Our Team
Miller Susen
she/her
Interim Producing Artistic Director [email protected]
434-977-4177 x101
Jeremy Duncan Pape
he/him
Technical Director
[email protected]
434-977-4177 x113
Daniel Kunkel
he/him
Interim Artistic Director Education Director
[email protected]
434-977-4177 x100
Mandy Shuker
she/her
Interim Production & Volunteer Manager
[email protected] 434-977-4177 x105
Part-time Staff
Supporting Team
Darryl Smith
he/him
Audience Experience Manager, emeritus & Volunteer Liasion to the Board of Directors
Karen Hayes
she/her
Grants Writer
Hays Grant Consulting
Our Board
President/Fundraising Committee Chair (she/her)
CCA Representative (he/him)
Governance Chair
(she/her)
CCA Representative
(she/her) Secretary
(he/him)
(she/they)
Board Historian
Leah Donahue (she/her)
(he/him)
(she/her)
(he/him)
Treasurer/Finance Committee Chair (she/her)
Counsel: Larissa Sneathern, LPC McGuireWoods LLP
Message from the Board President:
Dear Live Arts community,
In the spring and summer of 2026, the Board convened 4 community listening sessions, and 3 opportunities to interact with and ask questions of candidates for the new executive staff position. Over 100 people took the time to share their experiences, feedback, and recommendations. Thank you!
At our April 27th meeting the 25/26 board convened to a) hear and process the consolidated and specific feedback from the spring’s community listening sessions, and b) discuss and brainstorm the resulting objectives and tactics the board might take to guide Live Arts into the next year.
During our May 18th meeting the board consolidated the broader lists of brainstormed actions developed in our April meeting into a set of key strategic objectives. The board considered seven total meta-objectives and landed on the four that the group felt were a) most appropriate for a board (vs. a management team) to take on, and b) most impactful to the near- and long-term health of the enterprise.
The four key objectives include:
Generating revenue to achieve sustainability
Strengthening community connections
Enhancing the volunteer experience, and
Enhancing the effectiveness of the board.
The board plans to focus on these four objectives in the next year with our time, our decision-making, and our resources. We will be designing our 26/27 board meetings with a laser focus on these four objectives, and plan to set metrics with which to track our progress.
If you have any questions about our process for getting to this point, please feel free to reach out to me at [email protected] or any member of the board.
With gratitude for your engagement and support,
Miller Susen
Board President
