments, private businesses, foundations and advocacy groups in more than a dozen states, Canada and Europe. Joe's work casts a light on the role of knowledge-based industries in shaping regional economies. Joe's latest report is City Vitals--a tool for benchmarking urban economic health--published by the national organization CEOs for Cities. Cortright is the author of three publications on industry clusters published by the Brookings Institution: Making Sense of Clusters (2006) -- a review of academic literature on industry agglomeration -- Signs of Life (2002) -- a benchmark analysis of the clustering of the U.S. biotechnology industry and High Tech Specialization (2001). Cortright has also written extensively on the migration of talented young workers among metropolitan areas in a series of studies entitled The Young and Restless for cities around the nation. His work is quoted regularly in the media, in publications ranging from the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times to The Economist, Business Week and USA Today. Joe is currently Chair of the Oregon Governor’s Council of Economic Advisors, has served on the editorial board of Economic Development Quarterly, and is co-founder and editor of EconData.Net, the web’s leading guide to regional economic data. back to top
	PETER DIMURO Peter DiMuro's performance, theater and dance works involve subject matter of wide ranging social concern and their evolutions over time first explored in the repertory of his Boston based company, Peter DiMuro Performance Associates (1990-2000), and deepened through his fifteen-year collaboration in the processes of Liz Lerman, first as a performing member of Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, and through his appointment as Producing Artistic Director. He has recently been named director of Dance/MetroDC, a branch of the national service organization Dance/USA. His work has appeared at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Danceplace and Church Street Theatre locally and commissioned by the Clarice Smith Center for the Performing Arts, The Florida Dance Festival, Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, The Bates Dance Festival, Auras Dance Theatre (Lithuania), Boston Dance Umbrella. His choreography appears in a nationally aired television commercial for the National Institute on Aging. A teacher of technique, creative process, composition/improvisation, Peter has been artist in residence internationally. He taught several summers at the American Dance Festival and Bates Dance Festival, designed and facilitated the Massachusetts' Cultural Council's Elder Arts Initiative, a mentoring program for artists and caregivers working with seniors. Peter was named a White House Millennial Artist in 2000, a 1995 Mayor of Boston/ProArts Public Service in the Arts Award recipient, and has received grants from the National Performance Network, the Artists' Foundation and Cultural Council, both of Massachusetts, the National Endowment for the Arts. Originally from Round Lake, IL (population, circa 1970: 250), he is the youngest of three children, the son of the Chief of Police (Dad) and a machinist /gal Friday (Mom). He has a niece named for the Crayola crayon, Sienna. He lives in Washington, DC. back to top
	ANNE DUNNING Anne Dunning joined ARTS Action Research as a Principal Associate in 2004. Before coming to New York, she spent ten years in various administrative roles with the Danny Grossman Dance Company in Toronto, finishing her tenure there as Administrative Director. Among her many roles in the arts, she was founding chair of the national council of the Canadian Dance Assembly, a trustee and Chair of the Board of Dance/USA and is a continuing member of the George Cedric Metcalf Foundations Strategic Initiatives Advisory Committee. She is currently leading a task force on emerging leaders in the dance field for Dance/USA. She lives in New York with her husband, Gary, the Executive Director of the Big Apple Circus. back to top
	JOAN FINKELSTEIN Joan Finkelstein (B.F.A., M.F.A., NYU Tisch School of the Arts) toured and taught nationally and internationally in the 1970s and 80s with the Cliff Keuter Dance Company, the Don Redlich Dance Company (where she worked with dance pioneer Hanya Holm), the Jean-Léon Destiné Afro-Haitian Dance Company, and the Manhattan Festival Ballet, among others. She was an original cast member of the Broadway show RAGS. As a NYFA teaching artist and as a CETA artist she worked in public schools and community-based sites in NYC and Westchester. She has taught at public schools across the nation in Artists in Schools residencies, and has been a guest lecturer at numerous colleges and universities. A recipient of choreographer’s fellowships from the NEA and the NARB, her work has been commissioned by the Atlanta Ballet, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, and South Carolina Ballet Theatre. From 1992-2004 she was Director of the 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Center, overseeing classes and performance opportunities for children and adults, workshops for professional dancers, rehearsal space grants, professional performances including an annual five-week fully produced festival, arts-in-education programs, lectures, social dance events, and the Dance Education Laboratory (DEL) dance teacher training program. She serves on the board of the International Committee for the Dance Library of Israel; the advisory boards of Dance Teacher Magazine, Dancers Responding to AIDS, and the Emergency Fund for Student Dancers; and is a member of the New York Dance and Performance Awards (BESSIES) committee. Joan became Director of Dance Programs for the New York City Department of Education in June 2004, supervising the creation of the Blueprint for Teaching and Learning in Dance, PreK-12. Her ongoing work with the NYCDOE’s Office of Arts and Special Projects supports excellence in dance education in the 1,500 schools across NYC’s five boroughs. back to top
	AMY FITTERER Prior to joining the Dance/USA staff, Amy served as the president of Student Advocates for the Arts, a national club committed to engaging students in cultural policy and lobbying. She has lobbied on the city, state and national level to increase government support for the arts and arts education and has motivated students throughout the country to participate in local advocacy efforts. Amy has held government affairs internships with The Center for Arts Education in New York and Americans for the Arts in Washington DC and has conducted research on the best practices and models for dancer career transition at the Research Center for Arts and Culture at Columbia University. From 2001 to 2006, Amy danced professionally with Peninsula Ballet Theatre in the San Francisco Bay Area while also serving as director of Lisa Spector’s Music School in Half Moon Bay, CA. Amy received her ballet training from the Nutmeg Conservatory for the Arts in Connecticut. She holds a B.S. in piano performance from Indiana University and an M.A. in arts administration from Teachers College, Columbia University. Amy is the director of government affairs for Dance/USA and OPERA America. back to top
	JANE FORDE Jane Forde brings over twenty years of experience as an artist, choreographer, teacher and administrator in dance and the performing arts to NEFA’s National Dance Project. Most recently she was Executive Director of Arts Rochester in Gonic, New Hampshire, and before that was Artistic Director and Director of Outreach of The Music Hall in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where she developed projects for building dance audiences in New England, and worked closely with many dance companies. Jane has worked as a dancer, dance educator and outreach director and presenter and she holds a Bachelors degree in Performance Arts from Middlesex University, England and a Masters in Dance from SUNY College at Brockport, NY. She currently serves as the Manager for the National Dance Project, a program of New England Foundation for the Arts. back to top
	JAMES R. HACKNEY, JR. CFRE As Managing Partner of Alexander Haas, Jim serves cultural clients all over the country. In the past 5 years he has helped clients raise more than $700,000,000. In the cultural area, Jim is currently the consultant to the Houston Ballet and has worked to build the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities, the RiverCenter for the Performing Arts, and has consulted with the Dallas Museum of Art, Center for Puppetry Arts, Walters Art Museum, Colorado History Museum, Taubman Museum of Art, New Mexico Museum of Art, American Association of Museums, American Craft Council and many more. Before he became a consultant in 1995, Jim was the Director of Development and Marketing for the Mint Museum of Art in Charlotte, NC. Jim is a founding board member of the Arts Leadership League of Georgia and is an advisor to United States Artists. He is the past president of the Art Museum Development Association. A graduate of Wofford College and Yale University, Jim lives in Atlanta in an Arts & Crafts house with his collection of southern pottery. back to top
	ANGELA HAN Angela Han is currently the director of research at the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies (NASAA), the membership organization that unites, represents and serves the nation’s state and jurisdictional arts agencies. Through her work at NASAA she helps members and their partners use research to assist in their planning, evaluation and advocacy efforts; provide a national perspective on funding for the arts and the work of state arts agencies; and stay up to date on relevant issues. Prior to joining NASAA she served as executive director for the Plymouth Symphony in Michigan and River Arts, an arts presenter in Wisconsin. Her work with both organizations included promoting and implementing system-wide arts education programming. She received an MBA in arts administration from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and bachelor’s degrees in music from the University of Windsor and physics from the California Institute of Technology. back to top
	DIANA HOSSACK Diana Hossack’s dedication to diversity in the arts began while leading the programming for OPERA America’s 2005 Diverse Voices, an award-winning national conference that took an unprecedented look at multiculturalism in the performing arts. She is now a diversity trainer for the National MultiCultural Institute, leading sessions and workshops for this organization and Arizona Opera, OPERA America, Junior League of Phoenix, among others. She currently serves on the National Performing Arts Diversity Task Force. During Ms. Hossack’s twenty-year career as an arts administrator, she has developed numerous national career advancement initiatives, including creating the Pittsburgh Opera Center, OPERA America’s Singer Career Network as well as reinvigorating OPERA America’s acclaimed Fellowship Program. Her professional experience comprises tenure within every department of an opera company. A credential she earned while holding positions with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Pittsburgh Opera, the Pavarotti International Voice Competition, Arizona Opera, and OPERA America, where her final post was managing director. Recently, Ms. Hossack created Business 4 Arts, an innovative partnership with her alma mater, Arizona State University, and Arizona Opera, Arizona Theatre Company, Ballet Arizona, and The Phoenix Symphony. She is currently establishing a business that blends her experience with arts and business focusing on partnership and mergers, personnel services, and training for both individuals and organizations. back to top
	MARGARET JENKINS Margaret Jenkins is a choreographer, teacher and mentor, as well as a designer of unique community-based dance projects. In her 35-year career, Ms. Jenkins has created over 75 works on her Company as well as resident companies in the United States and Europe. Her company tours regularly in this country and abroad, and her recent cross-cultural collaborations with the Tanusree Shankar Dance Company of Kolkata, India and the Guangdong Modern Dance Company of Guangzhou (GMDC), China have been the focus of her choreographic attention since 2003. Other Suns, her current project with the GMDC premieres September 24, 2009 in SF prior to a 5-week tour of the US. In 2004, Ms. Jenkins launched Choreographers in Mentorship Exchange (CHIME), an innovative mentorship program that fosters creative exchange and long-term relationships between emerging and established choreographers. A founding member of Dance/USA, she is the recipient of numerous commissions and awards including a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Bernard Osher Cultural Award for her dedication to the field. back to top
	PETER JASZI Professor Peter Jaszi, JD, a specialist in intellectual property and copyright law, is faculty director of the Glushko-Samuelson Intellectual Property Law Clinic at the Washington College of Law at American University. He was Pauline Ruvle Moore Scholar in Public Law from 1981-82 and Outstanding Faculty Scholarship awardee in 1982. He received the AU Faculty Award for Outstanding Contributions to Academic Development in 1996. He is a member of the Selden Society (state correspondent for Washington, D.C.). He has written many chapters, articles and monographs on copyright, intellectual property, technology and other issues. He was co-editor of The Construction of Authorship: Textual Appropriation in Law and Literature Durham (1994) and co-author of Legal Issues in Addict Diversion (1976) and Copyright Law, 3rd ed. (1994). back to top
	MATTHEW KEEFE Matthew Keefe began dancing while a student at the University of New Mexico, training with the late Tim Wengerd of the Martha Graham Dance Company. He continued his training in Chicago and New York with Sam Watson, Larry Long, David Howard, Donald Byrd and Alonzo King among others. In his 19 years performing, he danced with the Lynda Martha Dance Company, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Fort Wayne Ballet, Boston Ballet 2, Charleston Ballet Theater, Louisville Ballet, Ohio Ballet, the move, Ballet Met Columbus, Minnesota Opera and the James Sewell Ballet as well as numerous guest artist appearances. Mr. Keefe holds an M.F.A. in Dance from the University of Iowa. As a choreographer and director, Mr. Keefe recently served as the interim artistic director of Ballet Quad Cities. He founded and produced “The Studio 2A Project – a performance of dance in the round” for three years in Minneapolis, MN. A choreographer of over 40 ballets, his work has won awards from the Regional Dance America and was selected for the Ballet Builders Showcase in New York. Mr. Keefe is currently the company manager and stage manager for American Repertory Ballet and is an adjunct faculty member for the Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University. He resides in New Jersey with his wife, dancer Brittany Fridenstine. back to top
	PAUL KING Paul King, is co-founder, along with Walter Jaffe, of White Bird, a 501(c)(3) notnprofit organization dedicated to bringing excellence in dance to Portland, Oregon. Since its founding in July 1997, White Bird has become one of the leading dance presenters on the West Coast and has co-commissioned 16 important dance works, including Bill T. Jones’ You Walk?, Stephen Petronio’s Strange Attractors, and the fall 2002 American premiere of Trisha Brown’s Geometry of Quiet. Mr. King is a strong believer in community participation and served for two years as board member and Chair of the Development Committee of Cascade AIDS Project. He currently sits on the board of the Portland Oregon Visitors Association (POVA). He is a charter member of PortlanDances, founded in 1999, which through its website promotes dance in the Portland metropolitan area. Mr. King recently joined the board of California Presenters and is co-chair of the 2006 New York Congress of the International Society of Performing Arts (ISPA), along with serving as co-curator/organizer of the semi-annual ISPA Pitch Session. He is also a member of Western Arts Alliance (WAA) and Association of Performing Arts Presenters. A member of the board of Dance/USA, Mr. King has served on the Host Committee of the June 2006 National Roundtable in Portland, Oregon. back to top
	MARDA KIRN Marda Kirn is the founding director of EcoArts Connections, bringing together science, environmental, arts, and indigenous organizations in programming to increase awareness of climate change and sustainable living. She was the founding director of the Colorado Dance Festival, which, during her 14-year tenure, was considered one of the top three dance festivals in the US; a founding member of the National Performance Network; and a founder and director of the International Tap Association. Kirn has written for various publications, received numerous awards, and has been a speaker, panelist, and/or consultant for organizations in the US, Europe, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Cuba, and India. back to top
	CHRIS LAVIN Chris Lavin is currently General Manager of the San Diego Union-Tribune. Previously he worked in news and feature editor positions for the Rochester Times-Union, The St. Petersburg Times in St. Petersburg, Fla., and for seven years was Senior Editor for Arts and Entertainment at the San Diego Union-Tribune. He has written and spoken frequently around the U.S. over the past decade on the subject of arts marketing, criticism and arts coverage. back to top
	STEVEN LIBMAN Mr. Libman’s career in the performing arts spans more than 28 years of executive leadership in the theatre, dance and presenting disciplines. He is the President of the Libman Group, a consulting firm that specializes in addressing issues affecting the non-profit arts community. From 2005-2008 he was the Managing Director for the Tony Award winning La Jolla Playhouse. Mr. Libman grew the budget to $ 15M, successfully transferred productions to Broadway and supervised a staff of 100 full time and over 125 part time staff, annually producing 6-8 plays with over 300 performances. During his three year tenure he led the fundraising efforts which raised over $ 12M in annual support. From 1991-2004, he served as the Managing Director for the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre. Mr. Libman raised over $ 50 million and produced over 20 original ballets, including groundbreaking works set to the music of Pete Seeger, Sting, Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen , Ray Brown, Stanley Turrentine and Gunther Schuller. He serves on the national advisory panel for the Graduate Arts Management Program at Carnegie Mellon University. back to top
	NORA LINARES-MOELLER Nora is a consultant serving clients in the areas of management efficiencies, project implementation, international gaming and domestic fundraising for non-profits and political candidates. She spent the first twelve years of her career in state government management, including serving as the first Executive Director of the Texas Lottery Commission. As a community volunteer, Linares-Moeller currently serves on the Board of Directors of Ballet Austin (in which she served as the President of the Board). the Sally M. Kingsbury Knock Out Sarcoma Foundation Inc., Treasurer of the Board of the Friends of the Family Justice Center (Hays County) and Secretary of the La Tina Foundation. She serves as a National Board Member of the La Union del Pueblo Entero (LUPE) organization (founded by Cesar Chavez). A graduate of Southwest Texas State University (SWTSU), now Texas State University, she is also a 1989 graduate of Leadership Texas and a 1990 graduate of Leadership America. Linares-Moeller currently resides in Wimberley, TX with her husband Michael Moeller. back to top
	MATT MASON Matt Mason is the bestselling author of The Pirate’s Dilemma, the first book in the history of the world to hit the number one spot on Amazon’s economics/free enterprise bestseller list, and the rap bestseller list, at the same time. It has since been published in ten countries and counting. He was recently voted Pirate of the Year by BusinessWeek. Mason began his career as a pirate radio and club DJ in London, going on to become founding Editor-in-Chief of the seminal magazine RWD. In 2004, he was selected as one of the faces of Gordon Brown’s Start Talking Ideas campaign, and was presented the Prince’s Trust London Business of the Year Award by HRH Prince Charles. He has written and produced TV series, comic strips, viral videos and records. His journalism has appeared in The Guardian, The Independent, The Observer Music Monthly, Dazed & Confused, Adweek, VICE, Complex, Libération, and other publications in more than 20 countries. He has spoken on the subjects covered in the book all over the world. He lives in New York City with his wife Emily. back to top
	RACHEL MOORE A former dancer with American Ballet Theatre, Ms. Moore currently serves as ABT’s Executive Director. Prior to ABT, Ms. Moore served as Director of Boston Ballet’s Center for Dance Education, Executive Director of Project STEP and Managing Director of Ballet Theatre of Boston. Moore holds a bachelor’s degree from Brown University, Phi Beta Kappa, Honors, a master’s degree in Arts Administration from Columbia University, was a Fellow at the Executive Program for Nonprofit Leaders in the Arts at Stanford Business School and an Arts Administration Fellow at the National Endowment for the Arts. She currently serves on the boards of Dance/USA, Project STEP, the National Dance Foundation of Bermuda, and is a member of the United States National Commission for UNESCO as well as a member of the Child Performer Advisory Board for New York State. back to top
	JOHN MUNGER John formally joined Dance/USA’s staff in 1996 after serving as a project consultant to the organization for many years. He has overseen the evolution of Dance/USA’s research department from a modest internal members’ survey to its present status as the primary national source for quantified information about professional dance. Prior to his years as an independent consultant providing financial planning and management services for arts organizations, John served as Business Manager and CFO of the Saint Paul United Arts Council, Associate Director and Financial Manager of the Minnesota Dance Alliance, and General Manager of the Nancy Hauser Dance Company and School. He has also served as a panelist for numerous local, state and national arts agencies. He has been an active artist in the field since the early 1970s, when he studied and performed extensively with former Horton company member Norman Cornick and with legendary modern dance pioneer Hanya Holm. He teaches Modern technique for Zenon Dance Company, choreographs and performs with his own Third Rabbit Dance Ensemble, and appears with Continental Ballet of Bloomington, MN, in character roles such as Drosselmeyer, Doctor Coppelius, and the Wicked Stepmother in Cinderella. back to top
	DEBRA NATENSHON Debra Natenshon is CEO for The Center for What Works, a Chicago-based nonprofit organization dedicated to performance measurement and benchmarking for the social sector. Debra leads WhatWorks as an influential thought leader in the field of outcome measurement. Serving as a Principal Investigator with the Urban Institute, she completed ground-breaking research to develop outcome frameworks across 14 sub-sector program areas, including performing arts, which are used by a wide spectrum of nonprofits ranging from small organizations to local United Ways. She also designed and developed a Performance Measurement Toolkit to translate research into practice, including an eLearning course titled, Measure What Matters. The Toolkit has inspired hundreds of nonprofits across the country. Debra leads full-range professional services to assist nonprofits to connect their strategic plans with actionable outcomes and indicators for improved internal management and increased external funding. Prior to her current professional role, Debra worked in the international service sector for a training and consulting firm, where she designed and streamlined business processes for several Fortune 100 corporate clients. She then helped launch a technology company where she successfully implemented the first client in over 20 countries. Debra has 15 years of experience in identifying client needs and exceeding expectations. Debra holds a Masters degree in Organizational Management with an emphasis on the social sector from the SIT Graduate Institute in Vermont. Debra has studied, lived and worked in England, Japan, India, Israel, and Argentina. She integrates and uses her evolving knowledge of the world to learn, leverage and contribute on a daily basis. back to top
	JENNIFER NOVAK Alan Brown and Jennifer Novak are leading the research and assessment component of Dance/USA’s Engaging Dance Audiences initiative. As Jennifer Novak has been working with WolfBrown since 2005. She specializes in evaluation and research, specifically the development of innovative measurement tools to understand the intrinsic impact of arts on individuals. Her work often lies at the nexus between art - in all forms - and its connection to broader public policy issues. Alan and Jennifer co-authored the 2007 study Assessing the Intrinsic Impacts of a Live Performance and recently completed a large study of patterns of cultural engagement for the James Irvine Foundation. Jennifer is completing her PhD at the RAND Graduate School. back to top
	PAUL ORGANISAK Paul Organisak serves as the executive director of the Pittsburgh Dance Council, and vice president of programming for the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. Founded in 1969, the Pittsburgh Dance Council is the primary presenter of contemporary dance in Western Pennsylvania and one of the largest presenters of international performance in the region. Mr. Organisak worked for the Pittsburgh Dance Council from 1988 – 1991 as associate director and director of development. Effective January 2002, the Pittsburgh Dance Council merged with and became a division of The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. Mr. Organisak returned to his native Pittsburgh when he accepted the executive director position of the Pittsburgh Dance Council in 2002, leading the overall management and programming. In November 2004, Mr. Organisak assumed the additional role of vice president of programming for the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. In this capacity he is responsible for all Trust programming activities including the PNC Broadway Across America – Pittsburgh series, CD Live concerts, and the Cohen and Grigsby Trust Presents series. Prior to his work with the Pittsburgh Dance Council, Mr. Organisak served as the executive director of Dance Umbrella in Boston, which was New England’s largest, year-round presenter of contemporary dance performance. He also spent nine years as the executive director of the American College Dance Festival Association (ACDFA), the service organization for dance in higher education. He oversaw the organization and execution of regional college/university dance festivals, which featured a wide-range of master classes, lecture/demonstrations, and adjudicated performances. He also produced the biennial national college dance festivals at the Kennedy Center. He has served on a number of panels, including the PA Council on the Arts, National College Choreography Initiative funding panel, the Goals 2000 Arts Education Planning Process and Partnership, and others discussing arts management, dance presentation, funding, and dance in higher education. He currently serves as chair of the Presenters Council of Dance/USA. Mr. Organisak holds a degree from the University of Michigan/Ann Arbor. back to top
	EBONIE C. PITTMAN Ebonie C. Pittman is currently an Arts Program Assistant at The Wallace Foundation. Prior to her arrival at Wallace, Ms. Pittman worked in an administrative position at Young Audiences New York. She has also worked at Buglisi Dance Theatre and interned at the Bates Dance Festival, American Dance Festival, New York Youth Symphony and Americans for the Arts. Ms. Pittman danced with Mezcaldo Movement Group for two seasons and recently performed a work by choreographers Jana Hicks and Marijke Eliasberg. A native of Durham, NC, she began studying dance at a very early and continued her dance education at The Ohio State University where she graduated cum laude and with distinction in Dance Performance. Ms. Pittman is a recent graduate of the Arts Administration program at Teachers College, Columbia University where she was VP of Marketing for Student Advocates for the Arts. Her masters thesis examined the presence of people of color in management positions at New York City-based dance companies. back to top
	BEN PRYOR Ben Pryor is currently working as an independent artist representative and manager for Brooklyn based choreographers Jonah Bokaer and Miguel Gutierrez. In addition, he is working as the director of operations for CPR – Center for Performance Research, a new organization and facility dedicated to research and development in contemporary performance. Previously, Ben spent two years as an artist representative at Pentacle, prior to which he worked in the Planning and Development department at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. He has appeared in dance works by Ishmael Houston-Jones, Yvonne Meier, Miguel Gutierrez and Rudy Perez and has curated and produced various video art and performance events at Chez Bushwick. Ben is a member of Dance/USA’s board of trustees and is chair of the Dance/USA Agents Council. back to top
	COOKIE GREGORY RUIZ Ms. Ruiz has more than 20 years experience in the areas of strategic planning, program development and not-for-profit fund-raising/management, which includes work with the United Way and the American Red Cross. In 2002 she was awarded the professional designation of Certified Fund Raising Executive (C.F.R.E.) by the Association of Fundraising Professionals. Her community honors include the American Red Cross “Clara Barton Medal of Honor,” Volunteer of the Year for the Austin Independent School District, the Lone Star Girl Scout Council “Women of Distinction” award, Austin Business Journal’s “2005 Profiles in Power” award and is a former President of the Junior League of Austin. As a 1995 graduate of Leadership Austin, Ms. Ruiz co-founded the diversity/principle-based curriculum for the Teen Leadership Austin program and was a member of the Board of Directors of Leadership Austin for four years. Additionally, Ms. Ruiz provided the research and development for the nationally recognized Junior League of Austin Hispanic Mother/Daughter Program, as well as three other nationally replicated social service programs. She has served as a speaker, facilitator and presenter for a variety of leadership conferences, including the National Conference on Community Leadership, the 2004 National Performing Arts Conference and has been a keynote speaker for the Texas Commission on the Arts. Ms. Ruiz is currently on the Executive Committee of the national Board of Trustees of Dance/USA, the national Board of Directors of American Arts Alliance, the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP), the Board of the Austin Convention & Visitors Bureau, the Board of Directors of KMFA, the Board of Governors of KVUE’s “5 Kids Who Care” awards program, Chair of Austin’s Performing Arts Research Coalition, and is a community advisor to the Young Women’s Alliance (YWA). In 1996 Ms. Ruiz joined the staff of Ballet Austin as development director, became general manager in 1997 and executive director in 1999. back to top
	CHARLES SANTOS Charles Santos, a native of San Antonio, has had an extensive career in the field of presenting, performing and producing. He danced professionally for nine years before moving to producing and presenting. In 1992 he founded the Austin Festival of Dance, benefiting AIDS Services of Austin. The festival grew to national stature with companies such as Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, New York City Ballet, Parsons Dance Company, San Francisco Ballet and many more participating year after year. 2001 marked the 10th anniversary of this national benefit dance festival which has served as a model for subsequent festival/benefits across the country. The Festival and Mr. Santos have received numerous awards such as the Texas Human Rights Foundation Award and the HRC award, as well as recognition from the Texas Governor. Mr. Santos has served on the Boards for AIDS Services of Austin, Sharir Dance Company, Ronald K. Brown/Evidence, Christopher House, the National Advisory Board for the Estate Project, the National Development Board for the African American Dance Ensemble, TACA’s Board of Governors, EOS Orchestra, KERA’s Hispanic Advisory Board, the Dallas Dance Council, Booker T. Washington High School for the Visual and Performing Arts Advisory Board, and the Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs Latino Cultural Arts Programming Committee. Mr. Santos moved to New York in December 1995 to further his career in arts management as the Managing Director/Development Director for Eos Orchestra. While in New York, he continued his connection with Texas by producing the annual festival in Austin. He continued his career as the Producer for Dancers Responding to AIDS (DRA), a program of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. At DRA he produced events with such luminaries as Mikhail Baryshnikov and Bebe Neuwirth, as well as creating a national grassroots fundraising program with thousands of dance students across the country and presenting major national and international dance companies in spectacular festivals/benefits. Before accepting his position at TITAS as executive director, he was the managing director/ producer for the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council in New York, producing the highly acclaimed Evening Stars series at the World Trade Center. Evening Stars was named as part of “The Best of New York” festivals for the extraordinarily high caliber of music and dance artists being presented annually on the plaza of the World Trade Center. The final festival was cut short by the events of September 11th, from which Mr. Santos and his staff all narrowly escaped safely. Mr. Santos began his tenure as executive director for TITAS – Extraordinary Dance and Music on October 1, 2001. TITAS, now entering its 21st season, has established itself as the premiere presenter of cutting edge arts and innovative programming. Under the direction of Mr. Santos, TITAS is making strong forays into new sectors of the community with a strong emphasis on collaborations. They are interested in developing new partnerships, not only with other cultural organizations, but also with organizations like Stonewall Business Association, HRC, GLAAD, Latino and African American Chambers of Commerce, etc. TITAS looks forward to continued growth as an integral part of the diverse North Texas cultural landscape. back to top
	JAN SCHMIDT Jan Schmidt, Curator of the Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, worked for twenty years in the Dance Division’s Archive of the Recorded Moving Image. As Curator, she manages copyright issues for the entire collection including moving image records, papers, photographs, and artwork. She also is involved in strategic partnerships with other institutions including those with Dance Heritage Coalition, Core of Culture, Khmer Dance Project and Cinémathèque de la Danse. In the film and video archive she created original documentations of dance performances, negotiating contracts for the recordings with dance companies, unions, performance spaces, choreographers and other rights holders. As Coordinator of the Film and Video Archive, she handled rights clearances for requests from patrons for loan of film and video materials for public screenings, exhibitions, archival use, restaging, and documentaries. back to top
	MARC A. SCORCA Marc A. Scorca joined OPERA America in 1990 as president and CEO. Since that time, the OPERA America membership has grown from 120 opera companies to nearly 2,000 organizations and individuals and more than 16,000 subscribers. Under Scorca’s leadership, OPERA America has administered two landmark funding initiatives in support of the development of North American operas and opera audiences and launched a $20 million endowment effort in 2000 to create a permanent fund dedicated to supporting new works and audience development activities. OPERA America’s relocation from Washington, D.C. to New York City in December 2005 has increased communication and collaboration with and among members both locally and nationally. OPERA America supported the establishment of affiliated Opera.ca (Toronto) and Opera Europa (Brussels) and works closely with both organizations. Scorca has led strategic planning retreats for opera companies and other cultural institutions internationally, and has participated on panels for federal, state and local funding agencies, as well as for numerous private organizations. He also appears frequently in the media on a variety of cultural issues. A strong advocate of collaboration, Scorca has led several cross-disciplinary projects, including the Performing Arts Research Coalition, National Music Coalition and the National Performing Arts Convention (2004 and 2008). Scorca has served as an Adjunct Professor of Showa University in Tokyo and as a Fellow of the Center for Business Innovation in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and lectures regularly at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. He is currently a member of the US delegation to UNESCO and the Board of Overseers of the Curtis Institute, serves on the Boards of both Opera.ca and Opera Europa, and is an officer of the Board of the Performing Arts Alliance in Washington, D.C. Scorca attended Amherst College where he graduated with high honors in both history and music. back to top
	SYDNEY SKYBETTER Sydney Skybetter is a choreographer, curator, and consultant for performing arts organizations. After studying at the Interlochen Arts Academy, Columbia, and New York University, Mr. Skybetter performed with Christopher Williams, Larry Keigwin, and the Anna Sokolow Foundation. He has consulted for the National Ballet of Canada, David Dorfman Dance, and the Jerome Robbins Foundation, and is a Partner with Design Brooklyn, which provides web and online infrastructure solutions for the arts. He is a Producer with the Dance[NOW] NYC Festival, a teacher for the NYU Tisch Dance Department, and serves on the Board of Directors of the Gotham Arts Exchange / Zia Artists, the New York Dance and Performance ("Bessie") Award Committee, the Board of Trustees of Dance/USA, and the Tisch East Alumni Council. He received his Masters in Dance Performance and Choreography from New York University, where he was a Graduate Assistant in Dance History. www.skybetter.org back to top
	LIBBY SMIGEL Libby Smigel MFA PhD, project director of the Dance Heritage Coalition, has most recently led the DHC’s ground-breaking project on copyright and fair use to ensure that dance libraries, archives, and museums can preserve their collections and create innovative ways to access them. As Area Chair for Dance and a member of the Executive Board for the Popular Culture Association and American Culture Association, she ensures that dance is well represented among the programs and publications of this multidisciplinary scholarly association. For Greenwood Press, she is co-authoring and co-editing a two-volume set on “Icons of American Dance.” In addition, she has taught dance at colleges and universities and choreographed in Toronto and Upstate New York, served on the board of directors of Dakshina dance company, and has worked for the National Endowment of the Humanities. back to top
	ALISTAIR SPALDING Alistair Spalding (born 25th August 1957, Stotfold, Bedfordshire, UK) has been the Chief Executive and Artistic Director of Sadler’s Wells Theatre since 2004. he has been responsible for programming at the theatre since February 2000 (when he joined as Director of Programming, becoming CEO and Artistic Director in October 2004). During that time he has presented companies such as Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ballett Frankfurt, Pina Bausch Tanztheater Wuppertal, Les Ballets C de la B, Michael Clark, Dutch National Ballet, Martha Graham Dance Company, Mark Morris Dance Group, Netherlands Dance Theatre 1 and 2, and the National Ballet of China. Under Spalding, Sadler’s Wells has become a production house for dance, as well as a receiving house presenting performances by touring companies. In March 2005 he announced a new commissioning and co-producing policy at Sadler’s Wells and has since appointed Matthew Bourne, Jonzi D, Sylvie Guillem, Akram Khan, Russell Maliphant, Wayne McGregor, BalletBoyz (Michael Nunn and William Trevitt), Jasmin Vardimon, Christopher Wheeldon, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Hofesh Shechter as Associate Artists at the theatre. In the first three years the theatre has produced Zero Degrees, a collaboration between Akram Khan and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, PUSH, an evening featuring Sylvie Guillem and Russell Maliphant, and Sutra, a collaboration between Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, 18 monks from the Shaolin Temple and Antony Gormley, all of which have gone on to be highly successful touring productions. He has also initiated projects such as the Breakin’ Convention International Hip Hop Dance Theatre Festival, as well as inviting Wayne McGregor’s Random Dance Company and Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures to become the theatre’s resident companies and more recently Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company as Guest Resident Company. Spalding’s first job in arts management was at the Hawth Theatre, Crawley, where he was a programmer from 1998-1994. Over six years between 1994 and 2000 Spalding was the Head of Dance and Performance at the Southbank Centre in London where he developed both the presentation and commissioning of national and international dance and performance companies. As well as increasing the number of performance and audience attendance for dance at the centre he developed strong co-producing relationships with a number of national and international companies and artists including DV8, Alain Platel, Jonathan Burrows, Javier de Frutos and Rosas Dance Company. The Southbank Centre won the Time Out award for best dance production both in 1998 for Alain Platel and in 1999 for the New York Ballet Stars project. Spalding is also Chairman of Dance UK and was newly appointed as a national member of the Arts Council of England Board in January 2009. He was a member of the Arts Council England Dance Advisory Panel between 1995 and 2003 and is an external advisor on the City University Validation Board for the Laban Centre London degree courses. He was awarded Le Chevalier des Artes et Lettres by the French Embassy in October 2005. back to top
	JOANNE STELLER Joanne Steller is Vice President for Strategic Communications at TRG (Target Resource Group), a data-driven marketing consulting company with arts and culture clients throughout North America. Ms. Steller leads TRG’s professional development and communications efforts that bring best practice ideas to arts and culture conferences and workshops nationwide. Since joining TRG in 2000, she has managed consulting services for the company and has been lead consultant for a broad portfolio of clients including orchestra, dance, opera, and theater companies as well as festivals, arts centers and museums. She also manages the firm’s reports from Data Lab, TRG’s patron behavior research operation. Prior to TRG, Ms. Steller was marketing director for the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. She was responsible for promoting some 600 different programs annually that ranged from 12 subscription series to international cultural festivals to one-evening events. Her career at the Center spanned the national launches of the pre-Broadway American premiere of Les Miserables to the Center’s opening of its Millennium Stage where free performances are offered every day. back to top
	SIXTO WAGAN Sixto Wagan (Co-Executive Director/ Performing Arts Curator, DiverseWorks Artspace Houston, TX) places particular emphasis on commissioning new works, the process and transparency of an artist’s creative development, and on providing needed funds and space for mid-stage development. Commissioned works include projects by Pat Graney, Elia Arce, Michelle Ellsworth, Miguel Gutierrez, Aaron Landsman, The Suicide Kings and Tere O’Connor, among others. He has served on the board of the National Performance Network and as a Hub Site for the National Dance Project. Mr. Wagan has been part of FUSED (French – US Exchange for Dance), the Contemporary Art Centers consortium and the Performing Americas Project (a partnership between the National Performance Network and the Latin American consortium La RED); and has previously served as Dance Down Under Ambassador for the Australian Arts Council and the board president for Q-Fest: The Houston Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. Wagan has been a speaker at Rice University, Dance USA, the National Performance Network’s annual meeting, the Association of Performing Arts Presenters conference, and the National Performing Arts Conference in Pittsburgh. back to top
	LOIS WELK A dance performance by Daniel Nagrin (The Peloponnesian War) inspired Lois Welk to pursue a career in dance. She earned Bachelor of Arts degrees in Dance and American History at State University College at Brockport NY, where Richard Bull became her mentor. In 1972, she founded the American Dance Asylum Inc. (ADA), a producing and service organization for the performing arts. From 1973-1979, she co-directed the ADA (then based in Binghamton, NY) with Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane. For more than 25 years the ADA has produced Welk’s artistic projects, among them The Parking Ramp Dances, The Train Station Dance, The Carousel Dance, The Hiawatha Island Dance, and most recently, Moving the Music. She been a member of the dance faculty at 171 Cedar Arts Center (Corning, NY), Alfred University (Alfred, NY) and has taught for various arts-in-education programs across New York State. Her work as executive director of 171 Cedar Arts Center in Corning, NY (1988-2002) earned her a New York State Governor’s Arts Award in 1998. At 171 Cedar Arts Center, Lois developed a nationally recognized presenting program that included concert dance, artists’ residencies, a jazz series, family programming and a world folk music festival. Program growth warranted a capital campaign and expansion project that more than doubled program space adding a 170-seat black box performance space, exhibition space and two additional dance studios. From 2003-2006, Lois served as artistic director of The Yard Inc., a performing artists’ colony on Martha’s Vineyard. In January 2005, Lois was appointed the director of the New York State DanceForce, a network of organizations and individuals working to increase the quality and quantity of dance in New York. As director, Lois brought leadership to the re-structuring of the organization and expanded the reach of the programs. back to top
	JAMES WHITE James W.C. White is among the most highly cited geoscientists in the world, Director of INSTAAR (the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research), and Professor of Geological Sciences at the University of Colorado at Boulder (CU). His Ph.D. is from Columbia University (1983). White’s specialties are global change, paleoclimate dynamics, and biogeochemistry. His research interests are light stable isotope laboratory; global scale climate and environmental dynamics; climate from isotopes in ice cores; isotopes in general circulation models; and modern carbon cycle dynamics via isotopes of carbon dioxide and methane. White is a frequent speaker at science meetings and conferences around the world, a firm believer of interdisciplinary collaboration, and a champion of the arts. He has been involved with EcoArts Connections (EAC) since its inception, beginning while he was Director of the Environmental Studies program at CU. With EAC and CU advertising faculty member Brett Robbs, he helped to develop with performing artists and scientists the course “The Art and Science of Climate” taught by biogeochemist Jason Neff and dancer/choreographer Michelle Ellsworth. White’s collaboration with visual artist Aviva Rahmani, as part of the EAC/Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art exhibition “Weather Report: Art and Climate Change,” was accepted in the prestigious Venice Biennale. back to top
	BETTY HENDERSON WINGFIELD Coach . Strategist . Facilitator . Producer Betty Henderson Wingfield enjoys the challenge of working with individuals and organizations in creative and innovative ways to bring about sustainable change. Since 1998, she has been privileged to consult in financial services, health care, entertainment, high tech, insurance, transportation, federal / state governments and nonprofit organizations. To bring value to leaders and organizations, she keeps her skills up-to-date and on the cutting edge in the areas of her specialty: business and strategic planning, production of leadership development experiences, career and executive coaching, and meeting facilitation. Her mission is to assist her clients in improving their effectiveness through objective assessment of their performance and successful implementation of the right strategies for the right situations. She is very involved in her community as a volunteer, especially for programs that benefit children and the cultural arts. In her free time she can be found working on her art, gardening, traveling, or reading. And, she dearly loves spending times with her delightful grandchildren. back to top
	JAWOLE WILLA JO ZOLLAR Jawole Willa Jo Zollar founded Urban Bush Women in 1984 as a performance ensemble dedicated to exploring the use of cultural expression as a catalyst for social change. She is also a 2008 United States Artists Wynn Fellow and a recently appointed Fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, she trained with Joseph Stevenson, a student of the legendary Katherine Dunham. Zollar holds a BA in dance from the University of Missouri at Kansas City and an MFA in dance from Florida State University. In 1980, she moved to New York City to study with Dianne McIntyre at Sounds in Motion. She founded Urban Bush Women in 1984. In addition to UBW, her choreography is part of the repertory of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Philadanco, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company and a number of university companies. Zollar is the Nancy Smith Fichter tenured professor in the Dance Department of Florida State University, http://dance.fsu.edu/. She was prominently featured in the PBS Documentary “Free to Dance”, which chronicles the African American influence on modern dance. In June 2002, Zollar was awarded an honorary doctorate from Columbia College in Chicago. Zollar was awarded a 2006 New York Dance and Performance Award, A BESSIE, for her work as choreographer/creator of "Walking With Pearl . . . Southern Diaries," a dance inspired by African American choreographer, educator and social activist, Pearl Primus. "Southern Diaries" was also recognized by the National Endowment as an American Masterpiece: Dance - College Component. back to top