The Board of Directors meets once a month and has governance, fundraising, and outreach responsibilities. All board members are extremely active in every aspect of the organization, and their combined experience in managing successful businesses and artistic enterprises provides the organization and studio with sound leadership and direction. Board membership reflects the rich diversity of Mount Rainier and surrounding communities. As part of their membership requirements, all board members must give annually to the organization. In addition, all board members are expected to secure financial commitments of a similar size from other sources and/or personal contacts. There is 100% board giving.
Deborah Mizeur (President; 2nd Term) is a professional staff member of the Ways and Means Committee, Subcommittee on Health. In this position, she works on all matters related to health policy, particularly initiatives to expand coverage. Previously, Ms. Mizeur worked with the Subcommittee on Health during the deliberations of the National Bipartisan Commission on the Future of Medicare. She also served as the Legislative Assistant for Health Policy for U.S. Senator Jay Rockefeller.

Miguel A. Gonzalez (Vice-President; 1st Term) served as the corporate spokesperson for Washington Gas, where he was responsible for maintaining media relations with English- and Spanish-speaking markets. Mr. Gonzalez currently works in the public relations department at the National Education Association.

Drew Fields (Secretary, 2nd Term) has spent the past nine years working in Washington, D.C. as a government relations specialist for the telecommunications industry. He operates his own lobbying business. Prior to entering the private sector, he was working on the Capitol Hill as an aide to Senator Rockefeller (D) of West Virginia.

Russell Nuzum (Treasurer; 1st Term) is a senior manager at Smith Bucklin, the world’s largest management company for more than 225 trade associations, professional societies, and government agencies. He is responsible for the financial operations for the Washington, DC office and manages monthly reporting systems to regional clients. Mr. Nuzum received his master degree in business administration in 2004 from the University of Tampa.

Brooke Kidd (Executive Director and Founder) is a choreographer, producer and dance educator. She has more than 15 years of experience in integrating her study of world performance traditions into a larger strategy for arts education and community development. She has performed, directed and taught nationally. Brooke is a former Mount Rainier City Council member and currently serves on the board of the Cultural Alliance of Greater Washington, D.C.

Ajax Joe Drayton (3rd term; sabbatical) is co-founder of Joe’s Movement Emporium. He created and performed dance and theater in the Washington metropolitan area for 14 years. He founded Ajax Moving Company as the vehicle through which he and fellow artists presented movement theater pieces and short dramas that employ props, language, gestures while relying heavily on movement and physicality.

Tom Coffin (2nd Term) works for the National Center for Supercomputing Applications and is the Alliance Liaison for Virtual Environments and the Technical Coordinator for the Alliance Center for Collaboration Education Science and Software in Arlington, Virginia. The Alliance (National Computational Science Alliance) is a group of over fifty institutions funded by the National Science Foundation expanding the need for high end computation and information technologies required by the U.S. academic community.
Latifah Alsegaf (2nd Term) is a program assistant in the Knowledge and Learning Services Division of the World Bank in Washington, D.C. She is currently the general manager for Gamelan Mitra Kusuma, an ensemble which draws together individuals from the Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. communities devoted to the study and presentation of music and dance of Bali, Indonesia.

Imani Drayton-Hill (2nd Term) is the Interim Director of the African Continuum Theatre. Before accepting this position, she was a program consultant for the Association of Performing Arts Presenters. She has been providing management assistance to small arts and mid-sized arts organizations the past 20 years. Working hands-on, Ms. Drayton-Hill has assisted artistic directors and board members in implementing strategic plans, launching and evaluating programs, and address challenging issues such as leadership transition, relocation, branding, audience development and mission drift. She is the former Managing Director of Woolly Mammoth Theatre Companies and served as Acting Executive Director for Young Playwrights’ Theater.

Michael Friend (1st Term; Governance Committee Chairman) is the founder and artistic director of Soul-in-Motion, a non-profit performing arts organization specializing in African drumming, dance, theater, & Spoken Word. Mr. Friend began his music and acting careers in 1969 with the world renowned Arthur Hall Afro-American Dancers and Theatre Advocate Company of Philadelphia. He has performed in numerous regional theatrical productions including: Dreamgirls, Purlie, The Wiz, and A Raisin in the Sun. Various productions by Mr. Friend have been funded by the Maryland State Arts Council and the Arts & Humanities Council of Montgomery County.