LEADERSHIP
Festival Team
Dale Heinen
Executive and Artistic Director
Jeffrey Pence
Co-Founder
Josy Jones
Associate Producer & Director of Community Building
Yazmin Maldonado
Operations and Communications ManagerÂ
Palmer Event Solutions
Production + Event Logistics
Jetpack Group
Website Design
CLE Consulting Firm
Accounting + Professional Services
Board of Directors
Jon Bloomberg
(President) Attorney,
Squire Patton Boggs
Luis Cartagena
(Treasurer) President/CEO, Cartagena CPA & Consultants, LLC
Dr. Felicia Phillips
(Secretary) Master Business Strategist and CEO Of PPICW
Amb. Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley (ex officio)
Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer, Dept. of State, United States Ambassador (Ret.)Â
Joe Cimperman
President, Global Cleveland
Rachel Costanzo
Director & Senior Consultant, The Acuity Group
Patrick Espinosa
Managing Partner, Sus Abogados LatinosÂ
Charlotte Fowler
Community Leader
Audra T. Jones
CEO, Krystal Klear Communications
Dan Moulthrop
Chief Executive Officer, City Club of Cleveland
Megan O'Bryan
VP, Development and President, Tri-C Foundation
Jenny Pykett
Senior Procurement Specialist
Rab Razzak
Palliative Care Physician and Internist, University Hospitals
Terry Stewart
Advisory Board, The Museum of Jazz & Art (Oakland CA); Advisory Board, The Louisiana Music and Heritage Experience; Former CEO and President, The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; Former President and COO of Marvel Comics 70
Founding Advisory Council
Fred Bidwell
Executive Director,
FRONT International
Raymond Bobgan
Executive Artistic Director,
Cleveland Public Theatre
Carrie Carpenter
SVP, Corporate Affairs
Huntington National Bank
Kathleen Cerveny
Poet, Artist, Arts Advocate,
Faculty member at Baldwin Wallace
Jason Drake
Education and Workforce Development,
Dan T. Moore Company
Itzik Giuli
Former Artistic Director,
Israel Festival
David Goodman
Partner, Squire Patton Boggs, (Ret.)
Former Board President at Playhouse Square
Roe Green
Arts Patron, Community Activist,
CEO of the Roe Green Foundation
Marvin Krislov
Former President of Oberlin College,
Current President of PACE Univ., NYC
Neil Mohney
Entrepreneur and Co-Founder,
NABER Capital
Nathan Motta
Artistic Director,
Dobama Theatre
Joy Roller
Fundraising Strategist and Grant Writer
Giovanna Sardelli
Director of New Works and New Works Festival at Theatre Works, Silicon Valley
Charna Sherman
Attorney, Philanthropist,
Civic Leader
Larry Simpson
Provost at Berklee College of Music, Boston
Founder of Tri-C Jazz Fest, Cleveland
Terrence Spivey
Former Artistic Director of Karamu House, Founding Director of Powerful Long Ladder, and Founder of the Tamir Reach Program
Gina Vernaci
President and CEO,
Playhouse Square (Ret.)
Graham Veysey
Developer and Entrepreneur,
Co-owner of Mancan
Thomas M. Welsh
Managing Director, Big Ears Festival
Pierre van der Westhuizen
Director, Gilmore Festival and Awards
Founder Bios
Dale Heinen is a director/dramaturge who has directed new plays in Chicago, Glasgow, Cleveland, New York and London, and has workshopped plays in Tokyo and Brazil. Her previous experience includes seven years as a dramaturge and then Artistic Associate at Soho Theatre in London’s West End. She also served on literary panels for leading London theatres and has judged international playwriting competitions. Prior to that, for seven years, Dale was co-Artistic Director of Footsteps, an equity theatre in Chicago, and was listed three times as one of Chicago’s “Best Directors” in the trade paper, PerformInk. Dale has directed over thirty professional productions; her work has been recognized by the Jeff Awards and After Dark Awards (both Chicago), and she was the recipient of the Arches Award for Directors (Glasgow). She has a BA from Northwestern University (Evanston, IL) and an MFA in theatre directing from Middlesex University (London), where she studied international theatre in London, Moscow, Madrid, and Bangkok.
Jeffrey Pence is a Cleveland-based filmmaker and screenwriter. He produced the award-winning feature Kitchen Hamlet. He co-founded the production company Art+Practice, whose web-based series of documentary shorts about ordinary, yet extraordinary, individuals in Northeast Ohio, The Amerikans, has become an international cult sensation, with viewers in over 135 countries (one million in China alone). Currently, Art+Practice is producing its first feature, Amerika, with principal photography in Japan already completed. Jeff is also writing scripts for future screen and stage projects. He is Professor of Cinema Studies and Chair of English at Oberlin College, where he cofounded the Cinema Studies Program and served as Director for five years. His writings on narrative and culture have appeared in prestigious journals and collections worldwide. Jeff’s play, Omena, was produced as part of Test Flight at Cleveland Public Theatre.