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JONATHAN HERMAN has been Executive Director of the National Guild of Community Schools of the Arts since 2004 and a staff member since 1995. At the Guild he has planned and managed national conferences, training and technical assistance programs, publications and special projects such as Creative Communities, a national initiative to foster the development of arts instruction programs in public housing communities. He was also the project leader for Partners in Excellence, a national initiative to identify and promote best practices in K-12 public school arts partnerships. Mr. Herman has also served as Program Director of the Rhinelander Center, an arts-based community center of the Children's Aid Society in New York City, and developed educational programs and materials at The New York Hall of Science. Mr. Herman holds an Ed. M. degree from Teacher's College, Columbia University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the State University of New York, Binghamton. He is a recent graduate of the Executive Level Program at the Columbia Business School’s Institute for Non-for-Profit Management and serves on the board of the National Music Council and the Steering Committee of the Arts Education Partnership.
KENNETH T. COLE was appointed Associate Director in 2008. He had served as Program Director since joining the Guild in September 2004. Since that time, Mr. Cole has played a key role in the development of many Guild initiatives, including the MetLife Foundation Partners in Arts Education Excellence Grant Program and "Creativity Matters: The Arts and Aging Toolkit." Prior to joining the Guild, he served for three years as Director of Advancement at the Levine School of Music in Washington, DC. From 1994–2001, Ken served as Executive Director of GALA Choruses, the arts service association of the lesbian and gay choral movement, where he established a series of new programs. Ken has also worked in the orchestral world, as Development Director for the Fairfax Symphony Orchestra from 2001 – 2004, and as a violist with orchestras in Louisiana, Philadelphia and Washington, DC. Ken holds a BM and an MM in viola performance from Oberlin College Conservatory and Louisiana State University respectively.
HANNA GYORY, External Affairs Coordinator, earned her B.A. in English literature at Marymount College in Tarrytown and holds an M.S. in teaching from Fordham University. She taught in public schools for several years, and has over fifteen years’ experience in the nonprofit and for-profit sectors. She was an administrative assistant, then grants manager in the education department of The Wallace Foundation in New York City. Hanna is committed to the core values of school-community collaboration and service-learning partnerships. As a dedicated volunteer, she was trained by her local PTA to participate in a program teaching art appreciation lessons in K-5 public schools. Hanna participates in annual community-wide fundraisers and manages a donor budget for small local charities.
HEATHER IKEMIRE, Director of Marketing and Communications, joined the Guild in June 2007. A Ph.D. candidate in Theatre for Youth, Ikemire has 10 years’ experience in community arts education as a practitioner and a scholar, including three years as marketing and public relations manager at the Madison Repertory Theatre in Wisconsin. She has led programs as a teaching artist in school and community-based settings, and has received numerous accolades as an instructor at Arizona State University’s School of Theatre and Film.Ikemire founded the arts-based civic dialogue project, Phoenix Speaks; her research on community arts education has been published in The International Journal of the Arts in Society and Perspectives on Public Affairs, among others. In 2006 she received the American Alliance for Theatre and Education’s Winifred Ward Scholarship for excellence in the field. She graduated from Vassar College with a B.A. in English.
JAY HOUSE SAMIOS, Program Manager, joined the Guild in October 2008. Before to coming to the Guild, Jay managed arts and business programs at Americans for the Arts, including overseeing the MetLife Foundation National Arts Forums Series, the Business Volunteers for the Arts program, and various aspects of the National Arts Marketing Project. Prior to this position, she was the manager of programs and outreach at The Field, an artist service organization where she coordinated more than 50 workshops a year, facilitated management workshops and artists' residencies, and was part of the team that initiated the Artists' Congress. She also has worked as membership manager at Advertising Women of New York and in marketing positions at the Wall Street Journal and Cybergrrl.com. In 2007, she completed the United Way of New York City and Baruch College's Nonprofit Leadership Development Program as a Junior Fellow, and has recently accepted a position as Co-Chair of their alumni committee. Jay is also active in New York City's Greek/Greek-American community, as an avid folk-dancer and curator for Queens Theatre in the Park's Greek Performing Arts Festival. Jay has also served as producer, company manager, stage manager, and costumer for several artists in NYC and has volunteered as a workshop leader and strategic planning committee member for the New York Writers Coalition . Her own writing has been published in Pitchfork, Long Island Quarterly, and LCD the magazine of WFMU radio. Jay graduated from Hampshire College with a B.A. in American cultural studies.
ANNIE WALKER was appointed Bookkeeper/Operations Manager for the National Guild in January, 2004. She previously served as part-time Bookkeeper for the Guild since April, 2002. Annie worked as Bookkeeper for both the Sanctuary for Families and the International Center of Photography, both in New York City. Annie served as Administrative Assistant for the Urban League of Bergen County in Englewood, New Jersey Her work experience also includes several positions in the for-profit sector. She received a diploma in Bookkeeping and Accounting from the New York School of Business and Certification from the Computer Career Training Center in Englewood, New Jersey.
CLAIRE WILMOTH, Administrative Coordinator, became a full-time employee in 2006. A Seattle native, Claire came to New York directly from the Chicago area after completing her Bachelor’s degree at Northwestern University, where she graduated with honors in 2005. While at Northwestern, Claire helped produce the Waa-Mu show, a nationally renowned, original musical revue by and for Northwestern students. She has held previous employment at Paul Allen’s Experience Music Project and as a teaching artist for the Experience Arts Camp, both in Seattle, WA.
