Paula T. Alekson, Artistic Engagement Manager (She/Her) is a theatre historian, playwright, and educator. As McCarter Theatre Center’s Artistic Engagement Manager, she oversees artist-audience engagement and community partnership projects and programming, including artist discussions, scholarly panels, pre-show talks, community play readings, and other events and programs that offer opportunities for learners and arts lovers of all ages to deepen and enhance their performing arts experiences. She is also deeply committed and actively engaged in EDIA work at McCarter as a member of the Accessibility, Indigenous and Lenape Inclusion, and Placemaking Working Groups. Prior to McCarter, Paula taught theatre studies at her alma mater, Mount Holyoke College. She holds an MFA in Playwriting from Brandeis University and PhD in Drama from Tufts University.

Deonté Griffin-Quick is a nationally recognized, award-winning actor, arts administrator and consultant with a proven track record of envisioning and implementing change at the local and regional level. In his full-time capacity, Deonté serves as the inaugural Managing Director of External Affairs, the international service organization for artist residency programs and artist-centered organizations. He is a recipient of the inaugural Individual Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Award from the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies and the Outstanding Achievement in the Arts Award from the Union County Urban League of Young Professionals. Deonté holds a BA in Theatre with a Communications minor from Kean University and a Masters in Arts Administration at Drexel University. Learn more at www.deontegq.org.

Linda C. Harrison Director and CEO The Newark Museum of Art 2019 – Present Established in 1909, The Newark Museum of Art is New Jersey’s largest fine arts museum. It is made up of a 90-gallery main building, planetarium, two historic houses, an education center and sculpture garden. It is situated on a 4.5 acre campus in downtown Newark. The Newark Museum of Art holds collections of American art, decorative art, contemporary art, and arts of Asia, Africa, and the Americas. Its extensive collections of American art include works by Romare Bearden, Bisa Butler, Mary Cassatt, Edward Hopper, Georgia O’Keeffe, Faith Ringgold, John Singer Sargent, Mickalene Thomas, Andy Warhol, and Carrie Mae Weems. In 2019 the Museum’s Lore Ross Jewelry Gallery collection was cited by the New York Times alongside jewelry collections of the Victoria and Albert, the Louvre and the Kremlin museum as significant. As Linda and her curatorial team plan new rotations in the 18th and 19th century galleries for 2022 and 2023 they will be collaboratively curated, bringing key modern and contemporary works into an historical context, encouraging visitors to explore critical issues of race and power throughout centuries of American art and cultural history, and beyond national borders. Linda is committed to galleries that excite people and encourage the broadest and multiple audiences. She aspires to communicate a sense of identification and belonging for all by highlighting previously underrepresented artists and other stories. She wants people to come back because they see themselves – their heritage, cultural traditions, points of view – as part of American art at the Newark Museum of Art, not separate from but part of the expanding canon of American art. Linda is now leveraging the museum’s 4.5 acre campus by developing Museum Parc, an $85M real estate development project. Slated for completion in 2023, the project is 250 rental residences, a contemporary art gallery, café, museum store, and revamped education center. Museum Parc will generate short and long-term revenue for the museum while contributing to the vibrant transformation of downtown Newark. Linda plays a strategic and unifying role for the museum, its anchor institution allies, and the city of Newark.

“Mental wellness is the linchpin of IDEAS work. Without it, there can be no individual growth, organizational change, or true systemic evolution.” Ymani Hawkins (she/her) is a trained diversity and mental wellness coach who marries mental health techniques, psychological principles, and evidenced-based modalities with DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) best practices. As founder of DEEP-ish, Hawkins addresses racial trauma, racial battle fatigue, grief leadership, and psychological unsafety via self-care awareness, emotional intelligence strategies, and mindfulness techniques. Hawkins delivers talks, training, workshops, and coaching to business, arts, and media sectors as well as religious institutions, nonprofits, educational systems, and environmental agencies. Prior to that, she worked as a psychotherapist specializing in cognitive behavioral therapy. In that role, she served patients of all ages with anxiety disorders, depression, and other cognitive and behavioral diagnoses. She also delivered outpatient treatment services to adults experiencing severe mental illness such as dissociative disorders, psychosis, schizoaffective disorders, and schizophrenia.​Hawkins holds a Master of Social Work (MSW) from the Silver School of Social Work at New York University (NYU); a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Interpersonal Communication Studies from Kean University; has performed ethnographic research in Siargao, Philippines, and studied Communications in Athens, Greece. She possesses certifications in cultural awareness, suicide prevention, crisis response, applied suicide intervention, mental health first aid, and PsychoHairapy.

Sharnita C. Johnson is the Victoria Foundation’s first-ever Vice President of Strategy, Impact and Communication. In this role, Sharnita provides oversight and management of all programmatic activities, ensuring alignment with the Foundation goals and values. She leads the development and implementation of Victoria’s grantmaking, success measures, communications, and leadership activities as the Foundation transitions to community-centered work focused on equity and justice. Most recently, Sharnita served as the Arts Program Director at the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, where she led a statewide grantmaking portfolio focused on arts, equity, and creative placemaking. Sharnita played an integral role in the Foundation’s transformation in its mission to address root causes and repair of structural racism and inequity. Amongst many of her distinguished accomplishments, Sharnita co-chairs the New Jersey Arts and Cultural Recovery Fund, a first of its kind $5 million fund to support artists and arts organizations impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. She is also co-chair of ABFE’s $25 million fundraising campaign to strengthen and rebuild Black-led infrastructure for social change. ABFE is a national philanthropic serving organization that advocates for responsive and transformative investments in Black communities. Sharnita is active in the nonprofit sector and is the incoming chair of the board of directors of Grantmakers in the Arts, a national association of public and private arts and culture funders that advances philanthropic and governmental resources to support the growth of the arts and culture. She is on the board of ArtYard and joining the Children’s Theatre Foundation of America in 2022. She was an ABFE Connecting Leaders Fellow, Marygrove College Distinguished Alumni, and Council on Foundations Career Pathways Fellow.

Garlia is a writer, producer, photographer and mother. 2008: Founded Blackboard Plays, a monthly series devoted to Black Playwrights. One of the founding producers of Harlem9, OBIE Award -“48Hours in…™Harlem”. Essays and articles -“The New York Times”, “The Washington Post”, “Salon.com” and “American Theatre”. The Fire This Time Festival. She worked on an MA in African American and African Diaspora studies at Indiana University before coming to New York for her MFA in Playwrighting – The New School for Drama. Member- Dramatists Guild of America. Former Line Producer at The Public Theater; Current 1st Dir, Innovation and New Media. Executive Director, Producing – PAAL; Executive Producer Black Motherhood and Parenting New Play Festival; Senior Creative Producer – Obsidian Theatre Festival; www.patreon.com/garliacornelia / Social Media: @garliacornelia

Born and raised in Charlotte, NC, Jessica is a New York based attorney with a passion for empowering artists of diverse backgrounds and disciplines to take control of their careers by educating them about their legal rights. As the Director of Business Affairs for the Dramatists Guild, she gets to pursue that passion everyday by educating, advocating for and creating business resources for theatre writers at every stage of their career. She also recently channeled this passion into launching her own solo-practice, The Lit Esquire PLLC, which provides affordable legal services to artists and creative entrepreneurs. This passion stems from Jessica’s deep-rooted background in the arts. Jessica earned her B.A. in theatre performance from Fordham University in 2011 and went on to start a theatre company with fellow classmates that focused on producing works exclusively written by women. Jessica later earned her J.D. from Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in 2019 with a concentration in intellectual property. Jessica was admitted to the New York state bar in 2020 and currently resides in Woodstock, New York.

As President & CEO, Adam Perle manages all ArtPride operations. He leads the senior management team and is responsible for resource development, as well as fiduciary oversight. Prior to joining ArtPride, Adam was the Vice President of the Princeton Regional Chamber of Commerce, where he led membership and tourism marketing efforts. During his time at the Chamber, Adam was a key part of the leadership team that doubled the size of the organization, and was instrumental in the expansion of the Princeton Regional Convention & Visitors Bureau. Before his work in the nonprofit sector, Adam worked on several political campaigns at the local, state, and federal levels. Adam is a lover of Mark Rothko, 20th century American theatre, landscape photography, the blues, and New Orleans jazz. When he is not enjoying a New Jersey craft beer, or rooting for his beloved New York Giants, you can find Adam encouraging his two budding performers, Alexis and Marley. A lifelong New Jersey resident, Adam resides in Bridgewater with his wife, Mandi. The couple started dating at summer camp while they were opposing color war generals.

Michele Russo is YA’s President & CEO, holding in this role since 2015. Under her leadership, the organization has embraced a comprehensive Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Access plan, Arts United, touching every aspect of programming, operations, and field leadership. Michele co-chaired the YA National Teaching Artist Credential project and has served on YA National board committees. During the COVID pandemic, Michele served on Governor Murphy’s Arts and Culture Recovery Working Group, and played an important role as a Committee Member of ArtPrideNJ during their equity strategy planning. Michele came to Young Audiences from The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, where she managed the Biennial Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival and the Poetry in the Schools Program from 2011-2015. Prior to her time at the Dodge Foundation, she served as a Senior Education Associate at Young Audiences for 10 years, collaborating and managing long-term arts education initiatives in pre-school, elementary, and middle schools. Michele chaired the New Jersey Arts Education Collective from 2008-2011 and was a member of the LeadNJ class of 2014. She has published articles on early childhood education and the arts, has presented locally and nationally about non-profit equity strategy, and has traveled nationally as a trainer of arts education programs. She is a graduate of The College of New Jersey. Michele serves on the boards of The NJ Center for Non-Profits and Trenton Circus Squad

Ms. Beth Silver serves as the VP, Chief People Officer for The New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC). She has worked in the human resources field for thirty years, working in multiple industries for public and private companies, varying in size from Fortune 500 to start-up. Ms. Silver is responsible for leading all people operations at the arts center, including recruitment, employee relations, compensation, benefits, training, organizational culture, employee development, recognition, internship programs, volunteer services and compliance. Ms. Silver also co-leads NJPAC’s DEI initiatives with Ms. Donna Walker-Kuhne. Her approach to work is to lead with integrity and empathy, to achieve results by innovating, launching and implementing programs that meet strategic business objectives. Ms. Silver holds a BS from Cornell University and an MBA from Fordham University. She resides in Jersey with her husband and two sons. In her free time, she enjoys board service, travel, Pilates, being with friends and family and making anything chocolate.

An enrolled Ramapo-Munsee Lunaape and Tsalagi-Algonquian Native American descendant, who has worked as a Museum Professional over 15 years and now curates Native American Programs, spotlighting Traditional and Contemporary Indigenous Artists Titled: *Beyond the Oak Tree Treaty. Moreover, Oleana is Smithsonian Museum trained in Lenape Indigenous history, and fulfills public speaking engagements on the topics of: Native New York, Carving Out a Legacy and Historic Native American Women Chiefs. Recently launched into the art of spoken word , she shares her inherited diary of published poems: Reflections of a Whispering Dove; Entangled in a Simmons Serenade, ,co-authored with Def Poetry Jam’s Co-founder Danny Simmons. A permanently catalogued and archived pictorial diary at the Schomburg Center for Research and Poets House. Undeterred by social injustice during a global pandemic, Oleana accepted the opportunity as an Associate Producer of the Short Film titled: Silent Tribute; Produced by Rainy Film & Media, which memorializes George Floyd and the Murdered, Missing Indigenous Women and Girls on Native American Reservations.