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Thanks to a generous sponsorship from the Sacramento Office and Arts and Culture we are offering scholarships for Sacramento City-based artists and creatives to attend the Summit. Apply here. These are the only scholarships available at this time.

Together again in Sacramento to celebrate, innovate and advocate for arts education, arts workers and the creative economy.

Location, The Sofia 
Registration Fee: $200
Space is limited. Buy your Summit ticket today!

Panelists and Speakers

 Jennifer Bates is a MeWuk Basket Weaver and consultant at California Native Consultant &amp. She has been making and demonstrating traditional MeWuk basketry and MeWuk material culture for some 50+ years.

Bates was a founding board member of the California Indian Basket Weavers Association (CIBA) and became the first chairwoman and served in the position for13 years. CIBA opened many doors for me and introduced me to working with many of the government agencies which in turn opened more doors to help native weavers and gatherers educate and work alongside the Forest Service, Cal Trans, State Parks and other public and private organizations.

Jennifer Bates also works closely with the Alliance for California Traditional Arts (ACTA). as a board member today. In past years Bates received two Master Apprentice grants to teach traditional MeWuk basketry. For some twenty years Bates has sat on numerous panels to help provide input on yearly grant awards.

Recently, Bates has been coordinating/producing Markets and Festivals that concentrate on the California native artists and their work. Showcasing the work done, with the traditional cultural ways of the California native people is something Bates is passionate about promoting. Holding on to traditions and culture and sharing it with others helps to bring better understanding of who the California native peoples are.

Formally named Joshua Reyes. Artist Sioux Bean was Born in 1984 in Bakersfield, California. Currently, he lives and Works in Sacramento , California. With a BFA from California College of the Arts, over 20 years experience in the clay medium as well as in the professional food and beverage industry. SiouxBean’s work exists in the intersection of food, culture, clay, and community. With his active practice in Sculpture, performances, and social engagement. He creates pieces that are an experience through the canon of race, familial roots, belonging, and labor. SiouxBean’s work has been shown nationally and is currently the founding owner of SEED ceramic studio. Each project and exhibition shows us that every person's history is a unique cuisine embedded within family, food, and culture.

Danielle Brazell is passionate about the roles that arts, culture, and creativity play in advancing civic belonging, equity, economic prosperity, and social connectedness. Her career spans over thirty years, as an artist, teaching artist, presenter, arts administrator, and most recently as the General Manager of the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA). Currently, Danielle is a consultant specializing in cultural planning, organizational strategy, and community development. In this role, Danielle utilizes her vast knowledge knowledge of the arts and cultural sector to advance the support systems needed for creativity to thrive. As the former General Manager to the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, Ms. Brazell expanded funding programs, developed new public and community art programs, and established innovative new programs and policies that advanced access and equity. During her tenure, Ms. Brazell elevated the role the Department, and creativity, plays to key stakeholders and authorizers leading to the largest budget and staffing allocation in the history of the agency. Appointed by Mayor Garcetti in July 2014, Ms. Brazell grew the agency from $13 to $22 million and formalized a robust $150 million portfolio of capital projects, facilities, programming, and initiatives of free/low-cost publicly accessible arts and cultural services citywide. Ms. Brazell, in collaboration with a dynamic staff of 84 full-time (and over 200 part-time including a robust roster of teaching artists), leveraged the city's investment in direct benefit to the 4 million residents, and 50 million visitors to Los Angeles annually. Prior to 2014, Ms. Brazell was the founding Executive Director of Arts for LA 2006--2014), a highly effective arts and arts education advocacy organization serving the greater Los Angeles region. Under her stewardship, Arts for LA became a formidable coalition advancing the arts in the largest county in the country. She and her team developed an innovative cultural network that activated stakeholders to advocate for arts and arts education in the County of Los Angeles, created a protocol for collaborative advocacy through a regional policy framework, co-authored cultural policy for arts education, and increased public and private support for the arts and arts education sector in Los Angeles. Ms. Brazell was previously the Artistic Director of Highways Performance Art Space and the Director of Special Projects for the Screen Actors Guild Foundation. In addition to learning how to throw pottery, Danielle is currently establishing a consulting practice, and serving on the World Cities Culture Forum Transition Advisory Board and the DataArts Advisory Board.

Peggy Burt is a dance and theatre educator, yoga and mindfulness teacher and arts education consultant. As a leader in the arts education community in California, she brings a wealth of experience to professional development, curriculum development and strategic planning with counties and districts statewide. Her current work focuses on the intersection between the arts, social emotional learning and mindfulness. Her affiliations include the Los Angeles County Office of Education, the California County Superintendents Association and CREATE CA. Peggy has her own consulting firm, Mindful Strategies, Inc., and is the co-author of the newly published Strategic Arts Education Planning Guide: Expanding Access to the Arts in Schools and Communities. Peggy was formerly the Executive Director of the Foundation for the California State Summer School for the Arts dedicated to uplifting the next generation of literary, performing and visual artists. She enjoyed a long and rewarding career in dance and holds a BFA in Dance from the University of Utah and a Master's degree in Information Science from the University of Michigan.

Leslie Castellano (she/her) is an arts administrator, advocate, city councilmember, organizer, and working artist living on indigenous Wiyot land in rural Northern California. She recognizes and honors the power of collaborative movement building as critical to community wellbeing.

Whether sharing stages with legendary beat poets or your favorite Hip Hop emcees, Andru Defeye’s unorthodox writing and performance style has made him a fixture behind microphones around the country. 2020 saw the release of his critically acclaimed Frequency album followed shortly after by his crowning as the youngest Poet Laureate in California capitol history. In 2021, Defeye was listed by Sacramento Magazine as one of the city’s 100 business leaders and nominated to receive an honorary doctorate from CSUS. In 2022 he joined the ranks of some of the most celebrated poets in the country as an Academy of American Poets fellow and brought Sacramento Poetry Day (October 26th) to life creating a locally sourced curriculum, collection, and contest and bringing it to over 250,000 youth in the Sacramento area. From Sacramento to Staten Island and SXSW, Andru Defeye served as the Director of Communications for Sol Collective from 2009-2020. In 2014 Defeye founded Zero Forbidden Goals, a support system for creatives dedicated to innovating arts equity, experiences, and education. ZFG’s guerrilla art activations including National Guerrilla Poetry Month, Chainlink Poetry, The Intersection, and The First Church of Poetry have been covered and recreated around the globe.

Kevin Dublin is a writer of poetry, prose, scripts, and code. Currently Founder of The Living Room SF & Director of Litquake's Elder Writing Project, he’s focused on expanding economic accessibility to creative writing. Through the Living Room, Kevin produces as well as leads several reading series, pop-up events, and workshops that provide economic opportunities for writers. He’s author of the chapbooks How to Fall in Love in San Diego & the forthcoming Eulogy. He holds an MFA from San Diego State. Being a part of YBCA’s GI pilot for artists shifted his consciousness to a mindset of abundance and changed his life. Kevin believes in you and our collective power to change the world.

Randy Engstrom has been a passionate advocate and organizer of cultural and community development for over 20 years. He is currently the Co-Founder and Principal of Third Way Creative, a collaborative consulting studio focused on cultural policy, racial equity, and creative economy. He is also Adjunct Faculty at the Seattle University Arts Leadership Program where he teaches cultural policy and advocacy, and a regular lecturer at the Evan’s School of Governance and Public Policy at the University of Washington. Most recently he served as Director of the Office of Arts and Culture for the City of Seattle from 2012 - 2021. As Director he expanded their investments in grantmaking and Public Art, while establishing new programs and policies in arts education, cultural space affordability, and racial equity. At the City he also led several multi-department sub cabinets, including Affordability and Livability, Youth Opportunity, The Future of Work, and COVID Recovery. Before joining the City, he owned and operated Reflex Strategies, a cultural and community based consulting practice. From 2005-2010 Randy was the Founding Director of the Youngstown Cultural Arts Center, a multimedia and multidisciplinary community space that offers youth and community members access to arts, technology, and cultural resources. In 2009 Randy received the Emerging Leader Award from Americans for the Arts and was one of Puget Sound Business Journal’s 40 Under 40. He is a graduate of the Evergreen State College in Olympia, and he received his Executive Master’s in Public Administration at the University of Washington’s Evans School of Governance and Public Policy.

Hector Flores is an LA based artist using song, film and storytelling to elevate, shift and shine light on the narrative of BIPOC communities over the last 10 years as a Musician and Cultural Worker. He is also an Artistic Director and Co-Founder of Las Cafeteras. The eldest of 6 children, Hector was raised in East Los Angeles and San Gabriel Valley with parents born of Indigenous and Mexican roots. He graduated from Cal State Long Beach and before transitioning to a career as an artist, he was an Organizer for over 10 years in South and East LA.

Tara Lynn Gray was sworn in on April 26, 2021, as the 5th Director of the California Office of the Small Business Advocate. She serves as the voice for California’s 4.2 million small businesses in the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development.

Under Director Gray’s leadership, the California Office of the Small Business Advocate focuses on helping to bring about Governor Newsom’s California for All vision through further development of the state’s small business ecosystem and by ensuring that questions about equity and inclusion are the starting point for all of the state’s small business programs.

Immediately prior to her appointment by Governor Newsom, Director Gray led the Fresno Metro Black Chamber of Commerce (FMBCC) and Chamber Foundation (FMBCF) as CEO. In her adopted city of Fresno, Director Gray engaged, educated, and empowered small businesses across California’s Central Valley. At the same time, she became deeply engaged in community service, leading the initiative “Betting Big on Small Businesses Owned by Women and People of Color” on behalf of the DRIVE Investment Plan, with the goal of increasing economic mobility for entrepreneurs in disinvested neighborhoods.

Closing opportunity gaps, the role of women and BIPOC business leaders, and diversity in procurement opportunities are recurrent themes in her advocacy work. She has also led green economy initiatives, employment & training programs, and working to advance electric vehicle ownership.

Heather E. Heslup is a creative professional specializing in strategic planning, organizational development, and program management. As living proof of the benefit of arts education, she is a passionate advocate for the arts, equity, and social justice. She founded Pure Art Solutions, a strategic consulting agency, to support the strategic growth of community-centered arts organizations. For nearly 15 years, Heather has designed and implemented arts education programs and facilitated professional learning opportunities and strategic planning processes for school districts and non-profit organizations nationwide. Heslup holds a BA in Television & Film Production from Howard University, where she minored in Education, an MA in Arts Management from Columbia College Chicago, and an Executive Leadership Certification from Cornell University. She is a diverse professional with extensive experience fostering equitable and diverse learning environments and building partnerships that promote creativity, growth, and sustainability. Heather’s varied scope of skills has been highlighted through her work with prominent institutions, including but not limited to the Los Angeles County Department of Arts & Culture, California Institute for the Arts, Columbia College Chicago, Chicago Public Schools, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and Public Broadcast Service (PBS).

David Holland is the Deputy Director at WESTAF where he guides its advocacy and public policy programs; leads external relations; and spearheads leadership and professional development programming, grantmaking, and technical assistance and consulting services across teams. Holland previously served as associate director of the Arts and Business Council of Greater Boston and in leadership positions with VCU da Vinci Center for Innovation, VCU School of the Arts, ART 180, the Latin Ballet of Virginia, Arts & Business, and the UK innovation foundation Nesta. Holland's early career includes roles as a senior consultant with BOP Consulting, a global consultancy on culture and the creative industries, and as campaigns officer at the UK’s National Campaign for the Arts. Holland serves as the Co-Chair of the Creative States Coalition, a coalition of citizen advocacy groups and their partners, and as a Co-Administrator of the Cultural Advocacy Group, a federal advocacy coalition. He is a Salzburg Global Fellow, Commager Fellow, and a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Holland holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Amherst College and master’s degrees in international studies and diplomacy and the history of art from the University of London, SOAS.

Maria Jenson is recognized as an empathetic, visionary and strategic leader in arts and culture who focuses on relationships, partnerships and collaboration. She has a demonstrated ability to guide organizations through significant change, develop and inspire high performing teams and to meaningfully engage with people from diverse walks of life. She specializes in collaborative, adaptive and change leadership styles to meet the needs and demands of the moment. As Creative and Executive Director of SOMArts, Jenson has deepened the organization’s commitment to racial equity, creating clear pathways for Bay Area artists to cultivate new ideas and grow their careers. Through her leadership, Jenson has expanded SOMArts’ public programs, advanced new public-private partnerships, and fostered groundbreaking exhibitions such as The Black Woman is God, The Third Muslim: Queer and Trans* Muslim Narratives of Resistance and Resilience, and many more. These projects represent SOMArts’ commitment to incubating the growth and careers of Bay Area artists and curators. Prior to joining SOMArts, Jenson was a key member of the SFMOMA External Relations team during the museum’s expansion and was the Founding Director of ArtPadSF, an independent art fair launched in the Tenderloin at the Phoenix Hotel in 2010. A graduate of the 2018 Getty Foundation Executive Leadership Institute, Jenson is a sought-after thought leader on the role of cultural institutions advocating for a more democratic and equitable society.

 Carolyn “C.J.” Johnson joined the East Oakland Black Cultural Zone Collaborative in 2019 as its first Executive Director and is the founding CEO of the Black Cultural Zone Community Development Corporation, which was formed in 2020 by the Collaborative. She has more than thirty years of experience in entrepreneurship and business management, non-profit operations, finance and commercial real estate including development, financing, and brokerage. She is a native of Oakland - born and raised - and a proud graduate of Castlemont High School.

C.J. is an entrepreneur and has worked directly with entrepreneurs and small business owners at several leading technical assistance providers in the area, including the Alameda County Small Business Development Center, Women's Initiative for Self Employment, and CEO Women. As a manager, she created the Consulting and Grants Programs at Community Visions (formerly Northern California Community Loan Fund), as its first Director, including the Facility Fitness Nonprofit Commercial Real Estate Training Curriculum and Pre-Development Support Programs like orgspaces.org (a predecessor to Spacesforgood.org). At Community Visions, C.J. was also involved in underwriting, funding, and providing consulting expertise for Cultural Hubs and Nonprofit Commercial Development projects in San Francisco, Oakland, and throughout Northern California, including the Museum of the African Diaspora, Youth Radio, Eastside Arts Alliance, and Destiny Arts Center, with a combined development project value in excess of $300 million. As a Broker, she has completed over $250 million in Investment Sales transactions and has leased hundreds of spaces throughout the bay area, particularly Oakland. Most recently, she was the Broker and Director of Commercial Real Estate at the East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation, a leading Bay Area affordable housing developer. In this role, she managed commercial investment sales, marketing and leasing, development, facility management, financial management, and property operations. Currently, in addition to her role with the Black Cultural Zone, she is a tenured Professor at the College of Alameda in the Business Department and has launched the Peralta Community College District's first fully online Entrepreneurship Certificate Program. C.J. has a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology with a specialization in Business Administration from the University of California at Los Angeles; a Master of Public Health in Health Policy and Administration from the School of Public Health at the University of California at Berkeley; a Master of Business Administration (with Honors - Beta Gamma Sigma) in Marketing, Corporate Finance, and Real Estate Finance from the Columbia University Graduate School of Business; and her Doctorate (EdD) in Educational Leadership from Saint Mary’s College of California.

 Honey Mahogany is a performer, small business owner, and activist who grew up in San Francisco. Honey received her Masters in Social Welfare from UC Berkeley, and her work has earned her recognition from the City of San Francisco; the State of California; Sainthood from the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence; and awards from numerous organizations including the Imperial Court of San Francisco; Harvey Milk Democratic Club; Trans Day of Visibility; and the Women's Foundation of California. Honey is a co-founder of the Transgeder District in SF, a founding queen of Drag Story Hour, co-owner of the Stud Bar, a singer with nu-metal group Commando, and recently ran a historic campaign for District 6 Supervisor in San Francisco. Currently, Honey is working as the District Director for Assemblymember Matt Haney and serves as Chair of the San Francisco Democratic Party.

Betty Marín is a cultural worker from Wilmington, CA. Her work uses popular education and language justice to create spaces that encourage learning, dialogue, and solidarity between different communities. With the Alliance for California Traditional Arts, she manages a series of programs integrating the traditional arts into health equity campaigns, curates a roundtable series to share resources and create exchange between traditional artists, and is currently contributing to the design and launch of an expanded grants program for artists and organizations. She has coordinated the creation of field scan reports for the National Folklife Network and is thrilled to support in building greater connections and support for folk and traditional artists across the country. She has also contributed curriculum and taught with ACTA’s Arts in Corrections program featured in these publications. She graduated with an MFA in Art and Social Practice from Portland State University. As a student, she edited a book titled Art and Education, centered on a conversation with artists and educators Pablo Helguera and Luis Camnitzer.

Chelo Montoya is a creative, educator, and cultural producer specializing in community engagement strategies. She is the Assistant Vice President of Adult Education and Public Programs at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art where she oversees the music, film, docent and public programs. She previously served as Director of Education and Public Programs at the California African American Museum. Prior to that she was the founding administrator and faculty in the Master of Public Practice program at Otis College of Art and Design where she contributed to the development of the program over the course of a decade. Chelo received her undergraduate degree in Fine Art from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her M.A. in Public Art Studies from the University of Southern California focused on arts administration and community-based arts. She earned a second masters, an MFA in Graphic Design at Otis College of Art and Design. Chelo sits on the Board of Trustees executive committee of the Vincent Price Art Museum. She was appointed to the California Arts Council by the Speaker of the Assembly, Anthony Rendon, in 2020 and is presently serving as Chair.

Penelope Oliver (She/Her/Hers) is an activist, poet, writer, student representative, and artist serving as Student Voices Leader with Create California. She was recently appointed as the student district representative and title 1 school representative. After a generous grant was awarded through Chalk it Up, Sacramento, she (with the help of her parents and mentors in the arts), created All Access Arts, a nonprofit that strives to provide arts education to underserved communities in the greater Sacramento region and Central Valley. She is a junior in high school and does dual enrollment at Sierra College and Horizon Charter School. Currently, she interns for the U.S. Ninth Circut court of appeals, Civics Unplugged, Ed100, Children now, California Youth V. Big Oil, and DemocraShe. Her main passions are activism, racial and gender equality, arts education, workers' rights, climate justice, immigration reform, and educational equity. She loves volunteering, attending community events, and doing art projects in her free time.

Moy Eng leads Community Arts Stabilization Trust (CAST), a community-centered real estate organization that secures and stewards affordable, inclusive spaces. We work with partners to build a new real estate paradigm in the Bay Area - one that recognizes the essential role of arts and values the cultural soul of our communities. Over the past 10 years, CAST has worked with cultural, community and economic development organizations to build capacity and community wealth, raising ~$50 million to launch the organization and to acquire and open four cultural centers across San Francisco. CAST has several new projects in development totaling more than 150,000 square feet of new cultural spaces across the region, and continues to innovate cultural placekeeping, which has helped to inspire CAST-like ventures in London, Austin, Denver, Seattle, and Sydney. For more information, visit our website. Moy brings over three decades of experience in the philanthropic sector as a grantmaker, consultant, and senior executive in areas as diverse as arts and culture, renewable energy, lesbian and gay rights, immigrant rights, and international human rights. Known for her visionary ability to identify and support progressive ideas, she has worked as a grantmaker in numerous foundations with assets ranging from $100 million to $9 billion, making approximately $200 million in grants in the US and globally. Moy directed the arts program at The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation in the 2000’s. Among her achievements, she commissioned landmark research on the state of arts education in California, invested in efforts that helped secure $800 million in new arts education public funding for California public schools, and made grants to build more than 750,000 square feet in new performing arts space across the San Francisco Bay region. Moy began her career in New York City in fundraising, working with both the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, attracting leadership support from American luminaries such as the late Reginald Lewis and Harry and Julie Belafonte. Prior, she earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Theater Arts at Rutgers University and Masters of Arts in Arts Administration at New York University. Moy has been honored by the World Affairs Council as a social entrepreneur “who will shape our tomorrow”, the California Arts Council, and by the San Francisco Unified School District with its highest honor, Premier Dream Catcher. Contact Moy at meng@cast-sf.org 

Tiana Randall-Quant is a Los Angeles-born and based actor, producer, and educator operating under the title of 'Collaborative Storyteller'. Her personal and professional interests intersect at the endeavor to dismantle the narrative that 'LA is not a theatre town' and to dismantle the systemic and cultural barriers that keep QPOC underrepresented and underserved in our industry. Her favorite genres to play with as an actor and writer are Afro-Futurist Womanist works, horror, dark comedy, and science fiction. She is currently an associate producer at Playground-la and is a co-founder of Unladylike Theatre, a co-founder of BLKLST, and a drafter of the Los Angeles Anti-Racist Theatre Standards. She can also be found making comedy and gaming content with The 354 Squad on Youtube.

FAVIANNA RODRIGUEZ is an interdisciplinary artist, cultural strategist, and entrepreneur based in Oakland, California. Her art and praxis address migration, gender justice, climate change, racial equity, and sexual freedom. Her work centers joy and healing, while challenging entrenched myths and dominant cultural practices. Favianna’s creative partnerships include companies like Ben & Jerry's, Spotify, Old Navy, and Playboy Magazine. She has completed a number of large scale public art commissions with the City of San Francisco and the Presidio National Park. Through her poignant speeches, she has inspired audiences around the world including at the United Nations Climate Summit, Sundance Film Festival, Smithsonian, Google and Lush Cosmetics. Favianna’s creative practice serves as a record of her human experiences as a woman of color embracing pleasure and womb healing through creative expression and personal transformation. Her signature mark-making embodies the perspective of a first-generation American Latinx artist with Afro-Latinx roots who grew up in Oakland, California during the era of the war on drugs and the birth of Hip Hop. A strategy advisor to artists of all genres, Favianna is regarded as one of the leading thinkers and personalities uniting art, culture and social impact. Through her thought leadership as President and co-founder of The Center for Cultural Power, an organization igniting change at the intersection of art and social justice, she has been instrumental in building a cultural strategy ecosystem that supports BIPOC artists in the U.S. She helped launch the Constellations Culture Change Fund, a philanthropic initiative designed to build cultural power by investing in BIPOC artists and grassroots art organizations. Favianna is a recognized climate justice leader, and brings her personal journey to the climate justice fight through her writing, including as a contributing writer to the best selling anthology, All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis, edited by Ayana Johnson and Katharine Wilkinson. In 2016, Favianna was awarded the Robert Rauschenberg Artist as Activist Fellowship for her work around immigrant detention and mass incarceration. In 2017, she received an Atlantic Fellowship for Racial Equity for her work around racial justice and climate change. In 2018, she received the SOROS Equality Fellowship for building the field of cultural organizing. As an entrepreneur, she has co-founded various institutions, including the EastSide Arts Alliance, a cultural center and affordable housing development in Oakland, CA. Favianna is currently working on a feature film about healing from generational womb trauma.

Kristin Sakoda is Director of the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture, a local arts agency with a mission of advancing arts, culture, and creativity throughout the largest county in the U.S. The Department of Arts and Culture provides grants and technical assistance to hundreds of nonprofit organizations; runs the largest arts internship program in the nation; coordinates countywide public-private arts education initiatives; increases access to creative career pathways; commissions civic artwork; supports free community programs; leads the LA County Cultural Equity and Inclusion Initiative; and advances cross-sector cultural strategies to address civic issues. Appointed by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, Ms. Sakoda previously served as Executive Director of the Los Angeles County Arts Commission. Under her leadership, she led the organization during its historic transition into the County’s first Department of Arts and Culture. Ms. Sakoda is an arts executive, attorney, and performing artist with more than 25 years in the field. She has appeared on national and international stages including with dance and social justice company Urban Bush Women and in musicals Rent and Mamma Mia! on Broadway. Prior to her work at the Department, she previously served in key leadership roles at the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs overseeing a portfolio of strategic, programmatic, policy, legislative, and funding programs with a $200m annual budget, and was instrumental in advancing diversity and inclusion; public art; creative aging; cultural facilities and affordable workspace for artists. She holds a J.D. from NYU School of Law with honors in Entertainment Law and B.A. from Stanford University with a specialization in Race and Ethnicity and a secondary major in Feminist Studies. As of 2021 she is a Board member of Grantmakers in the Arts, the national association of public and private arts funders in the U.S.

Mark Slavkin has dedicated his career to improving education for California students. A native of Los Angeles, he attended local public schools and then USC, where he earned a BA and MA in political science. After staff roles in the California Assembly and Los Angeles County government, Mark was elected to two terms on the Los Angeles Board of Education, including two years as Board President. ?He then moved to the nonprofit sector where he has held leadership positions for arts education at The Getty Trust, The Music Center, and the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts. He currently serves on the Board of CREATE California, the statewide advocacy and policy organization for arts education. He also serves on the board of Communities in Schools LA, an agency that provides comprehensive supports to struggling students in 15 Los Angeles area schools.

Brandon Steppe is a transformative force in the lives of Opportunity Youth in his hometown of San Diego, California. As the founder of The David’s Harp Foundation (TDHF), Brandon represents a community where young people have access to industry standard media production tools, workforce training, and trusted adult relationships. As TDHF Executive Director, Brandon has served the community as it has grown from his father’s garage in Southeast San Diego, to a state-of-the-art studio facility located in Downtown San Diego’s East Village community. He has developed numerous corporate and community partnerships, leveraging the power of music and media production to provide a loving/creative environment where young people thrive in art...and in life.

Ryan Stubbs directs NASAA’s research team to provide high-quality information for the benefit of state arts agencies and the arts and culture field. His areas of expertise include public funding for the arts, state policy and the creative economy as well as state arts agency funding, services, operations and grant making. He oversees a research portfolio that includes dynamic data visualization tools, field surveys and research customized to the needs of state arts agencies. Ryan also represents state arts agencies and NASAA at state, regional and NASAA research forums and serves as NASAA’s primary research liaison to federal agencies, foundations, consultants and scholars conducting research on public support for the arts. Ryan has more than 15 years of professional experience in the field of arts research. Prior to joining NASAA, he served as the director of research for the Western States Arts Federation, where he specialized in analyzing state and local creative economy data, implemented web based research technology and launched an initiative aimed at supporting independent music. Ryan has experience in state government as a capital construction analyst for the Colorado Department of Higher Education and in economic development as a business manager for Adams County, Colorado. He holds master’s degrees in public administration and urban and regional planning with an emphasis in economic development planning from the University of Colorado, Denver.

Tony Thurmond is a Superintendent, an educator, social worker, and public school parent who has served Californians for more than 15 years in elected office. Over the course of Thurmond’s tenure since being sworn in as California’s State Superintendent, he has championed and created many historic initiatives on behalf of California’s students.

Hollis Wong-Wear is a Grammy-nominated recording artist, songwriter, content producer and strategist who works at the intersection of creativity, community organizing and public policy. In addition to her artistry and songwriting career, she is the Founder and Principal of hww.work (pronounced 'homework'), a production company specializing in film, video and content creative for social change. Hollis is a seasoned communications and grantmaking specialist and facilitator who works frequently with organizations and government. Recent clients include the City of Seattle’s Office of Arts and Culture and Office of Civil Rights, Starbucks Music, Create CA, Warner Music Group, and the Institute for Intellectual Property and Social Justice and their program Take Creative Control. She is a Google Next Gen Policy Leader, an alumna of the Hedgebrook Residency, a Humanity in Action Senior Fellow, and received her BA in History from Seattle University. Hollis was born in Petaluma, CA, attended high school in San Francisco, and currently resides in Los Angeles.