For over 25 years, Susan Oetgen has worked as an arts manager, educator and independent consultant for a variety of government and nonprofit arts organizations. As founder and principal of ArtsAspire Consulting, Oetgen is especially proud of codesigning and directing a multiyear, multimillion-dollar public-private partnership on behalf of the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, E.A. Michelson Philanthropy and state arts agencies, which advanced creative aging programs for thousands of older Americans in communities across the country. In 2024, Oetgen graduated from Lesley University with a master of arts degree in clinical mental health counseling: expressive arts therapy. She currently works as a behavioral health therapist in the field of integrative psycho-oncology.
Heather Ikemire is the executive director of Lifetime Arts, a national leader in creative aging training, advocacy and field building. Drawing on more than 20 years of experience in nonprofit leadership, arts education and multisector coalition building, she brings artists, educators, health and human services professionals, and community leaders together to advance more just, connected and age-inclusive communities. Ikemire previously served as chief program officer of the National Guild for Community Arts Education, where she led the multiyear Catalyzing Creative Aging initiative, helped launch the field-defining publication Creativity Matters: The Arts and Aging Toolkit, and directed the Guild’s leadership of the Creative Youth Development National Partnership. At Lifetime Arts, Ikemire has convened national and international leaders through initiatives such as the International Creative Aging Summit, and is currently leading the organization’s policy and advocacy work to establish creative aging as a core component of healthy aging policy plans. This work is guided by Lifetime Arts’s newly released policy brief and action plan framework, Creative Aging in the Healthy Aging Ecosystem: Advancing Brain Health, Social Connectedness, and Livable Communities. Heather holds a PhD in theatre for youth from Arizona State University and a BA in English literature from Vassar College. She is an elected school board member in New Hampshire.