MARIA APONTE

MARIA is a Poet/Performance Artist/ Community Arts Activist/Educator. Featured on Bronx Net, News 12, NBC Latino and TIEMPO WABC-TV. She is a two- time recipient of the International Latino Book Awards for Transitions of a Nuyorican Cinderella and The Gift of Loss.   Maria is the Founder & President of Latina 50 Plus™ a not for profit organization honoring Latina Pioneers.  She is also the Assistant Director of Global Diversity & Inclusion for Career Services at Fordham University.

PATRICIA R. KLAUSNER

Ms. Klausner has produced, written and assistant directed theater since 1990. While she has invested in many Broadway shows, she is credited as a Co-Producer on The Band's Visit (Tony, Best Musical), Pippin (Tony, Best Revival), Trip to Bountiful, Stick Fly and The Scottsboro Boys; National Tours: The Band's Visit, Pippin; and in London:  The Scottsboro Boys.  She is the Co-Executive Producer of the film Wakefield starring Bryan Cranston and Jennifer Garner.  Other theatrical and business credits include Managing Director of Shotgun Productions/Global Arts Initiative since 1995, Managing Director of the Steps Beyond Foundation, General Manager of The Donald Byrd Dance Foundation (1996-1999), conceiver of the multimedia piece The Tides of Intolerance (The Asia Society, NYC, 1996), Director of Marketing for Steps on Broadway (2001-2018), editor of a weekly financial trade publication, and consultant for various cable television companies and arts businesses. She currently holds the position of Director of Investor Relations for a theatrical fund and is working with the lead producer on the new musical by Ahrens & Flaherty, Marie: Dancing Still.  She sat on the Board of Directors and is a past Vice President of Media Audit International and served as a Co-Director of Theater Resources Unlimited's Producers Development Mentorship Program. Ms. Klausner has a Ph.D. in sociology and has taught women's studies, race relations, and criminology at the University of Delaware and Montclair State College. She currently sits on the Marymount Manhattan College Dance Advisory Board, and is a graduate of CTI.

TONYA PINKINS

Tonya Pinkins won a Tony Award for her performance as Sweet Anita in Jelly's Last Jam. She was nominated for her roles in Play On! and in Caroline, or Change, where she played the title role. Her additional Broadway credits include Merrily We Roll Along, Chronicle of a Death Foretold, The Wild Party, House of Flowers, Radio Golf, A Time To Kill and Holler If Ya Hear Me. Pinkins has performed in several Off Broadway productions. In 2011, Pinkins starred in the world premiere of Kirsten Greenidge’s Milk Like Sugar at La Jolla Playhouse, and received a 2012 Craig Noel nomination for Best featured Actress in a Play. She garnered a 2012 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play. Pinkins appeared in New Federal Theatre's revival of Ed Bullins' The Fabulous Miss Marie opposite Roscoe Orman; in the Broadway production of Holler If Ya Hear Me; and the world premiere of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' War at Yale Repertory. She has also had a prolific television career making guest appearances on such television shows as Army Wives, 24, Law & Order, The Cosby Show, Cold Case, Criminal Minds, and The Guardian among others. During the mid-1980s Pinkins created roles for As the World Turns and All My Children and appeared in the 2018 season of Fear the Walking Dead.

TOM POLUM

co-founder and CEO of Streaming Musicals, producer of the films of Emma, Marry Harry, No One Called Ahead, Pride and Prejudice.  www.StreamingMusicals.com.  Author of Mambo Italiano which had it's world premiere at the Westchester Broadway Theatre.  Outer Critic's winner Best off-Broadway musical for The Toxic Avenger; produced the Houston production of The Toxic Avenger, following the off-Broadway New York premiere of  the show about the first superhero from New Jersey by Joe DiPietro (I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change) and David Bryan (keyboardist and founding member of Bon Jovi) and directed by Tony Award-winner John Rando. He also co-produced Last Call, a musical documentary by Broadway director Christopher Ashley (Xanadu, Rocky Horror Show, All Shook Up) and is developing the musical comedies Mambo Italiano (based on the Canadian film starring Paul Sorvino) and Zombie Honeymoon, as well as other musicals, including Heloise and Abelard, The Toxic Avenger Christmas Chaos and Finding Frida Kahlo. Past credits include the tour of Broadway’s Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (Tony nomination for Best Musical).

EMILEENA PEDIGO

Emileena's work focuses on building sustainable careers #AnotherWay, using entrepreneurial strategies that prioritize the artist over their art.  Her company, The Show Goes On Productions provides coaching and artist management, as well as produces workshops, showcases, and events.  Before that Emileena was managing producer of the Midtown International Theater Festival.  She helped expand the annual festival into seven venues, presenting up to 60 shows in one month during her seven-year tenure.  Emileena also general-managed for several nonprofits, assisted Stewart F. Lane on four Broadway shows, including the Off-Broadway transfer of The 39 Steps, and worked on various film and music festivals.  She toured theaters, music arenas, and schools across the country, working with artists from all artistic disciplines.  Emileena has served on the board of Conscious Capitalism NYC, and helped to build Arts programming within the Chelsea Greenwich Village Chelsea Chamber of Commerce.  She is a graduate of the Commercial Theatre Institute, SUNY/Kaufmann's Fasttrac program for entrepreneurs, and a Purdue University alum.