The Dance Data Project® Team
Cassandra Trenary in ZigZag
Photo by Rosalie O’Connor
Advisory Council:
Research Design & Statistics
DDP is fortunate to have the following individuals as a resource in designing our research studies, to check our methodology and statistical protocols. We are grateful for their collaboration.
Lauren Cramer
Learn more about Lauren’s work here.
MELANIE DOERNER
Melanie Doerner is a proven arts leader and fundraiser with 19 years of nonprofit management experience, and has raised over $15M for the arts. Melanie began her career in arts administration in 2001 with the José Limón Dance Company. She is currently the Director of Development for North Carolina Theatre in Raleigh, previously working for Carolina Ballet and Children’s Musical Theater of San Jose. She is a founding board member of sjDANCEco. Melanie holds a J.D. from Osgoode Hall Law School and formerly practiced as a corporate attorney in her native Canada. Her husband Michael Doerner is a ballet dancer, having performed with the National Ballet of Canada under Reid Anderson and James Kudelka, Alberta Ballet under Mikko Nissinen, and Ballet San Jose under Dennis Nahat.
SUMRU ERKUT, PHD
Sumru Erkut, Ph.D., is senior scholar and former senior research scientist and associate director at the Wellesley Centers for Women (WCW) whose research has focused on racial/ethnic diversity and gender equity in leadership and development across the life course. She was part of a team that found that three or more women on a corporate board of directors constitute a critical mass, which improves the functioning of corporate boards, and she has analyzed data from interviews with diverse women leaders, which resulted in Inside Women’s Power: Learning from Leaders. Erkut directed the postdoctoral research training program on variations in child and adolescent development funded by the National Institute for Child Health and Development.
Lynn Garafola
Lynn Garafola is Professor Emerita of Dance at Barnard College, Columbia University. She is the author of Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes and Legacies of Twentieth-Century Dance, editor of José Limón: An Unfinished Memoir and other books, and curator of several exhibitions, including Dance for a City: Fifty Years of the New York City Ballet and Arthur Mitchell: Harlem’s Ballet Trailblazer. La Nijinska: Choreographer of the Modern, a biography of the twentieth-century’s most eminent woman choreographer, will be published by Oxford University Press in early 2022.
Preetinder Gill
Jennifer Heimlich
Jennifer Heimlich is currently the senior fitness editor at Well+Good. A graduate of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, she was previously the editor in chief of Dance Magazine and senior editor of Pointe. She has also contributed to publications such as The Atlantic and Runner’s World. She has served on panels and been an adjudicator for American College Dance Association, Future Dance Festival, Youth America Grand Prix and New York City Dance Alliance Foundation.
LORY LANNON
Lory currently leads The Philanthropy Workshop’s Americas East portfolio and partners with philanthropists and social investors to establish social impact goals, create strategic roadmaps for community engagement and educational programs, and curate expert connections and resources for her members. Lory graduated from Boston College with a B.A. in Economics and received her M.S. in Global Affairs from New York University. She currently serves as an Advisor to the President of the Ethiopian Red Cross Society, is a Next Generation member of UNICEF USA and NEXUS Global, and a 21/64 Certified Advisor on Multigenerational Family Philanthropy. Lory also performed for the Quezon City Ballet from 2003-2007.
KIERSTEN MAREK
Kiersten Marek, LICSW, is the founder and publisher of Philanthropy Women. A former Senior Editor for Inside Philanthropy, Kiersten is the author of hundreds of articles on gender equity funding as well as two books. Know Thyself: A Kid’s Guide to the Archetypes and Cooking for Emotional Wellness: Recipes to Nourish Your Archetypes. Kiersten served as Board Member and Treasurer for the Rhode Island Center for Law and Public Policy from 2008 to 2016, working to support legal services for those with limited financial means. In 2004, Kiersten helped her family facilitate the creation of the Stoppleworth Conservation Area in Tolland, Connecticut, a 55-acre open space hiking park.
For over 20 years, Kiersten has been practicing clinical social work, specializing in trauma recovery and identity development for all ages. She lives with her family in Rhode Island.
SANDRA PARKS
Sandra Parks is a choreographer, dance educator, and an advocate for female leadership. She is the founder and Executive Director of Women in Dance, a non-profit organization that promotes female leadership in dance and related fields. The mission of Women in Dance is to provide opportunities in accessing broader and more visible platforms, expanding the voices of artists/scholars, and strengthening the capacity and vibrancy of women in dance making and dance related fields.
Sandra has toured nationally and internationally and has choreographed more than 80 live concerts. She danced with Bosoma Dance Company, Dance Collective, and Impulse Dance Company in Boston and has presented her work at professional venues across the globe. She holds her BFA from New York University and MFA from Smith College, MA. Originally from Taipei, Taiwan, Sandra danced as a soloist with Four Seasons Ballet and Wu-I Dance Company. She is currently the Director of Arts at Choate Rosemary Hall in Connecticut.
TIM RUSSELL
Timothy M. Russell is currently the Vice President of Community Engagement and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion of Chicago-based Window to the World Communications, Inc. (WWCI), parent company of public television station WTTW and classical music station WFMT. Tim is responsible for leading WWCI’s community engagement and diversity, equity and inclusion efforts focused on shaping the organization’s vision and strategy with relevant influencers, nonprofits, foundations, and business partners ensuring that they align with the organization’s strategic plan.
Tim received his Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology and religion from Oberlin College, earned a Masters of Theological Studies with a concentration in Ethics and Society from Garrett Theological Seminary and completed a certificate program in Business Administration at Loyola University Chicago. Tim and his wife, Joi-Anissa, and their children – Mark and Ava – live in the Chicago suburb of Evanston, IL.
ISABELLE VAIL
Isabelle Vail joins the Advisory Council after four years of leading DDP’s research and special projects teams. Isabelle oversaw DDP’s collaboration with institutional and independent research partners, coordinating new examinations of the state of gender equity in ballet, and spearheaded strategic engagement through DDP’s social media channels and auxiliary programming. She began consulting for DDP in 2017 as a part-time research assistant and went on to play an active role in the founding of DDP as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, advising on the organization’s early research endeavors and engagement before becoming DDP’s first full-time consultant in 2019. She attended Wake Forest University as a Presidential Scholar of Dance, graduating summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa with a BA in Psychology and French in 2018. From 2018-2019, Isabelle resided in Rouen, France, working as a language assistant in two local collèges. Vail recently joined the team at Bliss Point Media as Manager of Client Strategy & Analytics.
CHARLES WHITAKER
Charles Whitaker is Dean and professor at Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications. Before joining the Medill faculty, Whitaker was a senior editor at Ebony Magazine. Whitaker has also led a prolific journalism career, working with institutions such as the Miami Herald and the Louisville (Ky.) Times, and contributing articles to the Chicago Tribune, The Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Magazine, Jet Magazine, Essence Magazine, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Saturday Evening Post, Chicago Parent magazine, and Folio, the magazine of the magazine industry. Among Whitaker’s many notable roles and endeavors, he authored four statistical analyses of the hiring of women and minorities in the magazine industry, co-directed Project Masthead (a program designed to encourage students of color to consider careers in the magazine industry), and has served as an adviser on diversity issues for the Magazine Publishers of America.
JASON YEUNG
Research Advisor
A Texas native, Jason is currently a combined MD/PhD student at the University of Texas Medical Branch. His prior education includes a BS in Biomedical Sciences from Texas A&M University and an MS in Infectious Disease and Microbiology from the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health.
Before pursuing a career as a physician scientist, Jason was a ballet dancer. Having trained at the Harid Conservatory, Jason went on to dance with Tulsa Ballet II and won awards at the 2015 Valentina Kozlova International Ballet Competition Finals and Semi-finals. In 2018, Jason started an independent blog analyzing publicly available ballet data (pointes.data.blog/), leading him to join DDP. He is excited to apply his data science and ballet experience to further the advocacy goals of DDP.
GREGORY YOUDAN
Gregory Youdan Jr., MA, MS is a visiting research scholar at Brown University. As a dancer, Greg toured domestically and internationally with the NY Baroque Dance Company, Sokolow Theatre/Dance and Heidi Latsky Dance, where he now serves as a board member. He serves as co-chair for the research committee of the National Organization for Arts in Health (NOAH). He is a Westheimer Fellow and teaching artist through Mark Morris Dance Group’s Dance for PD® program. Greg frequently lectures on dance science at several universities, including Columbia University, NYU and the University of Rochester. He has presented scientific research at various academic conferences, including American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine and International Society for Posture and Gait Research and published in academic journals.
Greg is a graduate of the dance program at Hofstra University and holds dual masters degrees in Motor Learning and Applied Statistics from Teachers College, Columbia University.
