Appointed by Governor Newsom in December 2023, Danielle Brazell leads California’s state agency for the arts with a visionary belief in the arts as vital civic infrastructure—driving equity, belonging, health, and economic opportunity state‑wide. A seasoned public‑sector arts leader with over 30 years’ experience, she transformed the LA Department of Cultural Affairs into a powerhouse—expanding its budget, scale, and statewide influence—and steered Arts for LA into a robust advocacy force for the region. A practicing artist, educator, and strategist, Brazell also brings insights from roles as consultant, teaching artist, and board member for DataArts, Americans for the Arts, and the World Cities Culture Forum. Her leadership is grounded in lived creative practice—from early apprenticeship at Highways Performance Space to building inclusive public arts infrastructure across communities.

Julie Baker is CEO of California’s statewide arts advocacy organizations, where since 2018 she has transformed arts advocacy through statewide campaigns, coalition-building, and legislative influence. She serves on the boards of CalNonprofits and California Heritage: Indigenous Research Project, and has held national leadership roles with Americans for the Arts, Creative West, and the CA Economic Summit. Recipient of the Americans for the Arts Alene Valkanas Award, Julie previously directed The Center for the Arts and California WorldFest, curated at the Crocker Art Museum, and ran her own gallery and consulting firm. She is recognized statewide as a champion for artists, cultural workers, and the creative economy.

Yvonne Fang is a San Francisco–based artist and creative technologist whose work spans simulations, virtual worlds, games, and immersive XR experiences. She explores AI-driven aesthetics and nonhuman perspectives to challenge human-centered thinking in a time of climate crisis. With a Master’s in human-computer interaction from Carnegie Mellon University, she develops AI storytelling pipelines and has taught at Stanford d.school, Stanford Art & Art History, and California College of the Arts. Her projects have been showcased at Gray Area Foundation for the Arts, the Asian Art Museum, and the Gray Area Festival, marking her as a leading voice at the intersection of art and technology.

Allison Wyper is a performance artist, consultant, and arts entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience supporting artists and organizations. She founded Rhizomatic Arts in Los Angeles in 2014 to help creatives work independently while cultivating strong networks of support. A Master Facilitator of the Business of Art curriculum created by the Center for Cultural Innovation (CCI), she authored CCI’s forthcoming *Business of Art Facilitation Guide* and previously served as Artists Knowledge Manager at CCI. Her performances and curatorial projects have been presented internationally, and she continues to champion sustainable, artist-led professional development models.

Brandon Greathouse, AKA “GR8”, is a musician, DJ, emcee, dancer, and community builder who has headlined festivals across the U.S. and overseas. As the official host for World of Dance, he has combined his lyrical skills and charisma with a passion for bringing people together through music. He founded and ran two successful dance studios in Sacramento and Truckee, cultivating spaces of confidence and collaboration for young artists. With six years of international festival performances and a reputation for electrifying stages, Brandon continues to mentor and inspire emerging talent while building cultural connections through the arts.

Kevin Byrd is an interdisciplinary artist and creative director based in San Francisco. Educated in architecture, Byrd's ability to work across disciplines led to significant recognition in the design world. He developed the art strategy for Dolby Laboratories' 16-story headquarters in San Francisco, where he founded the Dolby Artist Program, a platform for artists working at the intersection of technology and art. Professionally, Byrd led creative & brand at Instacart, Postmates, and Uber. Kevin's art has been exhibited at the High Museum of Art, MOCA GA, The Goat Farm, and Wild & Scenic Film Festival. He is a fellow of the Hambidge and Cochran Collection residencies.

Shira Lane is the founder and CEO of Atrium 916, Sacramento’s Creative Innovation Center for Sustainability. Through Atrium’s incubator and accelerator, she mentors creative and manufacturing entrepreneurs to design for zero waste, reuse, and circularity, and operates Sacramento.Shop, a circular marketplace supporting 150+ makers. She led the transformation of a long-abandoned Old Sacramento building into a public sustainability hub that now welcomes 148,000+ visitors annually; Atrium was recognized by the California State Assembly as a 2024 Nonprofit of Distinction.

A policy-to-practice bridge-builder, Lane chairs the SB54 Reuse Subcommittee with the National Stewardship Action Council and collaborates with CalRecycle on implementing California’s Plastic Packaging Law. Her advocacy has advanced regulatory flexibility for reuse and refill pilots, creating clearer paths to scale.

Lane launched Upcycle Pop (America’s first upcycle market) and founded Circular California to build statewide reuse infrastructure. She leads creative programs including the Zero Waste Mobile Art Café, Recycle Challenge, Carts for the Arts, Pioneer Recycle Wagon, and Sustainable Santa, and produces the PBS series Citizens of Planet Earth. An award-winning documentary filmmaker (Unleashed Productions), she also founded the Sacramento Creative Economy meetings, helping secure $33M+ for the region’s creative sector.

Dean Rader has authored or co-authored thirteen books. His debut collection of poems, Works & Days, won the 2010 T. S. Eliot Poetry Prize. His 2014 collection Landscape Portrait Figure Form was named by The Barnes & Noble Review as a Best Poetry Book. Other titles include the poetry collection Self-Portrait as Wikipedia Entry and the anthologies Native Voices: Contemporary Indigenous Poetry, Craft, and Conversations and Bullets into Bells: Poets and Citizens Respond to Gun Violence. Rader writes and reviews regularly for The San Francisco Chronicle, The Huffington Post, BOMB, Ploughshares, Artforum, and The Los Angeles Review of Books, where he co-authors a column with Victoria Chang.

In 2020, he was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Balakian Award. His most recent collection of poems, Before the Borderless: Dialogues with the Art of Cy Twombly, was named by Bookriot as one of ten “mesmerizing” books of modern poetry. Rader’s writing has been supported by fellowships from Princeton University, Harvard University, the MacDowell Foundation, Art Omi, and The Headlands Center for the Arts. He is a professor at the University of San Francisco and a 2019 Guggenheim Fellow in poetry.

Pancho Tomaselli is a seasoned bassist, producer, and educator with more than 25 years in the music industry. Born in Quito, Ecuador, he studied at Berklee College of Music before touring internationally with legendary acts including WAR, Tower of Power, Eric Burdon, and PHILM. An endorsed artist for G&L and ESP Guitars, he has designed signature bass models and recorded extensively across genres. Alongside his global performing career, Pancho is a dedicated educator who uses music as a bridge—sharing his expertise in funk, jazz, Latin rhythms, and beyond to help artists and young people alike unlock their voice and creative power.

Judy Merrick is an actress and improv teacher who spent 13 years in the vibrant New York theater scene. She has brought her passion for performance to Nevada City, where audiences may recognize her from Into the Woods, RENT, It’s a Wonderful Life, and The Shorts. For her role in The Moors, she won BroadwayWorld’s Best Actress award two years in a row. She also starred as Candy in Gold Can’t Love You Back, a new musical about the Gold Country, and most recently playing Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Center For the Arts. Judy trained at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles (LA), the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, and American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York (NYC), and has a multitude of LA and NYC credits in both theater and film.

Piper Johnson is a gallerist and cultural leader who represents more than 40 artists through her two contemporary galleries in downtown Truckee: Piper J Gallery and Ridgeline Gallery. Known for curating bold “modern mountain” aesthetics, she connects collectors with meaningful statement works while championing both regional and nationally recognized artists. In addition to her curatorial practice, Piper founded the Truckee Art Walk, a monthly anchor event of the Truckee Cultural District that unites venues and artists across historic downtown, further cementing her role as a catalyst for the region’s creative economy.

Karen Terrey serves as the Poet Laureate for Nevada County. She's a writer, editor, and writing coach, offering writing services, developmental editing, publishing guidance, and creative writing workshops in Truckee through her business Tangled Roots Writing for clients of all ages. An alumni of Community of Writers, she teaches English at Sierra College. Her poems have appeared in Rhino, Edge, Meadow, WordRiot, Puerto Del Sol, Wicked Alice, Canary, and Gray Sparrow Journal, among others. Her book Bite and Blood is available from Finishing Line Press and local bookstores, including Word After Word in Truckee and Harmony Books in Nevada City.

Kiersten Taylor Duerr, Med., CTE, is a tax accountant at Broadstreet Financial Group specializing in creative professionals and small businesses. A former public educator with a passion for demystifying finances, she draws on her experience bookkeeping for her husband’s music business to provide accessible tax support to artists. She helps clients navigate deductions, self-employment taxes, and financial planning, and also expresses her own creativity as guitarist and vocalist with the band Crystal Wells. Her work bridges financial literacy and artistic entrepreneurship, empowering creatives to thrive.

Mary Volmer, the author of two novels – Crown of Dust (Soho Press) and Reliance, Illinois (Soho Press) – is the Mission Fellow for Athletics at Saint Mary’s College (CA). In this interfaith, lay-chaplaincy position, she counsels and attends to the spiritual well-being of NCAA D-I athletes and coaches.

Along with Elizabeth Robinson, Maw Shein Win and Dawn Angelicca Barcelona, Mary is the cofounder of Alta Mesa Center for the Arts and its teaching arm, Maker, Mentor Muse. She helps writers uncover the voice and the underlying emotional, spiritual, and dramatic structures of their work. As an athlete and a working novelist and essayist, Mary understands the rigors and joys of discipline, the quiet rush of the flow state, the pain of failure, and the courage it takes to try, try again. It is her mission to help artists and athletes of all spiritual and religious traditions to grow into their many gifts and to share those gifts with the world.

Patrick Storm is a creative strategist and communications professional who helps artists and organizations amplify their presence in the digital age. With a background spanning branding, social media, and media relations, he has guided artists in crafting compelling narratives that resonate with audiences and capture the attention of press outlets. Patrick’s expertise lies in leveraging platforms like Instagram as both creative showcases and networking tools, enabling artists to build communities, attract opportunities, and sustain professional careers in the arts.

Leta McCollough Seletzky directs the Low-Residency MFA at UNR, Reno, NV. She is a National Endowment for the Arts 2022 Creative Writing Fellow whose work has been featured in The Atlantic; The New York Times; O, The Oprah Magazine; The Washington Post; and elsewhere. Her essay "The Man in the Picture," published in O, The Oprah Magazine, was selected as a Notable Essay in BEST AMERICAN ESSAYS 2019. An alumna of Northwestern University and The George Washington University Law School, she is the author of the father-daughter memoir THE KNEELING MAN.

Jenny Darlington-Person is Executive Director of the Arts Council of Placer County and a development consultant with InConcert Sierra, where she has advanced funding strategies for rural arts organizations since 2018. Her leadership during the pandemic earned her the 2022 Executive Leadership Award from the Association of California Symphony Orchestras. A graduate of the Executive Director Academy at the Center for Nonprofit Leadership and Juilliard’s Essentials in Orchestra Management, Jenny brings legal, fundraising, and nonprofit management expertise to her work. She is committed to strengthening arts access and equity in rural communities.

Mojo (they/them/any) is Executive Director of Amador County Arts Council and a lifelong performance artist and Teaching Artist with over 26 years of experience. They’ve led Poetry Out Loud since 2016 and currently mentor San Joaquin County’s emerging arts council. In 2022, MOJO received the Cali Catalyst Grant from the Center for Cultural Innovation for championing BIPOC and 2SLGBTQAI+ art in the face of political scrutiny. MOJO holds a Biology degree from Oberlin College, is a graduate of Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts, and is also a Massage Therapist and Reiki Master. A queer, non-binary woman with ADHD, MOJO knows firsthand the life-saving power of the arts.

Eliza Tudor is Executive Director of Nevada County Arts Council and an experienced fundraiser who has secured millions in support for cultural initiatives across three continents. She previously served as Senior Development Executive at the University of Oxford, producing major philanthropic partnerships, and as Senior Commissioner for the UK’s National Health Service in London. Her leadership spans producing theatre and opera in Australia, policy research in the UK, and arts advocacy in California, where she has served on statewide and national boards. Eliza now leads regional initiatives that link fundraising, cultural policy, and tourism to build sustainable creative ecosystems.

Kyle is a communications strategist and writer with over a decade of experience leading brand storytelling, digital strategy, and rebranding for organizations in travel, hospitality, technology, and public infrastructure. Kyle is especially skilled at translating complex ideas into clear, engaging narratives, and at guiding diverse teams of stakeholders to deliver campaigns that resonate. A Nevada County native with roots in the region’s creative community and a career spent shaping messages on a national scale, he brings both professional depth and a personal passion to advancing the arts in Nevada County.

Kellie Cuttler is Program Manager for the Truckee Cultural District, where she advances strategic planning, creative partnerships, and fundraising for arts and culture in the Tahoe region. With 23 years in nonprofit administration, she has worked with organizations including Nevada Arts Council, Parasol Tahoe Community Foundation, KidZone Museum, and North Tahoe Arts. Kellie holds a master’s degree in arts administration from Golden Gate University and serves on the Truckee Chamber of Commerce board and multiple community committees. She brings deep commitment to community leadership and a passion for strengthening Truckee’s cultural identity.

Diana Arbex is Program Manager for the Grass Valley–Nevada City Cultural District and an arts administrator with international experience. Originally from Brazil, she has managed galleries, curated cultural programs, and served as Operations Manager for the Wild & Scenic Film Festival. At Nevada County Arts Council, she has advanced cultural programming, supported artists, and received recognition as a California Arts Council Individual Artist Fellow. With a background in design and a passion for community engagement, Diana brings creativity and strategy to cultural development.