Staff
Danielle Conti, Scheduler
Danielle Conti is a contemporary landscape painter who works primarily in oil paints. She graduated from Arizona State University with a Bachelor of Arts in Art History and studied in Florence, Italy. She was born in Phoenix and currently lives and works out of her studio in Gilbert, Arizona. Danielle finds constant inspiration in nature, whether it’s in the hot and dry desert of her native Arizona or on the moody Oregon coast where she and her family often visit. She is endlessly fascinated by the play of light and clouds on the landscape and tries to capture that through her artwork. Danielle worked as a travel agent throughout the years and now works for Liz Lerman as a scheduler and travel logistics researcher.
Erin Donohue, Creative Producer
Erin Donohue is an arts practitioner with a background in dance and performance. Erin has spent the past nine years working with Liz Lerman, managing Liz’s last touring work Wicked Bodies and her retrospective at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Previously, Erin was the education director at Hancher Auditorium at the University of Iowa. Working with and for other artists to achieve their vision is where she finds joy. She works on a number of other artistic projects as a freelance consultant.
Sumana Mandala, CRP certification co-director
Sumana is a certified facilitator in the Critical Response Process (CRP) and Bharata-Nrityam artist and teacher. Through CRP and its values, she centers the importance of every voice in learning together and the related principles of responsibility + response in any space she enters. Sumana’s training in racial justice facilitation and sexual and domestic violence prevention infuses her practice of CRP with the depth of new perspectives. Her ongoing project Look into my Voice, Hear my Dance uses CRP to facilitate survivors of sexual/domestic violence telling their stories in collaboration with practitioners of Indian dance. Sumana is especially interested in using CRP to develop new dance-works, promote healthy relationships among youth, create awareness about violence prevention, and enhance equity in educational settings. Sumana also lays CRP as a foundation for critical reflection on dance lessons, choreographies and performances, as director of Dansense-Nrtyabodha (www.dansense.org).
Neda Movahed, Project Manager
Neda Movahed has a background in sustainability education, dance, and creative writing. She views creative learning as essential for human evolution. Neda first connected with Liz when she took her Atlas of Creative Tools class at ASU in Fall 2017. Mesmerized by Liz’s presence, Neda asked her to serve as a committee co-chair for her arts-based Ph.D. project titled “How we wear water: Creative learning for sustainability.” Currently, Neda works for the LLC as a Project Manager where she oversees external gigs and archives management.
Phil Stoesz, CRP certification co-director
Phil Stoesz (he/him) feels the most fulfilled when he is in a room full of people who are making art, telling stories, sharing food, processing emotions, or designing something new. His work is grounded in service, imagination and meaning-making; values that come from his mennonite heritage, theatre training, and queer family. He tumbled his way through an MFA in Theatre Directing from Arizona State University and has an eclectic teaching and artistic history including touring as a Shakespearean performer, devising theatre in an Astrobiology lab, teaching sexual education, co-directing an art project on coming-of-age stories, and maintaining a practice of visual art making and poetry. Nearly everything Phil does is the result of knowledge that has been passed on to him through the practices of his ancestry and the mentors and collaborators who continue to grace his life.
Candice Williams, Managing Director
Passionate and committed to the arts, Candice Williams has dedicated most of her life to working and performing in theater, television, and films. After working as a production and casting assistant, she spent five years as the talent and operations manager of a global event company. Candice then joined the Liz Lerman team as artistic administrator, inspired by the the creative and highly collaborative environment, and by the founder’s continuously ambitious vision. Candice also manages Liz’s ASU projects.
Candice holds a Master of Business Administration degree and a Bachelor of Science in Business Management.
Grounded Growth Marketing, Marketing Strategy
hello@groundedgrowth.marketing
Amy Jacobus and team strategize, consult, and manage digital marketing and communications for small businesses, artists and nonprofit organizations. Former dancers all, we approache marketing artfully and with rigor. We excel in creating actionable steps from big and lofty goals. We’ve worked for years with Christopher Duggan Photography, Dance Education Laboratory (DEL) at 92NY, Jacob’s Pillow, Liz Lerman, Manhattan Birth, and more.
photo credits: Ri Lindegren, Neda Movahed, Nader Abushhab
