2016 National Conference

Chanda Smith Baker is President and CEO of Pillsbury United Communities; a social impact organization that operates five neighborhood centers, eight social enterprises, a training center and authorizer of 15 charter schools. Through her life experience as a native and current resident of North Minneapolis, Ms. Baker believes in the strengths and assets that exist in low-income communities; this is the foundation by which she has led in her more than twenty years of nonprofit experience. She is an accomplished senior executive with a career record of providing business insight, transformational leadership, and strategic vision leading to strengthened operational performance, innovative solutions and high performing teams. She leads with an unwavering focus on closing racial disparities and measuring outcomes. Boldly, pushing the agency to become more focused, more creative; including the voice of community in its solutions and allowing for the emergence of new ideas. Throughout her tenure, Ms. Baker’s leadership efforts have led to various recognitions and awards including the 2014 Humphrey Leadership Award, Minneapolis-St Paul Business Diversity in Business honoree 2012 and a Hometown Hero recognition in 2011 for her role leading the recovery efforts following a tornado in North Minneapolis. Ms. Smith Baker holds a Master of Arts – Organizational Management and Communications degree from Concordia University. She is also a graduate of MenTTium 100 Executive Leadership Program and the University of Michigan Ann Arbor’s Executive Leadership Institute. She currently serves as a board member of the MN Regional Chamber of Commerce, Greater Twin Cities United Way, International Federation of Settlements and Public Allies National.

Vickie Benson is arts program director for The McKnight Foundation in Minneapolis, MN. Before coming to McKnight, she was vice president of the Jerome Foundation, St. Paul, program director at Chamber Music America in New York City and senior program specialist at the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) in Washington, D.C. Vickie worked at the NEA during the Culture Wars, a tumultuous time for artists in America. Vickie was a member of Grantmakers in the Arts’ board of directors from 2003-2010, and for her last two years, she served as the board’s president. She is currently a member of the operations committee for ArtPlace, a grantmaking collaboration of 14 national and regional foundations focused on Creative Placemaking. She holds a bachelor of arts degree in arts administration from St. Paul's Metropolitan State University and a master's degree in nonprofit management from the Hamline University Graduate School of Management. She studied music at the University of Minnesota as an undergrad. An avid advocate for artists, Vickie has a background as a folk singer and guitar player.

Sue Gens is executive director of the Minnesota State Arts Board. The board is a state agency that works to ensure that all Minnesotans have the opportunity to participate in the arts. It is funded primarily by the State of Minnesota, with additional funds from the National Endowment for the Arts and private donors. The board provides financial and technical assistance to Minnesota artists, arts organizations, schools, nonprofits, public agencies and communities. Gens joined the Arts Board in 2001. She has served as the agency’s director of communication and government relations (2001-2008), its interim executive director (2008-2009) and has been the agency’s executive director since February 2009. Before joining the Arts Board, Gens was director of external relations for the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota (Twin Cities). Previously, she served as director of development for United Arts, a federated fundraising organization for small and midsized arts organizations in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul metropolitan area. She has worked in the Twin Cities nonprofit and public sectors for 30 years; has held public relations, marketing, and development positions at the Children’s Theatre Company, Minnesota Orchestra, The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, COMPAS and the Women’s Theatre Project; and has served as a volunteer, consultant or board member with a variety of nonprofit organizations. Gens is a graduate of Minnesota State University Moorhead, with degrees in music and arts administration.

Mike Hoyt has been producing, managing and directing arts-based community development projects and youth development programs, while making art in and with his community for over 20 years. Hoyt’s work has been exhibited locally, nationally and abroad. Hoyt has the added benefit of raising a family three blocks from the Pillsbury House +Theatre and is honored to have the opportunity to engage local artists and community members in creative practice towards the development of a vibrant and healthy community for all of its members. 

Helen Davis Johnson serves a program officer on the Arts & Culture team at The Kresge Foundation, working to elevate the effective use of arts and culture in transforming and revitalizing communities. Before joining the foundation in 2012, Helen co-founded CreateHere in in Chattanooga, Tenn. CreateHere attracted and retained creative community residents through a relocation incentive resulting in home sales exceeding $4 million, built a fellowship program and a grants program. Active in environmental issues, Helen is a founding member of Take Root, a program that has planted more than 1,400 trees in Chattanooga’s urban core. She spent more than a dozen years in nonprofit and arts administration, building the 4 Bridges Arts Festival, coordinating museum education programs at the Hunter Museum of American Art, and designing and launching community-focused arts initiatives at Allied Arts, all in Chattanooga. Helen has been tapped to speak at conferences including Art Chicago, Michigan Municipal League, AIGA National, the Sustainable Cities PLUS Network, the Council on Foundations, Lambda Alpha International, and the Tennessee Arts Commission. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts. She studied at the Florence Academy of Art and earned a bachelor of fine arts from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

Faye Price has been the Co-Artistic Producing Director of Pillsbury House Theatre for 16 years. She is the recipient of the 2006 Catharine Lealtad Service to Society Award from Macalester College and the 2012 Sally Ordway Irvine Award for Initiative from the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts. Awarded the August Wilson Fellowship to study Dramaturgy and Literary Criticism, Faye received her graduate degree from the University of Minnesota.

Noel Raymond is co-artistic director of Pillsbury House + Theatre where she has created theatre and worked at the intersection of arts and community for more than 20 years. Noel and co-artistic director Faye Price were named ‘Art Heroes’ by MPR and received the Sally Ordway Irvine award for Initiative in the arts. Noel is currently on the steering committee for the City of Minneapolis’s 10-year arts and culture planning process, and she is a member of Carlyle Brown & Company.

Erik Takeshita joined the Bush Foundation as Community Creativity Portfolio Director in August of 2015. Takeshita has over 20 years of experience working at the intersection of community development and the arts. From 2008-2015 he led a breadth of work at the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), including launching a nationwide Creative Placemaking initiative. He was previously a senior policy aide to the mayor of Minneapolis, where he advised the framework for a 10-year Plan for Arts and Culture, and led an art center in Honolulu, Hawai’i, helping to revitalize the city’s downtown. He serves on numerous boards and commissions, and is nationally recognized for managing high-impact initiatives that express a community’s unique culture through the arts. Takeshita holds a master’s degree from the Harvard Kennedy School—an opportunity he pursued through a 2005 Bush Leadership Fellowship.