Our Team
From left: Emma Edy Morris, Marketing Fellow; MJ Martinez, Marketing Associate; Eleanor Kipping, Marketing Manager; Aaron L. McKinney, Executive Director; Deborah Cowell, General Manager; Brandi Webb, Program Manager; Masud Grant, Grant Administrator; Robyn Ayers, Program Associate. Image by Mel D. Cole
Just like our artists, Hi-ARTS takes pride in our team of passionate arts administrators who are excited to support the development of new work. And just like our artists - we know just how much work and dedication it takes to produce. The entirety of the Hi-ARTS team is professional working artists.
Leadership
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Born on Cherokee Land (Greenville, SC) and presently residing on the Land of the Lenape people (Brooklyn, NY), Aaron L. McKinney is an Arts Administrator and Producer. Grounded in two decades of experience in the field of theater, McKinney brings his wealth of knowledge, experience, and value-centered expertise as a collaborative innovator and producer as evidenced by previous positions at world-renowned institutions such as the Stella Adler Studio of Acting, Sankofa.org, 651 ARTS, and Center Theatre Group.
Aaron obtained his Bachelor of Arts in Theatre Performance from Florida A&M University and Master of Fine Arts in Theatre Management from the prestigious California Institute of the Arts. McKinney’s professional leadership in performing arts and producing purposely centers the dialogue that has always existed between the arts and social justice activism, highlighting how the intersection of these worlds serves as a vessel for addressing some of our most pressing social issues.
General Management
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General Manager
Deborah Cowell is a product of the New York public school system, first grade through graduate school. She is an editor, writer, and digital artist. Working primarily with black and white photography, video, and film, Deborah has had recent work commissioned by the University of Michigan School of Musical Theater and Dance, Hi-ARTS, and the American Opera Project. Her work has been featured by the Weeksville Heritage Center, Judson Memorial Church, The Downtown Alliance in collaboration with en Garde Arts and The Tank. She has worked in Collaboration with Harlem's While We Are Still Here organization to assist in the preservation of the legacy of Harlem. She lives in Brooklyn.
Programming
Marketing and Communications
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Marketing Manager
she/theyEleanor Kipping is a Brooklyn-based Artist, Educator, and non-profit Arts Administrator. In addition to her role at Hi-ARTS, she teaches at Parsons School of Design at The New School and is a Media Instructer at Brooklyn Free Speech (BRIC Media Labs). They also run Camp El, a Maine-based artist retreat. Her interdisciplinary creative practice explores the Black female experience in the United States through performance, photo, video, and installation.
Originally from Maine, they have a BS in Video and Entertainment Production from the New England School of Communications (2007), an MFA in Intermedia from the University of Maine (2018), and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 2018. She was a participant in the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Governors Island COVID-19 Response Residency, the 2019 Creative Practices Artist in Residence at the School of Visual Arts, was a Co-Curator for the 2020-21 Yellow Fish Durational Performance Festival and was a 2023 Artist in Residence the Center for Performance Research. They have shown work at the Portland Museum of Art, Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Five Myles Gallery, The Shed, and more.
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Marketing Associate
they/themMJ Martinez is an LA native and Brooklyn-based multimedia artist, working under the handle @thedeathoficarus. They received their BA in Communication Arts and Digital Media from St. Francis College. MJ specializes in collage art applied across various mediums, including shrines, zines, and digital artwork.
Currently developing a digital zine (working title: reflections of someone’s past), their work intricately weaves social media posts, poetry, screenshots, and photography to explore the themes of queer Latine identity and self-love for survival. With a deep commitment to documenting and archiving lived experiences, MJ’s work preserves the nuances of both personal and collective histories.
Development Consultant, Advance Collaborative
Business Optimization Consultant, Lucille Lortel Theatre
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Interim Program Manager
they/themRobyn Ayers (they/them) is a movement artist, facilitator, and writer living on occupied Lenape land (Harlem). They hold a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Fordham University and The Ailey School, which they obtained summa Cum Laude with Majors in Dance and Philosophy. Robyn’s artistic career takes them through formal stage production, site-specific installation, and film production: wandering around the intersection between classical modern and gestural contemporary impulse. Prominent credits include Ben Stamper’s short film Stay With, Katherine Maxwell’s stage production Prism, and Jacolby Satterwhite’s film installation An Eclectic Dance to the Music of Time at Lincoln Center.
Beyond the stage, Robyn works in instructional design, writing and facilitation, and arts administration. Their professional ethos is grounded in the importance of honesty and empathy intertwined, with the challenge of actively decolonizing the production, consumption, and judgment of information. Outside of work, they can often be found hovering over a soup pot or sitting by the ocean with their nose in a book.
Our Board
As we expand our capacity and community, we are excited to grow our board. Are you or is someone you know looking for ways to be more involved in your community, support a vital Black-led organization, and amplify the creative work of artists and communities of color while contributing to the fight for social and racial justice? We welcome expertise and fresh ideas from all industries. If this is exciting to you, email aaron@hi-artsnyc.org and our Board Development Committee will quickly be in touch.
As we expand our capacity and community, we are excited to grow our board.
We welcome expertise and fresh ideas from all industries. If this is exciting to you, email aaron@hi-artsnyc.org and our Board Development Committee will be in touch.
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Reginald “Reggie” Booker is Director of Commercial / Multifamily Research at the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). In this role, Reggie handles MBA’s research on the commercial and multifamily real estate markets. His work covers the macro-economy, commercial and multifamily property markets, commercial and multifamily real estate finance, servicing, mortgage banking benchmarking, and more. Reggie also oversees MBA’s commercial peer business roundtables including CFOs, CTOs, Marketing, and HR heads. He also leads special MBA projects, including its Commercial Real Estate Finance Careers and helps with MBA’s Diversity and Inclusion program.
His work on the commercial real estate finance markets is regularly cited in the media, on Capitol Hill, and in regulatory settings. Reggie received a BA in Business Administration and Information Technology from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA.
Image courtesy of Reginald Booker
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Board Treasurer
she/herRegina Chan is a Managing Director, Head of Data Platform for Corporate Technology, at JPMorganChase. With deep expertise in data architecture, distributed systems, and analytics, she leads high-performing teams to deliver resilient, high-throughput platforms that power critical business functions. Known for her strategic mindset and inclusive leadership, Regina cultivates cultures of technical excellence and innovation.Regina holds an MS and BS in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.
Image courtesy of Regina Chan
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Lauren DeGeorge is Chief Client Officer at the independent design and technology firm, Huge. She has 15 years of advertising, marketing, and consulting experience leading experiential, commerce, campaign, and transformation work on behalf of clients such as Labcorp, Samsung, Cartier, Pfizer, Baccarat, Starwood Capital Group, Morgans Hotel Group, Marc Jacobs, Giant Eagle, and Godiva.
She was Sr. Vice President, Client Services at Edelman Digital; prior to that, she was a Client Partner at Publicis Sapient, where she was on the NY Office Leadership Team as well as the Steering Committee for the Women’s Leadership Network. She has also held account leadership roles at POSSIBLE (now Wunderman Thompson), HeBS Digital (now NextGuest), and French Connection Films in Paris, among others.
Lauren has spoken at marketing and women’s leadership conferences and is a published author on a range of topics such as luxury brand websites, digital inventory distribution, and culture. She speaks French and is passionate about diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Lauren holds a BS cum laude in Advertising from Boston University’s College of Communication, where she was the commencement speaker. She lives in Harlem and loves HIIT and yoga, theater and poetry, coffee, Converse, and culture.
Image credit: Kipp Jarecke-Cheng
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Board Co-Chair, 2023-Present
she/herSarah Keech is Vice President and Senior Counsel at American Express, where she leads commercial product and brand strategy legal teams. Sarah has extensive experience advising on payment systems and complex cross-border transactions, with a particular interest in Japanese investments in Latin America.
Sarah earned both her BA in Japanese and her law degree from the University of Michigan. She earned her Master’s in Epidemiology and Global Health from Columbia University and spent time with Fiocruz in Rio de Janeiro focusing on access to healthcare among marginalized populations. Sarah also serves as Vice Chair of the Board of Manhattan Legal Services, one of the largest providers of free civil legal services in the United States.
Image credit: Brenda Yoo
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Farrah Holder has over 16 years of marketing, business development, and financial experience, and she is Director at IMB Development Corporation. Most recently, Ms. Holder co-founded and is the President of ThinkNXT Marketing, a boutique marketing firm focused on developing and executing marketing and business development strategies for small to medium-sized businesses.
Ms. Holder began her career as a financial analyst at Morgan Stanley in the Investment Banking division, then moved to the Strategic Ventures and Investment group where she focused on providing operational and financial due diligence for venture investments in the online space. After pursuing her MBA, Ms. Holder joined Time Inc. as a Marketing Manager for Sports Illustrated. Ms. Holder then joined Rodale as the Director of Strategy and Business Development where she structured and negotiated seven partnership agreements with Fortune 500 and startup companies.
In addition to Hi-ARTS, Ms. Holder serves on the board of the Animal Protection League. Ms. Holder has a BS in Commerce from the University of Virginia in Finance and Marketing and an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in Marketing and Entrepreneurial Management.
Image credit: Farrah Holder
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Board Secretary
she/herZenobia Lockhart is originally from Oakland, CA. She earned her BS from Carnegie Mellon University in 2009. She successfully completed a dual degree program in 2013 at UCLA School of Law earning her MA and JD.
Immediately after law school, she found work as a volunteer attorney. At the National Center for Youth Law, she primarily researched and wrote a literature review on implicit bias in the juvenile justice system. She then was a volunteer attorney representing minors in delinquency court with the East Bay Children’s Law Office. She moved back to Los Angeles, where she worked at Children’s Law Center, representing children in the dependency court system. After two years, she moved on to work at Los Angeles Dependency Lawyers. As a staff attorney she managed an average caseload of 180 cases with daily court hearings, and as a Senior I Attorney she covered or substituted for one or more staff attorneys and first-chaired more complex cases.
In April 2019 she moved to Germany with her husband, who serves in the U.S. Air Force. In September 2021, she started as an inaugural Overseas Military Spouse Fellow with the Veterans Legal Advocacy Group (VetLAG) representing veterans in benefits appeals.
Zenobia continues to be an active member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. since 2007. She also is a board member of the National Black Women’s Creative Cooperative, which launched in March 2022.
Image credit: Simeon Lockhart
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David G. Luther, Jr. is Of Counsel at the global law firm of K & L Gates LLP, where he has practiced in the corporate and securities areas since 1976. He has extensive experience in mergers and acquisitions and corporate governance, and he also works with emerging growth and venture capital companies.
David graduated summa cum laude from Duke University and received his law degree cum laude from Stanford Law School, where he was the Book Review Editor of the Stanford Law Review and an Editor of the Stanford Journal of International Studies. He has repeatedly been recognized as a Texas Super Lawyer by Law and Politics Magazine and Texas Monthly and named one of the Best Lawyers in America.
He is an alumnus of the Dallas Business Council of the Arts and is active in a variety of civic groups, currently including board positions for Theatre Three, the Dallas All Sports Association, and the Dallas County Coalition of Community Justice Agencies. He also currently serves on the Legal Committee for the Perot Museum of Nature and Science and on the Campaign Advisory Board for the American Journey Experience, an American history museum in the planning stages to be located in North Texas. David is an Eagle Scout and is proud of his two children and six step-children.
Image courtesy of David. G. Luther Jr.
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Board Chair, 2017-23
she/herConstance Mortell is an Associate Producer for Off Broadway Touring, the Emmy-nominated film director/producer of Prairie Tides, an early financial backer of the Oscar-winning short Saving Face, and the Oscar-nominated documentary Writing with Fire and Executive Producer of the TV pilot The Abandon. She has produced numerous award-winning shorts, including Make the Change and This Old Church, and she has been a financial supporter of independent documentaries including Mother: Caring for 7 Billion, Open Sesame – the Story of Seeds, and Nelson Algren: The End is Nothing, the Road is All. Currently, she is in pre-production on a documentary entitled MoreThanAFilm about the Black List.
Constance received a City of Chicago Public Service Award for her achievements while on the executive staff of the President of the Chicago Transit Authority, and she garnered a National Trust for Historic Preservation Award while serving as Executive Director of the Holy Family Preservation Society. She holds a Master’s Degree in Urban Planning and Policy from the University of Illinois and a Bachelor’s Degree in English Literature from the University of Colorado.
Image courtesy of Constance Mortell
Board Member Emeriti
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Board Member Emeritus; Co-Founder, Hip-Hop Theater Festival
she/herKamilah Forbes is an esteemed award-winning director and producer for theater and television. She co-founded the Hip-Hop Theater Festival and currently serves as the Executive Producer at the World-Famous Apollo Theater in Harlem.
This Howard University alum has won awards for both directing and producing, including the 2019 NBTF Larry Leon Hamlin Producer Award and an NAACP Image Award. Kamilah’s directing credits include Between the World and Me, By the Way, Meet Vera Stark, written by Lynn Nottage, Blood Quilt written by Katori Hall, and Sunset Baby written by Dominique Morrisseau. She has produced several works for television, most notably the seventh season of the Tony Award and Peabody Award-winning series Russell Simmons presents Def Poetry on HBO. Her most recent directorial work, Between the World and Me, aired as a special event on HBO and HBO Max in November 2020 to critical acclaim. In addition to her work at the Apollo Theater, Kamilah is set to direct the Broadway premiere of Soul Train alongside Questlove, Dominique Morrisseau, and Camille A. Brown.
Image courtesy of Kamilah Forbes
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Board Member Emeritus; Co-Founder, Hip-Hop Theater Festival
he/himClyde Valentín is a Creative Producer, Cultural Entrepreneur, and Strategist. He has over twenty years of executive experience managing start-up organizational environments, multidisciplinary projects, and live events.
During his time at the Hip-Hop Theater Festival (HHTF), Clyde served as the inaugural Executive Director, and supported the transition of the Hip-Hop Theater Festival from an annual project into a year-round 501©3 arts organization. After HHTF’s 10th Year Anniversary, he also oversaw the rebranding effort from HHTF to Hi-ARTS and the move to East Harlem, opening its first location – a 700-square foot storefront Studio/Gallery space on 100th Street, around the corner from Artspace PS109, the current home of Hi-ARTS.
Image courtesy of Clyde Valentín