Chike C. Nwoffiah
Board President
Executive Director, Silicon Valley African Film Festival (SVAFF)
Stockton, CA
Chike Nwoffiah is an actor, theater director, educator, award-winning filmmaker, and consultant on theater, film, television and multimedia projects. After twelve successful years as a corporate strategist for a Silicon Valley bio-tech company, he transitioned into private enterprise and has vast investments in Media, Agribusiness and Real Estate in USA, Nigeria and South Africa. He is the president of Rhesus Media Group, a full-service media production and consulting firm with offices in Stockton, California, Cape Town, South Africa and Lagos, Nigeria. He is also the founding director of the Silicon Valley African Film Festival (SVAFF), the only film festival in California that is exclusively focused on films by African filmmakers and provides a platform for Africa’s seasoned and emerging filmmakers to share their stories with a global audience. Listed as one of the “TopTen Most Influential African Americans” in the San Francisco Bay Area by CityFlight Magazine in 2000, Chike has served on several regional and national grant review panels including: the National Endowment for the Arts, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Sacramento Arts Commission, San Francisco Arts Commission, Arts Council Silicon Valley, Walter and Elise Haas Fund and the Center for Cultural Innovation. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Management Consultants of Nigeria and Senior Fellow of the American Leadership Forum – Silicon Valley.
Daniel Sheehy, Ph.D., V.P. of Finance + Administration, President Emeritus
Senior Advisor to the Smithsonian Under Secretary for Museums and Culture
Director & Curator Emeritus, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings
Former Director, Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage
Former Director, Folk & Traditional Arts, National Endowment for the Arts
Washington, D.C.
A native of Bakersfield, California, and longtime resident of Virginia, Daniel Sheehy earned his PhD in ethnomusicology from the University of California, Los Angeles before joining the National Endowment for the Arts in 1978. He was instrumental in developing and sustaining the infrastructure of the folk and traditional arts field and served as director of folk and traditional arts at the NEA from 1992 to 2000.
In 2000, Dan became director and curator of Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution. Under his leadership, Smithsonian Folkways published more than 200 recordings and earned five Grammy awards, one Latin Grammy, and 21 nominations. He has also served as acting director of the Smithsonian Latino Center and director of the Smithsonian’s Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage.
Dan served as co-editor (with Dale Olsen) of the 1,100-page South America, Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean volume of the Garland Encyclopedia of World Music (1998). His book Mariachi Music in America: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture was published by Oxford University Press in 2006. Dan was awarded the Bess Lomax Hawes National Heritage Fellowship by the National Endowment for the Arts in 2015 and the John David Guggenheim Fellowship in 2016. He has served on the boards of the Alliance for California Traditional Arts, the National Council for the Traditional Arts, the American Folklore Society, the Society for Ethnomusicology, and the Association for Cultural Equity. Also a musician, in 1978 Dan co-founded Mariachi Los Amigos, the Washington, DC area’s longest existing mariachi ensemble.
Josephine S. Talamantez, V.P. of Governance
Board Chair, Chicano Park Museum and Cultural Center
Former Chief of Programs, California Arts Council
San Diego and Sacramento, CA
Josephine Talamantez is an Arts Management consultant with experience in cultural resource management and governmental relations. She is the former Chief of Programs and Legislative Liaison at the California Arts Council and a specialist in Chicano/Mexican-American Civil Rights era. She documented and coordinated the nomination of San Diego, California’s Chicano Park and the Chicano Park Monumental Murals to the National Register. Her research projects include: oral history documentation of the Sacramento Greek community; a cultural resources study of the of the Poverty Ridge neighborhood of Sacramento; and visual and oral history documentation of the Royal Chicano Air Force (RCAF), also known as the Rebel Chicano Art Front, an internationally known artist collective based in Sacramento, and numerous exhibitions. Former Executive Director of La Raza Galeria Posada in Sacramento and of the Centro Cultural de la Raza in San Diego, she is a past Board Member of the National Association of Latino Arts and Culture (NALAC); Capitol Area Indian Resources, Inc. (CAIR); a Co-founder of Chicano Park and member of the Chicano Park Steering Committee, and member of the Royal Chicano Air Force (RCAF). Josephine holds an M.A. in Public History from Sacramento State University, where her research focused on the history and historic sites associated with the Chicano civil rights era.
Carly Tex, Secretary
Executive Director, Advocates for Indigenous California Language
Fresno, CA
A basketweaver, linguist, language instructor, community organizer and advocate, Carly has been creating a career in language and culture ever since she began weaving baskets at the age of ten. Carly is a member of North Fork Rancheria Band of Mono Indians on her father’s side and a descendant of Dunlap Band of Mono Indians on her mother’s side. She have been an apprentice through the Alliance for California Traditional Arts twice for basketweaving technologies under the guidance of her grandmother, Avis Punkin, and her sister, Mandy Marine. Carly co-founded a youth weavers’ circle through the Living Language Program and has presented on California Indian language and cultural revitalization to local area schools, museums, and libraries. She has a bachelor’s degree in Anthropology with emphasis in Linguistic Studies from CSU Sonoma, and a Master’s degree in Linguistics from University of Arizona through the Native American Languages Master’s Program (NAMA). Upon graduating, Carly made a point to attend as much language revitalization training as possible to gain teaching methods, resources, and professional connections to assist in sustaining her heritage language, Western Mono. Currently, Carly is the Executive Director for the Advocates for Indigenous California Language Survival (AICLS) and is responsible for the implementation of the Advocates’ programs, vision, and mission to support the revitalization of languages Indigenous to California. In her spare time, Carly facilitates online language courses and YouTube videos, and is developing a website of online Mono resources.
Devendra Sharma, Ph.D.
Professor of Communication, California State University, Fresno
Sāngīt musical theater performer, writer, and director
Fresno, CA
Dr. Devendra Sharma is a Professor of Communication at California State University and a fifth-generation performer, writer, and director of traditional musical theater genres like Swang-Nautanki, Raaslila, Bhagat, and Rasiya. His ancestors popularized musical theatre at the court of Awadh’s Nawab Wajid Ali Shah in the mid-1800s. In 2021, he received a major commission from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation to create a Nautanki opera premiering in the Bay Area in 2024.
In 2012, Dr. Sharma was awarded the Franklin Research Grant by the American Philosophical Society to research Swang-Nautanki and its connection to communication and community engagement. In 2011, his syllabus for COMM 264M was recognized by NERCHE for its community-based approach. Dr. Sharma served as Chief Creative Consultant for the United Nations’ HIV/AIDS project in India (2007-2008), using Nautanki to raise awareness. From 1999 to 2005, he worked with Johns Hopkins University and the Indian government on a major folk media campaign in Uttar Pradesh, training over 150 theatre troupes to stage more than 10,000 performances for women’s empowerment and health. He has been a visiting professor at institutions such as Oxford, SOAS, Columbia, and various Indian universities, including IIT Delhi and JNU. He was also the “Packard Foundation Media Leadership Fellow” at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts and holds a Ph.D. from Ohio University, focusing on community and social change through musical theatre. In 2010, Dr. Sharma trained actors at Théâtre du Soleil in Paris. He has introduced Swang-Nautanki to the West, creating a US-based troupe and directing over 30 productions.
Jennifer Bates (Central Sierra Mewuk)
Founding Board Member and Chairperson, California Indian Basketweavers’ Association (CIBA)
Traditional Mewuk Basket Weaver and California Native Culture Consultant
Tuolumne Rancheria, CA
Jennifer Bates has been a basketmaker for over four decades. She began learning traditional Mewuk basketry at the age of 17, studying with family members and tribal elders, including Julia Parker, Mable McKay, Dorothy Stanley, and Craig Bates. She was a founding board member of the California Indian Basketweavers’ Association (CIBA) and was their chairperson for the first thirteen years. Jennifer is of Central Sierra Mewuk (Miwok) descent and resides on the Tuolumne Rancheria, where she continues to teach basketry, including traditional methods of gathering and processing raw materials, as well as weaving techniques. Additionally, Jennifer has also become well recognized for demonstrating acorn processing, specifically making traditional acorn soup, ‘nupa,’ and cooking in traditional baskets and using hot rocks.
Latanya d. Tigner
Administrative Coordinator, Dimensions Dance Theater
Continuing Lecturer: Dance, UC Berkeley Theater, Dance and Performance Studies
Oakland, CA
Latanya d. Tigner currently performs professionally with and serves as the administrative coordinator of Dimensions Dance Theater, the bay area’s oldest African American dance company. She is also the Artistic Director of Dimensions Extensions Performance Ensemble, DDT’s pre-professional group, and co-manages the company’s youth program, Rites of Passes. Additionally, she has taught dance at UC Berkeley since 2016 in the department of Theater, Dance and Performance Studies, introducing Africana-based dance courses into the curriculum. In 2019, Latanya founded and currently serves as the curatorial director of Dancing Cy(i)phers, an annual symposium that researches and embodies the coded languages of Africana dance.
She has shared her embodied research at CADD, IABD, CDEA, NDEO, Show and Prove, University of the West Indies-Barbados, and in Paris. Through Dancing Cy(i)phers, Latanya has presented Hip Hop’s Embodied Expression of Resistance & Resilience, Back to the Root: The Healing and Spiritual Power of the Spine and Pelvis in African Rooted Dance, Back to the Root: Dancing Ancestral Cosmologies, 5th-Quarter Bantaba (work-in-progress), and co-authored Close up: Step-Touch in New Orleans Popular Dane (2023). She has also served on the Hewlett Foundation’s Arts Education Task Force, the Alliance for California Traditional Arts’ Taproot Initiative, and as the Co-Artistic Director of the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival (2018-2021). Latanya also currently serves on California Dance Education Association’s greater board as a member of their Professional Development team.
Malcolm Margolin
Founder and Executive Director, California Institute for Community, Art, and Culture
Founder and Former Publisher, Heyday
Berkeley, CA
Malcolm Margolin is an author, publisher, and cultural activist. In 1974, he founded Heyday Books, a nonprofit publisher, and served as its executive director until 2016. Through Heyday, he published hundreds of books and oversaw the creation of two magazines, News from Native California (1987) and Bay Nature(2001). He also co-founded The Alliance for California Traditional Arts and was helpful in the creation of several organizations devoted to California Indian cultural revival. He has written a half dozen books (including The Ohlone Way about Indian Life in the San Francisco Bay Area), and has won several prestigious awards. After retiring from Heyday, he created the California Institute for Community, Art, and Nature (California I CAN) to expand upon his interest, including the re-indigenization of California. He lives in Berkeley with his wife, Rina. His three children are grown and leading creative and engaged lives. Malcolm and Rina have four grandchildren and another on the way.
P.J. Hirabayashi
Founder, San Jose Taiko
San Jose, CA
PJ Hirabayashi is the Artistic Director Emeritus, former Artistic Director, and an original member of San Jose Taiko (SJT), a world-renowned taiko drumming ensemble. She is recognized as a pioneer of North American taiko, celebrated for her unique teaching and performance style that combines movement, dance, drumming, fluidity, joy, and energy, influencing taiko players and organizations worldwide.
Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, PJ studied tap, ballet, acrobatics, dance roller skating, piano, guitar, and martial arts. Her experiences as a student activist in Asian American Studies, a volunteer in Japanese American community services, and her time in Japan after graduating from UC Berkeley fueled her passion for integrating her Western performing arts background with Japanese American aesthetics through taiko.
PJ earned her Master’s degree in Urban and Regional Planning from San Jose State University (SJSU) in 1977. Her thesis on San Jose Japantown is a foundational reference for research and community initiatives dedicated to preserving and revitalizing one of the last three remaining Japan Towns in the United States. Between 1977-79, she also served as Acting Coordinator for the Asian American Studies Program at SJSU, teaching classes on Asian American communities and supervising student fieldwork in social service organizations. Currently, PJ is leading TaikoPeace, a project aimed at fostering personal, social, and global change through taiko drumming. As a certified Peace Ambassador for The Shift Network, she continues to use the power of taiko to build community and inspire peace.
Russell Rodríguez, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, UC Santa Cruz Department of Music
Santa Cruz, CA
Russell C. Rodríguez has extensive experience as a cultural worker, academic, and accomplished artist. He is currently an assistant professor in the Music Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He received his Ph.D. in 2006 from the department of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. In 2007, he became a University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellow. Rodríguez worked as a curator for the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage annual festival, co-curating the Latino Music Program in 2004, and has contributed to a variety of productions by the Smithsonian Folkways Recordings as a researcher, producer, annotator and musician. From 2011 through 2017 he worked as a program manager for the Alliance for California Traditional Arts, managing the Apprenticeship Program and contributing to scale programming that served the California cultural communities practicing traditional arts. Rodríguez is an accomplished musician, composer, and dancer specializing in performance styles of various traditional forms of Mexico. In 2010, he completed work as the assistant producer and musical director for the documentary La Danza Escenica: El Sello de Rafael Zamarripa,and contributed original compositions to Ray Tellez’ documentary The Storm that Swept México.In 2013 Rodríguez composed an original score for the B. Traven’s novel Macarioand in 2018 the score for the original theater play La Departera, both for San Jose’s premiere Chicano theater ensemble Teatro Vision. Both scores have been recorded and produced as CDs, featuring some of the finest mexicano and Chicana/o musicians in the California Bay Area.
Ysamur Flores-Peña, Ph.D.
Professor, Otis College of Art and Design
Lucumí Priest, Altar Maker, and Healer
Los Angeles, CA
Ysamur M. Flores Pena is a folklorist emphasizing African-based religions in the Western Hemisphere. Ysamur graduated from the University of Puerto Rico Pontifical University of Puerto Rico and earned a Doctorate in Folklore and Mythology from UCLA. Ysamur is also a member of the Lucumí community and an ordained priest who holds the title of elder (Obá Oriaté) priest, healer, and altar maker. As a scholar, Ysamur had advised different governmental institutions on Lucumí culture and aesthetics matters. Ysamur is an essential voice in advocating and educating people and institutions about the folklore, ritual, and identity of Lucumi culture. He has published essays and lectured internationally on Afro-Caribbean cultures. His writings were instrumental in the Supreme Court decision in the case of The Church of Babalu Aye vs. the City of Hialeah.
Emeritus Board Members
Amy Rouillard
Former Senior Program Officer, California Council for the Humanities
San Diego, CA
Bess Lomax Hawes (1921-2009)
Former Director, Folk & Traditional Arts Program, National Endowment for the Arts
West Hills, CA
Charlie Seemann
Former Executive Director, Western Folklife Center
Elko, NV
Deborah Wong, Ph.D.
Board President Emeritus, ACTA
Professor of Music, University of California, Riverside
Riverside, CA
Emmett Castro
Certified Public Accountant, Castro Accountancy Corporation
Los Angeles, CA
Esailama Diouf, Ph.D.
Founding Director, Bisemi
Program Analyst, City of Oakland, Cultural Funding Program
Oakland, CA
Frank LaPena (1937-2019)
Professor Emeritus, American Indian Studies, CSU Sacramento
Traditional Maidu dance master
Sacramento, CA
Hugo Morales
Executive Director, Radio Bilingüe
Fresno, CA
Joel Jacinto
Executive Director, SIPA (Search to Involve Pilipino Americans)
Los Angeles, CA
Jo Farb Hernandez
Director Emeritus, Natalie and James Thompson Art Gallery, San Jose State University
Former Executive Director, SPACES Archives
Watsonville, CA
Libby Maynard
Co-founder and Executive Director, Ink People Center for the Arts
Eureka, CA
Maria Rosario Jackson, Ph.D.
Chair, National Endowment for the Arts
Los Angeles, CA
Melanie Beene
Executive Director, Community Initiatives
San Francisco, CA
Nancy Marquez
Former Director, Arte Américas
Fresno, CA
Natividad Cano (1933-2014)
Former Director, Los Camperos de Nati Cano
Los Angeles, CA
Nikiko Masumoto
Farmer and Artist, Masumoto Family Farms
Del Rey/Fowler, CA
Paula “Pimm” Allen
Student Advisor, Indian Tribal Education & Personnel Program, Humboldt State University
Arcata, CA
Peter Pennekamp
Senior Fellow, Community Democracy Workshop at Philanthropy Northwest
Eureka, CA
Prudy Kohler
Founder/Principal, Art for Lunch
San Francisco, CA
Prumsodun Ok
Associate Artistic Director, Khmer Arts
Long Beach, CA
Robert Arroyo
Retired Instructor of Political Science & Chicano/Latino Studies and Administrator, Fresno City College
Kingsburg, CA
Sojin Kim, Ph.D.
Curator, Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage
Washington, D.C.
Vicki Filgas
Director, Los Paisanos folklórico dance troupe
Selma, CA
