Steering Committee members get to decide the direction that RALSD takes in its efforts to provide new and valuable programming and resources to its members. Becoming a member of the RALSD Steering Committee is a two-year commitment and you will be expected to lead a subcommittee and attend monthly Steering Committee meetings. You are granted a yearly professional development stipend as well as numerous opportunities to attend conferences and networking events, both in San Diego and across the U.S. The work is not always easy but the opportunity to meet and be met by some of the biggest players in the San Diego Arts Community as well as the leadership opportunities pay dividends.
Shayla James
2021 Chair, Executive Committee
Professional Musician, Teaching Artist
Shayla James balances her time as an educator, performer, arts administrator, and researcher in the non-profit sector. She is a multi-instrumentalist who believes in being an advocate for accessible arts education and programming for all ages. She is the owner of Sempre Music Studio, an energetic and creativity focused studio that offers high quality music education. Her work is rooted in community empowerment and collaboration across disciplines. She co-leads an online forum for San Diego Teaching Artists, called Teaching Artists Circle. As a researcher, her interests include arts education, cultural policy and equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility practices. She was previously the Membership Co-Chair for Young Nonprofit Professionals Network San Diego. She is on the Arts, Culture, and Design Committee for the Port of San Diego and Arts+Culture: San Diego Community Advisory Council through the Rise Up for the Arts Coalition. In her free time, she enjoys hiking and putting together jigsaw puzzles.
Katie Lorge
2021 Vice Chair, Executive Committee
Katie Lorge (she/her/hers) has spent the past 10 years working in the arts, education, nonprofits, and philanthropy. In her current role as Creative Youth Development Programs Manager at the Clare Rose Foundation, she supports field-building and grantmaking initiatives that serve CYD practitioners, organizations, and young people and is a key thought partner in growing the Foundation’s work in the field of CYD.
Katie graduated summa cum laude from UCSD in 2009 with a BA in Dance. She has created, performed, and curated dance works in San Diego and New York City.
Katie has completed continuing education coursework in Dance/Movement Psychotherapy with Infants and Children at the 92nd Street Y and Blogging and Copyediting at UCSD, and has served on the Steering Committee of Rising Arts Leaders of San Diego since 2019, holding the roles of Membership Co-Chair and Vice Chair.
Yvette Roman
2021 Treasurer, Executive Committee
Art Coordinator, La Maestra
Yvette Roman is a bi-national artist, curator and arts educator. She holds a B.A., from UCSD in Visual Arts and Cultural Anthropology. Yvette is passionate about making art accessible through community-organized collaboration. Her artwork is an exploration of simplicity and chaos. Disciplines include photography, painting, and collage. Her artwork weaves memories of loss, self-discovery, and personal insecurities. Her artwork has been exhibited in the US, Mexico and Egypt.
Most recently Yvette was selected by the Mint House Project to create a public mural on the topic of immigration, titled “Haciendo Linea”. Her series, “Fragments”, was displayed through Hanalei Artwork in San Diego, and at Alternate Roots in North Carolina.
Yvette is the Art Coordinator at La Maestra- Generations Center for Youth Advancement. She is an Artist Advocate for RALSD- Rising Arts Leaders in San Diego, a Curator at Amigos del Rep, and a member of the Core Team for the SDAC- San Diego Arts Community. From 2018-2019 she was the Vice President of Art Unites.
Leah Firebaugh
2021 Secretary, Executive Committee
Arts Marketer
With a lifelong passion for the arts, Leah Firebaugh has dedicated her personal and professional time to working with leading arts organizations. An East-Coast native, Leah is excited to call San Diego home and is thrilled to be a part of this vibrant community. In her current role, Leah is the Content Marketing Specialist for San Diego Theatres, the nonprofit organization that manages the San Diego Civic Theatre and historic Balboa Theatre. Leah is a member of Young Nonprofit Professionals Network San Diego, San Diego Leadership Alliance, and serves on the Steering Committee of Rising Arts Leaders San Diego. In her free time, Leah can be found playing the piano and ukulele, practicing Spanish, visiting a museum, cooking, and hiking San Diego’s beautiful scenery.
Frankie Alicea-Ford
2021 Steering Committee
Frankie is a San Diego based, New York City trained actor, deviser, and educator who has been performing and teaching professionally since 2012 – graduating from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, where he trained in the Experimental Theatre Wing with a focus in training in devised theater techniques, arts integration and trauma-based theater practices. He has created and taught Devised Theater programs at multiple locations across the country. He is currently working as an actor and educator throughout San Diego and is the Artist-In-Residence at New Village Arts.
Wendy Gracia
2021 Steering Committee
Fine Artist, Museum Worker
Wendy Gracia is an oil painter based in San Diego. She received her BFA in 2018 from Laguna College of Art + Design, having majored in Drawing + Painting. She has spent the last two years working in the arts in San Diego, first as a Gallery Attendant at Wonderspaces, and later with Visitor Experience in Balboa Park. Currently, Wendy is showing some of her paintings in Barrio Logan, and has plans to show more of her work in galleries throughout Southern California. This will be her first year serving on the committee for the Rising Arts Leaders.
Camille McPherson
2021 Steering Committee
Dancer, San Diego Ballet
Camille is currently in her ninth season with the San Diego Ballet, where she has been featured in leading and soloist roles in the company’s diverse array of repertoire. Her performances have earned her press features in the San Diego Union-Tribune, Jazz Blues News and the San Diego Reader as well as television features on KUSI and PBS.
Prior to joining the San Diego Ballet, Camille danced in professional productions with Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre as a member of the company’s prestigious Graduate Program and with California Ballet as an Apprentice. Camille teaches extensively throughout San Diego and has served as a Ballet Exam Juror at the San Diego School for Creative and Performing Arts. She has danced as a guest artist with San Diego Dance Theater and Teatro San Diego.
In addition to performing and teaching, Camille enjoys working in arts administration, serving as San Diego Ballet’s Educational Outreach Coordinator and Summer Intensive Administrative Director. She recently joined the board of Teatro San Diego, where she serves as Director of Development. Camille is thrilled to work alongside her fellow Rising Arts Leaders in order to add to the vibrancy of San Diego’s arts and culture sector.
Heather Sweeney
2021 Steering Committee
Heather Sweeney, she/her, lives in San Diego where she writes, and does visual art. Her chapbooks include Just Let Me Have This (Selcouth Station Press) and Same Bitch, Different Era: The Real Housewives Poems (above/ground press). She is also the author of the collections, Dear Marshall, Language is Our Only Wilderness (Spuyten Duyvil Press) and Call Me California (Finishing Line Press). Her chapbook, The Book of Likes is forthcoming from The Hunger Press in 2021. You can find her at www.heathercsweeney.com
Elizabeth Tobias
2021 Steering Committee
Elizabeth Tobias, MA, is an Expressive Arts Therapist, Artist, Educator and Community Organizer. Elizabeth draws upon multiple art disciplines to create socially engaged immersive installations. As a facilitator and educator, she works with schools, museums and non-profits to create customized expressive arts programs, performances, workshops and events.
Elizabeth currently serves on the steering committee of Rising Arts Leaders, San Diego as well as The Arts+Culture San Diego Community Advisory Council. She is the recipient of numerous awards and has exhibited her films and work at museums and galleries throughout the world including Harvard University, Utah MOCA and Ping-Pong at Art Basel. She received her MA in Psychology from USM and her Professional Diploma from The Expressive Arts Institute.
In 2019, Tobias received awards for her short documentary, “Survivor! 98 Second Stories, an advocacy project bringing awareness to the sexual assault epidemic. In 2014, she was awarded a Learning Innovation Fellowship from The National Science Foundation as part of a collaborative project to combine art and science to combat climate change. In 2012, she earned a Durfee ARC Grant for The Cupcake Project, a traveling exhibit about the hunger epidemic in America.
She has worked with organizations including Vista Hill Parent Care, The San Diego Unified School District Department of Student Advocacy, La Jolla Elementary School, La Jolla High School, The Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center, The Expressive Arts Foundation and Arts for Learning.