Michael Alexander—Treasurer

Following a twenty-two year career in arts management, Michael Alexander became the director of Downtown Los Angeles’s free public concert series Grand Performances in 1990.  He has been a member of the California Arts Council since 2004, appointed by then Assembly Speaker Herb Wesson and re-appointed by Speakers Karen Bass and John Perez.  He was twice elected Chair of the Council, in 2007 and 2008.  He has a career-long history of involvement in developing programs that bring the performing arts into people’s lives in new and interesting ways; leading statewide and regional arts advocacy and networking efforts; and supporting the work of outstanding performing artists.  His professional involvements include serving as executive director of the Aman Folk Ensemble, company manager of the San Francisco Ballet, director of performing arts for the City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department, and the owner of his own artists management company.  He is a native Angelino who started his performing arts career in the 60s as a clown with the City of Los Angeles Traveling Circus and as a dancer with the Aman Folk Ensemble.

Leni Isaacs Boorstin

With thirty-five years of experience in the arts management field, Leni Boorstin is the director of community and government affairs for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association and has worked with them since 1991. She also worked as the development manager and the public affairs manager for the Los Angeles Philharmonic and in various managing positions with the Coro Foundation, KPFK, and the Exploratorium Museum in San Francisco.

David Burton

David Burton joined the Autry National Center in 1998, holding progressively senior roles in its development office.  Since 2010, he has been Senior Director of the Autry’s Institute for the Study of the American West, overseeing the Autry’s two libraries; its publications, education, and public programs departments; and Native Voices at the Autry, the institution’s resident theatre company.  David also directs the Autry’s government affairs portfolio, focusing on securing funds from government sources, and promoting the Autry with elected officials and with the broader community.  Additionally, he serves as contributing editor of Convergence, the Autry magazine.  Beyond the Autry, David is the board chair of City Garage, a theatre company in Santa Monica specializing in contemporary European plays as well as original company work.  He received a B.A. in history from UCLA and a Masters in English Literature/Creative Writing from San Francisco State University.  His short stories, poetry, articles, and critical writings have appeared in a variety of journals.

Jessica Cusick

Jessica Cusick is currently the cultural affairs manager for the City of Santa Monica. In 1998, she established Cusick Consulting to build upon her more than twenty years of experience working in the arts for governmental agencies, the private sector, and nonprofit organizations. The firm specializes in civic art, cultural policy, and community development through the arts.

Tim Dang

Tim Dang is Producing Artistic Director of East West Players, the nation’s longest running theatre of color and the largest producer of Asian American performance work. Under Tim’s leadership, EWP has grown from a ninety-nine-seat black box space to a professional 240-seat mid-sized theater. Tim has produced, directed, and written numerous EWP productions since 1980 and has garnered over a hundred individual and organizational awards for artistic achievement and community leadership. Tim has served on panels for the National Endowment for the Arts, California Arts Council, LA County Arts Commission, LA Department of Cultural Affairs, and other funding agencies. Tim is on the board of directors for Arts for LA, the Consortium of Asian American Theaters and Artists (CAATA) and EWP. Recent directing credits: A Little Night Music, Krunk Fu Battle Battle, Imelda: A New Musical, Pippin, Equus, Mysterious Skin. Tim has directed at Singapore Repertory Theatre, PanAsian Repertory Theatre (New York),  Celebration Theatre, West Coast Ensemble and Perseverance Theatre (Juneau).

Jay H. Dick

Jay H. Dick holds the position of director of state and local government affairs for Americans for the Arts, where he is responsible for building working relationships with state arts advocacy and service organizations with state elected officials and works closely with fifty State Arts Advocacy Captains to accomplish this goal. Prior to joining Americans for the Arts, Jay was an account manager at Capitol Advantage (Capwiz) and helped enable clients to fully use online legislative action to build strong grassroots advocacy programs; he also worked for the public policy department of the Society of Plastics Industry, was the field director for a congressional campaign in Iowa, and worked for Sen. Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey as a legislative assistant.

Joel Jacinto

Since 1991, Joel Jacinto has served as executive director of Search To Involve Pilipino Americans (SIPA), a nonprofit community-based organization providing a variety of health & human services as well as community economic development projects to Pilipino Americans and the multi-cultural Historic Filipinotown district of Los Angeles. Joel has been instrumental in building SIPA’s community development capacity to develop affordable housing, small business services, and financial literacy, as well as capital project development. To date, SIPA has developed 138 units of affordable housing and is currently working on a significant mixed-income, mixed use project designed to become a physical and cultural hub of the Filipino American community in Southern California. Joel is also the co-founder of Kayamanan Ng Lahi Philippine Folk Arts, a folk arts organization dedicated to the preservation, presentation, and promotion of Philippine culture through dance and music. Joel has actively participated in Hawaiian cultural activities for many years and has studied with kumu hula in both California and Hawaii. His educational background includes graduate work in applied anthropology. He is a founding board member of the Alliance for California Traditional Arts (ACTA) and participates on the Community Advisory Board of the Summer Nights Program at the Ford Amphitheater. Joel and wife Avecita reside in Culver City with their sons Kai and Keianu.

Charmaine Jefferson

Charmaine Jefferson has been the executive director of the California African American Museum (CAAM), as well as executive vice president of Friends: the Foundation of the California African-American Museum, since June 2003. With more than twenty-eight years of experience in the arts and culture industries, she has served on numerous committees and boards and currently serves as a Board Trustee for the California Institute of the Arts, a member of California’s Minerva Award Selection Committee for First Lady Maria Shriver, and a Gubernatorial appointed member of the California Arts Council.

Melody Kanschat

In 2011, Ms. Kanschat concluded a twenty-two-year career with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) where she served in a variety of executive capacities.  In her final six years, she was the Museum’s President and Chief Operating Officer, responsible for the day to day operations of the museum, a total annual expense budget of over $60 million, and a $320 million multi-year capital expansion campaign. Before joining the LACMA staff, Ms. Kanschat was the Development Director at public radio station KCSN in Northridge, California, and the Operations Director for Northwest Public Radio at Washington State University. Ms. Kanschat is a former member of the Boards of AAM’s Development and Membership Committee, the Western Museum Association, and Cornerstone Theater.  She serves on the Board of Directors for Arts for LA and MOVE LA and is co-chair of the Los Angeles Associates of Save the Children’s development committee. Melody Kanschat provides management and consulting services to a variety of nonprofit institutions focusing on operational stability, fundraising, strategic planning, and capital project development and management.   She holds a BS degree in Radio, Television, and Motion Pictures from Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana.

Michael McDowell—Secretary

The senior director of cultural tourism and affinity markets for the Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board, Michael McDowell is immediate past chairman of the Board of Governors of the LAStage Alliance and is a past member of the Board of Directors for the 24th Street Theatre, among other voluteer activities. He regularly serves as a marketing consultant and has written articles and opinion pieces for publications such as the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, New York Newsday, the Los Angeles Times, and the Chronicle of Higher Education, among many others.

Terence McFarland—Board Chair

Terence McFarland is chief executive officer of LA STAGE Alliance, greater Los Angeles’s largest arts service organization, dedicated to building awareness, appreciation, and support for the performing arts in Greater Los Angeles. LA STAGE Alliance empowers over 1,000 arts groups and over 20,000 individual artists annually and engages arts patrons from nearly four million unique households. McFarland has served as the lead consultant on the Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of Los Angeles Arts retention projects in Hollywood, North Hollywood, and MidCity, as a grants panelist for numerous cultural and arts commissions, and as a guest lecturer, moderator, or panelist for national and international convenings around the arts, creativity, and entrepreneurial space. A graduate of Leadership LA, he holds both an MFA and a BFA from California Institute of the Arts, an associate's degree from the Fashion Institute of Technology, and certificates from Polimoda in Florence, Italy, and the Executive Program for Nonprofit Leaders–Arts from Stanford University's Graduate School of Business. Prior to his time at LA STAGE Alliance, he held an extensive career in the fashion and publishing industries in New York City, including positions at Calvin Klein, Geoffrey Beene, Interview, and Details magazines. He is a trustee of Los Angeles City Councilmember Jose Huizar’s Bringing Back Broadway Initiative, a $40 million public private partnership to revitalize the historic Broadway District of Downtown Los Angeles, and is one of the hundred international arts leaders chosen for the National Arts Strategies Chief Executive Program. Previous board service includes California Arts Advocates and California Institute for the Arts.

Debra J.T. Padilla—Vice Chair

Debra J.T. Padilla has served as the executive director of the Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC) since 1993. Prior to being at SPARC, Debra was the managing director of Borderlands Theater in Tucson, Arizona, for seven years. She has served on numerous panels and committees, including but not limited to: the Rockefeller Foundation, the J. Paul Getty Trust for the Visual Arts, the Ford Foundation-Working Capital Fund Panel, the Hispanic Heritage Awards Foundation-Youth Awards Committee Chair, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Latino Theatre Council for the Latino Theatre Initiative at the Mark Taper Forum, the John Anson Ford Latino Audience Initiative Advisory Council, the Los Angeles Cultural Tourism Department, the City of Santa Monica Cultural Grants Panel, the Los Angeles County Arts Commission Civic Art Panel, the Tucson/Pima Arts Council Grants/Heritage Panel, Arizona Commission on the Arts Grants Panel, the Tucson Museum of Art Advisory Board, and served for fourteen years on the Board of Directors of Cornerstone Theater Company and for five years on the Diversity Advisory Committee for the Center Theatre Group of Los Angeles. Debra was selected by the California Community Foundation to be part of their leadership fellowship program entitled “Ambassadors Within” and was part of the inaugural group of twelve women selected in Los Angeles for the Women’s Leadership Circle (WLC). Debra is a proud recipient of the Durfee Foundation Sabbatical Award.

Jan Williamson

Jan Williamson is the executive director of the 18th Street Arts Center, which provides studio, gallery, and public space to artists of all disciplines. During her tenure, she has led the effort to purchase the 18th Street property, developed 18th Street’s model Residency Program and Arts Education Program, and is now leading the effort to envision and plan 18th Street’s new expanded facility. Jan is an active member of the Santa Monica City Arts Commission and serves on its Artist Live-Work Task Force.