DEVOS INSTITUTE FELLOWS

The DeVos Institute of Arts Management at the University of Maryland hosts its Fellowship for four weeks each summer. The Fellowship is a three-year program. Three cohorts are in residence in Washington, D.C. each summer for an arts management intensive led by DeVos Institute executives, consultants, and experts from the field. 

Biographies of the Institute’s new and continuing Fellows are below, listed by cohort.

2024 Cohort, who will return for their 2nd Year in in the Three-Year Program in 2023:

Alexis Spieldenner

Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada

3rd Year, 2024 Cohort

Co-Founder and Executive Director, Bravo Niagara! Festival of the Arts

www.bravoniagara.org

Alexis Spieldenner is Co-Founder and Executive Director of Bravo Niagara! Festival of the Arts based in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. Driven by an entrepreneurial spirit and lifelong love of music, she launched Bravo Niagara! in 2014 upon graduation from Duke University. A mother-daughter-led nonprofit charitable organization founded by “two women dreamers” (Toronto Star), Bravo Niagara! produces and presents transformative artistic performances featuring leading Canadian and international artists in the Niagara region. Born in the US and now based in Canada, Alexis brings a unique binational perspective to her work with Bravo Niagara! and strives to contribute to Niagara’s rich cultural landscape and role as an international destination for the arts. 

As executive producer of Bravo Niagara!’s annual Voices of Freedom Festival, Alexis is committed to fostering intercultural dialogue and celebrating diversity through the arts. In recognition of the United Nations International Decade for People of African Descent, the inaugural 2015 festival illuminated Niagara’s history as a terminus of the Underground Railroad and was endorsed by the UNESCO Slave Route Project. The Voices of Freedom Festival has since developed into an important platform for amplifying underrepresented voices and histories through inspiring performances enriched with educational outreach initiatives. Alexis is the recipient of the 2016 Lincoln M. Alexander Award, presented by the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, which recognizes young leaders for their efforts to end racial discrimination and promote positive social change. She holds a bachelor’s degree in International Comparative Studies from Duke University, where she graduated with high distinction.

Alison Nadebaum

Hobart, Tasmania, Australia

2nd Year, 2025 Cohort

Director, People & Culture, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra

www.tso.com.au

Alison Nadebaum has operated at the sweet spot where art, business and creative people intersect for nearly 20 years across the Australian arts sector. She is currently Director People & Culture at the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, one of the most loved and prized institutions on the island of lutruwita / Tasmania, commencing at the TSO in 2021 to deliver an ambitious values-driven cultural change program as part of the orchestra’s ten-year organisational strategy Our Cathedral.

Alison’s early career included roles in arts administration, finance, and producing in the small-to-medium Western Australian theatre sector. Over her subsequent decade at Sydney Opera House, Alison held specialist roles in project and event management, ticketing, and stakeholder events, before leading the business management and event operations for the Opera House’s internal programming and producing department for five years. Joining the senior team responsible for delivering major business transformation, she was then appointed the inaugural Chief Operating Officer position at State Opera South Australia. 

Alison studied Arts Management at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts and holds a Master of Business Administration with a Human Resources specialisation from the Australian Institute of Management. She is the proud Chairperson of Outback Theatre for Young People, serving young people across an area of 30,000 square kilometres (roughly the size of Belgium) in regional south-west NSW and is a peer assessor for state and federal arts funding administered via Arts Tasmania and the Australia Council, with a focus on multi-arts projects and regional touring.

Andrew Given

London, England

2nd Year, 2025 Cohort

Director of Development, English National Opera

www.eno.org

Andrew Given is the Director of Development at the English National Opera, where he leads a team of 15 fundraisers that generate £4 million of philanthropic income per year to support opera productions, capital projects, talent development and learning & engagement programmes. He is a member of the leadership that is creating the new artistic and business plan for the ENO relocate to a new, primary base, outside of London.

Andrew is also Deputy Chair of Tara Theatre, a company championing South Asian voices and artists; a senior mentor with the Chartered Institute of Fundraising Arts & Culture programme, and a Fellow of the Royal Society for Arts. Prior to serving in an administrative capacity in the performing arts sector, Andrew taught key stage 3, GCSE and A-Level Music within secondary schools for 11 years in Liverpool and London.

Bozhena Pelenska

Lviv, Ukraine

2nd Year, 2025 Cohort

Executive and Artistic Director, Jam Factory Art Center

https://jamfactory.ua

Bozhena Pelenska is Executive and Artistic Director of Jam Factory Art Center, a contemporary art institution that takes a critical stance towards global and local social processes and represents and supports artists and art professionals who show active social and political interest in their particular circumstances. Founded by the historian and cultural entrepreneur Harald Binder, it serves as a platform for international cultural and artistic collaboration by holding discussions on the most relevant artistic and philosophical ideas and phenomena, raising issues of societal importance, and initiating interaction and exchange between artists, cultural professionals, and visitors of all ages. It is in the process of opening an interdisciplinary center in the revitalized space of Jam Factory premises. It is a part of the international cultural scene due to its extensive network of partnerships, but primarily, focuses on presenting, developing, and exploring Ukrainian and East European art. Further, it plans to increase its research potential by forming a pool of curators and theorists through educational programs in order to subsequently carry out its own research projects, produce knowledge, and participate in composing contemporary art history.

Prior to this role, she served as the Director of Harald Binder Cultural Enterprises where she managed the revitalization process, led legal and operations efforts, and designed and launched the HBCE Grant Program. Previous roles from 2011 to 2016 include: Director of the Cultural Industries Association, where she designed and led the “Revitalization of Industrial Buildings in Ukraine” project; designer and leader of “80Times Lodz”, a cultural and community project in the frames of the Art Incubator Project of Fabryka Sztuki in Lodz, Poland; manager of the International Paderewski Festival in Lviv, a festival of jazz and academic music; and project manager for the Center for Cultural Management where she organized the Ukraine-Moldova-EU Exchange Program (in cooperation with the European Cultural Foundation), managed the artistic presentation in Moldova of the TANDEM European Festival, and managed a Residency Program for Culture Managers. From 2007 to 2009, she served as a Manager in the Culture and Tourism Department of the Lviv City Council, where she developed of the First City Grant Program, developed programs and managed city festivals including the International Dance Festival Ethnovyr, International Music Festival, and City Festival of Coffee, and prepared Lviv's official representation in the International Tourism Exhibition WTM, London, GB, International Tourism Exhibition in Vienna.

She has a Masters in Cultural Studies from Ivan Franko National University (Lviv, Ukraine), a certificate from the Institute for Non-Profit Management (Lviv, Ukraine), a Masters from Ottawa University and Saint Paul University (Ottowa, Canada) and a Bachelors form the Ukrainian Catholic University (Lviv, Ukraine).

Claudia de Vasco

San Antonio, Texas, United States

2nd Year, 2025 Cohort

Interim Executive Director, Teatro Audaz 

www.teatroaudaz.com

Claudia de Vasco is currently serving as the Interim Executive Director of Teatro Audaz in San Antonio, Texas. She was most recently the Executive Artistic Director of The Public Theater of San Antonio, serving as the first Latine leader in the theater’s 100 year history. Prior to serving in this position, in LA she launched the Department of Cultural Integrity at BrickHouse as an effort to legitimize and advocate for cultural workers in the Arts. She worked as the Managing Director of Emerging Arts Leader/LA and led the organization through a merging process with Arts for LA, solidifying her work as an arts leader and mentor. Prior to her trajectory in arts management, she worked as a creative in theatre, tv, and film, which included over a decade-long career of teaching acting and accents in both Hollywood, theatre, and academia to both celebrities and young artists. Her experience working in politics, community organizing, and marketing has informed her work as a change-maker, leader, and advocate in American Theatre. She is a member of activist group The Kilroys, Cohort 8 Latina Leadership Institute, AEA, SAG/AFTRA, and a San Antonio Area Foundation Equity Fellow. She was a Jerome Foundation Many Voices Fellow in 2006 and the first Latine graduate of the Guthrie Theatre/U of MN training program. Claudia is a proud Tejana, first generation Mexican-American, and mother of two.

Cody Chen

Chicago, Illinois, United States

2nd Year, 2025 Cohort

General Manager, Joffrey Ballet

https://joffrey.org

Oriented in relationship-building and growth, Cody Chen leads the Joffrey Ballet as General Manager, where he is responsible for strategy, financial leadership, and business administration of its artistic and production departments. Since assuming the role in 2022, the company has produced record-setting programs at the Lyric Opera House, collaborated with Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and toured to the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. In partnership with the Joffrey Academy of Dance and the Museum of Contemporary Arts of Chicago, Cody led the expansion of the Joffrey's Winning Works program, a choreographic competition showcasing original and innovative works from emerging African, Latinx, Asian, Arab, and Native American dancemakers. His work with the Joffrey’s Community Engagement program produced Rita Finds Home, a co-production between the Joffrey Ballet and Miami City Ballet. This family-friendly and free program, which premiered at Chicago’s Navy Pier, continues to bring vibrant dance storytelling to neighborhoods across Chicago and Miami. Beyond the Joffrey, Cody sits on the board of the Gerald Arpino Foundation and he frequently volunteers at Nourishing Hope, one of Chicago’s largest and longest-operating food pantries. 

Prior to his appointment at the Joffrey, Cody managed international dance and theatre tours in Asia, Europe, and the Americas for companies including Armitage Gone! Dance, Trisha Brown Dance Company, Dance Heginbotham, Alonzo King LINES Ballet, Bebe Miller Company, Elisa Monte Dance Company, Mark Morris Dance Group, Parsons Dance, Helen Simoneau Danse, Jin Xing Dance Theatre Shanghai, Yin Mei Dance, IMG Artists, Ping Pong Productions, Asia Society, The Apollo Theater, L.A. Theatreworks, Manhattan School of Music Opera Division, and Millbrook Playhouse. He also previously served as Associate Production Manager at Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis; Production Stage Manager at Alonzo King LINES Ballet in San Francisco; and Project Manager at Theatreworks (Singapore) in Singapore.

Born in Xiamen, China, he holds a Master of Fine Arts in Theatre from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a Bachelor of Arts in English Language and Literature from Xiamen University in China.

Jorge Silva

Chicago, Illinois, United States

3rd Year, 2024 Cohort

Managing Director, Wirtz Center for the Performing Arts at Northwestern University

https://wirtz.northwestern.edu

Jorge Silva is a writer/performer, producer, and the Managing Director for Virginia Wadsworth Wirtz Center for the Performing Arts at Northwestern University. Prior to this role, Silva was the Managing Director for The Neo-Futurists in Chicago, Illinois. He earned a dual degree in Government and Theatre (Advanced Undergraduate Theatre Program) at Cornell University’s College of Arts & Sciences. He is currently a Neubauer Civic Scholar and MBA Candidate at The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

He previously served as the Producing Coordinator for the Goodman Theatre serving as the producing liaison for community engagement projects and the curator for artistic programming; the Production Manager for the Smithsonian Institution’s Discovery Theater in Washington, D.C.; and as a founding teaching artist for the District of Columbia Public Schools’ in-school arts education program, ‘Tools of Discovery.’ Silva was also a deviser with the interactive theatre company dog & pony DC and was a part of a collective that developed the socially conscious, trilingual (English, Spanish, and American Sign Language) experimental works Toast and Squares. Silva is also an Artistic Affiliate with Teatro Travieso in Wooster, Ohio.

Silva is also a freelance writer and essayist. His works have been featured in the online magazine Scout & Birdie, Junior Varsity, Pivot Arts: Voting Rights, Salonathon, Hot Kitchen Collective, National Cool Shorts, The LIVINGroom, Story District [in DC], Prop Thtr, and THE ARROW with The Neo-Futurists. Silva has been nominated for a Chicago Latino Network Award and several Alliance for Latinx Theatre Artists of Chicago Awards.

Outside of theatre, Silva is an Affinity Group Leader for the Daniel Murphy Scholarship Fund’s mentoring program and, similarly, is a Career Coach with the The Posse Foundation: Chicago. He is a Lecturer at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Writing Program and an advisor for graduate projects. Notably, Silva was a featured speaker at Latinos Progresando’s flagship community event, MEX talks [2018], and continues to serve as a member of the event’s Host Committee.

María Catalina Prieto

Medellin, Columbia

3rd Year, 2024 Cohort

Executive Director, Medellin Philharmonic Orchestra

https://filarmed.org

María Catalina Prieto is Executive Director of the Medellin Philharmonic Orchestra, the only privately-run self-sustainable professional Orchestra in Colombia. In this role, she has led the creation of new programs such as education Programs for rural areas; the Coro Reconciliación, a choir made of former participants of the Colombian armed conflict; Música por la vida, a program that brings music to the hospitals; as well as the collaboration with soloists from the Top 5 Orchestras of the world according to Gramophone Magazine.

Before moving to Medellin, she worked at the Bogota Philharmonic Orchestra where she helped create the youth orchestras system providing a first income for approximately 200 talented young musicians and singers aged 18-26, as well as the education program that now benefits more than 20,000 kids and youth from all over the city with music education.

Previous experiences include serving as Cultural Affairs Specialist at the United States Embassy in Colombia where she developed several programs such as Tu Voz Cuenta, a joint venture with USAID and NAS to use Hip Hop as a tool to address gangs and illegal groups recruitment with at-risk youth in eleven cities across the country. She has also worked as General Manager of the America Cantat 7 Festival and at the International Center for Choral Music where she worked as project manager for the World Youth Choir, Namur en chœurs and several other choir-related multicultural projects.

María Catalina received a Bachelor in Music for Universidad de los Andes as well as a Master in Arts Administration from Barcelona University and a Certificate in Corporate Social Responsibility from EAN University in Bogotá, Colombia.\

Rolando Sanz

Bethesda, Maryland, United States

2nd Year, 2025 Cohort

CEO & Producing Artistic Director, Young Artists of America

www.youngartistsamerica.org

Rolando Sanz is a visionary performing arts executive who works at the crossroads of the industry, bridging arts administration, production, education, and performance. With over two decades of experience in the field, he is a proven collaborator with a true multidisciplinary perspective and a reputation as an unflappable, hands-on leader.

Rolando has been the CEO & Producing Artistic Director for Young Artists of America (YAA) at Strathmore for the past decade, overseeing both the administrative and artistic operations of the nonprofit organization. His principal responsibilities include: global strategic planning, artistic programming, facilities management for multiple venues, fundraising and donor relations, master budget creation and oversight, fiscal reporting and annual audit, board development, and the recruitment and administration of over 80 staff members. As a result of his leadership, YAA continues to flourish and has quickly become one of the leading collaborative arts education organizations in the region.

With a specialized expertise in large-scale, multidisciplinary stage and television works, Rolando has been responsible for numerous innovative and successful productions, in collaboration with some of the leading performing arts venues in the region. In 2016, he commissioned and executive produced the world-premiere of a new concept opera by Broadway creative Andrew Lippa called I Am Anne Hutchinson / I Am Harvey Milk, starring Kristin Chenoweth at the Music Center at Strathmore. In 2017, he commissioned and executive produced a world-premiere television program with Maryland Public Television (PBS) called The Circle of Life: The Songs of Tim Rice, curated by Sir Tim Rice himself, which won an Emmy® award in 2018. Additional important regional productions helmed by Sanz include Songs for a New World with Jason Robert Brown, Children of Eden with Stephen Schwartz, as well as genre-bending premieres of West Side Story + Roméo et Juliette and Madama Butterfly & Miss Saigon.

Rolando also successfully navigated the pivot of all arts programming at YAA during the global pandemic to include a full array of virtual instruction as well as overseeing 14 complete digital productions in 2020-2021, including full film productions of Sondheim’s Into the Woods and Duke Ellington’s Sophisticated Ladies, the latter of which was in collaboration with six leading regional arts organizations from traditionally underresourced populations.

Besides his impactful work as an arts administrator and producer, Rolando has also had the privilege of performing as a principal artist for over a decade with some of the nation’s leading symphonies and opera companies, including The Metropolitan Opera (NYC), Carnegie Hall (NYC), Michigan Opera Theatre (Detroit), Spoleto Festival USA (SC), Florentine Opera (Milwaukee), Virginia Opera, Pacific Symphony (CA), Princeton Festival (NJ), as well as with most of the DC region’s performing arts organizations.

With a passion for arts education, Rolando has taught on the faculty of various arts training programs, including Teatro Nuovo (NYC), American University (DC), and Bel Canto in Tuscany (Italy). Rolando is a graduate of the Yale University School of Music, has sung the national anthem for the Baltimore Orioles Opening Day ceremonies since 2012, and currently serves as a judge for the Helen Hayes Awards.

Scott Watson

Charleston, South Carolina, United States

3rd Year, 2024 Cohort

Director of Cultural Affairs, City of Charleston

www.charleston-sc.gov/198/Office-of-Cultural-Affairs

Scott Watson is an arts and communications professional with over twenty-five years’ experience producing and advancing public appreciation of cultural events, having worked in close coordination with artists and arts organizations across a range of disciplines and scale.

As Director of Cultural Affairs for the City of Charleston, Scott leads a team of nine full‐time employees charged with producing large‐scale events (Piccolo Spoleto, MOJA Arts Festival), facilitating citywide public celebrations (Holiday Magic in Historic Charleston), and managing ongoing initiatives that enrich the community’s quality of life (Charleston Farmers Market, City Gallery at Waterfront Park). The Office of Cultural Affairs additionally serves as an advocate and resource for regional arts constituents, and publishes a comprehensive online and print calendar to cultural attractions in Charleston. A member of the City’s senior staff, Scott is responsible for guiding policy and advising the Mayor and executive office on issues impacting the creative sector and local artists.

Before moving to Charleston in January 2013, Scott was Marketing Director of Gluckman Mayner Architects, a New York City‐based architectural practice specializing in spaces for the creation and exhibition of art. Scott has previously worked for the Brooklyn Academy of Music and New York Theatre Workshop, and from 2001 to 2003, he was based in Ireland as Executive Producer of the Dublin Fringe Festival.

In the late 1990s, Scott worked with a varied roster of cultural and not‐for‐profit clients while an Account Executive at a boutique public relations firm, The Kreisberg Group, where his projects included national media campaigns for the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, The New 42nd Street/New Victory Theater, Roundabout Theatre Company, Signature Theatre Company, Aaron Davis Hall/Harlem Stage, and the renovation of Grand Central Terminal.

As a consultant and freelance publicist, Scott has worked on the planning and communications management of public events for The New York Times (Arts & Leisure Weekend, TimesTalks, Great Read in the Park) and for American tours by international performing arts ensembles and companies including the Bolshoi Ballet (Moscow), Gate Theatre (Dublin), Druid (Galway), and Théâtre de la Ville (Paris), with productions visiting venues and festivals including Spoleto Festival USA, Lincoln Center, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Shakespeare Theatre Company, and The Kennedy Center. In addition to his undergraduate degree from Wesleyan University, Scott holds a Masters of Arts in Eastern Classics from St. Johns College in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Shaza Ishak

Singapore

2nd Year, 2025 Cohort

Executive & Artistic Director, Teater Ekamatra

https://ekamatra.org.sg

Shaza Ishak is the executive & artistic director of Teater Ekamatra, where she leads the company’s strategy and vision and serves as the lead producer of its suite of artistic works. She believes in effecting social change through the art of storytelling on stage and is committed to forging progress for the ethnic minority arts scene and communities in Singapore and beyond.

Teater Ekamatra is dedicated to spotlighting and advancing artists of diverse ethnicities by creating engaging works that inspire, incubating emerging talent, and expanding diversity within the industry. Teater Ekamatra has been commissioned by notable international arts festivals and has won numerous accolades, including at Singapore’s highest platform for excellence in theatre, the Straits Times Life! Theatre Awards, where its awards have included Best Original Script several times.

In 2019, she graduated from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (UK) with an MA in Creative Producing with a triple scholarship, including the NAC Postgraduate Scholarship, as well as support from the BinjaiTree Foundation and the Trailblazer Foundation. She is a fellow of the Singapore International Foundation’s Arts for Good Fellowship; the International Society for the Performing Arts (USA); and the Eisenhower Fellowship (USA), the youngest fellow in its 68-year history.

In November 2021, she was conferred the inaugural Tunas Warisan (Special Mention Award) by the President of Singapore, Mdm Halimah Yaacob, in acknowledgment of her work in the Arts and Heritage sector. She is also an adjunct lecturer at Lasalle College of the Arts (BA Arts Management). 

Sydnie Liggett-Dennis

Brooklyn, New York, United States

3rd Year, 2024 Cohort

Executive Director, A.I.M by Kyle Abraham

http://aimbykyleabraham.org

Sydnie Liggett-Dennis is the Executive Director of A.I.M by Kyle Abraham, NY-based dance company founded by Artistic Director and MacArthur “Genius” Fellow Kyle Abraham. She joined A.I.M in 2019 and in a short time, she has re-organized the operations teams, re-set the strategic direction, and implemented operational efficiencies for a more agile organizational flow. In 2021, Sydnie was selected for Cause Effective's inaugural program for Executive Directors: Focus on Fundraising, building bridges across race, gender, experience within a cohort setting for peer learning. 

Sydnie's 10 years of experience in arts administration, management, and programming includes her previous position as the Director of Programs at Dance/USA where she activated the national network of dancers, choreographers and dance administrators through meaningful programs, networking, and educational opportunities. This included the production and curation of the organization’s signature event, the Dance/USA Annual Conference. 

Prior to her time at Dance/USA, Sydnie served as School Director of The School at the Mark Morris Dance Center in Brooklyn, New York. As School Director, Sydnie designed and managed many new programming initiatives. Among them, she created a curated Guest Artist Series to provide teens and adults exposure to the nation’s most prominent artists, along with an annual teacher audition process to address the lack of diversity in the teaching staff. Under Sydnie's leadership, overall student enrollment increased significantly as she additionally provided guidance and support to countless students, staff, interns, and teaching artists. 

Previous positions in non-profit include School Assistant of the Mark Morris Dance Center, Education Assistant and Programs Coordinator of Dance New Amsterdam, and member of Dance/NYC’s 2015-2016 Junior Committee. Sydnie has also worked in corporate America, providing client services to senior executives in biotech and pharmaceutical industries; connecting them with prominent thought-leaders for direct mentorship and counsel. Sydnie is a Magna Cum Laude graduate from The Ohio State University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance and a minor in Communications. Her enthusiasm as a performer has never wavered and for quite some time, she enjoyed dancing for various choreographers on the East Coast.