Michael Greer

Michael Greer is the President and CEO of ArtsFund in Seattle, Washington. As a relationship builder, thought leader, and strategic planner, Michael is dedicated to advancing the mission of ArtsFund to support the arts through leadership, advocacy, and grantmaking in order to build a healthy, equitable, and creative Washington. With degrees in economics, education, and business, Michael brings a diverse skill set to the role and a unique perspective on the challenges and opportunities of the sector. In addition, he is a dedicated community partner, serving on several boards, including the Downtown Seattle Association and Puget Sound Regional Council's Economic Development District. 

Kevin Iega Jeff

Kevin Iega Jeff, renowned for his multifaceted contributions as a dancer, choreographer, and artistic visionary, is celebrated among the Juilliard School’s 100 Outstanding Alumni, a distinction he shares with luminaries such as Viola Davis and Aretha Franklin. In Chicago, his impact is acknowledged by Newcity magazine, and he contributes to the city’s cultural landscape as a member of the Cultural Advisory Council, initially appointed by Mayor Lori Lightfoot and subsequently reappointed by Mayor Brandon Johnson. Iega’s illustrious career is marked by notable performances, including roles in Broadway’s The Wiz, a memorable appearance at the 1994 Academy Awards, and choreographic contributions to Spike Lee’s She’s Gotta Have It. His extensive repertoire includes over fifty original works, making him a sought-after talent among premier dance companies globally.

Dedicated to community engagement, Iega has played significant roles in nationwide projects like Community Performance International’s Grit & Grace and Swamp Gravy, and has enriched educational programs at institutions such as Howard University, Purdue University, and the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa.

Originating from New York, Iega’s dance journey commenced at The Bernice Johnson Cultural Arts Center. His passion led to the establishment of JUBILATION! Dance Company in Brooklyn, NY, in 1982, and subsequently, the founding of Chicago’s Deeply Rooted Dance Theater in 1995. In 2022, after 24 years at the helm, he transitioned to an Artistic/Executive Consultant role, continuing to influence the arts through initiatives like the South Side Center for Black Dance and Creative Communities, and the development of GOSHEN, an innovative musical project inspired by the music of gospel and contemporary music icon Donald Lawrence.

Iega’s artistic endeavors seek to uncover and articulate truths and narratives, challenging historical misrepresentations while fostering understanding and healing. His legacy is characterized by a commitment to combatting racism, celebrating cultural identity, and creating spaces for creativity and joy. Through his work, Iega aspires to leave an indelible mark on the world, highlighting the power of human connection and the transformative potential of artistic expression. (Photo by Ken Carl.)

Taja Will

Taja Will (they/them) is a non-binary, chronically ill, queer, Latinx (Chilean) adoptee. They are a performer, choreographer, somatic therapist, consultant and Healing Justice practitioner based in Mni Sota Makoce. Taja’s approach integrates improvisation, somatic modalities, text and vocals in contemporary performance. Their aesthetic is one of spontaneity, bold choice making, sonic and kinetic partnership and the ability to move in relationship to risk and intimacy. Taja’s artistic work explores visceral connections to current socio-cultural realities through a blend of ritual, dense multi-layered worldbuilding and everyday magic.

Taja initiates solo projects and teaching ventures and is a recent recipient of the Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship, in the dance field, awarded in 2021. They established a project-based collective, the Taja Will Ensemble, in 2015 and collaborates with local dance, music and design artists. Their work has been presented throughout the Twin Cities and across the United States. Including local performances at the Walker Art Center Choreographer’s Evening, the Red Eye Theater’s New Works 4 Weeks, the Radical Recess series, Right Here Showcase and the Candy Box Dance Festival. They were the recipient of a 2018 McKnight Choreography Fellowship, administered by the Cowles Center and funded by The McKnight Foundation. Taja has recently received support from the National Association of Latinx Arts & Culture, the Minnesota State Arts Board, and Metropolitan Regional Arts Council.

Mei-Ann Chen

Praised for her dynamic, passionate conducting style, Taiwanese American conductor Mei-Ann Chen is acclaimed for infusing orchestras with enthusiasm and high-level music-making, galvanizing audiences and communities alike. Music Director of the MacArthur Award-winning Chicago Sinfonietta since 2011, her contract has been extended through the end of the 2028-2029 season. Named Artistic Director of Springfield Symphony Orchestra (MA) in March 2024, Chen has been Chief Conductor of Austria’s Recreation-Grosses Orchester Graz at Styriarte since fall 2021 following two seasons as the orchestra’s first-ever Principal Guest Conductor, making her the first female Asian conductor to hold this position with an Austrian orchestra. She has served as the first-ever Artistic Partner of Houston’s ROCO since 2019, and since 2022, as an Artistic Partner with Northwest Sinfonietta (WA).

Highly regarded as a compelling communicator and an innovative leader both on and off the podium, and a sought-after guest conductor, Chen has appeared with distinguished orchestras throughout the Americas, Europe, Taiwan, The United Kingdom, and Scandinavia, and continues to expand her relationships with orchestras worldwide (over 150 orchestras to date). A passionate advocate for music education, Chen dedicates significant time in mentoring young conductors through Chicago Sinfonietta’s Freeman Conducting Fellowship program (since 2014, helping to launch professional careers for more than a dozen young conductors), and has been a mentor for the Taki Alsop Fellowship since 2022. Conductor Laureate of Memphis Symphony (Music Director 2010-2016), former posts include Artistic Director, National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra Summer Festival (2016-2021), and Music Director, Portland Youth Philharmonic (Oregon, 2002-2007). Honors include being named one of the 2015 Top 30 Influencers by Musical America; the 2012 Helen M. Thompson Award from the League of American Orchestras; the 2007 Taki Concordia Fellowship founded by Marin Alsop; and 2005 First Prize Winner of the Malko Competition (she remains as the only woman in the competition history since 1965 to have won First Prize), and ASCAP awards for innovative programming. Having recorded for Cedille Records, Naxos, and Innova Recordings, Maestra Chen’s third recording for Cedille with Chicago Sinfonietta will be released in 2025. (Photo by Simon Pauly.)

Kam Franklin

A leading voice for justice and equity in the music industry and beyond, Kam Franklin is an interdisciplinary artist and activist whose work transcends genre and medium to speak to the core of our shared humanity. Though she’s perhaps most widely recognized as the powerhouse singer and songwriter at the helm of acclaimed Gulf Coast soul band The Suffers, Franklin has also established herself as a prolific writer, orator, model, actress, visual artist, and entrepreneur over the course of the last decade, utilizing her platform to champion more inclusive environments for Black, queer, femme, and non-binary artists around the world. Her new single, “Byrd and Shepard,” brings together the disparate threads of her multifaceted career, reflecting on the 1998 killings of James Byrd, Jr., and Matthew Shepard and offering up a pointed reflection on our collective responsibility to fight for a better, more just future in the face of rising hate and intolerance.

Since launching The Suffers in 2011, Franklin has appeared with the band on Letterman, Colbert, Kimmel, NPR’s Tiny Desk, All Things Considered, and The Daily Show in addition to performing at a diverse array of festivals from Newport Folk and Byron Bay Blues to Monterey Jazz and Afropunk. A three-time winner of the Houston Press award for Best Female Vocalist and two-time recipient of the Houston Press award for Local Musician of the Year, Franklin has also turned heads with a broad range of collaborations: in 2016, she performed in the March For Science band alongside Jon Batiste and Stay Human, Questlove, Judith Hill, and Fred Wesley; in 2017, she sang with the Houston Symphony; in 2018, she released a single with Grammy Award-winning Tejano legends La Mafia; and in 2021, she sang alongside Chaka Khan, Brandi Carlile, Margo Price, Yola, and more as part of Allison Russell’s “Once and Future” sounds on the Newport mainstage.

After winning a grant from The Houston Arts Alliance in 2022, Franklin launched her latest project, the Bayou City Comeback Chorus, which brought together singers of all ages, backgrounds, and skill levels to harmonize together in a unique blend of psychedelic funk and traditional choral music. The group’s debut EP, which was released on Franklin’s own Homegirl Island Records label, helped Franklin earn The Houston Artist Commissioning Project’s New/Now award, enabling her to stage a second volume with the Chorus at Houston’s Wortham Center in 2024.

When she’s not onstage or in the studio, Franklin can often be found speaking on panels at museums, festivals, and non-profit foundations. A popular guest on podcasts like Brené Brown’s “Dare To Lead,” Franklin has also contributed writing on race, gender, and the arts to outlets like Vice and Forbes. She currently serves on the board of HeadCount.org, as Governor for the Texas and Oklahoma Chapter of the Recording Academy, and as both the inaugural Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion ambassador and the inaugural Recording Academy Black Music Collective Chapter Ambassador for the Texas Chapter of The Recording Academy.

Marcus Shelby

Marcus Anthony Shelby is a composer, bassist, bandleader, and educator who currently lives in San Francisco, California. His work focuses on the history, present, and future of African American lives, social movements, and music education. In 1990, Marcus Shelby received the Charles Mingus Scholarship to attend Cal Arts and study composition with James Newton and bass with Charlie Haden. Currently, Shelby is the Artistic Director of Healdsburg Jazz, an artist in residence with the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, and a past resident artist with the San Francisco Jazz Festival and the Healdsburg Jazz Festival.

Shelby has composed several oratorios and suites including Harriet Tubman, Beyond the Blues: A Prison Oratorio, Soul of the Movement: Meditations on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Black Ball: The Negro Leagues and the Blues, Green and Blues, and a children’s opera Harriet’s Spirit, produced by Opera Parallel 2018. Shelby also composed the score and performed in Anna Deavere Smith’s Off Broadway Play and HBO feature film Notes from the Field (2019). Shelby is the voice of Ray Gardener in the Oscar winning Disney Pixar film SOUL (2020). Shelby has worked with a range of artists including Angela Y. Davis’ Blues Legacies and Black Feminism (2019), W. Kamau Bell (1000% Me), Joanna Haigood’s Dying While Black and Brown (2014), Margo Hall’s Bebop Baby (2013) and Sonny’s Blues (2008), the Oakland Ballet’s Ella The SF Girl Choir (2013), The Oakland Youth Chorus (2014), and many other productions over the past 23 years. Shelby has served on the San Francisco Arts Commission since 2013.

Shayla James

Shayla James (she/her) resides in San Diego on Kumeyaay Land. She balances her time as an arts administrator, researcher, and teaching artist in the arts and culture sector. Her work is rooted in community and collaboration with others across disciplines. She is currently the Director of the San Diego Creative Youth Development Network, overseeing network operations, programming and strategic planning. Ms. James is also a Research Associate at RISE Research & Evaluation, where she provides support in evaluation design, data analysis and communication. Her research focuses on arts assessment and evaluation, racial and cultural equity in the arts, cultural policy, and social emotional learning. She is also a multi-instrumentalist with over 15 years of experience in the performing arts as a performer and educator. She is the owner of Sempre Music Studio, a creativity focused studio that offers a flexible, responsive and trauma informed music curriculum. Also, she is the creator and co-lead of Teaching Artist Circle, a community space that centers Teaching Artist voices of San Diego County. Additionally, she has been a teaching artist and developed curriculums with multiple organizations in San Diego.

Crystal Celeste Price

Crystal Celeste Price (she/ella) is Chicana and a creative leader with an international background in arts education, youth and community development, and program management. Currently, she leads a variety of grants and programs at Arts Midwest,  she creates jewelry and metal artwork through Crystal Celeste Studio, as well as teaches metal jewelry classes at the Chicago Avenue Fire Arts Center in Minneapolis. She has led grassroots initiatives, in school settings and not-for-profit organizations based out of Bucheon, South Korea, Talamanca, Costa Rica, and Minnesota, USA. To give a few examples of her experiences, she participated as an artist in residence at the Bucheon Art Forum in 2012, organized a youth mural project at Colegio Indigena Shiroles in 2016, piloted a global youth exchange program at the Minneapolis Institute of Art from 2019 to 2020, and led the We the Many community-based artist residency program at Arts Midwest from 2022-2024. Crystal values process-based learning, relationship-building, mentorship, and humility as essential ingredients of her work. 

Nancy Villafranca-Guzman

Nancy Villafranca-Guzman has over twenty years of experience in the art, culture, programming and education fields. She recently joined PODER as their new Vice President of Impact to oversee their language, civic education and job training programs. Prior to joining PODER she was Deputy Commissioner of Programming at the City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) for three years. Nancy also has extensive experience in the museum field. She was Vice President for Education and Engagement at the Chicago History Museum where she oversaw the Museum’s school and public programs and initiatives and the visitor engagement teams for over five years. As Director of Education at the National Museum of Mexican Art, a position she held for almost ten years, Nancy led a team of educators and artists, and guided the development of museum-based curriculum for cultural understanding and launched many of the Museum’s long-standing arts education programs.

Earlier in her career, she was the Chicago office director of the Inter-University Program for Latino Research (IUPLR), a national Latino research consortium headquartered at the University of Illinois at Chicago. As a first generation Chicagoan, she is also very proud of co-founding a new organization, Raices: Chicago Story Coalition, to help document, share and connect Latine archives. Nancy received her undergraduate degree in Secondary Education from DePaul University and her Master’s Degree in Instructional Leadership from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Nancy completed a second Master of Art in Museum and Exhibition Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Jane Cox

Jane Cox is a theater maker and a lighting designer working in theater, opera, dance and music as well as a Professor of the Practice and Director of the Program in Theater and Music Theater at Princeton University. Jane is interested in how light, shadow, and color impact emotion and reveal space and relationship. Her work is driven by a fascination with the space between human experience and our ability to express it in language, and by the ways in which our imaginations are populated in culturally specific ways.

She received a 2024 Tony Award for her lighting in Appropriate and three prior Tony nominations for her lighting in Macbeth, Jitney and Machinal. Her creative career has been built on relationships; the extraordinary theatrical artists who have shaped her creative life include Ruben Santiago-Hudson, John Doyle, Elise Thoron, Shariffa Ali, Caitríona MacLaughlin, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, and Sam Gold. Jane has been a member of the Monica Bill Barnes dance company for more than twenty years, working with artists like Ira Glass and Maira Kalman.

Recent producing highlights have been co-organizing and hosting the 2023 symposium and creative convening The Future of Race in Design at the Park Avenue Armory and organizing a series of events with returning citizens in conjunction with performances of Felon: An American Washi Tale by Reginal Dwayne Betts. In her role as Director of the Theater Program at Princeton, Jane has focused on more inclusive theatrical story-telling with a specific focus on making the work of Black artists more visible, and on deepening the program's relationships with contemporary American theater making.

Luther Goins

In 1990, after working extensively in Cincinnati as a producer, director, and acting instructor, Luther Goins re-located to Chicago. Between 1990 and 1995, he worked as the Assistant to the Producer at the Skokie-based Northlight Theatre and held the position of Resident Artistic Director at the African American based Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre in Evanston, IL.

In 1995, he accepted the Managing Director position at the Chicago Theatre Company, a professional African American company located on Chicago’s south side. In 2002, Luther accepted a Business Representative position with the Chicago office of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States. In 2016, after 14 years, Luther retired from Actors’ Equity Association.

Since retirement, Luther has worked as Interim Managing Director for ShawChicago Theatre Company, Congo Square Theatre Company, and Music Theater Works. He has also worked as a Theatrical Management Consultant, and Part-Time Staff, with many Chicago theatres including Porchlight Music Theatre, Canamac Productions, Silk Road Rising, Victory Gardens Theatre, Lifeline Theatre Company, and Grippo Stage Company. 

His first play, Love Child, made its debut in January 2001 at Chicago’s Live Bait Theatre. This extraordinarily successful production received numerous awards, including a Joseph Jefferson Award for “Best New Work” and Chicago After Dark Awards “Best New Work” and “Best Ensemble.” Love Child, in 2002, celebrated two other productions. One at the Chicago Theatre Company and the other at the Ensemble Theater of Cincinnati. These two productions also garnered awards including the Chicago African American Arts Alliance Award for “Best New Play” and the Cincinnati Entertainment Award for “Best Local Premiere.”  He is currently working on a new play, The Reluctant Art of Breathing.

Luther holds the honor of being the first African American Board Chair of Season of Concern, an amazingly successful organization founded in 1987 to support Chicago theater practitioners and artists who are impacted by any illness, injury or health related issue that prevents them from working, excluding loss of income for other reasons.

Katie Ka Vang

Katie Ka Vang is a Hmong American theater maker, playwright, screenwriter, and cultural bearer. Her work explores the complexity of cultures & communities, diaspora, dis-ease, and transformation. Her work includes Again, the musical, Fertile Grounds, WTF, Hmong Bollywood, 5:1 Meaning of Freedom; 6:2 Use of Sharpening, Fast FWD Motions, In Quarantine, FINAL ROUND, and Spirit Trust.

Her work has been developed and presented at East West Players, Red Eye Theater, Mixed Blood Theater, Pangea World Theater, Pillsbury House Theatre, Theater Mu, Leviathan Lab, Bushwick Starr, Brown University, The Royal Court Theatre, The Walker Art Center, Civic Ensemble, Out North Art House, and more. She is currently a 23/24 Constellation Fellow from the Center for Cultural Power working with Indigenous Roots and is a recent recipient of a 2025 Joyce Award. She received the 22/23 McKnight and 19/20 Many Voices fellowship at the Playwrights' Center. She's received support from Jerome Foundation, NET, Knight Foundation, NPN, MRAC, MSAB, and Coalition of Asian American Leaders. She was a member of East West Players 21-23 Playwright's Group. She holds an MFA in Playwriting from Brown University.

Mia Lopez

Mia Lopez is the inaugural Curator of Latinx Art at the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio, Texas. She has worked with artists and leading contemporary art institutions across the United States for over 15 years. Lopez has previously held curatorial positions at DePaul Art Museum in Chicago and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. Exhibitions she has contributed to include Remember Where You Are, LatinXAmerican, and International Pop. Lopez is an alumnus of the Smithsonian Latino Museum Studies Program and the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures Leadership Institute. She holds a BA in Art History from Rice University and dual MAs in Art History and Arts Administration from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. (Photo by Paul Feuerbacher.)

Dorene Red Cloud

Dorene Red Cloud is an enrolled citizen of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. She received her Master of Arts in American Indian Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, Bachelor of Fine Arts in Ceramics at the University of Michigan, and Associate of Fine Arts in Museum Studies at the Institute of American Indian Arts. Red Cloud worked at the National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution as a Repatriation Research Specialist from 1999-2003. After a number of years spent working outside the museum field, she joined the Eiteljorg Museum as assistant curator of Native American art in October 2016 but since July 2022, she is the curator of Native American art. Originally, from Chicago, IL, Red Cloud currently resides in Indianapolis, IN, and when not working, she is either creating a new artwork or pursuing mid-century treasure hunts at a local yard sale or antique store.

 

Dieter Roelstraete

Dieter Roelstraete is curator of the Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society at the University of Chicago, where he also teaches. Recent projects at the Neubauer Collegium Gallery have featured the work of Gelitin, Rick Lowe, Pope.L,  Martha Rosler, Cecilia Vicuna, and Christopher Williams. He previously worked as a curator for documenta 14 in Kassel and Athens in 2017. Prior to that, he served as the Manilow Senior Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (2012-2015), where he organized and co-organized The Way of the Shovel: Art as Archaeology (2015); The Freedom Principle: Experiments in Art and Music 1965 to Now (2015); and Kerry James Marshall: Mastry (2016), among other exhibitions. From 2003 to 2011 Roelstraete was a curator at the Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen in his native Belgium. In recent years, he has also curated large-scale exhibitions at the Fondazione Prada in Milan and Venice, Garage (Moscow) and S.M.A.K. (Ghent). Roelstraete has published extensively on contemporary art and related philosophical issues in numerous catalogues and journals. (Photo by Richard Pilnik.)