Local Arts Leaders Conference

Kelly Barsdate is the Executive Advisor at the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies (NASAA), where she directs NASAA’s leadership services and state technical assistance programs. She provides support for state level advocacy and serves as a senior policy and planning advisor to state arts agencies, arts advocates, NASAA’s executive team and the NASAA board.  

Kelly began her career at NASAA in 1991, starting off as a researcher analyzing all 30,000+ grant awards made each year by state arts agencies across the nation. To this day, she draws on deep knowledge of the field to support state arts agencies and cultural advocates. Kelly has authored numerous monographs on cultural policy, including NASAA’s Practical Advocate series, NASAA's Policy Briefs and Why Should Government Support the Arts? She has led collaborations with the National Governors Association, the National Conference of State Legislatures, ArtPlace America, Grantmakers in the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts and other policy partners. She’s a contributing editor to the peer-reviewed Journal of Arts Management, Law and Society.  

Her arts background includes studies in clarinet performance, arts education and orchestral conducting at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music as well as community-based training in dance and ceramics. Born and raised in Alaska, Kelly is a keen birdwatcher and avid amateur naturalist. 

Michelle Mazan Burrows is the Director of A+ Schools of North Carolina, where she leads innovative efforts to transform teaching and learning through the arts. A passionate advocate for arts education, she champions the essential skills and deeper learning that come from arts engagement, both across the state and nationwide. An educator since 1991, Burrows has designed and delivered impactful teaching and professional development across the country.

She joined the NC Arts Council as Director of A+ Schools in 2010, but her connection to the program began in 1995, when she taught at one of the original 25 A+ Schools in Raleigh. As Director, Burrows oversees daily operations, mentors more than 60 Network schools and administrators, and leads high-quality professional development within and beyond the A+ Network. She also builds strategic partnerships, secures both public and private funding, collaborates closely with the state department of education, and manages the full-time staff and more than 50 expert A+ Fellows who deliver training across the state. Under her leadership, A+ Schools of NC continues to thrive and expand.

Burrows’ distinguished career is defined by leadership, advocacy, and national recognition, including the Teaching Excellence Award from the American Association of University Women. She serves on the Arts Education Partnership Advisory Council, has contributed to the work of the Congressional STEAM Caucus, and is a grant reader for several national organizations. She lives in Cary, North Carolina.

Ivan Canada is currently serving as the President & CEO of the North Carolina Center for Nonprofits. The NC Center is the only organization that supports the nonprofit sector as a statewide network of nonprofit leaders and partners, a resource on nonprofit best practices, a thought leader and convener of the sector, as well as an advocate for and with nonprofits across North Carolina.  

He is passionate about leadership, social change, and service to community, and has been involved with numerous nonprofits, foundations, and civic organizations, over many years as a staff member, volunteer, and board member. Before joining the Center as President & CEO, Ivan was executive director of North Carolina for Community and Justice (NCCJ). He has also worked with the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro, Guilford Green Foundation, and Quaintance Weaver Restaurants & Hotels. He is currently serving as a board member with the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce, Carolina Pride Alum Network, UNC-Greensboro Board of Visitors, and S.J. Edwards Foundation. He also served on the boards of the National Federation of Just Communities, Young Nonprofit Professionals Network (YNPN) National Board, and North Carolina Center for Nonprofits, where he was board chair and chair of the Center’s board nominations and equity committees. An accomplished leader in the Triad community, he has been awarded the Triad Business Journal’s “Forty Leaders Under 40 Award,” “C-Suite Leader Award,” as well as their inaugural “Leaders in Diversity Award”, and the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce’s “Change Agent Award.”  

He is a native North Carolinian and a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a bachelor’s degree in economics and journalism and mass communication. 

Maryo Gard Ewell of rural Gunnison, Colorado, retired in 2023 as Director of Community Impact for the Community Foundation of the Gunnison Valley. She’s still very active in her community, coordinating its Music Cruises program in the summer, and producing the recent Gunnison Valley Journal in which 120+ residents reflected in English and Spanish, poetry, essays and song lyrics, recipes and even a cheer-squad cheer on what it means to live in Gunnison.  Prior to that, she designed Colorado’s Creative Districts program as the culmination of her 25 years with Colorado Creative Industries, the state arts agency. She worked for the Illinois Arts Council, and before that, for two community arts councils in Connecticut. She teaches Grantwriting at Western Colorado University and online for the Arts Extension Service at the University of Massachusetts, and has taught in the MA in Arts Administration program at Goucher College. She’s Past President of the Gunnison Arts Center. In 2017 she was a recipient of the Governor’s Award for Creative Leadership. Other honors include the 2003 “Arts Are The Heart” award for service to the arts in Colorado; the 2001 Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Goucher College; and the 1995 Selina Roberts Ottum Award from Americans for the Arts. Her passion is learning as much as she can about the history of community arts in America. She holds an MA in Organizational Behavior from Yale University and an MA in Urban & Regional Planning from the University of Colorado-Denver and a BA in Social Psychology from Bryn Mawr College.

Cyril Jefferson is a husband, father and award-winning social innovator whose life has been dedicated to impacting others, creating opportunities and mobilizing resources for social change. As Founder & Principal at Change Often - Social Innovation Firm, Cyril leads the company’s Innovation BrainTrust in solving social and economic challenges through collaborative solutions and comprehensive capacity building services. Working in spaces where the bottom line prioritizes “lives saved over dollars made,” the Change Often team helps bring to life the ideas that impact our world for the good and has partnered to invest more than $22M in impact initiatives for small business support, poverty alleviation and education. Though he has received numerous honors—including a National Distinguished Service Award and being named to a Hunt State Policy Fellowship—the greatest to date came when voters in the 2023 High Point City Elections made him the youngest person to ever be elected Mayor of High Point, North Carolina. Mayor Jefferson is a graduate of North Carolina A&T State University. Living the words of Winston Churchill, he and his wife, Raven, teach their two sons that “To improve is to change. To perfect is to change often.”