Staff & Leadership

Executive Director

John McEwen has served as the Executive Director of New Jersey Theatre Alliance since 2001.

Prior to the Alliance, John served as Vice President for Development of the New Jersey Network Foundation where he was responsible for providing the leadership for an annual fund goal of more than $7 million in support of NJN Public Television and Radio’s programs and services. Prior to joining NJN, John served as the Director of Development for Paper Mill Playhouse where he oversaw all fundraising activities, long-range planning, and board development.  John provided the leadership for Paper Mill’s successful $10 million capital campaign.

In 1992, McEwen developed the Cultural Access Network Project, a project of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and New Jersey Theatre Alliance, for which he received the inaugural Leadership Award in Access from The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation. John serves as a trustee of ArtPride NJ andFund for the New Jersey Blind. John has served as an adjunct professor in arts management at Seton Hall University, Drew University, and New York University.

John has consulted numerous organizations on board development, long-range planning, fundraising, and cultural access. He received a BA from Montclair State University and an MA from New York University.

John is a graduate of Leadership/New Jersey and was selected as one of 50 nonprofit arts leaders to participate in the Executive Program for Nonprofit Arts Leaders at Stanford University, a partnership of Stanford and National Arts Strategies.

When John is not attending the theatre, he enjoys cooking, collecting glass art, and anything to do with the water—boating, sun bathing, swimming.

Development and Communications Director

Before joining the Alliance in 2014, Ruth worked in communications and project management in the executive offices at Columbia University, where she contributed to the success of a $6.1B campaign, the first campus expansion in 150 years, and the branding of Columbia as the premier global university.

Ruth has also worked as an independent consultant for a variety of organizations including large foundations, small businesses, and non-profit ventures, conducting market research and formulating communications strategies.

As a playwright, Ruth received a 2018 New Jersey State Council on the Arts fellowship. Her publications include articles in Howlround and Builder/Architect Magazine, the online novel clarissa@loveless.com, published in 2002 by classicnovels.com; 'Otsu' and Other Poems, self-published in 2006; Eating Her Wedding Dress: An Anthology of Clothing Poems, which she co-edited and was published by Ragged Sky Press in 2009; and Blanket Stories, a poetry anthology published by Ragged Sky in 2014, which she co-edited and which is based on a work of collaborative art by artist Richard Jochum.

Ruth holds an MS in strategic communications from Columbia University, an MA in English from New York University, and a BA summa cum laude from St. John’s University. She is a trustee of the Reeves-Reed Arboretum in Summit, NJ, and a member of Dramatists Guild and International Centre for Women Playwrights. She received the 2010 Cynthia Carter Memorial Cup granted by US Fencing to the top-ranked women’s epeeist over 40.