Vice President for Human Resources and Development, Otis College
Karen Hill is an accomplished human resources leader with over 20 years’ experience. In addition to her exemplary degree qualifications, she holds an M.B.A. from UCLA with an emphasis in Marketing, a B.S. in Business, a Senior Professional Human Resources Designation, Leadership Certification from the Center for Creative Leadership, and a Strategic HR Certification. Her prior senior leadership positions – at such firms/institutions as Sony, USC, and DeviantArt – include Senior Vice President, Human Resources/Diversity & Inclusion; Vice President, Human Resources and Development; and Executive Director, Human Resources. Hill also serves on several non-profit boards. Throughout her career, she has focused holistically on organizations, and developed congruent people strategies to produce positive results. She brings a verifiable record of leading workplace culture and employee engagement initiatives, along with expertise in designing diversity and inclusion strategies and integrating them into organizational culture. Hill’s expertise also includes fiscally minded and data-driven human resources perspectives that add efficiencies through such areas as business development, employee relations, risk management, and vendor relationship contracts.

Linda Grimes is currently the Executive Director of the San Pedro Waterfront Arts District; a non-profit she helped create from the ashes of the former Community Redevelopment Agency. Linda is passionate about creative placemaking and the power of public art. The Arts District’s accomplishments over the past 11 years, reflect this commitment to leaving a lasting legacy in San Pedro.

Linda is a recovering, retired AT&T marketing executive and has employed her marketing ‘superpowers’ as the former Executive Director of the Golden State Pops Orchestra, as a communications consultant to the Port of Los Angeles High School and for the Grand Vision Foundation. Since November 2022, she writes a monthly column for San Pedro Today Magazine about local arts and culture.

Under her guidance, the Arts District has commissioned over 25 DOT boxes, painted by professional artists, 8 storm drains and 3 large murals in downtown San Pedro. In the summer of 2019, the Arts District launched another new pilot program, “Adventures in Public Art”, aimed at giving students public art experiences. The second Adventures in Public Art mural will be painted on the Los Angeles Maritime Institute’s Building G in June of 2023, in collaboration with the San Pedro High School’s STEAM Magnet students, led by Teaching Artist Jay Davis.

In August 2021, Linda was part of a team that included the San Pedro Arts and Culture District Partners the San Pedro Chamber of Commerce and the San Pedro Property Owner’s Alliance to bring back the pandemic shuttered FirstThursday ArtWalk. In November 2023, the FirstThursday ArtWalk celebrated its 25th Anniversary.

In 2017, the Arts District launched a new arts appreciation series, called “Cuatro@Cabrillo”, hosted by the preeminent arts scholar, Gregorio Luke and in collaboration with one of the Arts and Cultural District Partners, the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium. Now it is called Culture TALKS! this series was relaunched in the fall of 2022 at the Aquarium and included an LA-ist, 89.3 Retake Live John Horn conversation with Culture Clash’s Richard Montoya.
In 2017, San Pedro was named as a California Cultural District by the Sacramento based California Arts Council. San Pedro is one of 14 initial Cultural Districts and has been recertified for another five years.

Linda’s past community involvement includes – Board President of the Palos Verdes Art Center, Arts for LA Advancement Committee, the Boys and Girls Clubs of the Harbor Communications Committee, communications assistance for the Beacon House Men and served on the Board of the Little Italy of LA non-profit. Linda also served as the Arts for LA Advancement Committee co-chair and is now a proud member of the Arts for LA Board.

Mark brings serves as the Vice President of Government Relations for JVS SoCal where he advocates for the systems change that address the barriers to good paying jobs, including the creative sector. Much of the work is done in collaboration with other organizations.

Mark has an expertise in navigating complex bureaucratic systems that was first developed in the private sector while employed as an Associate for a leading land-use firm, where he specialized in land use entitlement issues and later serving as the Director of Government Relations for a premier boutique lobbying firm. In this capacity, Mark assisted clients with obtaining or maintaining nearly $250,000,000 in contracts with city and county governments.
In the public sector, Mark’s knowledge base was further developed as a Senior Field Deputy for former Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski. He was responsible for managing Brentwood, West Los Angeles and a portion of Palms serving the array of needs for approximately 50,000 constituents. Solving constituent issues involved working collaboratively with city, county, and state agencies, and with the community.

Mark worked for the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority as a Planner. In this capacity, he was an integral member of a team that brought to completion the Bring Los Angeles Home Plan, a blueprint to significantly reduce the number of people who are homeless within ten-years. The project was a successful public-private partnership that involved managing a broad and diverse coalition of stakeholders.

Mark is involved with and committed to community. He served in the United States Marine Corps Reserves and was honorably discharged. He was instrumental, as part of a team of community leaders, in the creation of the Hollywood United Neighborhood Council. He completed a three-year stint as a Board Member of Homeless Healthcare Los Angeles, a dynamic, and progressive, not-for-profit agency that effectively works to improve the health of people who are homeless through direct services, education, and advocacy, working with fellow board members and the executive director to navigate us through a horrible economic downturn. Mark served on the board of Barnsdall Art Park Foundation Board, where he served as chair for two years where they had a role in supporting the inclusion of the Hollyhock House as an UNESCO World Heritage Site representing one-of-eight Frank Lloyd Wright buildings. Presently, Mark serves on the Executive Board of Governors for the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, chairs the Legislative Action committee, and formerly co-chair of the Economic and Workforce Development committee.
A product of Cleveland Heights, Ohio, Mark has resided in Los Angeles for 27 years. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Urban Studies from California State University, Northridge with a concentration in Public Administration and Community Service.

Nadia Savira Chrisanto (she/her) is the Assistant Operations + Digital Assets Manager at the Center for Cultural Innovation (CCI). She is passionate about advocacy, accessibility, equity, inclusivity, fat liberation, and social justice issues, particularly within the undocumented & immigrant community. Nadia’s professional experiences include serving as the Curatorial & Program Assistant at the California African American Museum (CAAM) and the Administrative Assistant for the Education & Public Programs Department at the LA County Museum of Art (LACMA). Her expertise includes nonprofit operations & administration, programming, curatorial & exhibitions planning, and grantmaking. She was the elected Leadership Council Co-Chair for the Emerging Arts Leaders Los Angeles, was a fellow in the ACTIVATE: Delegates program, and is currently a mentor for the ACTIVATE: Protege program. Nadia is currently serving on the board of Arts for LA.

Born in Jakarta, Indonesia, Nadia moved to Los Angeles in 2002 with her family to seek stability and safety. Nadia received her A.A. in History, Humanities, and Social & Behavioral Sciences from Pasadena City College and her B.A. in History from California State Polytechnic University Pomona. Nadia is a cat mom to her two spoiled kitties, Boba and Mochi. She enjoys playing video games and experimenting with new recipes in her free time.

Cliff has garnered a reputation for being one of the top producers of award-winning experiences including Universal Studios’ WaterWorld Stunt Show, FiestaAventura’s Templo Del Fuego, Bollywood Park and Motiongate including the THEA Award-winning DreamWorks Animation Zone.

Having earned his MFA at the Yale School of Drama, Cliff has collaborated with some of the most creative people in the entertainment industry (notably as producer on Tokyo DisneySea and DisneyFest Asia). Cliff was one of the original founders of Thinkwell Group for which he served as CEO and Chairman for over a decade. Cliff produced notable projects including Warner Bros. Studio Tour: The Making of Harry Potter; Sesame Presents: The Body touring exhibit and many more projects for Universal Studios, Walt Disney Entertainment, Harrah’s Entertainment and MGM Studios. In 2011, Cliff founded the entertainment development company Mycotoo, Inc., which was designated a top media company by Inc. 500 in 2017.

As chairman, Cliff has continued to build on his reputation of delivering compelling experiences. Mycotoo’s design collaborations have resulted in the opening of two theme parks (Motiongate and Bollywood Parks) for which Cliff oversaw the production development, strategic planning and team staffing. He built the award-winning creative team and served as liaison to facilitate master planning, production design, engineering and management of the specialty groups involved with the both parks. Cliff has been an invited speaker on multiple industry panels. His roots in theatre keep him anchored to like-minded organizations. He serves as board member for the Yale Global Alumni Leadership Exchange (YaleGALE) – an international leadership exchange with China, France, United Kingdom, South Africa and Mexico; And Ojai Valley Playwrights Association – a non-profit group that champions the introduction of new, aspiring playwrights to wider audiences off and on Broadway.