CELEBRATING WOMEN: Trailblazers & Emerging Leaders
Wednesday, February 10 5pm ET - The Panel
Kaisha S. Johnson
Kaisha S. Johnson is the Founding Director of Women of Color in the Arts (WOCA), a national grassroots network dedicated to creating racial equity in the performing arts. Kaisha co-founded WOCA to provide a platform to give voice and visibility to women of color, to help fortify leadership roles for arts administrators of color, and to reinforce a world where everyone has a seat at the table. Prior to her work with WOCA, Kaisha served as a program director at Center for Traditional Music and Dance for over a decade, organizing in NYC immigrant artist communities working to promote, preserve, and present performance traditions from around the world. With a strong commitment to facilitating culturally equitable programming, Kaisha has served as a consultant providing vision around curation, program development, and community integration.
She has consulted with countless organizations including Lincoln Center, The Apollo Theater, and Dance/NYC and has served on numerous grant panels including the NEA, USArtists International and MAP Fund. Working across the globe, Kaisha also serves as a thought partner providing consultation to organizations to help foster understanding about equity and race and their impact on organizational culture, structure, and systems. A love of community learning has led her to teaching positions at City University of New York and the Center for Bronx Non-Profits. A longtime resident of Harlem, NY, initially Kaisha got her start in her hometown of Houston, Texas as a classically-trained violinist. Ms. Johnson holds a Bachelor's degree in music from Hampton University, a Master’s in music business administration from NYU and has done post-graduate work in ethnomusicology. Kaisha has over 20-years experience as an arts manager and is a proud alumna of the Intercultural Leadership Institute. Ms. Johnson is a staunch advocate for the arts, believing in its innate ability to create social change.
Ritu Bhasin
President of bhasin consulting inc., is an award- winning speaker, author, and globally recognized expert in diversity and inclusion, women’s advancement, and authentic leadership.
Since 2010, Ritu has delivered leadership training, coaching, and advisory services across sectors, working with top organizations and senior leadership teams around the world to develop inclusive cultures. Ritu is known for her expertise in cultural competence, unconscious bias, and neuroscience strategies, and has coached hundreds of professionals, leaders, and executives to be more inclusive. A passionate advocate for authenticity, inclusion, and empowerment, Ritu has won numerous awards for her work, including the 2019 SABA Diversity Award and the City of Toronto’s William P. Hubbard Award for Race Relations in 2014.
Ritu’s Amazon-bestselling book, The Authenticity Principle: Resist Conformity, Embrace Differences, and Transform How You Live, Work, and Lead, was released in the fall of 2017. In the same year, Ritu also co-authored a ground-breaking research study, called Sponsor Effect: Canada, with the Center for Talent Innovation, which examines the experiences that people of colour, Indigenous peoples, and women have with advocacy and sponsorship in the workplace. Before founding bci, Ritu spent ten years in the legal profession, first as a civil litigator and then as the director of legal talent for a preeminent Canadian law firm. Ritu, who is also an avid yoga and mindfulness teacher and practitioner, lives in Toronto, Canada, but travels all over the world to eat, swim, hike, dance, and work.
To learn more about Ritu, visit http://www.ritubhasin.com. Follow Ritu on social media @ritu_bhasin.
Naila McKenzie Ross
Naila McKenzie Ross graduated from Harvard College, cum laude, in 2002 with an A.B. in East Asian Studies and after receiving a Fulbright Award to study and research in Okinawa, Japan, she went on to earn her J.D. from Harvard Law School in 2007. Theater has and always will be a source of joy and deep fulfillment for Naila and in 2004, she took a hiatus from law school to study classical acting at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. Naila began her legal career as a litigation associate at the New York City office of Debevoise & Plimpton and in 2011, left Debevoise to join a boutique law firm representing talent in film, TV and theater, led by Jodi Peikoff, which solidified Naila’s desire to work in entertainment law. In 2012, Naila joined the legal team of Disney Theatrical Group, the business unit of the Walt Disney Company responsible for the company’s Broadway, domestic and international live stage play business. As Director, Inclusion Strategies, Business Affairs & Legal Counsel, Naila’s work is extremely varied, serving as in-house counsel while also supporting diversity, equity and inclusion efforts throughout the business. Naila is also an active member of the Diversity and Inclusion Committee of The Broadway League and founded Disney Theatrical Group’s first employee resource group, Ensemble, in 2018. A health and fitness enthusiast, Naila is a certified Group Fitness Instructor and has taught Zumba at Equinox and New York Health and Racquet Club. @nailamckenzie
CELEBRATING WOMEN: Trailblazers & Emerging Leaders
The Panel
Susan Sloan
Susan Sloan is the author of A Seat at the Table: Women, Diplomacy, and Lessons for the World. She works for a global nonprofit advocacy organization in Washington, D.C. engaging with diplomats, government officials, community organizers, and international leaders. She has met with more than 60 countries through diplomacy, advocacy, and experiential education. At the age of 30, she completed a life goal of visiting all seven continents. Susan holds a master's degree in Global Strategic Communications from Georgetown University and graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor's degree in Journalism with a major in Public Relations and a minor in Spanish from the University of Georgia. Her passions include urban gardening, cooking, and traveling not in a global pandemic. You can learn more about her at susansloan.com
Aaliytha Stevens
Aaliytha Stevens is the Chief Operating Officer at SpotCo, the world’s leading full-service advertising, marketing and branding agency. She joined the company in 2002 as a member of the account services team and got her start managing brand and media strategy for Manhattan Theatre Club, Cirque du Soleil, and The Radio City Christmas Spectacular, to name a few. She went on to found the agency’s Direct Mail/Print Services department, a role in which she oversaw the list acquisition for mailers and the creation of printed materials for hundreds of Broadway shows. Seeing a need for greater organizational development within the company, Aaliytha would also go on to found the company’s Operations and Human Resources departments. Today, she is the highest-ranking person of color in the theatrical advertising industry. She is passionate about philanthropic giving, fair workplace practices, and equity and diversity in the industry: improving its statistics from the root up .In addition to spearheading Equity, Diversity & Inclusion initiatives for SpotCo and its clients, Aaliytha proudly sits on the boards of Black Theatre Coalition and New Heritage Theatre Group, and co-chairs the Multicultural Taskforce at The Broadway League, and is a member of their Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Committee. @aaliytha
WOCA
Women of Color in the Arts (WOCA) is dedicated to creating racial and cultural equity in the performing arts field, by promoting professional opportunities for arts administrators and providing a platform to give voice and visibility to women of color. By working to fortify leadership and reinforce a world where everyone has a seat at the table, WOCA aims to cultivate an inclusive field, one as varied in voice and perspective as the communities it serves. WOCA works diligently to move the conversation of racial and cultural equity forward with the intent of creating equitable systems for all to prosper inside and outside of the arts.