Staff & Leadership

Director of Programs and Services

Deonté Griffin-Quick is a nationally recognized, award-winning arts administrator, actor, and freelance consultant with a personal mission of advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion within the arts and cultural sector with a proven track record of envisioning and implementing change.

Before transitioning into a full-time role at NJTA, Deonté previously served in a variety of postions at institutions such as the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, where he managed the statewide Poetry Out Loud program. During his tenure, he contributed to recruiting over 2,000 students to the program, making it the second largest POL program in the country. 

As an advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion, Mr. Griffin-Quick volunteers on DEI committees for ArtPride NJ and Drexel University’s Westphal College of Media Arts. A passionate and dynamic speaker, Deonte has presented workshops for the Arts Administrators of Color Network, the New Jersey Center for Nonprofits, and the Middlesex County Division of Arts and History. 

As an actor, Deonté has performed at NJTA member theatres including, Premiere Stages, Luna Stage Company, McCarter Theatre Center, New Jersey Reperatory Theatre, and Centernary Stage Company where he originated the role of Jesse Owens in Turning by Darrah Cloud. 

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 is currently pursuing a Masters in Arts Administration at Drexel University.  

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.

Access Coordinator

Beth Prevor is a co-founder and Executive Director of Hands On, an arts service organization that advocates for access to the cultural arts for the Deaf community and audiences with disabilities. For the last 30+ years, Hands On has been providing access for the Deaf and hard of hearing communities of NYC through sign language interpreted theater at some of NYC's most prestigious theaters including The Roundabout Theater Company, The New York Shakespeare Festival/Public Theater, and The New Victory Theater.

As Executive Director, Beth works with arts organizations to ensure inclusion for all by providing marketing, community engagement and audience development strategies. As a disabled advocate, Beth is active as an advisory member to many groups including, The Shubert Accessibility Committee and the Museum, Arts and Culture Access Consortium (MAC). She has led workshops on accessibility and the arts for organizations around the country including the Kennedy Center's LEAD (Leadership Exchange in Arts and Disability) Conference, Americans for the Arts, The National Arts Marketing Project, the Alliance of Resident Theaters/New York (ART/NY) and Theater Communications Group (TCG).

She currently works as the Access Coordinator for the New Jersey Theatre Alliance as well as a Disability Consultant with ART/NY.

She is the 2015 recipient of the John F. Kennedy Center's Excellence in Accessibility Leadership Lifetime Achievement Award.