staff bios
Mara Walker
Chief Planning Officer
Mara Walker is the chief planning officer for Americans for the Arts and is responsible for the overall performance of the organization, working with all staff to ensure that inter-departmental coordination is as directed in the organization’s strategic plan and that the organization has the best planning tools, policies, and procedures in place to advance the organization. She is the former vice president of field services and planning and worked to develop programs that met the needs of a growing constituency of organizations and individuals committed to using the arts to impact communities. To that end, she developed programs that served emerging, midlevel, and seasoned leaders to help them in their professional growth and designed programs for targeted sectors such as united arts funds, public art administrators and artists, arts board members, urban and rural arts representatives, grantmakers, arts education decision-makers, and many more. In this effort she established partnerships and strategic alliances and managed a variety of service opportunities, including the annual convention, professional membership, and publications. Mara directed the completion of the organization’s five-year strategic plan and is now responsible for implementing the plan and communicating our progress with board, staff, members, and partners. Prior to this work she oversaw operations for the National Assembly of Local Arts Agencies and was instrumental in the merger when it joined with American Council for the Arts in 1997 to form Americans for the Arts. She has worked in arts administration since 1985, including serving as the associate director of Young Audiences of San Diego, and has done organizational consulting for several arts-related organizations. In 1990, she was the national grass roots campaign coordinator for the Emergency Campaign To Save the Arts, during which she worked with people across the country to mobilize support for the National Endowment for the Arts. She has worked with numerous theater companies across the country in many capacities and received an M.F.A. in theater management from the University of Maryland, College Park, and a B.A. in theater from the George Washington University.
E-mail Mara.
