Through a Call for Members in fall 2024, the Department of Arts and Culture has launched a re-designed leadership advisory body, to inform work of the Los Angeles County Arts Education Collective (Arts Ed Collective), the county-wide collective impact initiative that helps ensure every young person in LA County grows up with the arts. To learn about the history of the Arts Ed Collective, including its original advisory body, the Executive Committee (also known as the Leadership Council) please see our 20th Anniversary Celebration booklet.
The Leadership Circle helps to cultivate and foster a collaborative network that enables every young person in LA County to have access to the arts, while also supporting the adults who support youth. Grounded in the Arts Ed Blueprint, Leadership Circle members will participate in Quarterly Meetings and Community Engagements throughout the year.
Leadership Circle members bring a broad range of knowledge, expertise and experience in the fields of arts education and arts-based youth development. While they are organized on this page based on the Supervisorial District in which they live, they each bring a deep commitment to the many diverse communities across LA County.
For questions, information, or to connect with the Leadership Circle, please email LeadershipCircle@arts.lacounty.gov.
District 1
Jennifer Carroll is the Associate Director of Education at Inner-City Arts, where she has served since 2006 and currently specializes in educational theater and professional development facilitation. Her experience is broad based: she has been a professional actor, artist in school day residencies, after school enrichment teacher, day to day classroom teacher, audience enrichment facilitator for professional theaters as well as manager/supervisor of teaching artist staff and program creator. She is currently earning her certification as an Arts Integration Specialist.
Cristina Briskie-Wood has 14+ years of experience in fundraising and resource development for education and youth development with an emphasis on arts education, including her current role as Chief Development Officer at Heart of Los Angeles, a Los Angeles nonprofit whose arts programs reach nearly 1,000 young people each year.
Nathalie Sánchez (she/her) is a Los Angeles-based interdisciplinary artist, social justice arts educator, museum worker, and arts advocate. As an arts leader, she firmly believes in the transformative power of arts education, community, and mentorship. Over the past two decades, Nathalie has designed, developed, and led visual arts, museum education, and professional development programs at artworxLA, Fowler Museum at UCLA, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA), P.S. ARTS, the Vincent Price Art Museum (VPAM) and more.
District 2
Albert Lord is committed to building awareness of the contributions African Americans have made to cultural, political and entertainment fields. He brings a broad background in entertainment producing radio programming like the PSA ‘Dictionary Rap' for First Lady Barbara Bush's National Young Readers Day.
Giovanna Federico has been working in art education for 21 years. During that time, she has worked with underserved and English Language Learner (ELL) youth developing plays and films based on their personal stories. She is currently the Executive Director of Enrichment Works which performs professional plays for youth connected to their curriculum. The plays are often centered around social justice.
As an emerging artist, Lingaire Ofosuhene often seeks to explore the human condition by reconnecting with childhood play, drawing attention to the impacts of climate change and the parallel loss between nature and our fading sense of wonder. Thus, her work often utilizes abstract environmental landscapes and storybook silhouettes to reconnect with the rudimentary perspective of a child, in which exploration overcomes ignorance, and existence feels like a series of interesting guesses.
District 3
Jaime Balboa is a writer of poetry and prose. Trained as a secondary English teacher, he serves as executive director of 826LA, a nonprofit dedicated to unlocking the creative power of writing in the lives of Los Angeles' public school students. An open water swimmer, much of his inspiration comes to him in the waters of the Pacific.
Jonathan Bijur has worked in arts education for over 20 years, in museums, libraries, and community organizations. He is a passionate advocate for art-first STEAM education, particularly around the links between art and engineering, the importance of risk-taking in childhood, and open-ended play and exploration for all ages. As Executive Director of Rediscover, LA's leading sustainable maker education organization, he helps to serve 14,000 youth per year with hands-on creativity education.
Gustavo Alberto Garcia Vaca is an interdisciplinary visual artist/writer and arts educator. His artwork is in the Collections of MoMA New York, LACMA and the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. As an Arts Educator, Gustavo creates art experiences for museums and arts organizations including LACMA, MoCA, the California African American Museum, Self Help Graphics and artworxLA.
District 4
Dr. Ifunanya Nweke, Ed.D., is an Empowerment Engineer and a leading advocate at the intersection of entertainment, education, workforce development, and disability advocacy. As the Founder and Executive Director of Jazz Hands For Autism, she has pioneered tech-enabled pathways for neurodivergent musicians, fostering access to arts education, employment, and industry opportunities. Under her leadership, Jazz Hands For Autism has served hundreds of neurodivergent individuals nationwide, creating employment pathways and generating over $50,000 in earnings for neurodivergent creatives.
Joshua Ramirez is a brown-indigenous social practice artist, curator, and cultural practitioner that works and resides in Los Angeles County. Using his own mental Illness and disability as a platform for systemic change, he has successfully started his own non-profit (501c3) that merges advocacy and art. Saint Remy Arts & Culture, provides transformative and cultural spaces for individuals with mental illness, PTSD, and suicidal thoughts through the creative process of art and creation.
Nancy Woo has worked with the Long Beach Public Library for many years, and since January 2024, has had the pleasure of designing the Long Beach Youth Poet Laureate program and mentoring a cohort of talented poets. She has also led a STEAM summer program, taught poetry to 5th graders with Angels Gate Cultural Center, led an after-school poetry class with the nonprofit Strength-Based Community Change (SBCC), and been a guest teacher to various high school English classes.
District 5
Melanie Buttarazzi is a professional dancer, choreographer, and arts educator with over a decade of experience in arts-based youth development. As the Founder and Executive Director of Fostering Dreams Project, she has designed and led dance programs that empower foster and system-impacted youth across Los Angeles County. Her work integrates trauma-informed arts education to promote social-emotional growth, healing, and self-expression.
Jantré Christian is a community-engaged, culturally responsive artist educator and public school administrator. She leads Arts Education instructional programs and initiatives for the LA Unified School District and previously served as the principal of Grand Arts high school (Cortines School of Visual and Performing Arts) in Downtown, LA. As a certificated Theatre teacher, Jantré has taught elementary, middle, and high school students and coordinated district-wide theatre, film and music programming with creative industry partners.
Veronica Popovic is a Chicana/Latina arts advocate and scholarships expert, born and raised in Los Angeles County, dedicated to expanding access to arts education for underserved communities. For over 19 years, she has helped first-generation, low-income students secure scholarships for college. She managed scholarship programs at multiple universities in Southern California and currently serves as a Special Consultant for the Scholarships Office at California State University, Fullerton.