ABOUT ME
I was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana (USA), and my formative experiences growing up there continue to inform the things that I value most today. New Orleans is a city that has been shaped by many diverse cultures, and I am incredibly grateful for the early exposure I had to the joyful celebration of cultural diversity and creative expression. At the same time, New Orleans has and continues to wrestle with a complex and often ugly history of racial and social injustice. Witnessing this refined my own personal understanding of what justice means and solidified my commitment to working towards an end to oppression in all its forms.
I pursued these interests in college, majoring in Law, Jurisprudence and Social Thought, while also continuing to train as a modern dancer. I considered the possibility of law school and completed several internships with law firms specializing in social justice. However, I ultimately decided that my path lay elsewhere. After college I lived for seven years in Seattle, Washington, where I danced with several professional dance companies. I also completed training in massage therapy and had my own private bodywork practice, in addition to practicing in an integrative medical clinic. In 2010, I moved to New York City to study public health at Columbia University, where my training focused on program design, implementation, and evaluation.
Since 2015, I have been the Director of Operations for Vital Opera, an opera company with a social impact mission to cultivate human connection through the medium of operatic expression, overseeing all aspects of administrative operations and artistic production. As the head of administrative operations, I create and manage operational and project budgets, direct individual and grant-based fundraising strategy, cultivate audience and community engagement, and ensure legal compliance. As the company’s producer, I direct press and promotional marketing, coordinate all production staffing, contracts, and schedules, and build partnerships with community-based organizations to co-produce community events related to the company’s performances.
October 2018 Vital Opera Concert Reading of Joshua Groffman and Sarah Heady’s “Unfinished” at the National Opera Center (NYC); Photo: AJV Media
Before moving to the Netherlands, I lived for two years in Wrocław, Poland. In Poland I worked as Program Manager for Brave Kids Project, an international festival of cultural and artistic exchange with the mission of promoting greater understanding and friendship among children from around the world. As the Program Manager, I coordinated all the logistics and communication for the recruitment, travel, and participation of over 150 children from 16 countries in the project. I also secured the project’s first grants from the European Commission (Creative Europe Programme) and the International Visegrad Fund, led the organizational team meetings that delivered a comprehensive program logic model, and spearheaded the creation of a manual to share the program’s unique methodology.
2017 Brave Kids Grand Finale; Photo: Aleksandra Twardowska
In the Netherlands, I have worked as a location manager for International Film Festival Rotterdam and as a freelance fundraising consultant for BECCA Europe, guiding diverse clients in developing compelling and innovative European projects with clearly demonstrated social impact. In April 2023, I joined the Erasmus Research Services team at Erasmus University Rotterdam as Manager Educational Grants and EIT Culture & Creativity.
I am passionate about working across disciplines with diverse colleagues and organizational partners and about ensuring that projects run smoothly and successfully through strategic logistical planning and clear team communication. I am a strong believer in the transformative power of arts and culture to create more awareness, dialogue, and action around critical social issues and am especially interested in advancing programs that operate at the intersection of public health, social justice, and arts and culture.