Vanessa Dalpiaz (she/her) is delighted to be joining PMAFF as the Program Associate – Performing Arts. She believes firmly in the transformative power of the performing arts and in the importance of creating greater access to well-funded and high-quality arts and culture institutions. Vanessa grew up attending Chicagoland theater while on visits to her family and found her passion for performing arts through these experiences. Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, she spent several years there working as a professional actor, director, and teaching artists with performing arts organizations of all sizes and budgets. Vanessa is moving to Chicago from Washington D.C., where she was Arena Stage’s Allen Lee Hughes BIPOC Artistic Development Fellow for the 2023/2024 cohort. While at Arena, Vanessa served as an assistant director, dramaturg, and producer, and engaged deeply with literary management, season planning, and casting. Vanessa is a graduate of Pomona College, where she earned her BA in theatre. During her time in college, she was on the board of a student theater organization and learned about the grant writing process from the perspective of a grant seeker. She is thrilled to be taking the skills she developed as an artist and administrator and applying them to this new position.