WHEN & WHERE: April 1, 2022, at 10 AM EST on NYU ZOOM
Join a panel of PS B.A. and M.A. Alums as they share their experience in the professional world in various industries and cities in non-academic careers.
Our panel will feature:
Lindsay Benacka, MA Alum - Lindsay Benacka is the Director of Arts and Cultural Services for the City of Wichita where she oversees a dynamic roster of programs, facilities, and projects and collaborates with many public and private partners on capital improvement projects. Notably, she oversees the City’s Percent for Public Art Program, Design Council, Arts Council, Cultural Funding Committee, CityArts, Cowtown Living History Museum, Mid-America All-American Indian Museum, and Century 2 Performing Arts Center. She recently re-joined the City of Wichita in December, having served as the Artistic Director at CityArts from 2014-2016.
Most recently she served as the Arts and Culture Program Manager for the City of Yuma, Arizona where she served as the Director for the Yuma Art Center and oversaw the Historic Yuma Theatre, 270 Black Box Theatre, 4 art galleries, and a 350 piece public art collection. She was the recipient of the 2020 Governor's Art Award for Outstanding Arts Organization, the Heart of Yuma Award for Outstanding Leadership from the Arizona Community Foundation, and was a finalist for the Gabe Zimmerman Public Service Award for both Emerging Leader and Community Builder. She was also a recognized by the Yuma Chamber of Commerce as a 40 under 40 Community Leader.
She holds a Bachelors in Theater from Columbia College Chicago and a Masters in Performance Studies from NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Additionally, she is an Adjunct Professor of Art History at Arizona Western College and a former Fine Arts Lead Professor at Butler Community College. Benacka is a multidisciplinary artist and a proud Returned Peace Corps Volunteer having served in rural Cambodia. Lindsay is a Chicago native by ways of rural Nebraska, but plans to bloom anywhere she’s planted.
Diana M. Pho, MA Alum - Diana M. Pho is a queer Vietnamese-American independent scholar, playwright, and Hugo Award- winning fiction editor. She has over a decade of experience in traditional book publishing, where she acquired and edited speculative novels, short fiction, and comics. Diana currently is Senior Story Producer at Realm.fm developing unique and cutting-edge audio dramas. Additionally, she has a double Bachelor’s degree in English and Russian Literature from Mount Holyoke College and a Master’s in Performance Studies from New York University. Diana’s academic work includes critical analysis of the role of race in fashion, performance, and the media, in addition to pieces focusing on fan studies and fan communities.
Podcasts she has produced include Justin C. Key’s Spider King, Black Friday starring Fred Armisen (#1 for Fiction on Apple Podcasts) and Marigold Breach, starring Jameela Jamil and Manny Jacinto.
Hadar Landan, BA Alum - Hadar Landan is a Class of 2020 Bachelor’s graduate of Performance Studies, with honors. She also earned a second degree in Psychology, and a minor in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Studies. Currently, she works as a freelance professional dancer and as a Programs Manager at A Free Bird- a nonprofit organization that provides arts education for kids affected by cancer. In these roles, she is able to combine her passion for movement and the arts, as well as her interest in psychology and child development. She credits her time at PS for allowing her to expand her view of what she could accomplish as an artist.
As the Programs Manager for A Free Bird, Hadar implements effective arts programs for children in hospitals and in their homes, curating and providing arts lessons in all genres and forms, and opportunities to experience artistic shows, galleries, and the like.
As a dancer and choreographer, some of her fondest artistic experiences include performing with the late and great Gregg Russell’s Tap Sounds Underground, being a part of Emily Greenwell’s contemporary collective, earning a scholarship toward putting on her own show through DM Arts Fest, and curating and producing the NYC Studio Series, a community initiative at Arts on Site aiming to provide affordable dance classes and opportunities for artists to share with their peers.
Megan Man, BA Alum - Megan Man is a NYU Tisch Performance Studies 2021 graduate who specialized in gendered and racial expression in media. Right after graduating, Megan worked as a full-time Talent Agent assistant for William Morris Endeavor in Beverly Hills. Since then, she has started pursuing her Masters Degree in Library Science with a specialization in archives. She is currently working at a local library in southern New Jersey.
