Jonathan Herman has been executive director of the National Guild for Community Arts Education since 2004 and a staff member since 1995. At the Guild he has planned and managed national conferences, training and technical assistance programs, publications, and special projects such as Creative Communities, a national initiative to foster the development of arts instruction programs in public housing communities. He was also the project leader for Partners in Excellence, a national initiative to identify and promote best practices in K-12 public school arts partnerships, as well as a national study commissioned by The Kresge Foundation which led to the publication of More Than the Sum of Its Parts: Collaboration and Sustainability in Arts Education. Jonathan has served as program director of the Rhinelander Center, an arts-based community center of the Children's Aid Society in New York City, and developed educational programs and materials at the New York Hall of Science. He holds an EdM degree from Teacher's College, Columbia University, and a BA in Philospohy from Binghamton University. He is a graduate of the Executive Level Program at the Columbia Business School’s Institute for Not-for-Profit Management and serves on the board of the National Music Council, the advisory committee of the Arts Education Partnership, the advisory board of Arts Education Policy Review, and the Boys and Girls Club of America's Advisory Council for the Arts.

Ken Cole, associate director, oversees the Guild’s program, communications, and marketing departments. Since joining the staff in 2004, Ken has developed and produced numerous national conferences and training events; publications; research studies; grantmaking programs; and the Guild’s Community Arts Education Resource Center. From 2001 to 2004, Ken served as director of advancement at the Levine School of Music in Washington, DC. He was executive director of GALA Choruses, the international service association of the lesbian and gay choral movement, and he served as development director for the Fairfax Symphony Orchestra, development associate for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, and as a professional orchestral violist for more than a decade. Ken has been a grant review panelist for the League of American Orchestras, DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, New Jersey State Arts Council, President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities, Washington Post Company, and Young Audiences. He presents regularly at national conferences of such organizations as Chorus America, Educational Theater Association, Arts Education Partnership, Association of Fundraising Professionals, League of American Orchestras, Grantmakers in the Arts, and the American Society on Aging. He also helped program the education track for the 2008 National Performing Arts Convention. He helped edit Chorus America’s Leading the Successful Chorus: A Guide for Managers, Board Members, and Music Directors. He holds BM and MM degrees in viola performance from Oberlin College Conservatory and Louisiana State University, respectively.

Heather Ikemire, Ph.D, director of marketing and communications, joined the National Guild in 2007. Heather has 15 years’ experience in community arts education as a practitioner, administrator, and scholar, including three years as marketing and public relations manager at the Madison Repertory Theatre in Wisconsin. She has led programs as a teaching artist in school and community-based settings and has received numerous accolades as an instructor of Theatre for Social Change and Principles of Dramatic Analysis at Arizona State University’s School of Theatre and Film. Heather founded the arts-based civic dialogue project, Phoenix Speaks, and created and directed the theatre-in-education production, Somewhere Else, which was performed for more than 1,000 middle school students in the wake of September 11th as a forum for creatively examining how communities respond to crisis. Her research on community arts education has been published in the International Journal of the Arts in Society, Perspectives on Public Affairs, and TYA Today, as well as on the Community Arts Network and Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics websites. In 2006 she received the American Alliance for Theatre and Education’s Winifred Ward Scholarship for excellence in the field. She holds a B.A. in English from Vassar College and a Ph.D. in Theatre with a concentration in Theatre for Youth from Arizona State University’s Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts. Her dissertation, Putting Culture to Work: Building Community with Youth Through Community-Based Theatre Practice, examines how community-based youth theatre ensembles create conditions for youth to practice cultural agency and to develop a sense of themselves as valuable resources in a broader community development process. She helped guide the development of the National Guild’s recent publication, Engaging Adolescents: Building Youth Participation in the Arts. Heather currently resides in New Orleans, where she serves on the interim board of The Bayou Treme Center for Arts & Education.

James C. Horton, program director, joined the Guild team in October 2012. James has over a decade of experience in youth development, arts education, and community engagement. Previously James served as program director for the Harlem Children's Zone (HCZ)’s Employment & Technology Center, where he developed Technology & Arts (TechnoArts) learning initiatives servicing more than 350 Harlem youth. Prior to this position, James was the video & performing arts coordinator for HCZ’s TRUCE Arts & Media program, a 2005 recipient of the prestigious Coming Up Taller Award from the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. James also served as a performing arts and video teaching artist working with young people to develop their voices through film and theater. James is the founder of The Cure summer program which teaches community members about HIV/AIDS through the arts. Horton has also produced numerous events showcasing and highlighting the artistic achievements of NYC youth, and has worked in collaboration with The Fund for the City of New York in developing web portals that would provide links to resources for under-serviced communities nationwide. James studied theater at Southern University in Baton Rouge, LA and is a graduate of Columbia University's Institute for Not-For-Profit Management.

Traci Horgen, business manager, brings ten years of administrative experience with five years in non-profit arts organizations including the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Anderson Ranch Arts Center and most recently the Djerassi Resident Artists Program located in Woodside, CA.  Traci was an associate instructor of sculpture, drawing and screen printing while earning her Master of Fine Arts degree from UC Davis.  Traci is a practicing visual artist and her 2011 exhibitions include “Cream from the Top, Surfacing talent from the Bay Area MFA programs” at the Performance Arts Institute in San Francisco, the San Francisco Art Fair, Meridian Gallery in San Francisco, Kala Institute of Art in Berkeley, CA and Shoshana Wayne Gallery in Santa Monica, CA.

Claire Wilmoth, member services and data coordinator, has been with the Guild since August 2005. A Seattle native, Claire came to New York from the Chicago area after completing her BA at Northwestern University, where she graduated with honors in 2005. While at Northwestern, Claire helped produce the Waa-Mu show, a nationally known original musical revue by and for Northwestern students. She has also worked for Paul Allen’s Experience Music Project and as a teaching artist for the Experience Arts Camp, both in Seattle.

Lindsey Cosgrove, external affairs coordinator, joined the Guild in September of 2011. Lindsey has worked in community arts education in various capacities: reviving the Fredericksburg, VA chapter of Guitars Not Guns, a non-profit which provides guitars and group lessons free of charge; assisting with development for the Washington, DC non-profit Arts for the Aging, Inc.; and teaching afterschool music programs. After earning a B.A. in music education at the University of Mary Washington, Lindsey came to New York to intern at the National Guild in the fall of 2009. In May of 2011, Lindsey earned an M.A. in urban education policy from Brown University. While at Brown, Lindsey focused on the intersections between the arts and public schools, in addition to serving as a graduate intern at the Center for Arts Education in New York City.

Ariana Schrier, member engagement coordinator, joined the Guild in May 2011. Ariana has worked in arts education with the Women’s Project, viBe Theater Experience, Earth Celebrations, and Swaran Public School (Shimla, India). She has experience in both administrative roles and in building programming and leading workshops as a teaching artist. In 2009 Ariana cofounded Pipeline Theatre Company and in May 2012 was appointed artistic director. She has worked with the New York City company as a producer, playwright, actor, and director. Ariana received her BFA in theater, applied theater, and politics from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.