About Me.
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I am a culture worker and a staunch advocate for inclusivity, accessibility, and equity - believing that culture and creativity play an indispensable role in shaping the social character and built environments of cities and towns. I identified my career direction in 2016 in Florida while working for the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville. In 2018, I took the next step in my career when returning home to Pennsylvania to serve as the Executive Director of Erie Arts & Culture.
I am an unconventional thinker who is unafraid of questioning traditional structures. This is largely credited to my non-conventional journey through adulthood. I have slept on couches of relative strangers in foreign countries, lived in a dry cabin in Alaska, traveled across North America in a van with my three-legged dog while paying off student loan debt, all serving to cement my sense of self. I have worked to erode calcified barriers that have historically prevented meaningful access to and participation in the preservation, promotion, and presentation of creativity and culture. I approach each day with a desire and commitment to shatter the status quo that the most important and prestigious art forms and disciplines are those that are taught through formal academic environments or are derived from European heritage. I have dedicated myself to working with artists and organizations to demystify the arts by bringing communities in on the act of creating - engaging them around concepts, materials, processes, and techniques in a way that neither placates nor patronizes. This, I believe, is how we directly demonstrate the value of the arts. We must leverage our resources and skills to help amplify the identities, aspirations, and struggles of our community members. We must shape places made by and for them. Community must be represented among the practitioners, artistic disciplines, and cultural practices. I work with community members to determine how creative and cultural engagement can be honored to establish emotional bonds between people and the places and spaces they occupy while also reinforcing social connections. I’m nurturing an inclusive culture in Erie. The guiding vision is where residents, merchants, community organizers, artists, and culture-bearers demonstrate agency and are engaged as active participants in shaping the social character and built environments in their neighborhoods. PERSONALITY TYPE
Advocate INFJ-T PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Executive Director - Erie Arts & Culture Erie, Pennsylvania Community and Collaboration Manager - Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville Jacksonville, Florida SKILLS
Non-Profit administration + Arts advocacy + Artist professional development + People and place based development strategies + Community building + Strategic planning + Design thinking + Dynamic leadership + Public speaking + Stakeholder engagement + Opportunity analysis + Board development and management + Recruitment and team building + Consensus building + Fundraising + Fiscal management + Data-based decision making TRAITS
Creative thinker + Reliable and organized + Culturally competent + Efficient and effective + Resourceful + Adaptive + Integrity + Even keel + Accessible AWARDS / RECOGNITION
40 Under 40 Erie Reader - 2020 Erie, Pennsylvania Person of the Year Erie Times-News - 2019 Erie, Pennsylvania 40 Under 40 Jacksonville Business Journal - 2018 Jacksonville, Florida PRESENTATIONS/PANELS
Arts Activism: The Effects Creativity and Culture Can Have on Policy and Power Presented with Rhonda Matthews, PhD Lake Effect Leaders Erie, Pennsylvania - 2022 Art, Incarceration, and Re-Entry: A Conversation Between Antonio Howard and Patrick Fisher Erie County Public Library Erie, Pennsylvania - 2021 Equity and Sustainability in Placemaking Placemaking US and What's Up Downtown Flint Flint, Michigan - 2021 The Arts and Economic Recovery in Your Community: Case Studies from Pennsylvania Fourth Economy Virtual - 2021 State of the Economy: How Do We Think About It For Our Local Communities Chautauqua Institution Chautauqua, New York - 2021 Navigating Your Career as an Emerging Artist Edinboro University of Pennsylvania Edinboro, Pennsylvania - 2021 Small Scale Changes to Strengthen our Communities Southern Vermont Economy Summit Virtual - 2021 Supporting New American Artists and Business Owners Americans for the Arts Virtual - 2021 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Creative Economy Northwest Pennsylvania Partnerships for Regional Economic Performance Virtual - 2021 The Creative County Emerge 2040, Destination Erie Erie, Pennsylvania - 2021 FEATURED IN
Meet Erie: A Rust Belt Region Continues to Navigate its Renaissance Through a Pandemic Our Town The Series, Erie Part 1 Our Towns Civic Foundation Creating and Reimagining Community Through a Crisis Our Town The Series, Erie Part 3 Our Towns Civic Foundation Arts, Entertainment and Recreation Providers Help Define Erie County. Help Them to Thrive Again Erie Times-News Art As a Change Agent Erie Times-News |