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Our Staff
It takes a special mix of personalities, knowledge, professional background and shared responsibilities to manage the work of Young Audiences. The staff collectively contributes to our mission of enhancing young people's education through arts and education experiences.Staff Bios
| GAIL HAYES DAVIS Ext. 228 Executive Director: send an email to Gail Dr. Gail Hayes Davis has experience in educational administration, fundraising for non-profits, and the arts. She recently retired as principal of Milwaukie Middle School, which focused on the fine and performing arts. Prior to administration, she taught arts to high school students in Portland Public Schools including jewelry, sculpture, painting, glass, and drawing. She paints and creates fused glass pieces in her studio and most recently completed a 47-foot mural for the Black Horse Saloon in Bend, Oregon. She received her MA in arts education from the University of Oregon and doctorate in educational administration from Portland State University. |  | ||
| MIRIAM BUDNER Ext. 226 Artist Programs Manager: send an email to Miriam Miriam Budner works with artists to assess and develop their offerings, heads up the roster application process, and manages the roster evaluation and review. She designs and runs programs that build on YA as an artistic home - including artist professional development. She also serves as liaison between the Right Brain Initiative and the Young Audiences teaching artist roster. Before coming to Young Audiences, Miriam was a writer-in-residence and classroom teacher for a wide array of humanity in Portland, New York, Tokyo, and St. Louis – working with public elementary schools, private universities, a nursing home, treatment facilities, community colleges, and arts education programs. She has also been a program director, an art researcher, and an archivist. Miriam has a BA in Urban Studies and Literary Journalism from Hampshire College, and an MFA in Fiction Writing from Sarah Lawrence College. As a fiction writer, Miriam is fascinated with the use of history, but ambivalent about plot. | |||
| DEBRA JEROME Ext. 222 Controller: send an email to Debbie Debra Jerome brings to Young Audiences a wealth of accounting experience. Although most of her 14 years of accounting was in the for-profit arena; Debbie worked in non-profit in the early 90’s and went into the for-profit world to learn her trade. After receiving her Bachelor of Science Degree with an emphasis in accounting in 1999, she went on to receive her Master’s in Business Administration in 2003; both were achieved through the University of Phoenix in Tucson and Tigard respectively. Now that she has accomplished learning the technical & managerial skills Debbie felt it was time to return to her true love, non-profit. Today Debbie’s favorite past time is to spend time with her partner and step-children. They enjoy traveling around in their motor home seeing all the beauty of the Great Northwest. | |||
| BETH LEVY Ext. 231 School Liaison: send an email to Beth As the School Liaison, Beth Levy assists over 200 schools each year with their arts planning and scheduling needs. She also writes and distributes Young Audiences' monthly school e-newsletter. After a childhood in Michigan,she received her BA in Art History from Washington University in St. Louis. She has worked in the arts for over 15 years, and has been at Young Audiences for nearly four. She and her husband moved to Portland just over four years ago and are very happy that they did so. She enjoys spending time with her dogs and in Portland's many restaurants and is excited to have finally figured out the appeal of Sudoku. |  | ||
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| BRENDA MACROBERTS Ext. 233 Associate Director: send an email to Brenda Brenda MacRoberts has 15 years’ experience in non-profit administration and currently supervises the day-to-day operations of the organization, assuring that the operations and systems of the organization are efficient, effective and professional. In conjunction with Executive Director, she is responsible for building, sustaining and monitoring a comprehensive, effective development program, with annual goals, budget, strategies and timelines. She also oversees the development and implementation of organization-wide initiatives. Brenda, who holds an MBA in Arts Administration and a bachelor's degree in theater arts, has been with Young Audiences for nine years. |  | ||
| DAVID MEESENBURG Ext. 221 Run for the Arts Coordinator/Development Asst: send an email to David David Meesenburg coordinates the Run For the Arts program as well as supports the day-to-day operations of the office (especially technology) and assists with special projects and events. His work experience includes nearly four years with Signature Event Group as Office Administrator as well as his extensive background in technology. He has traveled to continents North, South, East and West and has an affinity for mid-century design. |  | ||
| CARIN ROSENBERG Ext. 229 The Right Brain Initiative Implementation Manager: send an email to Carin Young Audiences is the Implementation Partner of The Right Brain Initiative, a regional arts education program. Carin Rosenberg manages the program implementation for the initiative. She brings many years of arts education administration as well as six years of elementary classroom teaching to her work at Young Audiences. She lived for many years in Boston where she administered arts integration programming for arts organizations that brought the arts into the classroom, community centers and youth after-school programs. Carin also taught anti-oppression courses to teachers and teachers-in-training. She received a bachelor's from the University of Pennsylvania, a master's in elementary education and creative arts in learning from Lesley University and a master's in arts in education from Harvard University. | |||
| TONI TABORA-ROBERTS Ext. 225 Outreach Coordinator: send an email to Toni Toni brings a passion for arts, education and empowerment. She has worn all kinds of hats – outreach, program management, education, special events, development and grants administration - with a wide range of arts non-profits over the past 15 years including the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Center for Asian American Media, ArtsChange, KBOO Community Radio and Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center. She’s a media producer/writer and performer who has taught and directed theatre and improvisation to students of all ages. Current creative and community endeavors include Portland Theatre Brigade Board of Directors, APA Compass Radio Collective, The Asian Reporter columnist, Action Theater practitioner and her ramblings of a dabbler blog. | |||
