2017 a2ru National Conference

Dr. Barbara O. Korner has been dean of the Penn State College of Arts and Architecture since June 2007, during which time she has overseen the development of a bustling Arts District on the northern end of campus. In March 2018, she announced that she would retire in December 2019.

A national leader in arts in higher education, Dean Korner served as co-director of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education’s (ATHE) Leadership Institute from 2000 to 2016. She co-founded the institute, which has worked with more than 250 faculty and administrators, with Mark Heckler, president of Valparaiso University. In 2016, she and Heckler were co-recipients of ATHE’s Ellen Stewart Award for Career Achievement in Academic Theatre.

Dean Korner, a Distinguished Alumna of the College of Fine Arts at Ohio University, serves on the board of the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (SNAAP) and the executive committee of the Alliance for the Arts in Research Universities (a2ru). She previously served on the board of directors of ATHE and of the International Council of Fine Arts Deans.

Before coming to Penn State, she was associate and interim dean in the College of Fine Arts at the University of Florida. Dean Korner maintains an active role as a performing artist and is the writer and performer of Responding to the Call: African-American Women Preachers and co-editor of Hardship and Hope: Missouri Women Writing about their Lives. 

From spring 2021-2022, Jamie Bennett served as the interim President & CEO of United States Artists. Currently, he is remaining on staff in an advisory role. From 2014-2020, Jamie was the Executive Director of ArtPlace America, which supported artists working as allies in equitable community development across rural, suburban, Tribal, and urban communities. Jamie has also worked at the National Endowment for the Arts, the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, the Agnes Gund Foundation, and The Museum of Modern Art. Jamie had hoped to make a life in the theatre, but during his first year in college, he was cast as an Irish soldier going off to war and had to kiss Amanda Peet goodbye. Not able to make any of that believable, a number of things fell into place for him, and he has happily been a gay audience member ever since. Jamie has been sober since 2009. Source: United States Artists

In his role as Associate Vice President of the Office of the Arts at Emerson College and Executive Director of ArtsEmerson, David is fiscally and administratively responsible for multiple cultural venues in Boston’s downtown Theater District. Prior to his current role, he served as the Executive Director of the award-winning Boston Children’s Chorus.

As a faculty member at the Institute for Nonprofit Practice, David teaches a management and leadership seminar to nonprofit managers and executives. David serves on the Boards of the American Friends of Chineke Foundation, Exponential Creativity Ventures, Social Innovation Forum, Philanthropy Massachusetts, and Chorus America. He also serves on the Board of Corporators for Eastern Bank, the Board of Advisors at the Museum of Fine Arts, and the Advisory Council of the New England Foundation for the Arts.

David has received numerous awards for his innovative leadership and civic contributions including being named in 2018 as one of the GK100: Boston’s Most Influential People of Color. David holds degrees from Bradley University and New England Conservatory of Music.

Liu is an award-winning artist, social impact strategist, and real estate developer with a successful track record of developing “Community Benefits by Design” real estate projects. As the Senior Fellow for Arts, Culture and Equitable Development at PolicyLink, he has shaped and is guiding an initiative that integrate arts and culture into the work of equitable development.

In 2004, Jeremy created the National Bitter Melon Council with his long-time collaborator Hiroko Kikuchi. The Council, which promotes the literal and poetic potential of Bitter Melon (Momordica charantia) and continues to operate as a vegetable promotion board, received the Artadia Artist Prize and has performed, practiced, exhibited and promoted in neighborhoods, communities, museums, and venues around the country. As a community developer, he has led two different affordable housing and community economic development organizations responsible, eventually, for overseeing a staff of 110 professionals, 1,400 apartments in 16 properties home to several thousand families and residents, 250,000 square feet of commercial space, an operating budget of over $12 million, and assets in excess of $150 million.

He is also the co-founder of Creative Ecology Partners, a design studio and incubator for urban, economic and community development innovation that has advised purpose-built social enterprises in real estate, systems engineering, consumer packaged goods, workforce development, urban agriculture, food retail, mobile banking, green infrastructure, and arts & culture. He is a board member of the Center for Neighborhood Technology and the New England Foundation for the Arts, and has served as an advisor/panelist for a range of organizations, including the Philanthropic Ventures Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Science Foundation, ArtPlace America, the Institute for the Future, the Oakland Business Development Center, and the Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archives.