Staffs

Kristen San Miguel is Boston Dance Alliance’s Operations and Membership Associate. A lifelong dancer, she comes to BDA with a wealth of experience working in arts, social media, and events management, including responsibilities at Harvard’s Common Spaces Program and Arts@29 Garden, interning at Jose Mateo Ballet Theatre, and designing a Pinterest marketing program for Lifeguard Games, Inc.  Recipient of Wellesley’s Excellence Award for students of Latina or African-American descent, she also studied in Argentina.  Kristen holds a Master’s Degree in the Arts in Education from Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Alicia Downey is the managing partner of Boston-based Downey Law LLC, where she advises companies on antitrust and distribution issues and represents them in commercial litigation, arbitration and appeals. Before joining the Boston Dance Alliance board in 2010, she was a trustee of The Winsor School and a director of Needham Extended Day Program, Inc. Alicia received her J.D. from Boston College Law School and undergraduate and master’s degrees from Harvard University. As an enthusiastic dance audience member and an avid student of ballet and flamenco, she is proud of BDA’s advocacy on behalf of diverse dance genres and its leadership role in the Boston arts community at large.

John Michael Kennedy is president of JMK-PR: Communications for Creative Industries, a public relations firm focused on working with individuals, companies and organizations involved in artistic, forward-thinking and exciting projects and services. Previously, Kennedy was a Vice President at Goodman Media International for nine years, first in the agency’s New York Headquarters, then establishing the agency’s Boston office.  He remains Senior Counsel for the agency.

A long-time Boston resident working in the non-profit arts community, John Michael has served as the lead communications executive at Boston Ballet (where he worked hard to ensure stability for Boston Dance Alliance, eventually joining the board and becoming its vice president), Massachusetts Cultural Council, and Huntington Theatre Company. He began his career in Boston working with small theater and dance companies, providing counsel on PR and fundraising.

Judith Chaffee, Martha Armstrong Gray, and Dawn Kramer, are three of the founders of Boston’s prominent modern dance company, Dance Collective, which flourished for over three decades.

Fernadina Chan, a 34 year veteran of the Boston Public Schools is a choreographer and founding artistic dean and chair of the dance department of the Boston Arts Academy.

Jose Mateo, prominent  choreographer and founder of Jose Mateo Ballet Theatre, School, and programs such as Dance for World Community, has worked to broaden the reach of ballet and make dance an effective force for community-building and social equity.