Artist Communities Alliance (ACA) is led by an enthusiastic and dedicated Board of Trustees selected for their demonstrated commitment to serving artists and advancing the role artists and creativity play in society.

2024 Board of Trustees

Sanjit Sethi, Chair | Minneapolis College of Art and Design (Minneapolis, MN)
Geoffrey Jackson Scott, Vice Chair | Peoplmovr (Los Angeles, LA)
Brandi Turner, Treasurer | Mississippi Center for Cultural Production "Sipp Culture" (Utica, MS)
Kibra A Yohannes, Secretary | The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation (New York, NY)

Rob Bailis | Eli & Edythe Broad Stage (Santa Monica, CA)
Roberto Bedoya | City of Oakland (Oakland, CA)
John Davis | Independent Consultant (Tower, MN) 
Joel Garcia | Meztli Projects (Montebello, CA)
Jeffreen Hayes, Ph.D | Threewalls (Chicago, IL)
D.S. Kinsel | BOOM Concepts (Pittsburgh PA)
Melissa Levin | Jerome Foundation (New York, NY)
Karen Patterson | The Ruth Foundation for the Arts (Milwaukee, WI)
Esther Park | Independent Programmer + Journalist (Miami, FL)
Megha Ralapati | CEC ArtsLink (New York, NY)
Reveca Torres | BACKBONES (Chicago, IL)
Amy Wheeler | Independent Consultant (Whidbey Island, WA)
Jenni Wu | MacDowell (Peterborough, NH)

Board Biographies

Sanjit Sethi | Chair
President, Minneapolis College of Art and Design

Sanjit Sethi has two decades of experience as an artist and cultural academic leader. Sanjit served as the first Director of the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design at George Washington University, where he oversaw the reestablishment of the historic art and design college as it integrated with the University. His previous positions include serving as Director of the MFA program at the Memphis College of Art; Director of the Center for Art and Public Life, Barclay Simpson Professor, and Chair of Community Arts at the California College of the Arts; and Executive Director of the Santa Fe Art Institute. Additionally, Sanjit has lectured and taught at the Srishti School of Art, Design, and Technology in Bangalore; the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; School of the Art Institute of Chicago; and Saint Mary’s College in London.

Born in Rochester, NY, Sanjit received a BFA from New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, an MFA in Ceramics from University of Georgia, and he holds an MS in Advanced Visual Studies from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Sanjit has been awarded numerous grants and fellowships, including an Enrichment Travel Fellowship to work on a project in London, Budapest and Dublin, and a Fulbright fellowship in India.

Geoffrey Jackson Scott |Vice Chair
Co-Founder/Creative Director, Peoplmovr

A native of Quincy, IL, Geoffrey Jackson Scott is a Los Angeles-based cultural organizer, creative producer, and engagement strategist. He is Co-Founder and Creative Director of Peoplmovr, a creative studio specializing in engagement and communications that partners with artists, organizations and communities on the development and delivery of strategies designed to bring arts and culture closer to the people and people closer to arts and culture. Peoplmovr is committed to undoing racism and centers the principles of equity and inclusion in all areas of its work. Recently, Geoffrey and Peoplmovr developed The Mile-Long Opera, a citywide public engagement project that brought together 1,000 singers for free performances on the High Line in Manhattan. At the heart of the work was an extensive engagement initiative that activated nonprofit cultural organizations across all five boroughs. Seven Anchor Partners served as hubs for engaging local communities—from recruiting singers, to welcoming the public for open rehearsals and workshops, to hosting social and cultural events and public programs in the lead-up to the performances. From 2014-2016, Geoffrey served as Director, Engagement at Museum of the Moving Image (MoMI). At MoMI, he led an ambitious two-year engagement and outreach pilot, funded by the Ford Foundation. From 2012 - 2014, he delivered a suite of new programs and initiatives as a senior member of the in-house creative strategy team at Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago where he was the Director of New Play Development. At Victory Gardens, he conceived, developed and launched a civic engagement platform designed to embrace and reflect the diversity of Chicago. From 2004 - 2012, Geoffrey spent eight seasons as the Literary Associate at New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW), where he led the Artist of Color Fellowship program and supported the cultivation, development and production of new work by both emerging and established artists.

Brandi Turner | Treasurer
Artist + Founder, Sipp Culture

Brandi Turner is the Co-Founder and Co-Director for the Mississippi Center for Cultural Production (MCCP), best known as Sipp Culture (SC) in Utica, MS. MCCP, an organization taking a place- based approach to holistic community development through agriculture, cultural production, community engagement and organizing, artistic funding, along with advisory support and digital media. As a partner in the design of SC programming, Brandi is also the lead coordinator of all SC events. Formally, the Managing Director of TWA Consulting, a company that provides services in creative consulting for artists looking to strengthen their work in arts and culture. Currently a member of the Daisa Enterprises CoPA Steering Committee, Alternate ROOTS member, and a Utica Institute Museum board member.

Through nurturing, Brandi has developed an inseparable love for culinary arts, aiding as a tool in her community engagement and artistic practices. She is also a freelance makeup artist with an extensive career in cosmetic sales, management and event coordinating. Raised by proud Motown natives (Detroit, MI) in the south (LA & MS), she became a student of dance for 15 years. Brandi lives in Utica, MS with her husband Carlton Turner and their three children, Jonathan, Xiauna, and Tristan.

Kibra A Yohannes | Secretary
Program Associate, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

As the founding Executive Director, Kibra drove the programming, administration, and operations of AFRICA'SOUT!, a nonprofit organization that honors, supports and defends artists who radically change the narrative around Africa and its Diaspora, first and foremost, for themselves. Before joining AFRICA’SOUT! Kibra was the Director of the School of Professional and Continuing Studies at Long Island University, where she managed and designed children’s programs and accredited adult education, non-traditional and professional programs. Previously she served as Director of Operations and Director of Programs, respectively, at Arts Engine, Inc. a film production company producing social-issue documentaries of consequence, and programs such as the Media That Matters Film Festival, MediaRights and Filmmaker Services. Kibra holds a BA in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Virginia and is a candidate for an MA Social Science, with a Graduate Certificate in United Nations Studies, from Long Island University.

Rob Bailis
Artistic and Executive Director, Eli & Edythe Broad Stage

Rob is a musician, writer and performing arts curator living in his native San Francisco. A classical clarinetist, he has performed with orchestras, chamber ensembles, and as a recitalist across the U.S., Canada, Asia and the U.K. From 2003 – 2011, he was Director of ODC Theater. During his tenure, he was instrumental in the theater’s $9 million dollar expansion of its facility. He elevated the theater’s platform from regional to national and international visibility, and received numerous awards in recognition of his presenting, advocacy and residency programs. In 2007, the San Francisco Chronicle named him “MVP” in dance presenting, describing his curation as, “…smart…instinctive, and infectious.” He has commissioned over 30 new works in a variety of genres, and has served as a panelist / program  / policy consultant for foundations and arts funding organizations including MAP Fund, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Creative Capital, SF Arts Commission, New England Foundation for the Arts, Chamber Music America, WESTAF, and the Center for Cultural Innovation, among many. A frequent public speaker on arts and culture, he has recently been heard at The Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, on KPFA’s Against the Grain, and on NPR’s West Coast Live, and has been a speaker and content provider at national conferences such as Dance USA and Association of Performing Arts Presenters. A widely produced lyricist and librettist, Rob's newest piece, Love/Hate, was co-commissioned by American Opera Projects and ODC Theater and premiered in April 2012 as a co-production of ODC and San Francisco Opera. The work has also enjoyed performances in New York, Baltimore, and Philadelphia. In June of 2013, Rob was appointed Associate Director of Cal Performances on the UC Berkeley campus, where he led the artistic programming team in areas of dance, theater and world stages, and oversees the fundraising, marketing, education and publication departments. In 2019 he was named Artistic and Executive Director of Eli & Edythe Broad Stage in Santa Monica, CA. He holds degrees from Northwestern University and Yale School of Music.

Roberto Bedoya
Cultural Affairs Manager, City of Oakland

Roberto Bedoya is the Cultural Affairs Manager for the City of Oakland, where he recently shepherded its Cultural Plan, Belonging in Oakland: a Cultural Development Plan. Throughout his career, Bedoya has consistently supported artist- centered cultural practices and advocated for expanded definitions of inclusion and belonging in the cultural sector. His essays, “U.S. Cultural Policy; Its Politics of Participation, Its Creative Potential;” “Creative Placemaking and the Politics of Belonging and Dis-Belonging;” and “Spatial Justice: Rasquachification, Race and the City,” have reframed the discussion on cultural policy to shed light on exclusionary practices in cultural policy decision making.Prior to his work in Oakland, he was the Executive Director of the Tucson Pima Arts Council (Tucson, AZ) as well as the Executive Director of The National Association of Artists’ Organizations, (NAAO) in Washington, DC, a national arts service organization for individual artists and artist-centered organizations. As a cultural policy researcher, he has worked on projects for the Ford Foundation and the Urban Institute regarding the support systems for artists. He is the author of The Ballad of Cholo Dandy, a poetry chapbook (Chax Press).

John Davis
Independent Consultant + Leadership Team, Waterers.org

John Davis is currently a Senior Policy Fellow with the Rural Policy Research Institute, University of Iowa. He has over 30 years of experience creating and implementing rural artist residency programs and art centers. His innovative work in New York Mills, MN (pop. 1,199) has been recognized as a national model for rural economic development in the arts, and New York Mills was twice recognized as one of the top 100 small arts towns in America. His work as Executive Director of the Lanesboro Arts Campus initiative resulted in the city’s selection as one of the top 12 Small Town Artplaces in America. In 2018, Mr. Davis received a Bush Fellowship to study and advance the field of rural arts and rural sustainability; in 2020, he presented case studies of New York Mills and Lanesboro at the European Regional Science Association (ERSA) International Conference in Florence, Italy. Davis is currently a leadership team member of the ArtPlace America Upper Midwest Assembly (Waterers.org.)

Joel Garcia 
Artist + Cultural Organizer Director, Meztli Projects 

Joel Garcia (Huichol) is an Indigenous artist, cultural organizer, co-founder, and Director of Meztli Projects, an Indigenous- based arts & culture collaborative centering Indigeneity into the creative practice of Los Angeles. In various roles, he has worked with Indigenous communities across borders in support of issues of land, access, and self- determination. His work explores healing and reconciliation, as well as memory and place. He’s a current Stanton Fellow and former fellow of Monument Lab, and co-facilitator of the Intercultural Leadership Institute which proposes to hold space for cultural production outside of white supremacist frameworks.

Jeffreen M. Hayes, Ph.D
Executive Director, Threewalls

Jeffreen M. Hayes, Ph.D., an art historian and curator, merges administrative, curatorial and academic practices into her cultural practice of supporting artists and community development. As an advocate for racial inclusion, equity and access, Jeffreen has developed a curatorial and leadership approach that invites community participation, particularly those in historically excluded communities. Her curatorial projects include SILOS (2016-18), Augusta Savage: Renaissance Woman (2018-2020), AFRICOBRA: Messages to the People (2018), Process (2019) and AFRICOBRA: Nation Time (2019). 

Jeffreen speaks and writes about art history, Black art, and arts activism. She participated in TEDX Jacksonville and spoke about “Arts Activism in Simple Steps” and “Small Great Conversations on Race” and has spoken at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture; Norton Museum of Art; ArtPace; Rollins Museum of Art; and Columbia College. Her writing can be found in independent online print art publications as well edited museum publications. 

As the Executive Director of Threewalls, Jeffreen provides strategic vision for the artistic direction and impact of the organization in Chicago. Under her leadership, Threewalls intentionally develops artistic platforms that encourages connections beyond traditional engagements with art. These engagements help manifest the organization’s vision of art connecting segregated communities, people and experiences together. Jeffreen earned a Ph.D. in American Studies from the College of William and Mary, a MA in Art History from Howard University, and a BA from Florida International University in Humanities. Jeffreen’s leadership practice is rooted in her matrilineal connections to her West Indian and Caribbean heritage and love of Blk people.

D.S. Kinsel
Co-Founder, BOOM Concepts

DS Kinsel is an award winning creative entrepreneur and cultural agitator. He expresses his creativity through the mediums of painting, printmaking, collage, installation, curating, performance and public art. Kinsel’s work puts focus on themes of space keeping, urban tradition, hip-hop, informalism and cultural re-appropriation. DS is the co-founder of BOOM Concepts; a creative hub dedicated to the advancement of black, brown, queerm and femme artists. BOOM Concepts is located in Pittsburgh and since 2014 has curated 50 exhibitions on-site, paid out over $75k in artists fees and produced 200+ events across the country. BOOM Concepts serves as a space for field building, knowledge sharing, mentorship, and storytelling. In its 8th year, BOOM Concepts continues to work with creatives to find innovative strategies around entrepreneurship and artistic practice. In 2021, BOOM Concepts was recognized as one of America's Cultural Treasures through The Heinz Endowments and The Ford Foundation.

A former AmeriCorps Public Ally member, Kinsel has been recognized as an awardee of the Pittsburgh Courier Fab 40, Pittsburgh Magazine PUMP 40 Under 40, Pgh Tech Council Creative of The Year, the Pittsburgh Post Gazette’s "Top Ten People To Meet in 2016" and the Incline’s “Who’s Next” for 2018. D.S has served as a board member of Pittsburgh Center for Creative REuse and the Black Transformative Arts Network. Kinsel currently serves on the advisory board for Shady Lane School, PearlArts Studios, and the Artist Communities Alliance.

Melissa Levin
Independent Curator + Program Officer, Jerome Foundation

Melissa Levin is a values-driven arts administrator and artist-centered curator with more than 15 years of experience in the field. Levin is currently the inaugural New York City-based Program Officer with the Jerome Foundation, supporting early career artists in MN & NYC. Previously, she worked at Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC) for more than 12 years, where—as Vice President of Cultural Programs—her role encompassed wide-ranging institutional and artistic leadership, including overseeing the organization’s major artist-centered and public-facing initiatives: the River To River Festival, the Arts Center at Governors Island, and LMCC’s exhibitions and artist residency programs.

Since 2016, with collaborator Alex Fialho, Levin has stewarded the legacy of artist Michael Richards. In 2021, Levin and Fialho curated Richards’s first museum retrospective, Michael Richards: Are You Down?, at the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami. The exhibition—which traveled to the North Carolina Museum of Art and The Bronx Museum—was recognized by Frieze magazine as one of the “Top 10 Shows in the United States of 2021” and by Hyperallergic as one of the “The Top 50 Exhibitions of 2023.” In addition to serving on the Artist Communities Alliance board, Melissa is also a board member at Danspace Project.

Esther Park
Independent Programmer + Journalist

A journalist for over 15 years, Esther Park has been a contributing writer for many reputable publications such as Vice, Spin, XLR8R, Miami New Times, and the Village Voice, and held the title of editor-at-large for the respected underground hip-hop magazine Elemental from 1999-2004. Her move to Miami in 2003 resulted in Esther becoming the Director of Public Programs for the Museum of Contemporary Art. There she programmed events, curated series in music and art and worked closely with the local community. After her tenure at MOCA, she became the Director of Programming at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts. After five years there, Esther became Director of Alumni and Public Programs at the National YoungArts Foundation. Most recently, Esther oversaw Oolite Arts' robust programming portfolio as VP of Programming which included managing ongoing exhibitions, public programs and the studio residency program.

Karen Patterson
Executive Director, The Ruth Foundation for the Arts

Karen Patterson serves as Executive Director for The Ruth Foundation for the Arts (Ruth Arts) which launched in 2022, supported by a significant bequest from the late Ruth DeYoung Kohler II (1941–2020). Ruth Arts aim is to explore new possibilities for arts philanthropy through an artist-driven approach. Responding to the evolving needs of our community and working across a wide spectrum of lived experiences, Ruth Arts supports those that center the unconventional and the exciting.Patterson previously served as Director of Exhibitions and Curator at The Fabric Workshop and Museum, working with artists such as Jonathan Lyndon Chase, Woody Othello, Jayson Musson and Rose B. Simpson. As Senior Curator at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center from 2012-2019, she worked on several exhibitions included Ray Yoshida's Museum of Extraordinary Values, and Lenore Tawney: Mirror of the Universe.

Megha Ralapati
Program Director of Fellowships, CEC ArtsLink

Megha Ralapati is the Program Director of Fellowships at CEC ArtsLink. Prior to this role, she developed and oversaw the Jackman Goldwasser Residency at Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago, where she forged partnerships with the French Embassy, Goethe Institut, Asian Cultural Council, Northwestern University and other institutions to design intentional cross-cultural artistic exchanges. Megha specializes in artist mobility and has collaborated with community-centered organizations based in the US and internationally like Project Row Houses, ARTPORT Tel Aviv, and Center for Contemporary Art Lagos.

Before joining Hyde Park Art Center in 2011, she was Director of Bose Pacia in New York, an international visual art gallery presenting contemporary work from across the Indian subcontinent. Megha regularly participates in award and fellowship juries, presents ideas and workshops to artists of all levels, including at the School of the Art Institute, NYU, and most recently at Asiko, an alternative pan-African summer intensive for artists, and has contributed to publications for Documenta 14, Brooklyn Museum, Sharjah Art Foundation, among others. Megha received an MA in Visual Culture from Goldsmiths and a BA in Art History and Anthropology from Columbia University. She is on the board of Enrich Chicago.

Reveca Torres
Artist + Founder, BACKBONES

Reveca Torres was paralyzed in a car accident as a teenager. After completing degrees in Fashion Design and Theatre Arts, Reveca worked as a costume designer and simultaneously with organizations doing disability work in health, advocacy, recreation, and peer support. She started a nonprofit called BACKBONES after realizing that years of interaction and friendship with others living with spinal injuries (SCI) made a significant impact in her own life. Reveca wanted to ensure that others, especially those newly injured, had access to resources, information, and the same type of support she has had.

She is co-director of ReelAbilities Film Festival Chicago and has curated touring photography and art exhibitions that showcase work of people with disabilities and bring awareness to disability rights. Reveca received Creative Access Fellowships at Vermont Studio Center (2014) and Santa Fe Art Institute (2017). She was selected as a fellow for Kartemquin Films Diverse Voices in Docs program (2017) and Hulu+Kartemquin Accelerator Program (2020). She received a 3Arts Residency Fellowship at the University of Illinois Chicago in 2018 and is one of 2020 3Arts Awardees. In 2020 she was awarded the Craig Neilsen Visionary Award for her art and advocacy work. Reveca uses painting, illustration, photography, film, movement, and other media as a form of expression and a tool for advocacy and social justice.

Amy Wheeler
Playwright + Theatre Artist, Educator, Speaker, Nonprofit Leader, Creative Entrepreneur

Amy Wheeler has built a career around bringing people together, across generations, to collaborate on inspiring productions, innovative programs, and spirited events imbued with a social justice message. Wheeler led the nonprofit Hedgebrook for 13 years, evolving it from a renowned Whidbey Island-based residency program into a global community of influential womxn writers authoring change in the arts (literary, film, television and music), culture, politics and social justice. Celebrating the culmination of her tenure in 2020, Seattle Arts & Lectures recognized Wheeler with the Prowda Literary Champion Award for “demonstrating true commitment to the Pacific Northwest’s community of readers and writers.” Wheeler has several theatre projects currently in development, with a track record of productions at theatres across the country. A Yaddo fellow and Hedgebrook alum, Wheeler holds an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from Cornish College of the Arts, and MFA from the University of Iowa Playwrights Workshop. Her current ventures are: Dancehall Productions, generating creative projects that bring to life the stories, real and imagined, of those who have been left out of, silenced or erased from the patriarchal narrative; and Play Club, a Book Club with a Theatrical Twist.

Jenni Wu
Director of Internal Communications + Human Engagement, Macdowell

Jenni Wu (she/her/hers) started working at MacDowell in 2013 and currently serves as the organization’s first Director of Internal Communications & Human Engagement. In this role, she focuses on strengthening and maintaining a healthy and inclusive work culture, creating opportunities for staff professional development, and coordinating MacDowell’s ongoing work in diversity, equity, inclusion, and access.

Jenni studied art history and French at Grinnell College and has a master’s degree from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. She enjoys spending time with her dog Marvin, reading, painting, and doing crossword puzzles.