MEET OUR TEAM
Sara Juli (she/her) is the Founder/Director of Surala Consulting, a fundraising consultancy specializing in strategic fundraising solutions. Sara has been a professional fundraiser for over 25 years and has been directly involved in the strategy and raising of over $40M+ for individual and institutional clients in NYC, Boston, and Maine. Sara was awarded the Arts Management Award from Brooklyn Arts Exchange in 2013, and is an ongoing project advisor for the Boston Foundation’s Live Arts Boston (LAB) and Next Steps Programs. Sara is a sought after teacher and guest lecturer in the field of fundraising and has been invited to lecture or teach at Bates College, Bowdoin College, Williams College, Salem State University, Mandel Foundation, Boston Foundation, Bates Dance Festival, Connecticut College, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Gibney Dance (NYC), Movement Research (NYC), The Field (NYC), Dance Theater Workshop, The Laundromat Project (NYC), The Dance Complex (MA), Harlem Arts Alliance, New York Live Arts, South Arts (GA), American Dance Festival (NC), and Brooklyn Arts Exchange, among many others. She was on the faculty for New England Foundation for the Arts’ 2021-22 Regional Dance Development Initiative, RDDI: New England Now. In addition to her consulting practice, Sara has been creating and performing innovative comedic dance-theater for over 25 years and has toured her one-woman shows nationally and internationally. Sara is an Affiliated Artist of Bates College. She holds a B.A. in Dance and Anthropology from Skidmore College.
Ellen Chenoweth (she/her) is a culture worker / performance-lover based in Philadelphia. She is the Director of Finance and Operations for Works & Process at the Guggenheim and works with artist Kayla Hamilton as her Action Partner. She is the copyeditor for the academic journal Dance Chronicle. A past board member at Links Hall, she is currently on the Advisory Board for Cannonball. In the past, she has worked at the Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago as the Lead Curator and Director of the Dance Presenting Series, at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, at Dance Exchange, and Pig Iron Theatre Company. She holds an MA in Dance from Texas Woman’s University and a Graduate Certificate from the Institute for Curatorial Practice in Performance at Wesleyan University. She loves trees and tacos and is a beginning quilter.
Hannah Ford is a strategist, builder, and super connector. Raised amidst a family of creatives and entrepreneurs, Hannah has dedicated her career toward creating opportunities for
communities to engage in the arts. She is fascinated by the potential for new economic
models to help artists, arts leaders, and arts organizations thrive and better serve their
communities. She currently works as an independent consultant focused on non-profit strategy and philanthropy. Most recently, Hannah served as the Manager of Strategic Initiatives and Planning in Arts and Culture at the Mellon Foundation. At Mellon, Hannah advised leadership in shaping the vision for arts and culture funding as well as created new
strategic initiatives aligned with that vision. Her signature co-creative projects included
the $125M Creatives Rebuild New York initiative and Thriving Artists Research. Hannah
has held leadership fellowships at University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill and
American Ballet Theatre where she partnered with executives on strategic and financial
decision making. She began her career in development at the John F. Kennedy Center
for the Performing Arts and was honored to serve as director of development at the DC
Youth Orchestra Program partnering with the executive director on an organizational
turnaround. Hannah holds a BS summa cum laude in Human and Organizational Development from Vanderbilt University and an MBA from Duke University, where she graduated as a
dean’s and CASE scholar. Hannah lives in Durham, North Carolina with her husband, two sons, and golden retriever Polly.
Amanda Newman (she/her) is a dancer, social worker, community organizer, and cross-field collaborator. Working at the intersection of artmaking, community participation, and social relevance, Amanda is particularly interested in intergenerational exchange and creative aging, arts evaluation, and expanding the role of artists in the climate movement. Amanda works with NYC-based Community-Word Project, the National Wilderness Coalition, and Surala Consulting. She was formerly Associate Director of Programs at DC-based Dance Exchange where she co-led their Dance On creative aging program and their Organizing with Artists for Change initiative. Originally from Utah, Amanda earned her BFA in Modern Dance at the University of Utah, but did her most important learning about dance and community while moving and making in museums, summer camps, living rooms, and parking lots. Before coming to New York, Amanda spent a year as a healthcare innovation fellow with Health for America at MedStar Health, the largest health system in the Maryland/D.C. region—an experience which affirmed her belief in artists as agents of change in our biggest, messiest institutions. Amanda completed her master’s in social work at Hunter College in New York. She currently lives in Astoria, NY with her partner and dog.
Alexandra Ripp is a dramaturg, arts administrator, writer and translator.
She has served as Ideas Program Manager at the International Festival of Arts and Ideas, and Associate Editor of David Geffen School of Drama’s Theater magazine. She was the Andrew W. Mellon D.I.S.T.I.L postdoctoral fellow at Carolina Performing Arts, where she oversaw long-term residencies of artists collaborating with faculty and community and also launched the Commons Festival to support performing artists and arts critics in the area. She then served as the inaugural director of Five College Dance, a consortium of the dance departments of Amherst, Mt. Holyoke, Smith, and Hampshire colleges and UMass Amherst.
Alex has also been creative producer for Scapegoat Garden, a New England-based creative organization directed by Deborah Goffe, and U.S. Producer for body-based artist nora chipaumire. She has worked as a consultant for Black Feminist Film School in Durham N.C., New England Foundation for the Arts, and UMass Amherst Fine Arts Center.
Alex has translated, for both performance and publication, plays by Chilean artists Guillermo Calderon, Manuela Infante/Teatro de Chile, Trinidad González, Teatrocinema, and Compañía Bonobo. She co-edited and co-translated the 2022 Chile issue of the e-journal Imagined Theatres, and her own writing has appeared in PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art, Theater, Theater Journal, Fusebox’s Written and Spoken, and the Walker Art Center’s the Walker Reader. She holds her MFA and DFA in Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism from Yale School of Drama.
Emily Macel Theys (she/her) is non-profit consultant specializing in grant writing and external communications who is passionate about helping artists and performing arts organizations achieve their vision through supporting their fundraising efforts. Formerly the Director of Development and Communication at Dance Exchange in Washington, D.C., Emily helped the organization navigate a founder-transition and a major rebranding effort. Currently as a Development Associate with Dance Exchange, she continues to advise on executive decisions and fundraising strategies. Emily joined Surala Consulting in 2014, where she has had the pleasure of working with clients such as Dance Films Association, Vineyard Theatre, Leslie Lohman Museum of Art, STAYCEE PEARL Dance Projects, and Performance Space New York, among others. Her work with Surala primarily focuses on grant writing, research, and cultivation for small to mid-sized nonprofits. Emily holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Allegheny College where she minored in Dance Studies, and a Masters of Fine Arts from Sarah Lawrence College. She is a Contributing Editor of Dance Magazine and a frequent contributor to Dance Spirit and Dance Teacher magazines. She lives in Pittsburgh, PA with her husband Jonathan, and two children, Lincoln and Violet.
Alysha Westlake (she/her) is a writer/performer based in NYC. A passionate advocate for gender equity and social justice, Alysha has worked with major arts organizations such as Bumbershoot, Rain City Rock Camp, Red Eagle Soaring, and Theater Breaking Through Barriers. She has performed on stages in London, at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and the Venice Biennale. While living in London and working in film and television, she became a voting member of BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts). She is a member of New Yorkers for Culture & Arts, advocating for artists and supporting cultural convening sessions with government officials. A keen researcher, her paper exploring gender equity and leadership, “Taking Up Space: Transformational Women in Arts Leadership” was selected for ILA’s Women in Leadership Conference in the UK. She holds an MFA in Arts Leadership from Seattle University, an MA from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, London, UK and a BA (hons) from McGill University, Montreal, Canada. A passionate fundraiser, strategic planner, and researcher she brings her humorous Canadian tenacity to collaborations. She is thrilled to be working with Surala Consulting advocating for clients at the intersection of arts advocacy and social equity.