Staff and Interns

We are lucky to have a diverse and multi-talented staff here at the Initiative! Click on the names below to read more about us.

Staff
Gayle Isa, Executive Director
Laura Cohen, Development Director
Toni Dang, Program Associate
Carmina Ocampo-Brown, Director of Finance and Operations

Gayle Isa is the founder and Executive Director of the Asian Arts Initiative. Gayle has been an active participant in Philadelphia's arts and culture community for the past 16 years, beginning as an intern and evolving as a staff member at the Painted Bride Art Center. She also spent three years working with the Southeast Asian Mutual Assistance Associations Coalition, learning about human services and advocacy within the Asian American community in Philadelphia. She has been a National Finalist in the Ford Foundation's Leadership for a Changing World program. She has served on the boards of the Philadelphia Cultural Fund and the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, and is currently on the Executive Committee of the National Performance Network and the Steering Committee of the nascent National Asian American Theater Project. Gayle was once an aspiring taiko (drum) player and is now learning to be a theater dramaturg.

Development Director Laura Cohen joined the Initiative in September 2008.  An attendee and long-time admirer of the Initiative's programs, Laura contributes a diverse background in fundraising and grantmaking.  She is a graduate of Swarthmore College and earned a masters' degree in public humanities from Brown University.  She has worked in Philadelphia at the Pennsylvania/Delaware Regional Office of the Anti-Defamation League, in Charlotte, North Carolina at Discovery Place, Inc. and the Arts and Science Council of Charlotte/Mecklenburg and in Providence, Rhode Island at New Urban Arts and The Rhode Island Foundation.  She is excited to return to Philadelphia to pursue a love of community arts, and to lend her experience to completing the multi-tenant facility.

Toni Dang, Program Associate, joined the Initiative in March 2009.  Among many responsibilities, she is overseeing community outreach for the Initiative's latest exhibition Chinatown In/flux: Future Landscapes as well as advancing the Initiative's youth programming.  A graduate of Penn State University and Central High School, Toni has previously worked in public affairs for Keystone Mercy Health Plan and the national office of the Student Environmental Action Coalition.  She has worked in public policy and program management for OCA National and is currently an active member of OCA-Greater Philadelphia.

Carmina Ocampo-Brown, Director of Finance and Operations, joined the Initiative in June 2010. With 15 years experience as a non-profit administrator plus many years in volunteer service, she has been involved in community arts organizations in Los Angeles, Chicago and Philadelphia. She is a graduate of the University of California Santa Barbara in Studio Art and earned her M.A. Arts Administration from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Born in the Philippines, she believes in the power of the arts and that it can anchor oneself to his or her own history, as well as be shared with others toward better understanding through its cultural expression.