About the Participants
Sam Bonsey
Senior Director of The ImPact
SAM BONSEY is senior director of The ImPact, a global network of families committed to making more impact investments more effectively. Bonsey is also a board member of Keller Enterprises, a family office committed to values-aligned investing, sustainable agriculture, and venture philanthropy. He is a member of the 100% Impact Network, a peer network of individuals and families who have committed to investing all of their assets for positive social and environmental impact. In 2017, Bonsey co-founded Manoa Poke, a sustainable seafood restaurant near Boston. In 2010, he co-founded the 2Seeds Network, an NGO incubating agricultural business in Tanzania; in 2017, 2Seeds merged with Spark Microgrants. In 2015, Bonsey was recognized by Forbes as a “30 Under 30” social entrepreneur.
MOROCCO BRITT-EL is a student of the American Ballet Theatre’s Jackie Kennedy Onassis School. He was recruited by Cynthia Harvey, artistic director of the JKO School, in 2017 at the New York City Dance Alliance nationals. Britt-El is 16 years old and is from Atlanta, Georgia. He has trained in dance from the age of three, but started training more seriously just three years ago when he joined DanceMakers of Atlanta. He has studied many styles of dance, including hip-hop, lyrical, modern, contemporary, and ballet. In addition to dance, Britt-El is also an accomplished model; he graced the runways of New York Fashion Week in 2018.
Laura Callanan
Founding Partner Upstart Co-Lab
LAURA CALLANAN is founding partner of Upstart Co-Lab, launched in 2015. Previously, she served as senior deputy chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, leading all grantmaking programs, operations, and research. As a consultant with McKinsey & Company’s Social Sector office, Callanan led work on social innovation, sustainable capitalism, and social impact assessment. She served as senior adviser at the United Nations Development Programme, executive director of the Prospect Hill Foundation, associate director at the Rockefeller Foundation, and associate treasurer for the Wallace Foundation. In 2014, Callanan was invited to explore the work of artists as social entrepreneurs as a visiting scholar to the American Academy in Rome, and as the recipient of a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Fellowship. Board chair of GlobalGiving, and an adviser to Shift Capital, Callanan was the only arts leader named by The NonProfit Times to the Power and Influence Top 50 in 2017.
Kirven Douthit-Boyd
Co-Artistic Director, Center of Creative Arts (COCA), St. Louis
KIRVEN DOUTHIT-BOYD is an American Ballet Theatre-certified Project Plié teacher. He currently resides in Saint Louis, where he is co-artistic director of dance at the Center of Creative Arts, COCA, and honorary faculty at Washington University. Douthit-Boyd began his formal dance training at the Boston Arts Academy in 1998, and joined Boston Youth Moves in 1999. He has trained on scholarship at the Boston Conservatory and The Ailey School. Douthit-Boyd has danced with Battleworks Dance Company and Ailey II, and was a member of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater from 2004 to 2015.
Susan Fales-Hill
Former Trustee, American Ballet Theatre
SUSAN FALES-HILL is an award-winning television writer-producer, author, arts advocate, and former trustee of the American Ballet Theatre. She began her career as a writer’s apprentice/warm-up person on The Cosby Show and went on to become the head writer/executive producer of its spin-off, A Different World. With Tim Reid, she co-created Showtime’s first scripted series, Linc’s, a dramedy starring Pam Grier and Georg Stanford Brown. Fales-Hill is the author of two novels, One Flight Up and Imperfect Bliss. Always Wear Joy, her acclaimed memoir about her mother, the late actress/singer/dancer Josephine Premice, was nominated for an Image Award. Fales-Hill’s writings have appeared in Vogue, Architectural Digest, Essence, Ebony, Glamour, and The New York Times. She is a contributor to Town & Country magazine and her TED Talk is available at TEDxMet.
John L. Gray
Elizabeth MacMillan Director
National Museum of American History
JOHN L. GRAY is the Elizabeth MacMillan Director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. Under his leadership, the museum is boldly reimagining its three-floor West Wing around exhibitions and programs on the themes of innovation, democracy and the peopling of America, and American culture. Gray is also leading the physical and programmatic reinvention of the museum, pairing its unparalleled collection of national treasures with a thematic focus around fundamental American ideals and ideas. Prior to becoming the museum’s ninth director, Gray was founding president of the Autry Museum of the American West in Los Angeles.
Panelist
Cynthia Harvey
Artistic Director, Jackie Kennedy Onassis School at the American Ballet Theatre
CYNTHIA HARVEY is artistic director of the Jackie Kennedy Onassis School at the American Ballet Theatre. Prior to her teaching career, Harvey danced virtually every ballerina role with American Ballet Theatre and was the first American dancer to be a Royal Ballet principal ballerina. She performed as guest artist with Baryshnikov and Company, Nureyev and Friends, and other international ballet companies before retiring in 1996. She is co-author of the book Physics, Dance, and the Pas de Deux and has staged acclaimed productions such as Don Quixote and The Sleeping Beauty around the world. In addition to the American Ballet Theatre, Harvey has taught at Teatro alla Scala in Milan, The Royal Ballet School in London, the Royal Swedish Ballet, the Zürich Ballet, and other institutions. She is a member of the International Dance Council.
KELLY HICKS is a student at the American Ballet Theatre’s Jackie Kennedy Onassis School, which she joined in September 2017. A 14-year-old Southern California native, Hicks is an ambassador for the nonprofit Brown Girls Do Ballet. She began taking dance classes at the age of five. After performing the Great Russian Nutcracker with the Moscow Ballet two years later, she began her classical training. At age 11, Hicks placed Top 12 at the Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP) regionals and advanced to the finals in New York City. In 2017, she placed Top 12 in the Classical Division at the YAGP regional in Los Angeles and was the gold medalist of the classical variation division at California Dance Classics. Also in 2017, she performed in Jessica Lang’s The Gift at American Ballet Theatre’s Fall Gala.
Alberto Ibargüen
President of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
ALBERTO IBARGÜEN is president of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, which promotes democracy through the strengthening of informed and engaged communities. Knight invests in journalism, in the arts, and in the success of cities where the Knight brothers once published newspapers. Ibargüen is the former publisher of The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald. He served in the Peace Corps, practiced law, and joined the Hartford Courant, then Newsday, before moving to Miami. He has chaired the boards of PBS, the Newseum, and the World Wide Web Foundation; been vice chair of the Connecticut Commission on the Arts; and served on the boards of Lincoln Center and the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. He is a member of MIT’s Visiting Committee for the Media Lab and is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Irene Hirano Inouye
President, US-Japan Council
IRENE HIRANO INOUYE was president of the U.S.-Japan Council, which promotes people-to-people relationships to strengthen ties between the United States and Japan. The council also administers the TOMODACHI Initiative, a public-private partnership with the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo and the government of Japan that invests in young Japanese and Americans through leadership development and cross-cultural exchange. She was the former president and founding CEO of the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles and had extensive experience in nonprofit administration, community education, and public affairs with culturally diverse communities nationwide. She was chair of the Smithsonian Institution Asian Pacific American Center, a trustee of The Washington Center, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She was a former trustee and chair of the Ford and Kresge foundations and served on the Smithsonian Institution’s National Board and the National Museum of American History’s board. In 2017, the museum's David M. Rubenstein Curator of Philanthropy, Dr. Amanda B. Moniz, conducted an oral history with Inouye about her life and career in philanthropy. Read the transcript.
Mary Stuart Masterson
Founder of the Stockade Works and Upriver Studios
MARY STUART MASTERSON is an actress, filmmaker, and founder of the Stockade Works and Upriver Studios. Her award-winning film, TV, and theater career includes roles in Some Kind of Wonderful, Fried Green Tomatoes, Benny and Joon, the Broadway musical Nine, and the title role in CBS’s Kate Brasher. Masterson also directed the feature The Cake Eaters and produced Last Man Standing, Tickling Leo, and The Rest of Us. After a hiatus to “produce” her family, Masterson moved to New York’s Hudson Valley and founded Stockade Works, a nonprofit that trains, hires, and mentors the local workforce in film production across all departments. In 2018, Masterson is launching Upriver Studios, a Hudson Valley-based woman-owned entertainment studio. Upriver will be a B Corporation dedicated to access and inclusion, on and off screen, with climate-forward production practices and facilities.
Amanda B. Moniz
David M. Rubenstein Curator of Philanthropy
National Museum of American History
AMANDA MONIZ is the David M. Rubenstein Curator of Philanthropy at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. Her first book, From Empire to Humanity: The American Revolution and the Origins of Humanitarianism, was awarded ARNOVA’S inaugural Peter Dobkin Hall History of Philanthropy Book Prize. She is now working on a book about how philanthropists today look to history to inform their work, as well as on a biography of Isabella Graham, a philanthropic leader in the early United States.
NO KINGS COLLECTIVE was founded by Brandon Hill and Peter Chang in 2009. Based in Washington, DC, the creative agency works with a family of hand-picked artists, designers, and brands that share its vision for cutting-edge art.
David M. Rubenstein
Chair of the Smithsonian Institution Board of Regents
DAVID M. RUBENSTEIN is a co-founder and co-executive chairman of The Carlyle Group, one of the world’s largest private equity firms. He is chair of the Smithsonian Institution Board of Regents and chairman of the boards of trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the Council on Foreign Relations. He is co-chairman of the board of the Brookings Institution and has served as chairman of the board of trustees of Duke University. Rubenstein also is a trustee of the National Gallery of Art, the University of Chicago, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Johns Hopkins Medicine, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, and the Institute for Advanced Study. He is president of the Economic Club of Washington and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
David J. Skorton, MD
Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution
DAVID J. SKORTON is the 13th Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, overseeing 19 museums, the National Zoo, 21 libraries, several research centers, and numerous education units and centers. He is a board-certified cardiologist and the first physician to lead the Smithsonian. Skorton is currently a Distinguished Professor at Georgetown University and previously served as the president of Cornell University. He was also a professor in the Medicine and Pediatrics departments at Weill Cornell Medical College and in Cornell’s Department of Biomedical Engineering. Before that, he was president of the University of Iowa and a professor there for 26 years.
AZRIELLE SMITH is a student at the American Ballet Theatre’s Jackie Kennedy Onassis School. She was born in Livingston, New Jersey, and began her ballet training at the Chinese Ballet School of Livingston. At the age of five, she joined the New Jersey Ballet, dancing under the tutelage of director Carolyn Clark. Two years later, she joined the JKO School Children’s Division. In September 2017, Smith was promoted from the Children’s Division to the Pre-Professional Division. To date, she has performed at The Joyce Theater, the Metropolitan Opera House, and the David H. Koch Theater in ABT’s productions of Cinderella and Le Corsaire.
Darren Walker
President of the Ford Foundation
DARREN WALKER is president of the Ford Foundation, an international social justice philanthropy with a $13 billion endowment and $600 million in annual grantmaking. For two decades, he has been a leader in the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors. Walker led the philanthropy committee that helped bring a resolution to the city of Detroit’s historic bankruptcy, and he chairs The U.S. Impact Investing Alliance. He co-chairs New York City’s Commission on City Art, Monuments, and Markers and serves on the Commission on the Future of Rikers Island Correctional Institution and on the UN International Labour Organization’s Commission on the Future of Work. He also serves on the boards of Carnegie Hall and the High Line, and he is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
