Priya Sircar is an artist, strategist, connector, collaborator and advocate. 

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She has supported individuals and communities for two decades through philanthropy and consulting. She began her career at the Lance Armstrong Foundation (now LIVESTRONG) supporting cancer survivors and their loved ones through fundraising and grantmaking. At the global consultancy Lord Cultural Resources, Priya facilitated cultural planning and policy development for communities and strategic planning for arts and cultural organizations throughout the United States and abroad. She returned to philanthropy as Director/Arts at the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, overseeing Knight’s arts strategy and investments and supporting artists and cultural organizations in cities across the U.S.

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Most recently she served as the inaugural arts and culture officer for the City of Charlotte, North Carolina, overseeing the Infusion Fund, a three-year, $38 million, public-private partnership to support the cultural sector in Charlotte and Mecklenburg County. There, Priya introduced innovative new tools to equitably support artists and groups, including the first-of-its-kind Opportunity Fund, and added wrap-around services like grant writing coaching for applicants, measurement and evaluation assistance, and marketing.

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Priya also stewarded development of the Charlotte Arts and Culture Plan, a comprehensive ten-year plan to create a community where all people value, support, and thrive through arts, culture and creativity. Accepted by Charlotte City Council in November 2023, the plan led directly to approval by the City of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County of a combined $21 million supporting arts and culture for fiscal year 2025–the highest ever for both public entities.

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Throughout these experiences, Priya has spoken and written about the importance and practice of engaging communities, providing support “beyond the dollars”, and evolving practices by challenging norms.

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A dancer-choreographer, actor, and former musician, Priya recently premiered her award-winning, first short film, Murmuration. 

The TETRA is the creative collective of Sherina Rodriguez Sharpe & Chace Morris.  Together, they lead The Digital Underground Railroad: an odyssey of experiences that provide Rituals for healing & liberation--rendering oppression obsolete. 

Through art, performance, and spiritual technologies, The TETRA provides the tools for each of us to become the hero in our own decolonization story. Currently, there are 24,000 people connected through the Railroad, engaged in healing the intergenerational effects of oppression.

The TETRA is a 2024 Kresge Live Arts Fellow (Sherina & Chace are the only artists to earn it twice). They have also been awarded a 2021 Radical Imagination Grant, 2020 Lewis Prize, 2018 MAP grant, Knight Arts Challenge grant, and was shortlisted for the Juror's Grand Prize at ArtPrize. Sherina is a 2014 Kresge Theater Fellow, installationist, & master-healer whose methodologies are taught at Harvard, Howard, and Yale. She's also been named "Medicine Woman of Racial Healing" by her elders. Chace is a 2013 Kresge Literary Fellow, curator & musicmaker who's received a Alain Locke Award from the Detroit Institute of Arts, & his last album was named "one of the best protest records of the year" by Okayplayer.

The TETRA's gift is in the many ways it roadopens "What Is" into "What Can Be", helping you steal yourself back to your Highest Self. It's why it has been called The Greatest Heist Since Harriet.

CarlosAlexis Cruz is Co-Director of the Community, Heritage & the Arts research center (CHArt) within the College of Arts and Architecture and Professor of Physical Theatre at UNC Charlotte. For his work as a community engaged scholar and leader, Cruz was awarded the 2024 Engaged Faculty award from the North Carolina Campus Engagement organization and the 2023 Bonnie Cone Distinguished Professorship in Civic Engagement.

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Cruz serves as Producing Artistic Director of the Nouveau Sud Circus project, a socially-engaged circus company in service of intercultural and cross-cultural communications in Charlotte, North Carolina. The company is currently touring its production La Bestia, a circus take on the journey of Central American immigrants to the United States, and is developing a new show addressing gun violence and the rise of mass shootings in the U.S. Nouveau Sud was awarded a NEFA National Theatre Project Creation and Touring grant for La Bestia, Knight Foundation’s 2023 Arts + Technology award and 2021 Celebrate Charlotte Arts grant, Princess Grace Foundation 2017 Works in Progress Award for the development of Pícaro with the support of the Baryshnikov Arts Center in NYC, and the 2014 Arts and Science Council’s McColl award for the development of new, socially-engaged work.

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Cruz is President of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education, serves as Regional Chair for the Representation, Equity and Diversity initiative within the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, and is a working board member of the Network of Ensemble Theatres.

Stacey Breakall is a whirlwind of ideas, energy, and joy, thriving on bringing bold visions to life. Whether flying solo or teaming up with kindred spirits, she’s whipped up creations like Floyd’s Coffee and Blackbird Clothes & Curios—an eccentric gem that Austin Chronicle readers voted Best New Business in 2011. But it’s not just coffee beans and curiosities that get her buzzing. Some of Stacey’s most soul-satisfying work has bloomed in the heart of Austin’s dance scene. As a matriarch of the city’s burlesque revival, she founded Kitty Kitty Bang Bang, one of Austin’s trailblazing troupes, and co-created the Texas Burlesque Fest, now the second-largest of its kind in the nation.

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These days, Stacey’s eyes are on the cosmos—teaching yoga and conjuring an immersive, mind-bending tribute to Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, where meditation, yoga, and laser lights swirl together in a mesmerizing experience. Fueled by possibility, she’s on a mission to help fellow dreamers unleash their own wonderfully strange blend of magic, offering wisdom and support to bring their wildest visions to life.

Hillary Hittner is the founder and lead coach of Hillary Hittner Coaching, a dynamic leadership development and consulting firm based in NYC with a global reach. She partners with individuals and groups to support them in owning what they want so they can live more engaged and more alive than ever before. Known for designing tailor-made programs that meet the unique needs of each client, Hillary partners with leaders to drive real transformation—whether it’s a financial powerhouse, a fast-moving startup, or a mission-driven nonprofit. With a proven track record across industries, including financial services, startups, nonprofits, and government, Hillary has become the trusted go-to for leaders ready to ignite culture shifts and elevate their leadership game.

 

Certified through the International Coaching Federation, Hillary is known for her willingness to sit with the discomfort and see what's on the other side. With a commitment to authenticity and curiosity, Hillary creates and holds spaces for people to build deep self-awareness and find the courage to create the life, work, and relationships they want.

With over a decade of experience as an actor, theater director, producer, and trained doula, Hillary infuses every conversation with a distinct combination of creativity, sensitivity, and fearlessness. She is dedicated to anti-racism work and breaking down barriers to justice, equity and inclusion.
 

Priya is co-founder and Chief Programming Officer of Mosaic America. She is the creator of Mosaic’s inspired framework for social cohesion using community-led expressions and drives creative vision, programming strategy, artist relations, and community outreach. Priya’s year-round programming philosophy is driven by the fact that every place and person is a mosaic; that systems must be designed to reduce the gap between program and participation. Under her directorship, the award-winning Mosaic Festival annually makes and holds authentic space for over 50 locally practiced cultures and welcomes over 3000 community members annually.

 

Priya holds degrees in Business and Computer Science and is a change-maker at heart. Having built her first career to being Vice President at startups and hi-tech companies,she honed a large & deep scale mindset while being a Big Data analyst in her second career before seeking to make real social impact through Mosaic America since 2015. Priya has been a classical Indian Bharatanatyam performer for two decades and an arts columnist. She is an alumna of Multicultural Arts Leadership Institute (MALI) and SVCreates’ MindShare program.

A cultural innovator and strategist, Usha is co-founder and president of Mosaic America–a non-profit that aims to foster social cohesion and cultivate a sense of belonging in Silicon Valley.  Under her leadership, Mosaic America has expanded its programming footprint to six Bay Area cities. Usha is the visionary behind the Mosaic Atlas project, the first of its kind asset mapping of culturally distinct communities in the Greater Bay Area.

 

Usha is a Senior Fellow at American Leadership Forum Silicon Valley. She is a founding steering committee member of San José Arts Advocates and a member of Cultural New Deal SV. An alumna of Multicultural Arts Leadership Institute, Usha serves on the Board of Californians for the Arts and California Arts Advocates.

 

Prior to founding Mosaic America, Usha worked in the hi-tech industry for nearly fifteen years.  She holds an MS in Electrical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and an MBA from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business.

Joy Bailey-Bryant is President & Managing Partner/Owner of Lord Cultural Resources. A certified interpretive planner and skilled outreach facilitator, Joy is a specialist in municipal engagement around culture, working with city officials, institutional leaders, and developers in global municipalities to creatively plan cities and bring people to public institutions.

Joy has been an integral part of the development of hundreds of cultural spaces—museums, parks, gardens, libraries and the like—where people are doing the searching work to define themselves through discovery, storytelling, and objects. She works with communities of all types to catalyze their voice and maximize their impact.

Joy led the teams for planning on remarkable projects like the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art and the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. She has directed citywide engagement in locations as large as Dallas and Chicago and as small as Decatur, Georgia. For the expansion of the Albany Civil Rights Institute in Albany, Georgia, Joy led the team unearthing thousands of untold stories of the Southwest Georgia Civil Rights Movement.

Driven by the engagement philosophy of “meet people where they are,” Joy is known for holding community conversations at festivals, conferences, on social media, houses of worship, centers of community, schools, and even bars.

Joy holds an M.A. in Arts Management from American University and a B.S. in Public Relations from Florida A&M University (FAMU).