Explore Our Impact Map
Photo Credit Ceylon Mitchell
Creative West is governed by a diverse board of up to 25 trustees from states in the West. Among them, six are state arts agency executive directors, and the remaining 19 are community members from the region. Each state must be represented on the board of trustees, as stated in our by-laws.
Currently, there are four Creative West board committees: the Executive Committee, the Board Governance Committee, the Equity and Inclusion Committee, and the Finance and Investment Committee. According to our bylaws, all members of Creative West committees and officers are appointed by the Creative West Chair. Appointments to committees are for a one-year period and are renewed at the discretion of the chair. The officers serving on the Executive Committee serve for a two-year period. The Executive Committee also has “at large” members who serve one-year renewable terms.
The Executive Committee is composed of the four officers of WESTAF and up to three at-large members. The committee manages the work of the trustees between gatherings, determining when business needs the full board’s attention between meetings. The Executive Committee leads in the annual budget review process and also in the evaluation of the executive director.
The Board Governance Committee recruits and vets candidates for board service, collaborate with the WESTAF chair, develops a slate of officers (every two years) and a slate of at-large members of the Executive Committee (every year), conducts an annual survey to fine-tune board business processes, oversees the orientation of new members of the Board of Trustees, and to identify areas where the board may require additional orientation. The Board Governance Committee meets in conjunction with each in-person meeting of the WESTAF trustees. It also meets via telephone conference call approximately three times throughout the year.
The Equity and Inclusion Committee is composed of voices from within and beyond the Creative West region who have been appointed to the committee by the Creative West chair, largely outside of the board of trustees. , Led by luminaries, this committee champions multicultural leadership in the arts through visionary projects among leaders of color in the arts. Established in 1992, the Committee has played a leading role in the diversification of the board and staff of Creative West.
The Finance and Investment Committee blends the expertise of at least three Trustees appointed by the Chair in tandem with the Executive Committee. The Committee oversees financial reporting, controls, compliance, financial planning, budgeting, internal audits, investment policies, and risk management. It reviews and recommends financial statements, budgets, investment opportunities, and risk mitigation strategies, ensuring effective internal controls and compliance. The Committee also handles auditor selection and audit review, assesses capital structure and allocation plans, and monitors financial risks to ensure Creative West’s fiscal health.
As CEO of California’s statewide arts advocacy organizations since 2018, Julie has worked to increase the legislative clout and visibility of the arts and culture communities by building coalition across the for and non-profit sectors of California’s creative industries, producing a month long arts awareness and advocacy campaign every April, and fighting for resources and legislation to serve and protect artists and cultural workers. She serves as the California State Captain to Americans for the Arts’ National Arts Action Summit and on the State Arts Action Network Council and as the co-chair of the Western Arts Advocacy network for WESTAF. She is on the board of California Heritage: Indigenous Research Project, a founding member of the Nevada County Relief Fund advisory council and was elected to the Nevada County school board in November of 2020.
Over the years, Julie has owned a fine arts gallery for emerging artists, co-founded Flow art fair — a satellite to Art Basel Miami Beach — opened a consulting firm Julie Baker Projects and curated an annual music series at the Crocker Art Museum. Earlier in her career she was President of her family’s arts marketing firm in New York City and worked at Christie’s Auction house before moving to California in 1998. Julie also served for eight years as the Executive Director of The Center for the Arts, a non-profit performing arts venue and California WorldFest, an annual music and camping festival located in Grass Valley, CA. She is the recipient of the inaugural Peggy Levine Arts & Community Service Award from the Nevada County Arts Council. And the 2021 Alene Valkanas State Arts Advocacy Award from Americans for the Arts, which honors an individual at the state level whose arts advocacy efforts have dramatically affected the political landscape.
Amber-Dawn Bear Robe (Siksika Nation) is Assistant Faculty of Art History in the Museum Studies department at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA), Santa Fe, NM and Fashion Show Program Director for the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts (SWAIA), Santa Fe, NM. As a Fashion Curator, her most recent exhibition is Art of Indigenous Fashion at the IAIA’s Museum of Contemporary Native Arts with two exhibitions in process, at the Autry Museum of the American West, CA and the Vancouver Art Gallery, B.C. Canada. Bear Robe achieved an MA in American Indian Studies and a second MA in Art History, both from the University of Arizona. Regional Emmys were awarded to Bear Robe, in 2020 and 2021, as producer for two documentary short films on Indigenous fashion. Publications include Indigenous Fashion: Each Garment Has a Story (Crystal Bridges, 2022) and Artseaucrats versus Bureaucrats: Indigenous Printmaking in Winnipeg, 1960s and 1970s (Plug-In Institute, 2021) She is an acting trustee for the Western States Arts Federation (WESTAF) board, CO, and the Wheelwright Museum board, NM
Lisa Becker is a fifth generation Nevadan, born and raised in Elko. She is the founder of ElleBee LLC, a communications and public relations consulting company. Lisa spent 13 years working for Newmont Mining Corporation in Nevada and Colorado, eventually becoming the Director of External Relations and Communications for the region. Her priorities included responsible corporate philanthropy and fostering meaning relationships with the rural communities. Lisa has always had a passion for the arts and was enthusiastic to join the WESTAF board in 2020. Since returning to Elko in 2007, Becker has been active in the community, including the Great Basin College Foundation, the McCaw School of Mines Foundation, and the Elko Area Chamber of Commerce. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Art from Hillsdale College and a Master’s Degree in Communications and Leadership from Gonzaga University.
Bassem A. Bejjani, MD is the Vice-Chair and Chair-Elect of Creative West, a US Regional Art Organization (USRAO) that supports creativity in the West and beyond. He is the Chief Strategy Officer of Metis Genetics, a company dedicated to telegenetic medicine and genetic counseling. He also serves as Vice-President of the Board of CARAVAN, a non-profit dedicated to peacebuilding through the Arts. Dr. Bejjani is an art advocate who has served on the boards of many art organizations including, the Washington State Arts Commission (ArtsWA), the Spokane Symphony, the Henry Art Gallery and Northwest Folklife among others. A pediatrician and medical geneticist by training, Dr. Bejjani’s long career in academia, research, teaching and entrepreneurship inspired his interest in arts and science education and in the role of art in enhancing creativity, learning and critical thinking.
Teniqua Broughton is a champion for the equitable accessibility and the advancement of arts education for all people. By leveraging her leadership, compassion, strategic planning, and action, Broughton has served in multiple capacities to advance her mission. She has extensive experience serving on regional and national panels around diversity and inclusivity initiatives. Broughton is committed to advocating on Capitol Hill for education and the arts, and for House bills affecting our children. This solidifies Broughton as an agent for change in the arts education community. She recognizes that one must become actively involved in the decision-making process when striving to evoke change. For more than 10 years, Broughton has been committed to imparting her insights on board governance best practices to several arts education organizations, both locally and nationally. Broughton previously managed the Cultural Participation Department at Arizona State University (ASU) Gammage, the largest presenting organization in the Southwest. Broughton has contributed to the Live Nation Arts Education Task Force and serves as vice-chair of the Arts Learning Committee for the City of Phoenix Arts and Culture Commission. Although she leads with her heart, many have recognized her for her tireless work in the community and abroad. Her most recent recognition was the 2014 honor of being named Community Leader in Arts Education by the Arizona Community Foundation’s Black Philanthropy Initiative (BPI). Broughton holds a master’s degree in educational administration and supervision and bachelor of integrated studies in education psychology, with an emphasis in theater for youth. She is the founder and operator of Verve Simone Consulting, LLC.
Susan Garbett was born and raised in Los Angeles, CA to parents in the Arts and Entertainment industry. While attending the University of Utah, Susan volunteered for the 2002 Winter Olympics and her interest in operations and live event production was born. From 2004 to 2014, Susan served in ticketing and operation roles at Film and Comedy Festivals including Outfest LGBTQ Film Festival, Sundance, American Film Institute’s AFI Fest and HBO’s Comedy Arts Festival. In 2014 Garbett joined the opening team of The Theatre at Ace Hotel, developing partnerships and standard operating procedures for the new venue. As the General Manager she oversaw programming initiatives with partners such as CAP UCLA, The David Lynch Foundation and Goldenvoice. Some of her favorite events at Ace include Taylor Macs 24-Decade History of Popular Music, Seu Jorges tribute to Bowie, David Lynch’s Festival of Disruption and concerts featuring The Pixies, Patty Smith, Hannah Gadsby, Kamasi Washington, and Tim Minchin. In December of 2019, she joined Meow Wolf as the General Manager of The House of Eternal Return. Susan cares deeply about bringing art to everyone and creating spaces that transport audiences to fantastic realms of story and exploration.
Jayne Butler Goodman (pronounced Jay-knee) is an arts administrator, educator, and practicing new media artist based in Denver, Colorado. She served as an arts program officer with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation from 2018-2021 where she led grantmaking efforts in cities across the U.S. that connected people to place and to each other through arts and culture. In this role, she managed a portfolio of nearly $8M and over 40 grantees including individual artists and collectives, nonprofit organizations, and city and county arts and culture projects. During her tenure, she co-led the transition of the arts program strategy to focus solely on investments at the intersection of the arts and technology. Prior to joining Knight, Butler Goodman received her master’s degree in emergent digital practices from the University of Denver, where she studied art, design, culture, and technology. Her artistic practice blends tech with craft and she works in a variety of mediums including video, digital fabrication, and design. Her work has been shown across the U.S. and in South Korea. She joined the faculty of the University of Denver’s college of continuing and professional studies in January 2022, where she teaches art interpretation and communications courses with a focus on digital culture. She joined the board of Leon, a nonprofit art gallery located in Denver’s City Park West, in April 2022.
The Executive Director of the Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts (SFCA), Honolulu, Karen’s work at the SFCA is centered on developing and administering the foundation’s budget, planning, staff, board relations and serves as the liaison with the Hawaii State Legislature. Prior to assuming her position as Executive Director, Ewald served for 8 years as the Director of the Art in Public Places Program and Hawai’i State Art Museum at the SFCA and programs manager for education and exhibitions at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles from 2004-2013.
As a communications professional with an expertise in strategic positioning, media relations, and community engagement, Ann Hudner has been involved in the art and design conversation on multiple levels in various capacities. She previously served as director of communications at Ziba Design, a global innovation and design consultancy in Portland, Oregon. Hudner integrated the responsibilities of external communications and public programs at Pacific Northwest College of Art, where she was also responsible for the reorganization and elevation of the college’s communications function and public programs platform. Also, while in Portland, Hudner developed an art and design management consultancy, working with developers and architects as their business liaison to artists and designers, commissioning and installing local artwork for their properties across the country. Prior to this, Hudner led the External Relations Department at Rhode Island School of Design for 14 years, where she established their national media relations program and developed external collaborations to elevate the college’s influencer platform and global visibility. She has served as a board member of Design Museum Foundation and played an active role in their national expansion into Portland, OR; San Francisco, CA; and Chicago, IL. Additionally, with essayist and design journalist Akiko Busch, Hudner was co-editor on the publication, Szenasy, Design Advocate, a collection of writings by Susan S. Szenasy, Metropolis magazine’s former publisher/editor-in-chief published by Metropolis Books, ARTBOOK | D.A.P. With a master’s degree in journalism/news media management and a bachelor’s degree in business administration, she has been active for more than 30 years in developing strategic platforms, collaborative initiatives and complex partnerships working with artists, designers, socially progressive businesses, architects, developers, nonprofits, higher education, and the media. Hudner currently serves as a trustee for WESTAF (Western States Arts Federation), a regional nonprofit arts service organization dedicated to strengthening the financial, organizational, and policy infrastructure of the arts in the West.
As executive director of New Mexico Arts — the state arts agency — Michelle LaFlamme-Childs works to develop creative ideas to strengthen, evolve, and diversify programs at the agency while forging new partnerships to address the changing needs of artists and arts organizations across New Mexico. With her eye toward better serving rural and other historically underserved and excluded communities, LaFlamme-Childs and the New Mexico Arts team are exploring innovative ways to better address issues of access and equity in their grantmaking, public art programming, and field capacity-building efforts. An arts administrator for almost 20 years in both the private and public sector, LaFlamme-Childs also pursues her own creative practice as a poet, with one published chapbook and a book-length manuscript in the works and can be found spinning fresh beats as a radio DJ on local radio station 98.1 Radio Free Santa Fe. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English literature from the University of Massachusetts, a master’s degree from St. John’s College in Santa Fe, and hopes someday to complete her MFA in creative writing at the University of Texas, El Paso.
Over the past decade, Mack has managed some of California’s most innovative performing arts organizations, including: Joe Goode Performance Group, Invertigo Dance Theatre, The Industry and Watts Village Theater Company. As a Strategic Consultant, Mack’s clients have included the cities of West Hollywood, Santa Monica and Culver City, as well as Center Theatre Group and LA Dance Project.
During his four-year tenure as Managing Director of Watts Village Theater Company, the company tripled its annual operating budget, doubled the size of its Board of Directors and was awarded a Regional Theatre Tony Award. In addition, Mack produced four annual Meet Me @Metro festivals, featuring dozens of immersive, cultural performances on and along Metro trains and stations, storefronts and public spaces throughout East and South LA. Through Meet Me @Metro, Mack established partnerships with national funders, corporations, local vendors, government municipalities and collaborating performing arts ensembles.
Mack’s inaugural project as a Producer and Co-Founder was Chocolate City, an industry showcase connecting BIPOC writers and performers from institutions across Southern California to Hollywood agents, managers and casting directors. Since then, he has served on the Boards and committee leadership of several arts organizations, including the San Francisco Arts Alliance and Western Arts Alliance. Mack is currently a member of WESTAF’s Greater Bay Area Arts & Cultural Advocacy Coalition and Co-Founder of Artist Magnet and Artist Magnet Justice Alliance, Oakland-based arts service organizations.
Tony Manfredi joined the Nevada Arts Council as executive director in September 2017. Manfredi provides the strategic direction and leadership for the organization, assessing and overseeing current programming; optimizing business development opportunities for artists, arts organizations, and the public; representing the agency and state in regional and national forums; and managing the staff and budget housed within state government. His professional background combines 24 years of strategic planning, management, marketing, creative, and fundraising services for both local and international businesses and organizations. Manfredi is a graduate of the University of San Diego with degrees in communication studies and art. Previously, Manfredi was senior vice-president of content and marketing for Reno’s Public Broadcasting Service member station KNPB. During his time at KNPB, Manfredi helped manage steady revenue growth and reduced overall department expenses while analyzing the effectiveness of, and changing where necessary, past fundraising activities.
Adrian San Miguel is the Chief Program Officer for the Idaho Division of Career Technical Education in Boise. Originally from Texas, he is a music graduate from Baylor University and has spent the last 15 years working in higher education in Texas, Indiana, and Idaho. His career and passion have focused on serving special populations, nontraditional students, and diversity-related initiatives. In his current state level role, he provides state leadership for federal and related programs, student leadership career technical organizations, and program quality of CTE programs at the secondary and postsecondary levels. In 2018, he received a gubernatorial appointment to serve as a Commissioner to the Idaho Commission on the Arts (ICA). In addition to supporting the arts through ICA, he is an adjunct faculty at the College of Western Idaho, a two-year community college in the greater Boise metro area, teaching courses centered around popular music, jazz, and global music.
As Burning Man’s Director of Communications, Megan oversees the organization’s year-round communications team, which facilitates the flow of information to and from Burning Man’s founders, Board of Directors, volunteers, the media, and the broader public. Before joining the Burning Man staff in 2012, Megan spent ten years in the public and non-profit sectors working for environmental protection, HIV/AIDS prevention, political campaigns, and the United States Senate. Born and raised in Juneau, Alaska, Megan earned a Bachelor’s degree in English & Art History from McGill University in Montreal, Quebec.
Andrea Noble is the executive director of the Alaska State Council on the Arts (ASCA), appointed to the position in 2016 when the organization was pursuing legislation to become a public corporation. Previously, Noble joined the agency in 2006 to serve as ASCA’s Public Art and Visual Arts Program Director.
Her love for Alaska began when she moved from western Canada in 1998 with nine boxes and a work visa. She reestablished her ten-year career as an educator with the Anchorage School District and attributes her former position as Curator of Art Education at the Anchorage Museum of History and Art as a pivotal career opportunity that led her to Alaska’s State Arts Agency.
Raised to value diversity and cultural expression as essential to our existence, Noble studied French and Japanese languages and competed nationally in Tae Kwon Do. She holds two bachelor’s degrees: Arts Education from University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, and Honors Visual Arts from University of Western Ontario, London, Canada. She serves as an ex officio board member of the Alaska Arts and Culture Foundation whose mission is to support the Alaska State Council on the Arts.
Jess Peña is an artist and educator from Fairbanks, Alaska. Since 2016, she has served as the Executive Director of Fairbanks Arts Association, the local arts agency for Interior Alaska.
Across her roles as director at Fairbanks Arts, instructor of art appreciation courses at University of Alaska Fairbanks, and a designer of youth art courses, Peña focuses on increasing the accessibility of art concepts across generations. Through community-based work and beyond, she is an advocate for advancing arts support in Alaska. She currently serves on the statewide Arts Education Advisory Committee of the Alaska State Council on the Arts, a group dedicated to weaving networks, aligning policies, and increasing involvement in Alaska arts and cultures.
Peña’s work is motivated by the goal of shifting systems– utilizing the arts as a catalyst, translator, and space for possibility. She is grateful for the opportunity to further these efforts in her hometown, which is situated on the ancestral and unceded traditional lands of the lower Tanana Dene Peoples. Jess is looking forward to continuing this work as part of WESTAF’s board of trustees.
Denver native Brandy Reitter is the executive director of the Colorado Broadband Office and has 15 years of experience working in city management to build communities and improve economic vitality. She started her career in economic development working for the City and County of Denver and the District of Columbia in Washington, DC. Prior to Eagle, she was the Town Administrator for Buena Vista and supported art, events, and music in the Arkansas River Valley as an economic driver. She has served in various leadership roles that have helped communities accomplish Space to Create artist work live projects, art in public places, Creative Districts, downtown revitalization, and affordable housing. Having participated in WESTAF’s Emerging Leaders of Colorado in 2014, Reitter started her journey as an arts and humanities advocate at the state and federal level. In addition to her experiences in municipal government, Reitter received a master’s in public administration from the University of Colorado Denver’s School of Public Affairs in 2008. Brandy also serves on the Board of Directors for Downtown Colorado, Inc. and was appointed by Governor John Hickenlooper to serve on the Colorado Creative Industries Council. In her free time, Reitter enjoys the outdoors and likes to travel.
Brian Rogers is the Executive Director of the Oregon Arts Commission and the Oregon Cultural Trust. Rogers is a senior executive who leads the two organizations with a focus on strategic direction, financial stabilization, grant programs, community placemaking and economic development. His professional background includes serving as Deputy Executive
Director of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and as a planning consultant. He also is an artist and holds a master’s in fine arts from the Graduate School of Art at the University of Arizona.
Karmen Rossi is a Field Representative and Military and Veteran Affairs specialist for the U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming. Previously, Rossi was a field representative and state director for U.S. Representative Liz Cheney. In her position, she oversees a four county service area in which she interacts with business and community leaders, and assists constituents reaching out for assistance with federal agencies. Rossi is currently a board member and former director of the Wyoming Arts Alliance (WyAA), a statewide nonprofit arts organization that seeks to provide a voice and effective advocacy for the arts. At WyAA, Rossi oversaw the annual state block booking conference, Arts Advocacy Day and the general operations of the statewide organization. She has been a grant adjudicator for the Wyoming Arts Council’s Community Support Grants. Rossi was the Chairman for the Cheyenne Frontier Days Old West Museum Western Art Show and Sale, the museum’s largest fundraiser for operations. Her other nonprofit experience includes serving as interim executive director for the Wyoming Affiliate of Susan G. Komen, as a member of the education team for Laramie County United Way, and as program director for Girl Scouts of Montana and Wyoming. Rossi holds a bachelor’s degree in International Affairs, Italian, and Economics from the University of Colorado, Boulder.
Makanani Salā was born and raised in Hālawa, Oʻahu and spent her childhood studying hula. She holds a PhD in History from the University of California, Irvine and undergraduate and graduate degrees in Hawaiian Studies from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. She has worked in the education field for more than a decade at both the secondary and tertiary levels teaching Hawaiian language, mythology, hula, and the history of Hawaiʻi. Salā is also a Kumu Hula, having undergone traditional ʻūniki ʻailolo rites in 2016. She has traveled the world as a soloist and choreographer for
several productions and student tours. Most recently, Salā served as the Executive Director of the Mayor’s Office of Culture and the Arts for the City and County of Honolulu, where her office oversaw the Public Art program, Sister Cities and International Relations, cultural affairs, and special events. Currently, Makanani serves as Chief of Operations for Gravitas Pasifika, a strategic consulting and creative firm specializing in advisory, research, and creative services with a focus on Pacific Island worldview and content.
Kelly Stowell has been the executive director of the Center for Education, Business and the Arts since 2008 and also serves as the Kane County film commissioner. He is a native of southern Utah, where he grew up on a ranch in Parowan. Before relocating to Kanab, he was the executive director of the Utah Student Association with the Utah System of Higher Education. Stowell’s background includes stints in Washington, DC with United States Senator Orrin Hatch from Utah. Stowell earned a degree in business and psychology from Utah Valley University.
John Zirkle is the Founding Director of the Warren Miller Performing Arts Center, an internationally-award winning composer, and a nationally-honored music educator. Under John’s leadership, WMPAC has hosted over 325 programs to more than 80,000 patrons in a town of less than 4,000 full-time residents. As the key development officer for WMPAC, John has raised over $8 million for the arts in Montana by establishing strong relationships with public funding entities, private foundations, and individual donors. In his tenure at WMPAC, John has served as an expert panelist for the Montana Arts Council, the Cultural and Aesthetics Projects Committee for the Montana State Legislature, the Western States Arts Federation (WESTAF), and the National Endowment for the Arts. He has served in various director and officer positions on the boards of the Arts Council of Big Sky, the Montana Performing Arts Consortium, Montana Chamber Music, Arts Northwest, and he was the founding President of Roots in the Sky, a professional chamber choir based in Bozeman. In 2024, John was publicly elected to the Big Sky Resort Area District board of directors.
As an artist, John finds his inspiration from collective music-making. In 2008, he traveled independently for a year in Eastern Europe studying vocal ensembles and choral organizations in the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Croatia, and Estonia as a Thomas J. Watson Fellow. He holds certificates from the International Summer Academy of Music in Ochsenhausen, Germany and his composition teachers include Jan Jirasek, Ofer Ben-Amots and David Hykes. The highlight of his musical theater background was working alongside Emmy award-winning music director Michael Kosarin and Oscar award-winning composer Alan Menken with Disney on Broadway.
Since 2010, John has also been an active force on the local arts scene, directing, facilitating and producing over 60 theatrical and music productions with multiple organizations, several of which he has helped found from the ground up, including Big Sky Broadway, which currently serves more than 125 youth in Big Sky each year. A graduate of Colorado College and Montana State University, John is passionate about excellence in the arts and is grateful he can pursue both of his great loves—performing arts and outdoor recreation—in beautiful Big Sky.
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