BSCN Consultants
Alan Brown
Principal, Wolf Brown
www.wolfbrown.com
Alan Brown, principal of WolfBrown, is a leading researcher and management consultant in the arts and culture sector worldwide. His work focuses on understanding consumer demand for cultural experiences and on helping cultural institutions, foundations and agencies to see new opportunities, make informed decisions and respond to changing conditions. His studies have introduced new vocabulary to the lexicon of cultural participation and propelled the field towards a clearer view of the rapidly changing cultural landscape. He speaks frequently at national and international conferences about audience behaviors, trends in cultural participation, and the value system surrounding arts programs.
John Fraser
President & CEO, New Knowledge Organization
www.newknowledge.org
Beverly Sheppard
New Knowledge Organization
www.newknowledge.org
John Shibley PhD AIA
John Shibley Consulting
John Shibley has more than 25 years of experience leading complex organizational improvement efforts in a variety of industries and settings. His work in the arts focuses on strategy and innovation, and integrates practices from system dynamics, Total Quality and organizational learning. Clients include the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The Apollo Theatre, the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, The Wooster Group, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, the LA Music Center, the LA Philharmonic, SFMOMA and the Irvine Foundation, and the New York City and Los Angeles school systems. In a previous life, he worked with private sector companies like Harley Davidson, General Electric and L.L. Bean. He has taught at the MIT Senior Executive Program and at the Shambala Leadership Institute. John has a Masters Degree in Consulting Psychology from Harvard's Graduate School of Education. While an undergraduate at the University of Massachusetts he created the original "Friends Don't Let Friends Drive Drunk" campaign for the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
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Heart of Brooklyn Staff
Essie Lash
Communications & New Media Manager, Heart of Brooklyn
As a Communications & New Media Manager at Heart of Brooklyn, Essie Lash works on communications initiatives (including marketing and public relations), outreach programs, and tourism opportunities. She coordinates the Marketing Committee and manages HOB's Cultural Calendar and social media profiles (including HOB's Twitter, Facebook and Flickr presence). Essie holds a B.A. in Anthropology from Wesleyan University and an M.A. in Global Communications from the American University of Paris. Prior to her work at HOB, Essie worked at public relations agency RF|Binder and with not-for-profits Afropop/World Music Productions and Project: Think Different. She has presented at Americans for the Arts' National Arts Marketing Project Conference.
Ellen F. Salpeter
Director, Heart of Brooklyn
A native New Yorker and Brooklynite, Director Ellen F. Salpeter brings almost two decades of not-for-profit experience in arts and culture. As the founding Director of Heart of Brooklyn, Ellen is frequently asked to share strategies with other cultural clusters that recognize the power of partnership. She has served as an adjunct professor at New York University in Arts Administration and as a vice president of Arttable, a national organization for professional women in the arts and was a founding board member of Sadie Nash Leadership Project, a young women's mentoring program based in Brooklyn. Ms. Salpeter received a BSBA from Georgetown University.
Sarah Shannon
Deputy Director, Heart of Brooklyn
Deputy Director Sarah Shannon is responsible for the research, writing and submission of all grants and proposals to fund HOB's programs and initiatives. Sarah also spearheads HOB's wayfinding program and sits on the GAPCo steering committee. Prior to joining HOB, Ms. Shannon was a non-profit fundraising and management consultant with clients including the Lutheran Medical Center, the National Child Labor Committee and Art2Facts, Inc. From 1993 to 2001, Ms. Shannon was the National Program Director for Careers Through Culinary Arts Program, a national school-to-career program for at-risk youth. Ms. Shannon received her B.A. from Barnard College, Columbia University.
Laura Swanson
Building Strong Community Networks Project Coordinator, Heart of Brooklyn
Bringing a diverse background as a practicing artist and former corporate project manager, Laura Swanson works as the Building Strong Community Networks Project Coordinator at Heart of Brooklyn. As an advocate for collaborative and creative practices, she has developed innovative programs within cultural institutions to build and sustain meaningful public engagement. Laura received her MFA in Digital + Media from the Rhode Island School of Design and BFA in Design & Technology from the San Francisco Art Institute. Her honors include a Jacob K. Javits Fellowship and a scholarship from the National Endowment for the Arts.
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National Taskforce
Kyle Burks
Executive VP/COO, Denver Zoological Foundation
www.denverzoo.org
Dr. Kyle Burks serves as the executive vice president and chief operating officer of the Denver Zoological Foundation. Kyle leads the team responsible for all aspects of the zoo's day-to-day operations: daily and veterinary care of the animal collection; education; conservation programs; zoo operations; and capital planning and projects.
Prior to joining the Denver Zoo team in 2008, Kyle's career began with a scientific and technical focus and later transitioned to one of strategic organizational leadership. Trained as an animal behavior researcher, Kyle has a B.S. in Experimental Psychology from Texas A&M University and both an M.S. and a Ph.D. in General/Experimental Psychology from the Georgia Institute of Technology. While specializing in developing data-driven decision-making models used in the formation of new social groups of captive animals such as elephants and gorillas, Kyle has worked with a variety of species and topics. Kyle's scientific background includes studies of the behavior of giant tortoises, infrasonic elephant communication, primate social behavior and a variety of other topics.
In 2004, after spending seven years in the Education and Science Department at Disney's Animal Kingdom in Orlando, Florida, Kyle transitioned into a role supporting the park's executives in strategic performance monitoring and action planning. In this capacity, Kyle assisted in monitoring the park's performance against its mission by maintaining and enhancing strategic dashboard tools and facilitating strategic action planning for all aspects of the operation. In 2007, Kyle took on leadership of a team managing these functions across the four Walt Disney World theme parks and its Downtown Disney retail and entertainment complex.
In addition to his day-to-day roles, Kyle is an active professional fellow in the Association of Zoos & Aquariums where he has served in a variety of advisory and leadership capacities. Currently, Kyle serves as the Chair of the association's Trends Committee, charged with monitoring trends inside and outside of the industry and facilitating use of this information by the association's board and its member institutions.
Martín Gómez
City Librarian, Los Angeles Public Library
www.columbuslibrary.org
Martín Gómez is the City Librarian of the Los Angeles Public Library, which serves over four million people—the largest population of any library in the United States. As City Librarian, he oversees the Central Library, 72 branches, 800 employees and the library's $130 million budget.
Throughout his career, Gómez has championed expanded access to library resources in urban communities. Previously, he served as President of the Urban Libraries Council, which supports research, continuing education and programs that strengthen the public library as an essential part of urban life. As director of the Oakland Public Library, Gómez led a successful effort to merge the African American History and Museum Society into the city's public library system. He also spearheaded a digital revolution at the Brooklyn Public Library, the country's fourth largest library system.
Gómez is current chairman of the board of the Poets House in New York City. He also serves on the board of the non-profit, Sesame Workshop, based in NYC.
His honors include the 2001 Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Arizona; 2000 Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from St. Francis College, Brooklyn; 1999 New York City Council Man of Hope Award; and the 1998 Honorary Doctor of Laws from St. Joseph's College, Brooklyn, among many others.
Maria Rosario Jackson Ph.D.
Senior Researcher, Urban Institute
www.urban.org
Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson is a senior research associate in the Metropolitan Housing and Communities Center at the Urban Institute (UI) and director of UI's Culture, Creativity and Communities Program. Her research focuses on urban policy, neighborhood revitalization and comprehensive community planning, the politics of race, ethnicity and gender in urban settings, and the role of arts and culture in communities.
Projects that Dr. Jackson has directed or in which she has played a key role have focused on economic development, public safety, education, parks, housing, community cultural vitality and artists in communities as well as the development of quality of life indicators. Her work has typically integrated both quantitative and qualitative research methods. Dr. Jackson's work has appeared in academic and professional journals as well as edited volumes in the fields of urban planning, sociology, community development and the arts. She has been a speaker at numerous national and international conferences focusing on quality of life, changing demographics, communities and cities of the future, and arts and society.
Dr. Jackson is also a consultant and has provided technical assistance in planning and program implementation to numerous organizations including various community development corporations, community based collaboratives, organizations serving inner city youth, public housing resident organizations, service organizations and advocacy groups in the U.S. She has also consulted with a range of cultural organizations about their role in promoting civic engagement and community development.
Dr. Jackson earned a doctorate in Urban Planning from the University of California, Los Angeles and a Master of Public Administration degree from the University of Southern California.
Patrick Losinski
Executive Director, Columbus Metropolitan Library, Ohio
www.columbuslibrary.org
Patrick Losinski has served as Executive Director of the Columbus Metropolitan Library; a twenty-one branch library district serving 820,000 residents in Franklin County, Ohio, since 2002.
CML has one of the highest annual circulation rates among public library systems in the United States. More than 8 million customers visit CML libraries each year and more than 10 million visit the library's web site, 52,000 children visited a homework help center last school year and over 40,000 job seekers registered for job help in 2009. CML boasts the largest Summer Reading Program in the country with over 85,000 participants. CML has been named the number one urban library three times in the last decade, has twice received Library Journal's highest "five-star" rating, and was named Library Journal's National Library of the Year in 2010.
Prior to joining CML, Patrick spent five years as executive director of Pikes Peak Library District in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He has served as a library director at two other public library systems in Illinois and Ohio.
Patrick holds a master's degree from the University of Wisconsin. He is past chair of the Urban Libraries Council, and he serves on the Board of the Institute for Learning Innovation.
Ellen McCallie
Deputy Director, Carnegie Museum of Natural History
www.carnegiemnh.org
Catherine Nagel
Executive Director, City Parks Alliance
www.cityparksalliance.org
Catherine Nagel is has served as Executive Director of City Parks Alliance (CPA) since April 2004. CPA is the only independent, nationwide membership organization solely dedicated to promoting an urban parks agenda. It unites and serves a growing network of hundreds of civic and community leaders, city officials, funders, park and recreation authorities and others concerned with urban parks from nearly every state and the District of Columbia.
During this time she has expanded programming to include advocacy workshops and webinars and an annual Day on the Hill; launched a federal advocacy campaign to increase public funding for urban parks; organized national and international conferences on urban parks; formed strategic partnerships for programming with other national entities; and facilitated the Red Fields to Green Fields project, a national effort to convert underutilized and vacant commercial property into parks and open space.
For five years she directed the strategic partnership between CPA and the National Association for Olmsted Parks, where she was also Executive Director. In Fall 2008 NAOP received the Medal of Excellence from the American Society of Landscape Architects. Under her direction, NAOP republished the award-winning "The Master List of Design Projects of the Olmsted Firm 1857 – 1979," and launched A Design for Democracy campaign to restore the Olmsted-designed landscape at the U.S. Capitol.
Prior to joining CPA, Catherine was Executive Director of the Japan America Society of Greater Philadelphia, a regional educational organization promoting positive relations between Philadelphia and Japan. While there she initiated the Subaru Cherry Blossom Festival of Greater Philadelphia, a highly successful regional event in Fairmount Park that added thousands of trees to Philadelphia's landscape, and the Philadelphia-Japan Health Sciences Dialogue, an annual high-level executive forum for Japanese and American leaders in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries.
Catherine holds a Master's degree in Landscape Architecture from the School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor's degree in Japanese Studies from Bucknell University. She is a resident of Washington, DC.
Paul Nagle
Executive Director, Cultural Strategies Initiative
www.culturalstrategies.org
As Director of Cultural Policy for NYC Councilmember Alan Gerson (2002-2010), Paul crafted strategies to help preserve and revitalize the arts in Lower Manhattan in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. He convened a consortium of 30 downtown arts leaders, which met monthly for two years and developed Campuses & Corridors, a community-based strategic plan that guided the Councilmember's policies and investments in Lower Manhattan's cultural redevelopment.
Originally a playwright, Paul became Founding Executive Director of All Out Arts and Founding Executive Producer for its first five festivals, as well as the Managing Director and Interim Executive Director of the Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural & Educational Center. He holds a B.A. in Arts Administration and an M.A. in Cultural Policy from New York University. He is a graduate of Coro Leadership XV.
Siobhan Reardon
President and Director, The Free Library of Philadelphia
www.freelibrary.org
Siobhan A. Reardon became the seventh President and Director of the Free Library of Philadelphia in September 2008. She is the first woman to serve in this capacity in 114 years, and was appointed after a national search conducted by the Free Library's Board of Trustees and the Free Library Foundation Board of Directors.
Since joining the Free Library of Philadelphia, Ms. Reardon has overseen freelibrary.org's expansion as a major digital force, featuring a robust set of downloadable materials, online collections, and mobile web pages; has successfully re-conceptualized the campaign to enhance and expand the Parkway Central Library, launching the first major renovations to the Beaux-Arts jewel in its nearly 100 year history; and has spearheaded the Library's initiative to move beyond its walls by creating computer and internet outposts—called Hot Spots—located deep in the hearts of underserved neighborhoods. In addition, Ms. Reardon is working with Mayor Michael A. Nutter to tackle the city's literacy crisis and equip all of its citizens with the necessary skills to contribute to the economic vitality of Philadelphia and fully thrive in the 21st century.
Previously, Ms. Reardon was Executive Director of the Westchester (NY) Library System, a 38-member cooperative library system. Prior to that, she was Deputy Executive Director of the Brooklyn Public Library, serving as Chief Operating Officer of the nation's fifth largest library system. She also served as Acting Executive Director and Director of Finance, responsible for the Library's $85 million annual budget.
Ms. Reardon began her library career at New York Public. She holds a B.A. from SUNY Purchase, an M.A. from Fordham University, and an M.L.S. from the Palmer School of Library Science at Long Island University. She serves on the boards of several local organizations, including the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, the Philadelphia Education Fund, Lyrasis, and the West Philadelphia Alliance for Children. She is a resident of the Logan Square neighborhood of Philadelphia.
Holly Sidford
President, Helicon Collaborative
www.heliconcollab.net
Holly Sidford is a strategic planner, program developer and fundraiser with more than 25 years' experience leading and developing nonprofit cultural and philanthropic organizations. She is President of Helicon Collaborative, a network of professionals with expertise in research and policy formation, strategy development, capacity building, fundraising, evaluation and other dimensions of nonprofit practice. Helicon helps organizations achieve their goals by stimulating their creativity and resourcefulness, and helping them become more relevant and effective.
Prior to founding Helicon, Holly was a Principal at AEA Consulting, an international arts consulting firm, where she guided strategic organizational, program and policy planning with a wide range of clients including the Doris Duke Charitable Trust, James Irvine Foundation, Missouri Botanical Garden and Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival.
Prior to her work at AEA, Holly was the founding president of Leveraging Investments in Creativity (LINC), a ten-year initiative to expand support for creative artists; Program Director for arts, urban parks and adult literacy at the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund; and interim director of arts and culture at the Ford Foundation and The Howard Gilman Foundation, among other leadership positions.
Holly holds a BA from Mount Holyoke College and a Management Certificate from Columbia University. She lives in Brooklyn, NY with her husband and teenage daughter.
Daniel Spock
Director, History Center Museum, Minnesota Historical Society
www.mnhs.org
Daniel Spock has spent 24 years in the museum field, starting as a planetarium guide. Over the course of his career he has worked as an exhibition designer and developer, including 13 years at the Boston Children's Museum, before moving into the realm of administration and program leadership at the Minnesota Historical Society, where he is now the director of the History Center Museum. Daniel is an ardent proponent of visitor-centered, experiential interpretive approaches that value visitors as active learners. He has consulted and lectured at a variety of museum and learning institutions. Daniel has a BA in art from Antioch College.
Elizabeth Streb
Artistic Director, STREB Laboratory for Action Mechanics
www.streb.org
Elizabeth Streb in 1997 was awarded a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation "Genius" Award. In 2008, Streb was appointed to the Mayor's Cultural Affairs Advisory Commission, a commission mandated by the City Charter to advise the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. Elizabeth is the recipient of numerous other awards and fellowships including the Guggenheim Fellowship in 1987; a Brandeis Creative Arts Award in 1991; two New York Dance and Performance Awards (Bessie Awards), in 1988 and 1999 for her "sustained investigation of movement'; and over 20 years of on-going support from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).
Once called the Evel Knievel of dance, Elizabeth Streb's choreography, which she calls "PopAction," intertwines the disciplines of dance, athletics, boxing, rodeo, the circus, and Hollywood stunt-work. The result is a bristling, muscle-and-motion vocabulary that combines daring with strict precision in pursuit of the public display of "pure movement."
In 2003, Elizabeth established S.L.A.M. (STREB Lab for Action Mechanics) in Brooklyn, NY. S.L.A.M.'s door is literally open for the community to come in and watch rehearsals, take classes and learn to fly. The central idea at SLAM (besides always being public) is to mix three extreme action forms: PopAction, KidAction and Circus Arts. Elizabeth believes that true movement invention (the rubric of her investigations) happens accidentally with the milling together of strangers and out of the diverse movement voices that accidentally cross paths. SLAM is the Petrie dish that feeds the possibility for these new forms to emerge.
Elizabeth holds a Master of Arts in Humanities and Social Thought from New York University, a B.S. in Modern Dance from SUNY Brockport from which she has received an honorary doctorate of fine arts as well. Elizabeth also holds an honorary doctorate from Rhode Island College.
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Steering Committee
Kathryn Glass
Vice President of Marketing, Brooklyn Botanic Garden
www.bbg.org
Margaret Walton
Director of Government and Community Affairs, Brooklyn Children's Museum
www.brooklynkids.org
Cynthia Mayeda
Deputy Director for Institutional Advancement, Brooklyn Museum
www.brooklynmuseum.org
Richard Reyes-Gavilan
Director and Chief Librarian, Brooklyn Public Library
www.brooklynpubliclibrary.org
Robyn Bellamy
Senior Vice President, Institutional Advancement, Prospect Park Alliance
www.prospectpark.org
Denise McClean
Director, Prospect Park Zoo
www.prospectparkzoo.com
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Working Group
Samantha Campbell
Director of Marketing, Brooklyn Botanic Garden
www.bbg.org
Karen Sorenson
Director of Individual Giving & Special Events, Brooklyn Botanic Garden
www.bbg.org
Georgina Ngozi
President and CEO, Brooklyn Children's Museum
www.brooklynkids.org
Margaret Walton
Director of Government and Community Affairs, Brooklyn Children's Museum
www.brooklynkids.org
Radiah Harper
Vice President of Education, Brooklyn Museum
www.brooklynmuseum.org
Alisa Martin
Manager of Marketing and Visitor Services, Brooklyn Museum
www.brooklynmuseum.org
Deborah Alston
Manager of Operating Budget, Brooklyn Public Library
www.brooklynpubliclibrary.org
Meredith Walters
Manager of Public Programs, Brooklyn Public Library
www.brooklynpubliclibrary.org
Leslie Weber
Vice President for Development, Institutional Advancement, Prospect Park Alliance
www.prospectpark.org
Chris Werben
Vice President for Marketing and Communications, Institutional Advancement, Prospect Park Alliance
www.prospectpark.org
Nicole Robinson Etienne
Assistant Director of Government Affairs WCS-Aquarium/PPZ
www.prospectparkzoo.com
Karen Tingley
Director of City Zoos Education, Central Park, Prospect Park, and Queens Zoos
www.prospectparkzoo.com
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