Lee Berendsen, Program Manager & Technical Solution Manager, SMI
L’Ana Burton, Master Teaching Artist, CT Commission on Tourism & Culture
Mathew Heggem, Communications & Development Specialist; Co-Founder Queer Art Impact
Shalonda Ingram, Founder, Nursha Project; Producer, Dance Theater Workshop
Sara Juli, Founder/Director, Surala Consulting
Eric Ost, Program Director, Teen Reviewers & Critics Program, Arts Connection
Georgiana Pickett, Executive Director, 651 Arts
Ariel Osterweis Scott, Ph.D. Candidate, Performance Studies
Robin Staff, Founding Producer, DanceNOW [NYC]
Jay Wegman, Director, Abrons Arts Center at Henry Street Settlement

LEE BERENDSEN the Program Manager and Technical Solution Manager of his own business, sweetfacemanagement incorporated (SMI). SMI works on programs related to corporate restructuring, outsourcing (ITO), offshoring (BPO), technical security, and legal data retention infrastructure. Prior to forming his own outfit, Lee was a Project Manager for IBM, and before that, he was Technical Project Manager for Altria. He holds a masters degree in Entertainment Business from New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business.

L’ANA BURTON is a dancer, educator and performer living in Southeastern Connecticut. She is founding Director of Creative Dance Continuum, which originated in the dance department of Connecticut College in 1986. Formerly known as The Connecticut College Children’s Dance Center, CDC brings unique dance experiences to people ages 3 through adult. L’Ana is also a Master Teaching Artist with the State of Connecticut Commission on Tourism and Culture. L’Ana has created hundreds of public school residencies to integrate dance into the curriculum.

MATHEW HEGGEM, is a non-profit communications and development specialist, and social media consultant, and the Director of Communications & Development at The Bookkeeping Center. Heggem is also a Brooklyn-based artist who delves into the cross currents of gender politics, pop culture, and truth seeking. Mat was the artistic director and curator of Bushed: A Gay Wars Premiere, Cabaret & Panel Discussion at The Tank in May 2010, which led to the co-founding of Queer Art Impact with fellow producer Shalonda Ingram. Heggem has presented his work at venues and festivals in New York, D.C., Baltimore, Gloucester, and Philadelphia. As a performer, Heggem has danced on New York City stages from P.S. 122 to The Joyce, and throughout the U.S. He has performed with Nicholas Leichter Dance, Jennifer Monson, ClancyWorks Dance Company, Clyde Forth Visual Theatre, and was a soloist for the historic reconstructions of Doris Humphrey and Ted Shawn works through the “Art of the Solo.”

SHALONDA INGRAM is a strategist, producer, and social entrepreneur committed to transforming the planet via pro-activism and sociopolitical change through community empowerment, youth, and arts engagement. Ingram is the Producer at Dance Theater Workshop, and sits on various arts funding councils including the City of Oakland’s Funding Advisory Board and the Brooklyn Arts Council Community Arts Regrant Program. Her Nursha Project™ launched Born Brown: All Rights Reserved®, and Queer Art Impact. She co-developed the Microloan and Worker Cooperative: A Strategy for Youth Enterprise Development in 2005. Recently, she was nominated for the Eli Segal Award and the New York Innovative Theater Award for the production, Where My Girls At?

SARA JULI is the Founder/Director of Surala Consulting, a NYC-based fundraising consultancy specializing in strategic fundraising solutions. She is fortunate to work with individual artists, small non-profit organizations and for-profit companies looking to donate funds. Prior to starting her own company, Sara was the Director of Development at Dance Theater Workshop in New York City where she was responsible for coordinating all aspects of their major gifts program including Institutional Giving, Individual Giving, Board Development, and cultivation of top tier donors. Prior to Dance Theater Workshop, she worked as a grant writer for American Dance Festival. She has also been creating and performing innovative solo work in New York City for the past ten years and has toured her work in New York City, nationally and internationally to Holland, Australia, New Zealand, London, and Russia. She holds a B.A. in Dance and Anthropology from Skidmore College.

ERIC SCOTT OST is the Program Manager of the Art Connection’s Teen Reviewers and Critics (TRaC) program, which he also directed at the program’s founding organization High 5 Tickets to the Arts, an organization that reaches thousands of New York City teens interested in the arts. A writing specialist, Eric has worked for the Philadelphia Writing Project in both middle and high schools and in special education classrooms in New Jersey. He has been a guest speaker for Scholastic Arts, Movement Research, and others. He has also done outreach and activist work with the homeless in New York City, and been active in Brooklyn politics. Eric is currently on the Brooklyn Bridge Park Film Committee, assisting with the programming of the “Movies With a View” summer series.

GEORGIANA PICKETT has been a steadfast contributor to the arts environment on local, national and international levels for 21 years. After entering the field in the visual arts in her hometown Buffalo, New York, Georgiana moved to Miami where she became the Artistic Director at Miami-Dade College’s globally recognized Cultural Affairs Department. Georgiana served at Miami-Dade College for 6 years where she became a valued member or contributor to many regional and national arts organizations and an advocate for multiple artist and community-based projects. She served on the Boards of CEPA Gallery, Tigertail Productions and the Association of Performing Arts Presenters in the early part of her career. Georgiana now lives in New York City. She spent two years as an arts management consultant serving artists and arts organizations, including the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, The Harlem Arts Alliance, and The August Wilson Center for African American Culture, in project and resource development, programming, production and research. In 2004 she joined Brooklyn-based 651 ARTS and has served as its Executive Director since. 651 ARTS is an internationally recognized presenter and producer of contemporary performing arts form the African Diaspora, which presents an annual season of contemporary dance, theater, and music events in venues throughout Brooklyn as well as provides services and resources for artists to develop new work. 651 ARTS’ flagship program Africa Exchange brings artists from Africa to the United States and sends US based artists to Africa to perform, develop new work, and conduct research and to engage in international dialogue and exchange. Georgiana also serves on the Board of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership and is a member of the Dean’s Advisory Council of the State University of New York at Buffalo.

ARIEL OSTERWEIS SCOTT is a Ph.D. Candidate in Performance Studies at the University of California, Berkeley and holds a B.A. in Anthropology from Columbia University. Her research lies at the intersection of race, sexuality, and virtuosity in contemporary dance in the United States and sub-Saharan Africa, and her dissertation focuses on the varied career of dancer Desmond Richardson. Scott’s writing has been published in Dance Research Journal, Women and Performance: a journal of feminist theory, e-misférica, Dancer Magazine, In Dance, Studio: The Studio Museum in Harlem Magazine, and is forthcoming in TDR/The Drama Review. Scott trained at San Francisco Ballet, The Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance, and on scholarship at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center, and danced professionally with Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Mia Michaels R.A.W., Heidi Latsky Dance, Homer Avila, and others. Her choreography has been presented in New York, London, and Berkeley, where she most recently collaborated with poet Robert Grenier. Scott is also a theorist/dramaturge for performance artists.

ROBIN STAFF is the founding Artistic Director and Producer of DanceNOW [NYC]. Since founding the organization in 1996, Staff has curated, presented, produced, and promoted thousands of artists taking part in events including The Festival, which is mounted every year, The 40Up Project, The Pink Ribbons Project, Dancemopolitan in partnership with Joe’s Pub at The Public Theater, Dance Harlem at Marcus Garvey Park, The Silo Artist Residency at Historic Kirkland Farm, and the annual holiday series of Doug Elkins’ Fraulein Maria. Staff has participated on many panels and committees, including Joyce SoHo’s Curatorial Panel, Dance/NYC’s Presenters Panel, The Joyce Theater’s Residency Panel, The Public Theater’s Meet the Artists Panel, The Joyce Theater’s Presenter Panel, and ArtsQuest Performing Arts Board, Bethlehem, PA (2009-2012).

JAY WEGMAN is the Director of Henry Street Settlement’s Abrons Arts Center. He is responsible for the Settlement’s arts programming, including performances, residencies, training, and exhibitions. Prior to joining Henry Street in 2006, he served as Director of the arts programs at The Cathedral of St. John the Divine and was a Fellow at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Wegman is a graduate of the University of Minnesota and Yale University.