Register here: http://bit.ly/3bAS3xa
Collette Williams Alleyne, Chief Education Officer, Inner-City Arts
Collette Williams Alleyne has over a decade of experience in alternative and arts education. After starting with Opportunities for Learning as an Academic Recovery Teacher, she entered into the position of Area Curriculum Advisor followed by a promotion to Assistant Principal, Regional Supervisor, and Educational Programs Project Coach. In the past three years as Director of Instruction for Opportunities for Learning and Options for Youth, she established partnerships with local schools to offer summer programs to students to reduce the learning loss that occurs during summer months. Her goal was to provide experiences for stakeholders that would encourage success in school and life. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Education with a Multiple Subject Credential from the University of New Orleans, a Master’s Degree in Educational Administration from Pepperdine University and a Clear California Administrative Credential. Before moving to California, Collette was an Instructor for New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, NOCCA/Riverfront, and Adjunct Instructor at Dillard University of New Orleans. She is an active member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. As an artist and artist educator, Collette has performed and co-directed various companies throughout Los Angeles and in her hometown of New Orleans. She is currently a member of the Duarte Unified Arts Taskforce and regularly participates in Arts and Education programming committees to provide input on the direction of arts resources available to local district students. She believes that all students should have the opportunity and tools to excel.
Leslie Ito, Executive Director, Armory Center for the Arts
Leslie A. Ito is highly regarded as one of the most skillful, entrepreneurial arts executives in the Los Angeles region with over 20 years of proven leadership and fundraising expertise to her credit. Ito’s reputation for cultural “bridge-building” and advocacy underscores her deep commitment to arts equity and access for all people. She is currently the Executive Director of the Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena. Prior to this position, she was the President & CEO of the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center, one of the largest ethnic arts and cultural centers of its kind in the U.S. She has also held the position of Program Director for Arts and Health at the California Community Foundation, and Director of Grant Programs at the Los Angeles County Arts Commission. She has served as Executive Director of Visual Communications, the nation’s premiere Asian American media arts organization, and as Program Associate in the Media, Arts Culture Division at the Ford Foundation in New York. Ms. Ito served on the Board of Directors for Americans for the Arts, TELIC Arts Exchange in Los Angeles’ Chinatown and Films By Youth Inside (FYI Films), inspiring incarcerated youth through filmmaking. She is also a co-founder of the LA Asian American and Pacific Islander Giving Circle. In 2016, Ito was awarded the prestigious Stanton Fellowship from the Durfee Foundation and in 2021 she will join the foundation’s Board of Trustees. A native of Los Angeles, Ms. Ito received an M.A. in Asian American Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles and a B.A. in American Studies from Mount Holyoke College. Leslie lives with her husband and two children in South Pasadena.
Betty Avila, Executive Director, Self Help Graphics & Arts
Betty Avila’s work has centered on the intersection of the arts and social justice, with particular focus on community building, public space, and youth empowerment. She grew up in the Northeast Los Angeles neighborhood of Cypress Park and has held positions with the Getty Research Institute, The Music Center and the Levitt Pavilion. Betty joined Self Help Graphics’ leadership in 2015, an organization with a 48-year nationally-recognized artistic legacy of empowering the Chicana/o and Latinx communities of Los Angeles through the arts. She is the Chair of the Latinx Arts Alliance, and sits on the boards of Arts for LA, the Center for Cultural Innovation, and was a founding board member of People for Mobility Justice. Betty is a passionate arts advocate, centering equity and justice, and she sat on the inaugural Advisory Committee for Los Angeles County’s Cultural Equity and Inclusion Initiative as an appointee of Supervisor Hilda Solis. Betty has been invited to speak for the Ford Foundation, The Getty Foundation, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, California Association of Museums, Western Art Alliance and more. In 2017, Betty was named one of C-Suite Quarterly Magazine’s NextGen 10 in Philanthropy, Arts and Culture and an Impact-Maker to Watch by City Impact Labs. She received her B.A. in Literature at Pitzer College, has an M.A. in Arts Management from Claremont Graduate University, and is a 2008 Fulbright Fellow to Korea.
