Clarissa Soto Josephs has worked as an Arts Administrator and Educator for nearly a decade. As the Associate Director of Pentacle, she has merged her passions for dance and entrepreneurship by helping dance artists navigate their craft within the performing arts and nonprofit fields...working with hundreds of artists, training more than 200 interns in arts administration, and developing innovative ways to bring sustainability to young artists.

http://www.pentacle.org

Kaisha S. Johnson is the Founding Director of Women of Color in the Arts (WOCA), a national service network dedicated to creating racial equity in the performing arts. Kaisha co-founded WOCA to provide a platform to give voice and visibility to women of color, to help fortify leadership roles for arts administrators of color, and to reinforce a world where everyone has a seat at the table. Prior to her work with WOCA, Kaisha served as a program director at Center for Traditional Music and Dance for over a decade, organizing in NYC immigrant artist communities working to promote, preserve, and present performance traditions from around the world. With a strong commitment to facilitating culturally equitable programming, Kaisha has served as a consultant providing vision of curation, program development, and community integration. She has consulted with countless organizations including Lincoln Center, The Apollo Theater, and Dance/NYC and has served on numerous grant panels including the NEA, USArtists International and MAP Fund. Working across the globe, Kaisha also serves as a thought partner providing consultation to organizations to help foster understanding about equity and race and their impact on organizational culture, structure, and systems. A love of community learning has led her to teaching positions at City University of New York and the Center for Bronx Non-Profits. A longtime resident of Harlem, NY, initially Kaisha got her start in her hometown of Houston, Texas as a classically-trained violinist. Ms. Johnson holds a Bachelor's degree in music from Hampton University, a Master’s in music business administration from NYU and has done post-graduate work in ethnomusicology. Kaisha has over 20-years experience as an arts manager and is a proud alumna of the Intercultural Leadership Institute. Ms. Johnson is a staunch advocate for the arts, believing in its innate ability to create social change.

https://www.womenofcolorinthearts.org

Marya Wethers is a dancer and Independent Creative Producer & Curator based in NYC since 1997. As a Producer, she is the Director of International Initiatives at Movement Research, leading the GPS/Global Practice Sharing program, and works with jumatatu m. poe and Edisa Weeks/DELIRIOUS Dances, and previously with Alice Sheppard/Kinetic Light, nora chipaumire, Paloma McGregor/Angela’s Pulse, David Thomson, Olivier Tarpaga/Baker & Tarpaga Dance Project, and others. As a Curator she conceived and created the three-week performance series “Gathering Place: Black Queer Land(ing)” at Gibney (2018), Queer NY International Arts Festival (2016 & 2015), Out of Space @ BRIC Studio for Danspace Project (2003-2007), and Watershed Lab residency at Mount Tremper Arts (2018 & 2019). Her writing has been published in Configurations in Motion: Curating and Communities of Color Symposium publications, organized by Thomas DeFrantz at Duke University (2016 & 2015) and the 25th Anniversary Movement Research Performance Journal #27/28 (2004). She has served on selection panels for several presenting and funding organizations in NY and nationally. She graduated from Mount Holyoke College with a BA in Dance cum laude, minor in African-American Studies, 1997. As a performer, Marýa received a 2017 NY Dance & Performance (“Bessie”) Award for Outstanding Performance with the Skeleton Architecture collective. She has also danced with iele paloumpis, Daria Faïn, Jack Gray, Deborah Hay (at MoMA in 2018 & 2012), visual artist Senga Nengudi (Radical Presence: Black Performance in Contemporary Art at Studio Museum Harlem, 2013), and in the acclaimed Parallels Platform 30th Anniversary at Danspace Project (2012) in evenings curated by Jawole Zollar and Bebe Miller.

Rebecca Ferrell (she/her) is a dance advocate, artist, educator, producer, and programmer. She holds a BFA in Dance and Choreography from Virginia Commonwealth University as well as an MFA in Dance from Arizona State University. As a longtime activist for the arts, Rebecca has served as the Director of the VA Dance Symposium, Co-Producer of the Richmond Dance Festival, dance critic for GayRVA and RVA Magazine, ACDA Central Region Conference Coordinator, Director of Public Relations and Engagement for the University of Illinois’ Department of Dance, Director and Curator of the Flatlands Dance Film Festival, and Executive Director of Dance Metro DC. Additionally, her arts administrative skills have supported organizations, universities, and dance artists throughout the United States, with funding secured through a number of resources including the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, HumanitiesDC, the Lang Foundation, and Yellow House NYC. She is currently the Director of Programs at Dance/USA, on faculty at American University and Shenandoah Conservatory, and an Advisory Council Member for Arts Education Partnership.

http://www.fdance.com/