{"id":248712,"date":"2015-05-22T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-05-22T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/changing-of-the-guard\/"},"modified":"2015-05-22T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-05-22T07:00:00","slug":"changing-of-the-guard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/changing-of-the-guard\/","title":{"rendered":"Changing of the guard"},"content":{"rendered":"

Normal Heights-based Young Audiences of San Diego hires new executive director<\/strong><\/p>\n

Por Margie M. Palmer<\/p>\n

Young Audiences of San Diego (YASD) has selected Tara Graviss as its new executive director. Graviss replaces Felicia Shaw, the interim executive director who left to join the St. Louis Regional Arts Commission earlier this month.<\/p>\n

Based in Normal Heights, YASD has spent the past 50 years dedicating its mission to helping make sure that arts education is available to children within the region. Board chair Cathy Stephenson said that because of this, the organization searched long and hard to find someone who was well-rounded, passionate about the arts, and had fundraising and management experience.<\/p>\n

\"Tara<\/a>
Tara Graviss is the new executive
director of Young Audiences of San
Diego, based in Normal Heights.
(Courtesy of YASD)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cYoung Audiences of San Diego inspires children to imagine a world, and to create a world through the arts and different arts forms,\u201d Stephenson said. \u201cIt was really important to us to hire someone who understood our background but could also help communicate our passion to potential funders.\u201d<\/p>\n

The official search began last November, she said, and although their focus was primarily regional, they did entertain a few candidates who were located outside of the immediate area.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were a few who were really interested and who had the ability to come to San Diego and hit the position from the ground running because they already knew our partner school system and our arts partners,\u201d Stephenson said, noting that although the organization worked its way through several rounds of interviews with highly qualified finalists, they believed Graviss was the best fit.<\/p>\n

The new executive director\u2019s resume includes over 15 years of executive planning, administration, communications and marketing experience in the nonprofit sector. Her nonprofit background includes leadership roles at Sylvan Learning Centers, A Reason to Survive, and the Center for Community Solutions. She expects to receive her master\u2019s degree in expressive arts therapy in June 2016.<\/p>\n

Graviss, who noted she has been volunteering in arts and arts education for about as long as she can remember, became involved with YASD in 2011 after learning that the organization was looking to fill a vacancy on the board of directors.<\/p>\n

Throughout her tenure in that role, she ran YASD\u2019s annual fundraiser on three occasions; each year, she helped increase their gross and net funding and was also able to help bring in a handful of corporate sponsorships that the organization did not previously have.<\/p>\n

Once Graviss realized the executive director\u2019s position was available and she had an interest in pursuing it, she recused herself from the board and tossed her hat into the ring.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, it\u2019s about following your passions and calling. I was really involved in YASD for several years and it really felt like the stars aligned,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m excited to be a part of it and am lucky that I get to do something I\u2019m so passionate about full-time.\u201d<\/p>\n

She and Stephenson said they are very much looking forward to the path ahead.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are still a lot of people outside of the arts education community that don\u2019t know who we are. It\u2019s our hope to expand our profile and our footprint so that more people know about what we\u2019re doing and so we can ultimately serve more children,\u201d Stephenson said. \u201cI really feel [Tara] is well-equipped to do a wonderful job and we\u2019re just delighted that she is at the helm.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are already working on collaborations with the San Diego Unified School District as well as the San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture,\u201d Graviss said. \u201cOnce we have our infrastructure down, we\u2019ll me moving forward with some other ideas, and will continue to work to serve children in San Diego the best way we can.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014Margie M. Palmer es una escritora independiente con sede en San Diego que ha estado acumulando art\u00edculos en una gran cantidad de publicaciones de noticias durante los \u00faltimos 10 a\u00f1os. Puedes localizarla en margiep@alumni.pitt.edu<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Normal Heights-based Young Audiences of San Diego hires new executive director By Margie M. Palmer Young Audiences of San Diego (YASD) has selected Tara Graviss as its new executive director. Graviss replaces Felicia Shaw, the interim executive director who left to join the St. Louis Regional Arts Commission earlier this month.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":248713,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Changing of the guard","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-248712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248712\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}