Oversight of SAIC’s westside campus for all program development, implementation, evaluation and reporting functions. Entrepreneurial role, entailing design and impactful community-based collaborations, creating opportunities for strategic partnerships and growth. Wore multiple hats in advancing SAIC’s mission: securing local and national grants, developing art interventions, engaging youth, organizing exhibitions and conferences, recruiting, training, and building effective teams. Program managed several ‘first- time’ and other innovative initiatives with successful outcomes.

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• Elevated SAIC’s profile both locally and globally through innovative and entrepreneurial initiatives.

• Conceived, implemented, and raised $150k for a 3-year arts education program to engage Westside teens

  in their urban environment; built partnerships with community activists, CDOT, & the City of Chicago.

• Led and directed in its entirety, the ‘Creative Lab for Cultural Leaders’ - an Executive Arts Leadership

  program annually supporting 12 Arts leaders from the Midwest.

• Partnered with Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting; designed prestigious multi-year public programs and

  implemented photography workshops involving Pulitzer photojournalists and SAIC faculty for incarcerated

  youth at the Illinois Youth Center.

• Program managed from A-Z, an ambitious venture ( RE-TOOL 21) aimed at groups historically

  underrepresented in art preparation; ensured participants secured gainful employment in the sector.

• Transformed 6 vacant city lots into a food forest and an urban agriculture classroom; a multi-year collaboration with Westside High School CCA Academy. Today PermaPark is a thriving food & educational resource with over 70 food-bearing trees.

• Earned appreciation from the redoubtable cellist Yo-Yo Ma; designed revitalization efforts at a westside community park fusing collaboration between neighbors and students for tree planting and music exchange with participation from Mr. Ma.

• Played an integral role in planting several 100s trees fostering environmental and racial justice through fundraising partnerships and community engagement.

• Instrumental in creating ‘Peace Park’- an outdoor community space dedicated with trees to children lost to gun violence.

• Project managed community-engaged programming on the South and West Sides for the Chicago presentation of ‘Dimensions of Citizenship’: the official US entry at the Biennale Architettura 2018 in Venice, Italy.