LFP Cohort 4

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LFP Cohort IV (June 2018 - Jan 2020)

Co-Directors

Ken Foster
Ken Foster is Associate Professor of Practice in the Thornton School of Music and Director of Arts Leadership at the University of Southern California. Before joining the faculty of USC, he was executive director of San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) for ten years. The organization thrived under his leadership, benefitting from his dedication to nurturing long-term relationships with artists, growing YBCA's audience and establishing the Center as an international leader in the contemporary arts. Foster has more than 30 years of experience as an arts administrator, curator, educator, and performing arts presenter at Millikin University, Penn State University and the University of Arizona in addition to YBCA. He has served as a board member for national arts organizations like the Association of Performing Arts Professionals, Dance USA, and Chamber Music America, is a Founding Member of the Africa Contemporary Arts Consortium and consults regularly with arts organizations around the world on issues of relevance to the arts and the contemporary world.

Krista R. Bradley
Krista R. Bradley is the director of programs and resources at APAP. She most recently led BlackRock Center for the Arts, a $1.5M nonprofit multidisciplinary arts center in Germantown, Maryland. As Executive and Artistic Director, she was responsible for programming the performing arts season and overseeing the day-to-day execution of fundraising, marketing, education, gallery programming, and operations of the organization. During her tenure, BlackRock expanded and refreshed its programming, increased and diversified audiences, and secured its first NEA grants. Prior to BlackRock, Krista served for six years as Program Officer of Performing Arts for Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, where she managed performing arts touring and funding programs for a nine-state region. She brings more than twenty years of experience working in the nonprofit, performing arts, and philanthropy sectors as a funder, curator, arts administrator and consultant. Over her career she has worked for and with such organizations as the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, the Walker Arts Center, Washington Performing Arts, Houston Grand Opera, OPERA America and the Wallace Funds. She serves on the board of the Maryland Citizens for the Arts. Krista holds a B.A. degree in Literature and Society from Brown University and has been a choral and a cappella singer for most of her life. She currently makes music as an alto member of The Thomas Circle Singers, a DC- based chamber choral ensemble.

Jon Catherwood-Ginn
Jon Catherwood-Ginn is the associate director of programming at the Moss Arts Center, the university-level presenter of visual and performing arts at Virginia Tech. He served as an inaugural member of the Association of Performing Arts Professionals' Leadership Fellows program. As an artist and consultant, Jon has worked with the Intercultural Leadership Institute, New Interfaces for Musical Expression, Pennsylvania Humanities Council, Sojourn Theatre, The TEAM, Lost Nation Theatre, Extant Arts Company, and Aquila Theatre. Jon's work in community and civic engagement has been featured by the Engagement Scholarship Consortium, Network of Ensemble Theaters, Imagining America, APAP, and Association of American Colleges & Universities. His writings on arts and community change can be found in publications from Animating Democracy, Roadside.org, and Routledge Press.

Simone Eccleston
Simone Eccleston is the Director of Hip Hop Culture and Contemporary Music at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Under the leadership of Kennedy Center president, Deborah Rutter and the Kennedy Center's first Artistic Director for Hip Hop Culture, Q-Tip, Eccleston helped launch the Hip Hop Culture Program as a key programmatic initiative at the Center. In her position, Ms. Eccleston is responsible for the creative leadership and artistic administration related to the Center-wide collective output of Hip Hop Culture Programming, in addition to introducing high-quality Contemporary Music and cross-genre programs. Focusing on the interdisciplinary nature of Hip Hop Culture and the extensive artistic portfolio of the Kennedy Center, she works in partnership with other artistic and educational areas of the Center to maximize impact and connectivity. Since joining the Center, Eccleston helped bring world-renowned performances to the Kennedy Center stages and established the Center’s first Hip Hop Culture Council, in partnership with Artistic Director Q-Tip.

Amy Miller

Amy Miller is Director of Programming and Education at The Gogue Performing Arts Center of Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama. Previously, she worked at the University of Alabama at Birmingham's Alys Stephens Performing Arts Center as Director of Engagement, where she oversaw ArtPlay education programming, university and community initiatives, and curated educational, family, and global music performances and residencies. She has served on the Professional Development Committees of Western Arts Alliance and Arts Midwest, and has facilitated numerous professional development sessions. She completed Association of Performing Arts Professionals' Leadership Fellows Program (Cohort 2), and currently serves as a Group Leader for Cohort 4.

Previously, she was an agent at Pentacle, an NYC-based arts service organization, where she represented a roster of national and international dance artists. Prior to that, she completed her MA in Performance Studies at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. Originally from Minneapolis/Saint Paul, she held the position of Community Programs Manager at Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, and served the local refugee community through work in refugee resettlement, and as Co-Founder of Twin Cities World Refugee Day. She has a background in West African dance, a variety of social dance forms, and holds a BA in Global Studies, Music Performance, and Women's Studies from Hamline University.

Tiffany Rea-Fisher

Tiffany Rea-Fisher is Artistic Director of Elisa Monte Dance as well the Co-Founder of Inception to Exhibition and dance curator for the Bryant Park Dance Summer Series. Tiffany was a Cohort 2 APAP Fellow and is returning as a group leader for Cohort 4. She subscribes to the servant leadership model and uses disruption through inclusion as a way to influence her company's culture. Her associations include: Vice President of the Stonewall Community Development Corporation, Advisory Board member of Dance/NYC and proud member of Women of Color of the Arts and the International Association of Blacks in Dance.

Omari Rush

Omari Rush advances efforts to have creative and cultural expression thrive in diverse communities, in part, as executive director of CultureSource in Detroit and as the governor-appointed chairman of the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs. Additionally, he serves on the boardof directors of Arts Midwest and the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, chairs the Awesome Foundation Ann Arbor Chapter, and co-hosts a monthly arts radio show on WEMU-FM. Earning degrees in music from Florida State University and the University of Michigan, Omari is now a lapsed clarinetist who enjoys using his voice to recite poems.

Aisha Ahmad-Post

Aisha Ahmad-Post is the director of the Ent Center for the Arts on the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs campus. Previously, Ahmad-Post was the producer of Public Programs for The New York Public Library, and has held positions at the Aspen Music Festival and Columbia Artists Management. In her current position, Aisha serves as artistic director for the Artist Series, which will bring world-class music, dance, and live performance to the Ent Center. A classically trained pianist and double bassist, Ahmad-Post is an alumna of the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.

Robin Anderson

Robin Anderson is the executive director of AXIS Dance Company. Her career in dance-arts administration spans 19 years, 4 cities and 6 organizations. Drawn to weaving arts organization into the fabric of a city's culture, community building is Robin's passion. She joined AXIS in 2015, tasked with organizing their engagement programs and completed the Oakland Chamber of Commerce's Leadership Oakland Program in 2017. Robin served as the director of Alonzo King LINES Dance Center from 2007-2014 and completed her MFA in dance at the Ohio State's University in 2006 while working for the Performing Arts Department of the Wexner Center.

Jill Barnes

Jill Barnes is the executive director of the Washington Center for the Performing Arts, a 980-seat venue, which presents abroad range of performances in addition to providing a home to over 20 local cultural groups. She has previously worked for the Idaho Falls Arts Council, the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, and Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company. Jill is agraduate from Boston University’s Arts Administration program and studied music at the University of Utah. Jill currently serves on theboard of Arts Northwest. She is convinced that communal singing can save the world.

Erica Bondarev Rapach

Erica is the associate executive director of the Clarice Smith Performing Arts at the University of Maryland where she cultivates campus and community partnerships to empower artists and creative innovators at the forefront of the field. Erica played violin with the Volgograd Symphony as a Peace Corps volunteer and initiated their first-ever U.S. tour, which led her to arts management and she’s never looked back. She began her arts career with the Baltimore Symphony where she advanced their digital footprint. Erica is also founder and personality stylist with Restyle with Erica. She is the mother of two daughters and is married to a fellow arts administrator. Erica finds peace on her yoga mat.

Jonathan Campbell

Jonathan Campbell’s career is rooted in the decade (2000-2010) he spent in Beijing as a drummer, writer, promoter, agent and more actively bridging East and West. His writing has appeared in many media outlets and collections; Red Rock: The Long Strange March of Chinese Rock and Roll was published in 2011. He has worked with many of Toronto’s major cultural institutions in communications, outreach and programming and co-founded Good Kind Productions (member of diverse-music presenter collective Polyphonic Ground), which runs secret-concert purveyors Sofar Sounds Toronto and a range of events. He is Performing Arts Manager at the Aga Khan Museum, and his participation in LFP is supported by Canada Council for the Arts.

Molly Clark

Molly Clark oversees the programming and planning of the performing arts season (chamber music, jazz, dance, global music, spoken word, and contemporary music) at ArtPower at UC San Diego. She also connects artists with the campus and community to spark dialogue, discovery, and active participation in the arts through a robust engagement program. Molly holds a Master's degree in Nonprofit Leadership and has a passion for providing access to the arts for all communities. Over the last 10 years she has worked at esteemed arts and education institutions. Molly is a classically trained cellist and a non-classically trained hip-hop DJ.

Ariana Hellerman

Ariana's goal is to make the arts more accessible to all people. Ariana's List (arianaslist.com), a well-respected blog on free cultural events in NYC has evolved into a creative agency focused on conceptualizing, curating, and producing free cultural events in public spaces. Arts for all people! Ariana produces the Accordions Around the World series in Bryant Park, an annual festival that attracts audiences in the thousands. Other clients include: Hostos Center for the Arts, NYC Economic Development Corporation, Pilobolus, River to River Festival, SummerStage, and The Wallace Foundation. Ariana received degrees from NYU and Wellesley. She is a born-and-raised New Yorker.

Consuelo Hidalgo

Consuelo is currently the cultural director at the Ecuador – United States Binational Center in Guayaquil. She previously worked at the Guayaquil Symphony Orchestra, and in 2008 she participated in the U.S. Department of State and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts International Cultural Exchange Program. In 2012 Consuelo finished her International Fellowship at the DeVos Institute of Arts Management. In March 2016 participated in the Executive Program in Fundraisingfor the Performing Arts, at the “Accademia Teatro alla Scala” in Milan, Italy. Other fellowships awarded include ISPA 2017 and International Cultural Fellows at the University of Edinburgh.

PennyMaria Jackson

PennyMaria Jackson is director of marketing at the world-famous Apollo Theater. Previously, she developed millennial audiences at Alvin Ailey and led a significant community engagement initiative at Harlem Stage. A dedicated advocate and arts enthusiast, PennyMaria is recognized as a leader by NYFA and CCCADI, and has been a guest speaker at Julliard and NYU. Born and raised in Miami, Florida, she earned dual B.A.s from UCF and an M.A. from Syracuse University’s Arts Journalism program. Utilizing the power of the arts as a driving force, PennyMaria is dedicated to bridging the gap between cultures for decades to come.

Megha Kalia

Megha Kalia is a dancepreneur, events producer and the founder of NYC Bhangra. One of the few female leaders inthe male-dominated field of Bhangra, she pioneered the art-form at a time when the space was nascent. Megha broke barriers, launched education programs & helped create a thriving space for students and artists in the field. She switched from her career in hospitality to a full-time choreographer and artistic director to seek her mission of bringing communities together. In the past decade, Megha has served on several arts panels and founded NYCHoli.com, the largest Festival of Colors on the East Coast.

Yayoi Kambara

Yayoi Kambara has been a Bay Area Artist since 2000, moving to San Francisco after receiving her B.A. in East Asian Studies from Lawrence University and her B.F.A. in Dance from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. She was a company member with ODC/Dance from 2003–2015 and has performed as a freelance artist with numerous companies in Bay Area. KAMBARA + DANCERS was formed in 2015 as a vehicle to produce Yayoi’s work, believing dance expresses the inexpressible and can be a vehicle for social commentary and reflection while challenging audiences to engage in a meaningful dialogue.

Mary G. Madigan

Mary G. Madigan has advanced music performance, artists, and repertoire from posts at Boosey & Hawkes, Meet The Composer, Concert Artists Guild, The New School, Vermont Mozart Festival, and now Madigan New Music and Composers Now. Mary is committed to developing new contexts for music performance: currently she is curating a triptych of concerts placing Balinese gamelan in 'other' contexts and a project aligning the work of Morton Feldman and James Turrell. She holds a graduate certificate in Performing Arts Curation from Wesleyan University. Opera America, MATA, Aaron Copland Fund, and The Watermill Center have hosted Mary on discussion/grant panels.

Jared Morrison

Jared Morrison serves as director of performing arts at the Tennessee Arts Commission, having joined the agency in 2014. For the past 15 years, he has held marketing, development and artistic administration positions at many respected institutions, including Sony Music, the Nashville and Chicago symphony orchestras, Spivey Hall, Sarasota Opera and Lyric Opera of Chicago. Jared holds a B.M. in Vocal Performance from Shorter College, a M.M. in Arts Administration from Florida State University, and is a former OPERA America Fellow. In addition to his workwith the Commission, Jared is an active vocal soloist and choral musician.

Margo Ohlson

Margo Ohlson is the theatre operation director of The University of Akron’s EJ Thomas Performing Arts Hall. She collaborates with University staff and administration to effectively implement the goals and mission of the University. Margo is responsible for the sustainability of the Theatre’s procedures, programs, finances, and community support; while ensuring strong communications across all program areas while strengthening EJ Thomas Hall’s overall effectiveness. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Ohio University and a master’s in education from The University of Akron.

Michael Orange

Michael Orange is the founder of MATATU Nomadic Cinema, a cultural experience vehicle that mimics rural share taxis as a mode of publicly accessible transportation. The platform shuttles local communities and global diasporas from one arthouse experience to the next, engaging in public inquiry around the role of the African Diaspora in a contemporary urban American context. He is also a Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Fellow, an executive producer of "Neptune Frost," a SciFi film directed by longtime collaborator Saul Williams, a producer of PolicyLink's "We, the 100 Million Initiative," a portrait of systemic inequity and economic insecurity in the United States, and Arthouse Convergence 2020/2021 Conference Co-Chair, which works to advance excellence and sustainability in community-based, mission-driven media exhibition.

Courtney Ozaki

Courtney Ozaki Moch is the operations and business directorfor the Lone Tree Arts Center, a municipally owned performing arts center in Colorado with a dynamic model ofproducing theatrical works and presenting national and international touring artists. Courtney holds an MFA in Performing Arts Management from Brooklyn College and previously worked with interdisciplinary organizations in NYC including the inaugural PROTOYPE Festival and the Joyce Theater, where she produced and toured programs with preeminent international choreographers and dancers including Wendy Whelan’s Restless Creature. Courtney also is a founding member of professional Japanese taiko drum ensemble, Mirai Daiko.

Kyoung Park

Kyoung Park was born in Santiago, Chile and is the first Korean playwright from Latin America to be produced andpublished in the United States. He is author of DISORIENTED, TALA, PILLOWTALK and MINA, which is published in "Seven Contemporary Plays from the Korean Diaspora in the Americas" by Duke University. Kyoung writes and directs his own work as artistic director of Kyoung’s Pacific Beat, a peacemaking theater company, based in Brooklyn. He is member of Ma-Yi Theater's Writer's Lab, Sol Project, NYTW Usual Suspect, and serves in The Dramatist Guild’s Devised Theater Committee. MFA: Playwriting (Columbia University).

Courtney Pyke

Courtney Pyke is a production manager and technical director with over 10 years of experience in the performingarts field. Her career has ranged over various genres including Ballet and Contemporary Dance, Opera, Live Event, Concert, Musicals, and Theatre. Courtney is a graduate of University of Guelph's Theatre Studies Program and the Banff Centre's Work Study program. She is currently the production manager for Roseneath Theatre, where she leads the Production Department in touring world class productions internationally for over 100,000 young people annually. Additionally, Courtney lectures in Production Management at various educational institutions in Southern Ontario.

Rachel Rosado

Rachel Rosado is the assistant director of Cultural Programs and Performing Arts at the Asia Society, which she joined in 2011. Since then, she has worked on presenting hundreds of artists, and has worked on many major initiatives including Creative Voices of Muslim Asia and Season of Cambodia. She has worked extensively with artists from Pakistan, India, Iran, Indonesia, and Afghanistan. A seasoned arts educator, she is also the coordinator of Asia Society’s popular series of family programs. Rachel attended college at McGill University, and graduate studies at SOAS, University of London.

Aaron Shackelford

Aaron Shackelford is Director of Georgia Tech Arts. In this role he oversees the integration of the arts into the academic work and lives of students and faculty across the Institute. Through performances and residencies, Georgia Tech Arts brings together artists, students, and faculty to explore pressing questions and develop new ideas in the fields of technology, engineering, design, computer science, and more. Before coming to Atlanta, he worked as Director of Programming at the Fine Arts Center at the University of Massachusetts, and in multiple roles leading campus and community engagement at Carolina Performing Arts at the University of North Carolina. He has presented across the country on the vital role of the arts in higher education, and holds a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina.

Ryhna Thompson

Ryhna is Founder and President of Envision Management & Production. She has been the manager of many internationally-recognized, boundary-breaking musical artist sincluding Kid Koala, Bell Orchestre and Amon Tobin. As a producer, Ryhna works with artists to conceive, produce, manage and disseminate works in the realm where music intersects with film, animation, theatre, literature and interactivity. Projects include Nufonia Must Fall (in its 4th year of touring on 5 continents) and Floor Kids (an animated breakdance video game launched on Nintendo). Ryhna is a director for Music Managers Forum Canada, Coalition for Diverse Cultural Expressions and Cultural Human Resources Council.

Guarav Vaz

Music was always second nature to Gaurav but it became a serious career in 2009 when he switched from IT to music business and saw his band, The Raghu Dixit Project, grow from a simple indie band to one of the better recognized names in the world music scene globally. Gaurav has overseen multiple self-promoted tours in the UK and the US and has been instrumental in building the band’s identity and vision over the last decade. Now, he works with OML Entertainment and oversees music management strategy and international touring opportunities, collaborations and partnerships in markets around the world.

Ruth Wikler-Luker

Ruth Wikler-Luker founded Boom Arts in Portland, Oregon, in 2012 and has curated and produced all its programs, introducing Portlanders to artists like Kristina Wong, Teatro Línea de Sombra (Mexico), Penny Arcade, Adrienne Truscott, and playwrights Deborah Asiimwe (Uganda), Anupama Chandrasekhar (India), and Guillermo Calderón (Chile). Before moving West, Ruth worked with New York City organizations including the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center (CUNY Graduate Center) and Arts International, and founded and directed a contemporary circus troupe. Ruth holds an MA in Theatre from Hunter and a BA from Barnard, is a published writer and translator, and speaks five languages.

Susie Williams

Susie Williams is a performing arts administrator and currently serves as the managing director of Acrobatic Conundrum. She applies her experience as a theater director, stage manager and dramaturg to the evolving American circus art form. As a performer, Susie appeared in circuses, casinos, theaters and warehouses. Susie produced Hammertime, an award-winning circus short film, and Bright Ideas’ Aerial Salon, a semi-annual works-in-progress program, and she taught circus technique at Aerial Arts NYC, STREB, and Pace University. Susie has a BA in theater from Northwestern University and was a Fellow in the BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music) Professional Development Program.

Tyese Wortham

Tyese Wortham runs Keeping Space – Oakland, a technical and financial assistance initiative, as the director of community engagement at CAST, serving artists and arts organizations through real estate development. Prior to CAST, Tyese honed her social justice lens as a grantmaker in Cultural Equity Grants at the San Francisco Arts Commission, and as a presenter and producer of culture-specific artists with the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival. Outside the office, Tyese practices the spiritual and performative traditions of the African diaspora, specializing in Cuban and Peruvian folkloric movement.

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LFP Cohort IV (June 2018 - Jan 2020)

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