GIA Team

Web & Knowledge Manager

Since moving to Seattle in 2000 to pursue opportunities in digital publishing, Steve has served as Web and Print Publications Editor for Earshot Jazz, a non-profit arts presenter, and as a Premedia Coordinator for R.R. Donnelley. Steve has a B.A. in Music Performance from Wichita State University and performs regularly in a jazz trio around Seattle.

Vice President & Director of Programs

Nadia Elokdah is an urbanist and design strategist with more than a decade working at the intersection of public systems and cultural practice. She currently serves as Vice President & Director of Programs at GIA. Most recently she served as special projects manager with the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs coordinating the City’s monuments commission. Prior, she served as coordinator in the development of the City’s first cultural plan, CreateNYC, in which she coordinated and led hundreds of engagements with a broad cross-section of the public, as well collaborating in the writing and production of the plan. She is devoted to civic engagement through culturally responsible, inclusive, and equitable design practice, exemplified in collaborations with the International Design Clinic, in.site collaborative, and Monuments Lab. Nadia is a trained architect and designer, researcher, professor, and published author, including Identity Crisis, a cultural exploration of urban planning through the hammam. She currently serves as steering committee member of the Women of Color in the Arts (WOCA) Non-Black POC Solidarity! into Action Committee. Nadia holds a Master of Arts in Theories of Urban Practice from Parsons School of Design and a BArch in Architecture from Temple University.

Senior Development Manager

Sylvia Jung is Senior Development Manager with Grantmakers in the Arts. Priot to this role, she most recently served as manager of individual giving at Ballet Hispánico, where she strategized donor stewardship and communications. Previously, she served in development roles at Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation, Neighborhood Coalition for Shelter, and The New York Foundling. Sylvia is a longtime crisis hotline volunteer with the New York City Anti-Violence Project, and is proudly 100% a product of New York City public education.

Director of Operations & Finance

Champ Knecht has been working in non-profit finance for two decades, most recently as Deputy Director for Administration at The Drawing Center. Prior to that, he was at MoMA PS1, and in Pittsburgh PA at the Carnegie Museum of Art. Early in his career, Champ worked at New York Foundation for the Arts in its artist sponsorship program, and it was there that he realized arts management was to be his chosen career path. At The Drawing Center, he guided the institution through a major renovation and capital campaign. While he was Deputy Director, The Drawing Center became one of the first non-profits to successfully close out a major grant from the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. Champ is active on the Human Rights Campaign’s national Board of Governors, and is the Greater NY Steering Committee Co-Chair.

Senior Program Manager

Sherylynn Sealy is a strategist, yoga instructor, performing artist, and educator with a varied background. She is also on the steering committee of Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy (EPIP)-Boston Chapter. Prior to her program manager role with Grantmakers in the Arts, Sherylynn was a Philanthropy Fellow with the New York Community Trust where she engaged with arts and culture funders and organizations across New York City. She previously served as a consultant for the Mayor’s Office and Superintendent’s Office on their implementation of the City-wide Youth Stat Initiative in New Haven, CT. Managing over 200 student-cases, she served as the point of contact for schools and local partners. A Teach for America alumna, she received her MPA in Public and Nonprofit Management and Policy from New York University, and her BS in Education and Psychology from Northeastern University. She also served on the Dance/NYC Junior Committee. She is the Producing Artistic Director at Greater Glory Nazarene Ministries in Brooklyn, NY. She continues to explore her passion for performing arts, traveling, and spreading a message of hope.

Communications & Publications Manager

Originally hailing from Orlando, FL, Jaime Sharp is "a mezzo-soprano whose artistry, administration, and activism is rooted in accessibility and change" (TRILLOQUY). She now resides in Cincinnati, OH on the unceded territories of the Algonquian-speaking Shawnee, Miami, and Delaware tribes. In addition to Grantmakers in the Arts, she will join the Cincinnati Song Initiative as Director of Communications & Audience Development beginning in their 2022-2023 season. Jaime is a mentee for Women of Color in the Art's Leadership Through Mentorship, and an inaugural cohort member for OPERA America's Opera Leaders of Color and the All Rise Initiative with Tom O'Connor Consultants. Her work is strongly focused on racial equity, serving as the 2021-2022 EDI Research Fellow for Association of Arts Administration Educators and former Administrative Manager for the Black Opera Alliance. Jaime co-founded the choral ensemble Hear Us, Hear Them, an organization dedicated to programming and commissioning works by traditionally underrepresented composers. In addition, she led Opera NexGen as General Director their inaugural and sophomore seasons. She holds a MM from the College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati (CCM) and BM from the University of Michigan with a minor in linguistics. Learn more at jaime-sharp.com.

President & CEO

Edwin Torres joined Grantmakers in the Arts as president & CEO in October 2017. Torres served on the GIA board of directors from 2011 through 2016. He most recently served as deputy commissioner of cultural affairs for New York City, where he collaborated on the development of the city’s long-term sustainability plan, a study of and efforts to support the diversity of the city’s cultural organizations and the city’s first cultural plan. Prior to joining the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, he was a program officer with The Rockefeller Foundation, where he worked on the foundation’s support for arts and culture, jobs access, and resilience. He has also served in the dean’s office at Parsons the New School for Design, on the arts and culture team at The Ford Foundation as well as on the staff of the Bronx Council on the Arts. He holds a Master of Arts in Art History from Hunter College and a Master of Science in Management from The New School.

Development Associate

Zoë Williams is a first-generation Jamaican American who holds a B.F.A in Acting and Performance Arts from the University at Albany. Zoë fell into Development five years ago at The Drawing Center at an assistant level, where she received a crash course into the arts world in NYC. With the help of strong mentorship, Zoë has had the opportunity to serve at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum and The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Supporting inclusion and equity in the arts & culture spectrum is her passion. Other passions include being a mother, traveling, cooking, dancing, and attending live theater.