• Linda Johannesen, Senior Advisor
• Michael E. Napoliello, Jr., Board of Directors
• Melissa Pugash, Board of Directors
• Peter Mays, Board of Directors & Executive Director
• York Chang, Immediate past President, Board of Directors

Linda Johannesen
Senior Advisor

Linda Johannesen is a nationally renowned author and leader in arts education and non-profit management. As the senior author of Different Ways of Knowing and Writing and Thinking: A Process Approach, Johannesen's research-based models for effective classroom teaching and learning and professional development have been adopted and adapted by schools and community-based arts organizations in states throughout the U.S. As president of the Galef Institute, Johannesen's breakthrough work was documented by the Rand Corporation, UCLA, Harvard Project Zero, and funded by foundations and state and federal agencies including the National Endowment for the Arts, the Department of Education and the Ford Foundation. Johannesen began her career in Chicago working for the Chicago Public Schools as a classroom teacher and for their Dept. of Research and Evalution. In Chicago, Johannesen co-founded two non-profit organizations: Art Worlds, Inc., which develops U.S. museum shows for emerging artists outside the U.S., and Acamedia, Inc., enhancing the teaching of history and social studies through hands-on museum-school partnerships. Johannesen is Director of Broad Reach Advisors; board member of Los Feliz Arts Charter School, and Advisor to Art Works for Kids.

Michael E. Napoliello, Jr.
Board of Directors

Michael E. Napoliello, Jr. is an award winning Southern California entrepreneur and business leader. He has built successful companies in the marketing, real estate, fine arts and transportation fields. Born 1962 in Washington D.C., Napoliello is a University of Maryland graduate with impressive professional education credentials including the Omnicom Senior Management Program in conjunction with Harvard University. While running his various enterprises, Napoliello remains an active philanthropist, educator and is the best-selling author of a number of books on business and the arts (but there is still time for boxing, travel and poetry — his favorite pastimes).

Melissa Pugash
Board of Directors

In addition to a lifelong passion for art, Melissa Pugash brings more than two decades of marketing communications experience to the LAAA Board of Directors. She holds a BA in Art History from Tufts University where she studied German Expressionism as well as Early to Mid-20th Century Art and Architecture. Melissa has been an independent marketing communications advisor to the international specialty coffee and tea trades since 2000. Prior to opening her consultancy, she served as Communications/Marketing Director of the Specialty Coffee Association of America. During that time, she received SCAA's "Special Recognition Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Association." She also worked with Tea & Coffee Trade Journal and Tea & Coffee Asia, and served as U.S. Marketing Representative for ANACAFE, the coffee board of Guatemala. Melissa began her PR career in 1988 as Account Supervisor for MetroCom, a Los Angeles-based marketing communications firm. Melissa was also a founder of the International Women's Coffee Alliance and consultant to Coffee Kids. She is a member of the Public Relations Society of America and several Greater LA Area art museums.

Peter Mays
Board of Directors & Executive Director

Peter Mays is the Executive Director of the Los Angeles Art Association (LAAA) and its premiere La Cienega exhibition space Gallery 825. Mays believes LAAA is now poised to launch the next phase of the 86-year-old organization's expansion and commitment to Los Angeles' emerging artists. Since joining LAAA in June 2005, Peter has implemented cultural exchanges with Korea, Germany and China, initiated collaborative programming with institutions like Harvard, MoCA and Otis, as well as with artists Tim Hawkinson and Lita Albuquerque, secured the very best curators to jury LAAA exhibitions, increased LAAA's career development programs and direct services by 30% and created LAAA's public art program which was selected as one of the top public art works completed in 2010 by Americans for the Arts.

Beyond his commitments at LAAA, Mays has curated exhibitions throughout Southern California for various arts, educational and civic agencies. Mays was recently honored at the LA Art Show with the Art to Life award sponsored by Art & Living Magazine, Sotheby's International Realty and A&I for his work on behalf of emerging artists and emerging artists communities. As chairperson of the West Hollywood Arts and Culture Commission and its Art on the Outside public art effort, Peter leads the city's nationally regarded outdoor public art programming which has been praised in Art Forum and the New York Times. Peter helped to launch the region-wide LA Arts Month effort from 2009-2011 where he served on Planning Committee and the Program Committee. He also serves on LAUSD's National Study Group which is charged with informing the nation's second largest district as it plans the next 10 years of K-12 Arts Education. Peter has co-chaired the Education Committee for the Board of Directors for the MOCA Contemporaries and he remains an active member of many other arts leadership groups including the Fellows of Contemporary Art and the Executive Arts Leaders Forum.

Prior to his appointment to LAAA, Mays served as the Director of Development and Supplementary Educational Services for the Galef Institute, a Los Angeles based educational non-profit organization. At the Tierra del Sol Foundation in Sunland, California, Peter oversaw an expansive arts program that served the needs of hundreds of developmentally disabled adults. Other relevant experience includes: Chairman of Steering Committee, Community Technology and Discovery Center, Los Angeles; writer, Digital Arts for Young Adults online curriculum; Gallery Director, Clark Gallery, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and contributing writer and art critic, Pittsburgh Buzz. Peter has an MFA and is also an experienced curator, painter, printmaker, book illustrator and graphic designer whose artwork has been exhibited in galleries and museums.

 

York Chang
Immediate past President, Board of Directors

A working artist, curator, lawyer, civic leader and LAAA's immediate past President of the Board of Directors, York Chang's commitment to the civic and artistic growth of Los Angeles is explicit in all his professional duties. York serves as the President of the City of Los Angeles' Cultural Affairs Commission, the Mayor-appointed body which serves as an oversight and advisory body to the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department.