Organizing for the Future

Change is most definitely in the air. As a new White House and Congress organize for the work ahead, we at NASAA are also organizing for our work ahead, shifting our organizational structure to meet the evolving needs of our state and jurisdictional arts agency (SAA) members, addressing internal management priorities and planting some seeds for long-term growth.

Organizing to devote more attention to priority member needs is at the top of our list, as member demand for NASAA services continues to increase. We’ve had 40 executive director leadership changes in the field since 2020, and some state arts agencies have seen multiple executive directors within the past five years. Further, members are dealing with increasingly complicated issues that require more sophisticated information and high level guidance from NASAA. We aim to meet the needs of SAA executive leaders.

We’re also focused on growing more leadership capacity across NASAA, positioning us for a stronger future. Small organizations like ours are often challenged by the need to create opportunities for advancement and leadership development for our teams. NASAA’s reorganization helps us address this challenge by offering new paths for team members to advance and grow their skills.

We’re also creating more bandwidth for resource development by dedicating two positions to this work, as well as strengthening critical operations office functions needed for NASAA to operate on a national scale and remain in state and federal compliance.

Here’s a look at how our reorganization has shaped up:

Executive Office

Kelly Barsdate joins us in the executive office as executive advisor, where she focuses on education, leadership development and technical assistance for SAA executive directors. She also provides critical support for state level advocacy.
Sue Struve, senior communications manager, also joins us in the executive office, overseeing communications to members, partners, colleague organizations, the public and the press.
Marisa Summers, assistant to the president and director of executive and board affairs, continues in her role in support of all executive office and board functions.

Programs and Strategy Office

Ryan Stubbs serves as chief program and strategy officer, where he oversees NASAA programs and services, including research and community learning.
Eric Giles, community learning director, directs the programs that boost SAA knowledge and skills, like Assemblies, Executive Forums and virtual learning services. He also coordinates peer group networks.
Mohja Rhoads is NASAA’s research director. In this capacity, she directs the collection, analysis and communication of data. She also provides direction for NASAA’s research team.
Nakyung Rhee serves as research manager, conducting data-driven research on SAA budgets and grants to inform SAA policies, funding decisions and planning.
Shaun Harrison is qualitative research manager. In this role, he monitors programmatic trends in the SAA field, documents SAA strategies and coordinates research communications.
Kelly Liu is senior data associate. She collects and maintains a database of federal grant-making reports from each state and jurisdictional arts agency and regional arts organization. She also creates data visualizations to help exemplify SAA investments and provides technical assistance to members in preparing their federal grant reports.

Operations Office

Sylvia Prickett continues in her role as chief operating officer, providing financial and operational leadership and heading the operations team.
Dora Shick is director of planning and membership, where she develops NASAA’s strategic plan and action plans in collaboration with leadership, staff and membership. She also leads efforts to improve member and staff engagement.
Niki Branch serves as operations manager, ensuring the smooth running of NASAA’s day-to-day office functions as well as supporting meetings and conferences.
Katie Hughes continues in her role as development manager, where she handles individual giving and supports foundation and corporate giving, the Development Committee, and NASAA’s Leadership Awards.
We’re currently engaged in hiring processes for a development director and an operations associate.

Team NASAA continues to benefit from the talents of our part-time contractors: Isaac Brown, legislative counsel; Susan Oetgen, arts learning projects director (creative aging); and Meghan McFerrin, arts education project manager (Professional Development Institute). Check out the full NASAA team.