Board of Trustees
- Chair: Ann Brady – Atlantic Center for the Arts; New Smyrna Beach, FL
- Vice-Chair: Wayne Lawson – Ohio Arts Council; Columbus, OH
- Vice-Chair: Hunter O’Hanian – Anderson Ranch Arts Center; Snowmass Village, CO
- Treasurer: Paul Hogan – Milton, MA
- Sara Jane DeHoff – Perrysburg, OH
- Diane Frankel – Artists’ Legacy Foundation; San Francisco, CA
- Robert Goff – CPA/PFS; Providence, RI
- Jason Kalajainen – Ox-Bow; Holland, MI
- Leslie King-Hammond – Maryland Institute College of Art; Baltimore, MD
- David Macy – The MacDowell Colony; Peterborough, NH
- Roger Mandle – Rhode Island School of Design; Providence, RI
- Mark Masuoka – Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts; Omaha, NE
- Suny Monk – Virginia Center for the Creative Arts; Amherst, VA
- Dennis O’Leary – Djerassi Resident Artists Program; Woodside, CA
- Bruce Rodgers – Hermitage Artists Retreat; Englewood, FL
- Lowery Stokes Sims – The Museum of Arts & Design; New York, NY
Staff
Caitlin Strokosch, Executive Director
Caitlin has served the Alliance since 2002, first as event coordinator, and later in development, communications, and programming roles. She was appointed Executive Director February 1, 2008. Prior to joining the Alliance, Caitlin managed several nonprofit professional music ensembles in Chicago, and she worked for a PR firm specializing in nonprofit arts organizations, including the National Youth Orchestra Festival and the Stradivarius Society. She has received training in nonprofit management from the Chicago Nonprofit Financial Center and as a selected participant in the Arts & Business Council’s National Arts Marketing Project. Caitlin has lectured at Columbia College Chicago, Roosevelt University, Brown University, Roger Williams University, and the Rhode Island School of Design on a range of topics – from grantwriting to contemporary music to intersections of art and architecture. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in music performance from Columbia College Chicago and a Master’s in musicology from Roosevelt University, where her research focused on music as a tool for building communities of resistance and social dissent; and she was a PhD candidate in Ethnomusicology at Brown University.
Carla Wahnon, Operations Manager
Carla oversees all the daily workings of the Alliance office, correspondence, and procedures. Most recently, Carla served as Program Coordinator for VSA arts of Rhode Island, an arts and education organization dedicated to providing opportunities for children and adults with disabilities to actively participate in the arts; and as Folk Arts Program Associate for the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts. Carla earned a BA from Brown University, focusing on health and society, and a Master’s in Health Sciences from John Hopkins University, where she concentrated on maternal and child health. Carla continues to explore her creative interests in drawing, painting, creative writing, film, and music, and through Continuing Education Coursework in Drawing & Painting Studies at Rhode Island School of Design.
Russ Smith, Development & Program Manager
Russ joined the Alliance staff as Development and Program Manager in May 2008. A native Rhode Islander, Russ holds a Bachelor’s Degree in sociology from Providence College and a law degree from Georgetown University. He spent many years in public service as a legal aid attorney, concentrating in the field of housing law. He represented low-income clients in communities as diverse as Bridgeport, Connecticut and the rural counties of northern Kentucky. Russ has served on the boards of numerous nonprofit organizations, including the Rhode Island chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and the Childhood Lead Action Project. In 2004, he began to create and exhibit artwork, concentrating on found object assemblage and large-scale political art installations. With the support of project grants from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, Russ has mounted several ambitious gallery installations to date. Russ looks forward to serving and advocating on behalf of the field of artist residency programs, helping them deliver the "gift of time" to a diverse population of deserving artists.