Meet the 2016-17 Contributors
Sophie Auffret
Exchange Student (’17)
Sophie Auffret is currently pursuing her Masters of Arts Management as an international exchange student at Carnegie Mellon University from the University of Bologna in Italy. Sophie is focusing on event management and digital media. She graduated from McGill University (Canada) with a major in International management. After obtaining her bachelor degree, Sophie travelled the world for a year, backpacking through Australia and South-East Asia. She is always looking for a new opportunity to travel and discover new cultures.
Jess Bergson
Second Year MAM (’17)
Jess was born and raised in New York, and fell in love with the arts when she was bit by the theater bug as a child. As a recent graduate of Carnegie Mellon’s School of Drama with a degree in Stage and Production Management, Jess has grown a huge interest in how technology intersects with the arts in production, marketing, and more. In the past, Jess has worked with Joey Parnes Productions, Good Sense and Company, Tinc Productions and The New York Musical Festival. This past summer, Jess experienced how integral technology is to arts organizations’ marketing efforts across the country through her work with Capacity Interactive, a digital marketing consulting firm for the arts. Jess is currently in her final year as a Master of Arts Management student at Carnegie Mellon's Heinz College.
jbergson@andrew.cmu.edu
Jane Bowers
Second Year MAM (’17)
Jane Bowers is a second-year Master of Arts Management student at Carnegie Mellon University’s HeinzCollege. Originally from Asheville, NC, Jane completed her undergraduate studies in dance and business at Appalachian State University. Jane has worked with the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre and Attack Theatre while studying in Pittsburgh, and most recently spent her summer in the development department atAlonzo King LINES Ballet in San Francisco, CA. Want to talk dance? Perhaps actually dance? See social links below.
@janegoldenb
Mandy Ding
Second Year MAM ('17)
Mandy’s passion for the arts can be traced to over fifteen years’ violin playing and ten-year training of calligraphy and watercolor painting. She completed her undergraduate study at Fudan University, China, majoring in Chinese Literature with a concentration in creative writing, and is pursuing Master of Arts Management at Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College. Mandy’s main interest lies in arts marketing. She is also dedicated to advancing global cultural exchanges and helping other people enjoy an artistically fulfilled way of living.
mengdid@andrew.cmu.edu
Justin Gilmore
Second Year MAM ('17)
Justin is currently pursuing a Masters of Arts Management at Heinz College, Carnegie Mellon University. His focus for the past five years has been using data to bring activists, supporters, and audiences to action. Justin has worked with diverse organizations including; Fairness West Virginia, Our Children Our Future, the WestVirginia Democratic Party, Society for Contemporary Craft, and Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh.
Rod Gingrich
First Year MAM ('18)
Rod Gingrich is an experienced teaching artist, long associated with Chicago’s Old Town School of Folk Music, where he helped create a successful kids music education program. His career has been diverse and entrepreneurial, encompassing both creative and technical disciplines. He is a lifelong learner with a range of interests including: arts (particularly music and film), public policy, behavioral economics, history, math, technology and science. Rod is currently a candidate for Masters of Arts Management from the Heinz College School of Public Policy & Management at Carnegie Mellon University, with the goal of administrating in the not-for-profit cultural sector.
Kathleen (Katie) Grennan
Second Year MAM (’17)
Katie is a Pittsburgh native and graduate of the University of Notre Dame with a double degree in Accounting and Psychology. She continued to develop her analytical skills after college graduation during her tenure at HealthScape Advisors, a boutique consulting firm serving national healthcare clients. Katie is also an Irish fiddle player and dancer, and has traveled the globe with various professional dance companies and bands. Throughout both of these career paths, Katie has witnessed the importance of technology, whether it was helping a health insurance client understand how to use their data effectively or by leveraging video to enhance future performances or stream through social media while on the road performing. She is enjoying blending her passions for both the performing arts and technology during her graduate studies and work with the AMT Lab.
kgrennan@alumni.nd.edu
@kgrennan88
www.katiegrennan.com
Jenée Iyer
MAM/JD '20
Jenée is a first year Masters of Arts Management/Juris Doctor student with a passion for all things old, ancient, and dusty. She completed her undergraduate at the University of Chicago with a double concentration in Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations, and Law, Letters and Society. Professionally Jenée has worked in for profit education, museum programs, and published for an international travel app. Her current interest areas center around ways that arts management, technology, and the law can intersect to help protect and preserve our global heritage.
Peixiao Liu
Second Year MAM ('17)
Peixiao Liu is a second year Master of Arts Management student at Carnegie Mellon'sHeinz College. She graduated from University of Pittsburgh with Bachelor Degrees inHistory of Art & Architecture and Economics in 2015. Originally from Beijing, China,she focuses on developing businesses in the visual art field and has worked with several arts organizations and galleries in Beijing. Her interests lie in marketing and technology and she wishes to work in advancing organization’s marketing strategy by exploring new technical methods and developing social media platforms.
@lpxemma
Jewel Mensah
Second Year MEIM ('17)
Jewel majored in Media Studies with a double minor in Art and Politics as an undergraduate at Pomona College prior to attending Carnegie Mellon University’s Master of Entertainment Industry Management program. At Carnegie Mellon, he recently served as the Chief Coordinator of AMTLab and as President of the Heinz Digital Marketing Club. He has gained entertainment-management experience through internships at Nielsen and Starz. This spring, he will be working for Techstars Music in their Los Angeles office. Among other interests, Jewel is fascinated by the bridge between entertainment and technology via experiential praxis.
jmensah@andrew.cmu.edu
@mutabarukah
Seggen Bana Mikael
Exchange Student ('17)
Born and raised in Munich – Germany, Seggen is spending an exchange semester at Carnegie Mellon University and continues her graduate education in Arts Management. She earned her bachelor degree in Social and Cultural Anthropology and Art, Music and Theater Studies at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. Seggen has worked for various film and dance festivals and as a music journalist for the university radio in Stuttgart – Germany. She is interested in how technology will continue to change the art world and allow organizations to be explorative with new those possibilities.
smikael@andrew.cmu.edu
@seggubana
Hannah Nowicki
First Year MAM ('18)
Hannah is a first year Master of Arts Management student at Carnegie Mellon University and an alumna of the School of Music, where she completed an undergraduate degree in Vocal Performance with a minor in French and Francophone Studies. Hannah is extremely passionate about the performing arts, education, and administration. Her volunteer and professional endeavors span from teaching English in the Kalahari Desert to helping run the CMU Pre-College summer music program to currently interning with Pittsburgh Opera’s development department. Hannah looks forward to exploring opportunities in both artistic administration and development.
Kevin O'Hora
Second Year MAM ('17)
Kevin’s artistic roots can be traced back to his early summers training at the Papermill Playhouse Summer Musical Theater Conservatory and performing opera scenes with Claudette Peterson’s Operafest in Tolentino, Italy. These pursuits encouraged him to pursue a BFA in Voice Performance at Carnegie Mellon where he portrayed roles in several main stage opera productions. An aspiring arts administrator, Kevin has held internships with The Glimmerglass Festival, New York Musical Festival, Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera, and Carnegie Museum of Art. During the 2015-16 season he served as Performance Programming Manager at Future Tenant, an artist laboratory space in Downtown Pittsburgh. Kevin has also been involved in Carnegie Mellon’s student government as a member of the Graduate Student Assembly and Undergraduate Student Senate. He is currently producing Co-Opera, a project premiering three chamber operas in collaboration with Pittsburgh Opera and the Carnegie Mellon School of Music. He will graduate with a Master of Arts Management from Carnegie Mellon’s Heinz College of Public Policy and Management in May 2017.
kohora@andrew.cmu.edu
@kevin_ohora
Anna Okuda
Second Year MAM ('17)
Anna worked as an assistant theater producer for over forty productions during her career in Japan. She drafted the budget of major commercial productions, managed national tours, and oversaw marketing & PR and ticketing. After moving to the U.S. in 2011, she continued her professional journey in the theater. She is currently pursuing a Master of Arts Management degree at Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz College to gain further management skills. Believing that theater has a potential to empower people and communities, she hopes to deliver theater to broader audiences by utilizing today’s technology in an innovative way.
aokuda@andrew.cmu.edu
@anna_okuda
Kara Post
First Year MAM ('18)
Kara is a first year Master of Arts Management student at the Heinz College. Prior to graduate work she attended Duke University where she studied Psychology and Theater. Kara’s interest began when she started playing flute 15 years ago, but has sense blossomed into an insatiable curiosity for what lies behind the curtain. Her work experience includes internships at Florida Grand Opera and The Center for Contemporary Opera. Now, Kara studies focus on exploring internal-relations and the support system built for artists; although she will never tire of applying her knowledge of psychology to marketing research reports.
Sofia Stucchi
Exchange Student (’17)
Sofia holds an undergraduate degree in Art History from the University of Florence. She has perfected her management skills pursuing GIOCA graduate degree at the University of Bologna and she is currently a Heinz College Master of Arts Management exchange student. Sofia has participated in several artistic projects: she has fundraised and promoted for a Greek art exhibition in Bologna, assisted in the administration of the European Creative Center in Berlin, organized and led artistic tours in Florence, and researched at an academic level on the history of the baroque garden of Valsanzibio, Padua. She is currently working as the Special Project Assistant at the Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry and has discovered her interest for the latest trends in multimedia art.
sstucchi@andrew.cmu.edu
Wei Wei
Second Year MAM (‘17)
Wei was born and raised in the Yangtze River Delta, the land of “fish and rice” in Chinese History. Prior to her studies at Carnegie Mellon University for a master degree of Arts Management, Wei had three years of professional experience in Corporate Finance focused on the Primary Market for small-to-medium-sized and large enterprises in Pan Asian area. But she has always kept an intellectual curiosity from a sociological standpoint, thanks to the academic trainings in her undergraduate degree. With a rekindled passion for music performance and the arts, she worked for the Berkshire Theatre Festival this past summer and interns with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra for the duration of the school year.
wwei2@andrew.cmu.edu
