Part 2: A Focus on Youth Programs
Presented by:
Californians for the Arts and The Center for Emerging Pathogens at Keck School of Medicine of USC
Dr. Neha Nanda
Founding Director, The Center for Emerging Pathogens at USC
Carol Tang
Executive Director, Children’s Creativity Museum (San Francisco)
Jonathan Zeichner
CEO, A Place Called Home (Los Angeles)
Kara Q. Smith
Manager of Programs and Organizational Advancement, Northern California
Californians for the Arts
Meline Aleksanyan
Program Administrator, Center for Emerging Pathogens at USC
Dr. Neha Nanda, Founding Director
Center for Emerging Pathogens at USC
Dr. Neha Nanda is an infectious disease physician and faculty member at USC and founding director of the Center for Emerging Pathogens (CEP) at Keck School of Medicine of USC. Upholding the Center’s mission to create safe and healthy communities across the world, she leads CEP’s efforts in providing expert guidance in emerging pathogen response and preparedness. As an advocate for increasing awareness on a grassroots level, Dr. Nanda, along with her team, has spearheaded several CEP initiatives in collaboration with non-profits, schools, and arts organizations, as well as global NGOs serving vulnerable populations. She also serves as the Hospital Epidemiologist at Keck Medicine of USC and the Interim Division Chief of Infectious Diseases at the Keck School of Medicine.
Carol Tang, Executive Director, Children’s Creativity Museum
Carol Tang is the Executive Director of the Children's Creativity Museum in the Yerba Buena cultural district of San Francisco. Before coming to the museum in 2015, she was a program officer at a family foundation leading a strategic grantmaking for out-of-school time youth programming, director for the national Coalition for Science After School, and head of exhibitions and museum programming for the reopening of the California Academy of Sciences. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Association of Children's Museums, the How Kids Learn Foundation and the Yerba Buena Gardens Conservancy. She was a paleontology professor and the author of several articles, including for the Encyclopaedia Britannica Online. She has a Ph.D. in geology from the University of Southern California.
Jonathan Zeichner, CEO, A Place Called Home
Jonathan Zeichner is CEO of A Place Called Home, providing arts, education and wellness programs, as well as job readiness and college scholarships for youth and families in South Central Los Angeles. During COVID, APCH has expanded on its regular programs to provide thousands of virtual classes, hundreds of laptops and online connections, and delivered more than 600,000 meals to families in dire need. Zeichner co-founded Inside Out Community Arts, recipient of the Coming Up Taller Award from The President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities and the NEA. Zeichner is a Durfee Fellow, a Stanford EPNL Fellow, and received the Center for Nonprofit Management’s Award for Excellence in Leadership and Innovation, and the Executive Service Corp’s Megan G. Cooper Leadership Award. Zeichner is a produced screenwriter and director.
Kara Q. Smith, Manager of Programs and Organizational Advancement, Northern California
Kara Q. Smith is an arts professional with over 15 years of experience working for museums, galleries, and non-profit institutions in California and beyond. She is passionate about advancing equity and accessibility in the arts, championing the role of arts and cultural organizations in our communities, and advocating for art as a driver of social change and mutual understanding. She most recently served as the executive director of Gallup MainStreet Arts & Cultural District in Gallup, NM, where she developed programs to support artists/entrepreneurs in the downtown district and drove creative economic development strategies. She has curated exhibitions, spoken at art fairs and symposiums, officiated workshops and lectures, and written for numerous publications. She holds an adjunct faculty position in Sierra Nevada University’s Interdisciplinary Arts MFA program. Kara resides in Sacramento, CA.
Meline Aleksanyan Program Administrator, Center for Emerging Pathogens at USC
As Program Administrator of the Center for Emerging Pathogens (CEP) at USC, Meline Aleksanyan leads the center’s operations and national and international outreach activities. With extensive experience in health access and equity, including assignments abroad to improve access for vulnerable populations in developing regions, she brings to CEP a strong passion for health education and awareness, especially where preventable illnesses are concerned. Prior to her current role, she completed graduate studies in Health Administration and Policy at Sol Price School of Public Policy and received additional training in infectious diseases and emerging pathogens at USC. Meline’s 15 years in healthcare is coupled with a background in the arts and humanities, which enables her to apply a multi-disciplinary approach to her work by incorporating social, economic and cultural determinants of health.
Matt Carney, Executive Director, San Diego Ballet
Matt Carney was drawn into the world of dance as another way to convey his interests in equality, social activism, and simply the job of moving. After the recession in 2008 something shifted in his perspective and he began to dig deeper into dance on a systemic level. Questions on how to sustain this art form and preserve its legacy filled his head and led to a path of synergy between both his artistic and pragmatic sides.
Matt has been dancing in San Diego since 2008 in company dancer positions with Malashock Dance, San Diego Dance Theater, and the San Diego Ballet. He has concurrently been in Manager and Director level administrative positions for non-profits during the same time and is now Executive Director of San Diego Ballet. He has his BFA in Dance from the U. of MO-Kansas City’s Conservatory of Music and Dance and his Master in Public Administration (MPA) from SDSU’s School of Public Affairs. Community involvement includes co-chair of the San Diego Arts and Culture Coalition, member of the Port of San Diego’s Art, Culture, and Design Committee, and has served on grant panels for the California Arts Council and for San Diego’s Commission for Arts and Culture.