Board of Directors
Amy Williams, Chair
Gwen Krause, Vice Chair
Daniel Centi, Treasurer
Shanelle Carter-Maddox, Secretary
Gabby Calabrese
Elizabeth Callahan
Teresa Casey
David Clemenzi
Michelle Dinsmore
Vanessa Etherington
Kevin Houlihan
Sam Judge
James Knox
Mary LaFleur
Jennifer Laflin
Brian McCandless
Sugi Pikard
Jesse Roberts
Luke Scarchilli
Rhiannon Gifford
Starletta Smith
Kimberly Wright
Mary Kate Young
Admin Staff
Elizabeth Reiss, President & CEO
elizabeth@artscenteronline.org
(518) 273-0552
Elizabeth Reiss is a life-long arts advocate. Her career has been guided by the simple belief that the arts belong in everyone’s life. Raised in LI, Reiss has worked in NYC, Pittsburgh and the Capital Region, in art museums, children museums, arts festivals and now at the Arts Center.
Reiss has worked as a museum educator, education department director, exhibitions manager and development and public relations director, as well as organizational leader. Her favorite projects have been developing Craft in the Classroom, a K-12 craft education curricula developed with the NYC board of education, renovating an empty storefront to become the Children’s Museum of the Arts in SoHo, and, as part of the Three Rivers Arts Festival in Pittsburgh, presenting public art projects that interacted with the environment, with artists Magdalena Abakanowicz, Patrick Dougherty, Steven Siegel, and Stacey Levy, among others. Reiss continues to also work in Pittsburgh, as the Managing Director of Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company.
Reiss has a BA from Bard College and an M.Ed from Bank Street School for Education. She has played an active role in community and professional service organizations serves as the President of Arts NYS and the Co-Chair of the Troy Cultural Alliance.
Joseph Mastroianni, Vice President of Programs
joseph@artscenteronline.org
(518) 273-0552, x133
Joseph Mastroianni is the Vice President of Programs at The Arts Center of the Capital Region. Joseph leads the Education Department through hiring of teaching artists, curriculum/programming development, and contract services with other local organizations or schools.
Joseph received his Bachelors of Fine Arts from the State University of Albany in 2010 and his Masters of Fine Arts for the State University of New Paltz in 2012. Throughout his academic career, Joseph was a T.A. for foundation art classes at New Paltz as well as the Visiting Artist Coordinator for his master program and later became an instructor at The Arts Center of the Capital Region starting in 2013.
Throughout Joseph’s academic and professional career he has been a board member of the O+ Music and Arts Festival in Kingston, New York. He also was a recipient of several grants for multiple public art projects in both Kingston and Troy, New York. Most recently he has been an active member of the Troy 100 forum in Troy, New York and assisted with The Arts Center of the Capital Region’s 2019 Public Art programs.
Nicole Peterson, Director of External Relations
nicole@artscenteronline.org
(518) 273-0552, x125
Nicole began her career in the arts in 2005 at Hancock Shaker Village in Pittsfield MA, and has worked in the arts, both in museums and arts centers, ever sense. Nicole is now the Director of External Relations at the Arts Center of the Capital Region.
Nicole started her career in the Capital Region at the Albany Institute of History & Art by transcribing letters from the second US Ambassador to Japan. Realizing her comfort with historical research, project management and interpersonal relations, the Institute quickly hired her as a member of the development team. In the matter of a few short years, Nicole rose from Intern to Manager of Corporate Giving and Special Events. After five years at the Institute, she left to become the Director of Development, then Director of External Relations for the Arts Center of the Capital Region. At ACCR, Nicole manages a complex development program, from institutional giving, major grant writing, individual giving programs and special events.
Nicole has a BA in History/Political Science from the College of Saint Rose and an MA in History from the University of St. Andrews. She is part of the Rensselaer County Chamber’s Leadership Academy Class of 2020, and is a member of the Capital Region Chamber’s Young Professional Network.
Jamie Dougherty, Director of Finance and Facilities
jamie@artscenteronline.org
(518) 273-0552, x124
Jamie Posnak, born and raised in Oceanside, CA, graduated from California State University Long Beach with a BA in Dance. After pursuing a modern dance career in New York City, she decided to move into the admin side of the arts world. She completed a bookkeeping certificate program at CUNY LaGuardia in Queens and started as an intern at Dance New Amsterdam in lower Manhattan. She left Dance New Amsterdam as the Business Manager to join the finance team at Mark Morris Dance Group in Brooklyn. In 2015, a desire to move out of the city led Jamie up the Hudson River to Troy, NY where she joined The Arts Center of the Capital Region as the Business Manager.
Greg Back, Development Manager
greg@artscenteronline.org
(518) 273-0552, x127
Judie Gilmore, Director of Special Projects & Partnerships
judie@artscenteronline.org
(518) 273-0552, x129
Taliesin Thomas, Director of Artist Initiative
taliesinthomas@gmail.com
Teaching Artists Summer-Fall 2023
Dance & Movement
Jason Fenton
David Aloka y Isabel Burlinghan
Harley Foxx
Cynthia DiDonna-Nethaway
Drawing
Echo Goff
Kelly Smith
Jackie Zysk
Noreen Powell
Anthony Camarota
Alex Delafontaine
Mehr Sharma
Digital Arts
Noreen Powell
Thom Williams
Michael Roach
Fiber Arts
Lauren Jacobs
Mallory Zondag
Jewelry
Gail Bossalini
Adam Brown
Charlotte Hirschberger
Mixed Media
Ali Herrmann
Nina Bernhardt
