Staff
SK Kerastas
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SK Kerastas (they/them) is a justice-driven arts leader, community organizer, and artist rerooted back home in Chicago after 8+ years in the SF Bay Area. While on the West Coast, they served as the Creative Producer of Neon Was Never Brighter: A Glimpse Into the Future, Chinatown SF’s first-ever contemporary public arts festival. They were the Artistic Producer at Cal Shakes where they produced for the mainstage, drove the equity, diversity, inclusion, and access initiatives; and created community-centered programming with the Artistic Engagement team. They were the Artistic Associate at Berkeley Repertory Theatre through Theatre Communications Group’s Leadership U grant funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. In Chicago, they worked as the Education Director at About Face Theatre directing the queer and trans youth theater and all outreach programs. Most recently, they have been working as a cultural strategist, facilitator, and coach with the social impact firm Create Forward and the arts activist group artEquity. They have organized with the Bay Area Transformative Justice Collective, East Bay Meditation Center, and Dhamma Dena Meditation Center. As an artist, SK writes, performs, and dances for both solo and group performance. They received their B.A. in English-Theatre & Women’s Studies from McGill University in Montreal.
Mario LaMothe
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Mario LaMothe (he/they) oversees Links Hall’s business operations, contracts and accounts, and rentals program. Born in Brooklyn, New York and raised in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, LaMothe is a performance artist, scholar, and curator. He has served as the assistant general manager for the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), company manager for the Limón Dance Company, a company manager for the U.S. State Department’s Center Stage international exchange program, and public health program manager for Population Services International in Haiti. He is Assistant Professor of Black Studies and Anthropology at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and was a 2021-22 Links Hall Co-MISSION resident artist.
Katie Collins
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Katie Collins (she/her) manages Links Hall’s marketing, box office/front of house, and the Walder Foundation-funded communications technology initiative implementing a new database, as well as new box office, donation, and website systems. Katie has 12+ years of experience in arts administration, community partnerships, and production. Katie holds a Masters of Arts Management from Columbia College Chicago and a Bachelor’s degree in Photography and Graphic Design from Indiana Wesleyan University.
Claire Sutton
Dana Pepowski
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Dana Pepowski (she/her) is a dramaturg, performer, and administrator excited by new work and the rehearsal process. She joined the Links Hall team in 2023 as the Project Manager for the inaugural Co-MISSION Curatorial Residency.
Dana’s performance credits include work with [producing body], Oil Lamp Theater, Blank Theatre Company, and more. As a dramaturg, Dana has collaborated with Rivendell Theatre Ensemble, American Players Theatre (Spring Green, WI), and Northwestern University. She is a company member with the experimental group Runaways Lab Theatre.
Prior to joining Links Hall, Dana worked as the Program Director of Meals on Wheels Northeastern Illinois, where she facilitated holistic support for over 200 homebound individuals. She graduated from Northwestern University in 2020 with double majors in Theatre and History. Dana loves ghost stories, learning languages, and seeing as much theatre as possible.
Board
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Amy Chavasse (she/her/they) choreographer, performer, educator, improviser, and Artistic Director of ChavasseDance&Performance is currently a Professor at the University of Michigan, located on the land of Odawa, Ojibwe, Boodewadomi and Wyandot peoples. Current collaborations include a co-curated project, with colleague, Charli Brissey, “What Democracy Means To Me”, and How to Stay in a Dream, (or) Ratas de dos Platas, with Luciana Acuña and Luis Biasotto of Grupo Krapp (Buenos Aires), Austin Selden, Nola Smith (Brooklyn) and Paty Solorzano (Puebla, Mexico). Her choreography and collaborations have been presented across the U.S., Beijing, Shanghai, Italy, Costa Rica, and Uppsala, Sweden with a wildly diverse group of artists. www.chavassedanceandperformance.com
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Alex Benjamin (he/him) is an arts administrator whose experience as a performing artist, teaching artist, and theatre director informs his approach as a cultural worker. He is currently the Director of Programs at the Luminarts Cultural Foundation, supporting the exemplary, emerging artists at the core of the organization’s mission. He has also worked in fundraising at UChicago Arts and, before that, in programming and public events at the Poetry Foundation, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Emerald City Theatre, and Adventure Stage Chicago. He is a Fellow of the Association of Fundraising Professionals Chicago chapter and a member of the Chicago History Museum Costume Council. In his spare time, you can find him gardening, cooking, reading, and taking his dog Yoko for long walks on the beach.
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BOARD SECRETARY
Kim Davis (she/her/hers) is an artist, educator, and researcher with more than 25 years of experience in arts and culture performance, education, and administration for nonprofit and municipal organizations. Most recently, she served as Senior Director of Education at Old Town School of Folk Music, where she developed and implemented the Creative Dance Residency, producing and presenting artists and companies such as Nejla Yatkin, Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre, Deeply Rooted Dance Theater, Jump Rhythm Jazz Project, Valerie Alpert Dance Company, and The Cambrians. She also has given lectures and presentations and facilitated discussions at a variety of conferences, municipal departments, and universities. She has experience curating programs for festivals, conferences, artist residencies, and workshop presentations and she served as an Art of Rehearsal mentor for six years at Chicago’s famed Links Hall. She participated in the New England for the Arts’ National Dance Project - 2016 Regional Dance Development Initiative’s Presenter Showcase and she also served as a task force member of Chicago Dancemakers Forum’s inaugural Elevate Chicago Dance 2017 festival. Her background includes program design, workshop and curriculum development, individual mentorship and group facilitation, project management, strategic planning, and executive leadership. She is passionate about using the arts as a gateway to communication and the dismantling of systemic racism and injustice in communities. Davis is completing an EdD in Leadership and Innovation from Arizona State University and holds an MS from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, a BA from Columbia College of Missouri, and has completed training in caucus facilitation, and certificates in Ethical Leadership and DEI in the Workplace. Her research investigates the attrition/retention and success of Black womxn in leadership positions within the arts and culture sector in predominantly white institutions. She currently serves on the Executive Committee of Links Hall, a performing arts organization in Chicago, IL.
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Alyssa (Uhh-lee’sa) Gregory is a performer, teaching artist and arts administrator. She’s currently the Marketing Communications and Membership Manager at The Arts Club of Chicago and she is also the Social Media Manager and Associate Choreographer for The Fly Honey Show. Alyssa is the creator and host of The Process, a podcast highlighting Chicago dancers and dancemakers. (She/her)
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BOARD VICE PRESIDENT
Ross Stanton Jordan is a curator interested in the confluence of politics, history, and visual culture. As Curatorial Manager at the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, Ross supports the production of exhibitions and programs that connect the social justice issues of the past to the present via collaboration with artists who work with community. He holds dual master’s degrees in art history and arts administration and policy from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
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Trevor Martin is a Chicago-based artist, educator, and administrator. He currently serves as the Executive Director of Exhibitions and Exhibition Studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) and is a Senior Lecturer in SAIC’s Performance Department.
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Daniel L. Nichols brings to Links Hall decades of knowledge, experience, and interest in contemporary performance. He has been immersed as an audience participant in Chicago’s arts and cultural scene, including Links Hall since the 1980s. Recently retired after 27 years as a university administrator, Dan spent 18 years as Associate Dean for Finance and then Operations in two different academic divisions (Social Sciences and then Humanities) at the University of Chicago.
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BOARD TREASURER
Jon Pagac has worked for JPMorgan in affordable housing investments for the past 15 years and has been a big fan of Links Hall for nearly as long. In his free time, he can be found racing sailboats on Lake Michigan, biking, running and catching up on too many unread books.
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DEVELOPMENT CHAIR
Tina Post is an assistant professor of English and Theater and Performance Studies at the University of Chicago, where she is also an affiliate of the Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture. Her scholarship focuses on racial performativity. She is a writer of creative nonfiction (see, for example, this).
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BOARD PRESIDENT
Doreen Sayegh is a Producer/General Manager with Pemberley Productions, which collaborate with overseas companies and US-based productions to book tours across North America as well as internationally. Previously, Doreen was Manager of International & Special Projects at Chicago Shakespeare and Managing Director of the Satori Group (Seattle). Doreen is the Board Vice President of the League of Chicago Theatres.
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Michael Tokoph is a digital and marketing strategy consultant based in Chicago. He has experience advising clients on how they can better connect with their customers and communities, as well as how to grow in meaningful ways that create value for all stakeholders. He holds a BS in applied economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
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Tara Aisha Willis, Ph.D. is a dancer, scholar, and Curator in Performance & Public Practice at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. She co-edited the first dance-focused special issue of The Black Scholar with Thomas F. DeFrantz and the performance writing book, Marking the Occasion with Jaime Shearn Coan. Willis performed in a 2016–21 collaboration between Will Rawls and Claudia Rankine and in the “Bessie” award-winning 2016 improvised performance by The Skeleton Architecture.
Advisory Board
Cheryl Lynn Bruce
Bob Eisen
E. Aaron Greven
Tracie D. Hall
Maggie Kast
Meida McNeal
Eva Silverman
Claire Sutton
Blair Thomas
Michael Zerang
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Patrick Zakem is a director, producer, and presenter of performance across form. He is the Creative Producer at Steppenwolf, where he produces the LookOut Series, which presents hundreds of performances each year from Chicago artists. His producing and presenting work includes many productions at Steppenwolf, as well as Ars Nova, Future Tenant and bubble:PGH.
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Jane Beachy is a producer and curator of performances, exhibitions, public programs, and intentional initiatives. As the Artistic Director of Illinois Humanities, she helms signature programming and is part of the senior leadership team. Among the projects she has developed, directed, and produced at IH are the Elective Studies Series, Rapid Response Series, the statewide Envisioning Justice initiative, and a national convening entitled “Inside & Out: The Humanities and Mass Incarceration”. She is also the founder and director of Salonathon, “a home for underground, emerging, and genre-defying art” that existed as a bustling weekly performance series and community gathering space from 2011 to 2018 and manifested again as a digital series in 2020. Independently, Jane produces artist residencies, retreats, unique events and partnerships, and full productions. Jane also has a background in arts education and has taught courses and workshops in arts leadership and curatorial practice at Northwestern University, University of Chicago, and Beloit College.
Links Hall was founded in 1978 by choreographers Bob Eisen, Carol Bobrow, and Charlie Vernon.
Extended Family
Yvonne P. Afable
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Yvonne P. Afable is the Managing Partner of Accounting Services for Afable Consulting LLC. For the past 21 years, her team of 20 associates have supported over 130 organization in telling their financial stories. She enjoys teaching Zumba at LA Fitness & Evolve. Yvonne and her partner have 3 amazing children, 2 energetic dogs and LOVE Chicago!
Giau Minh Truong
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Giau Minh Truong (he/him) was born in Vietnam and lived in a refugee camp with his family for two years in Indonesia before arriving in the USA in 1982. Giau oversees Links Hall’s production and technical needs for artists and performances, maintains Studio A performance space, and does curatorial work focusing on developing use of tech in performance.
Jessica Delohery
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Jessica Delohery is Giant Squid Group’s nonprofit coach extraordinaire, and works with clients in all stages of their fundraising journey through one-on-one coaching, group masterminds, custom trainings, and supporting grant writing portfolios. Jessica has spent the majority of her career in the nonprofit sector in various programmatic and fundraising roles, and as a volunteer, and a board member at a few fantastic organizations in Michigan, Washington D.C., and Illinois. Currently, Jessica lives outside Chicago in Bartlett, IL with her family and a never-stops-playing puppy!
www.giantsquidgroup.com
Aaliyah Christina
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Born in Ruston, Louisiana and raised across Louisiana, Maryland, and Texas, Aaliyah Christina creates and supports performance work as an administrator, curator, movement artist, and writer. She improvises dances and writes poetry/prose about relationships, mental health, and Blackness as a resident on the South side of Chicago.
As Associate Curator & Artist Programs Manager at Links Hall, she ensures the voices of artists are centered through programming & creating new works. Aaliyah consistently collaborates & supports Chicago's community artists/organizations including, but not limited to Keyierra Collins, Darling Shear, Assata's Daughters, The Fly Honeys, and Chicago Dancemakers Forum. Alongside working at Links Hall, she’s a Co-Organizer for Performance Response Journal. In 2021, Aaliyah received the 3Arts Make-A-Wave grant.
Teresa Tristan
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Teresa Tristan is an Accounting Associate with a Bachelor of Business in Accounting and has 8+ years’ experience in corporate, nonprofit, and individual accounting. She resides in Laredo, TX where she enjoys carne asada tacos and a good prickly pear margarita. Teresa takes pride in providing excellent client service with integrity and positivity. In her free time she is writing a book of poetry.