leadership
School of the Alternative is a true DIY all-hands-on-deck community experience. Since we are a Non-Profit Corporation in the state of NC, we have chosen to operate with a Board of Directors model. Each of the members of the board has different roles and responsibilities but hold an equal voice in the decision-making process.
While this group does steer the ship in a certain sense, we take guidance and direction as just a small group of members of the much larger SotA community. Most importantly, we hope to provide space for all community members with an interest to have agency in shaping the path of the school and our community.
**Please keep in mind that we are a volunteer-run organization, and our main organizers are balancing this work with our jobs and other responsibilities. We are working on balance and rest internally so that we can sustain this project.**
Our 2023-2024 Advisory Committee
Caelum A’Hearn | Maggie Burnseed | Eliah Eason | Hannah Fagin | Dionne Liles | Selena Loomis | John Mansfield | Huan Manton | Paulina Olivares | Crystal Presley | Bud Ries | Christina Ruiz | Luin Joy Sherman | Mara Thomas | Alexandra Velasco | Carroll Wallace
Board of directors:
Nelle Dunlap
she/her/hers
Board member
Nelle is a costume, digital, and performance artist who makes a living as the Digital Director of a national news nonprofit. In both types of work, she lifts up folks of marginalized gender, color, ability, body, and age to take up space at the front of the stage (if that’s what they want), both literally and metaphorically.
Other things: bassist in SotA’s house band B*I*T*C*H (“Yip yip”) / glitter-witch band Gown / a new unnamed punk thing; maker of dog music videos; former instructional designer for a kids tech company / adjunct art professor / performance space manager / digital storytelling fellow in India; Community Art MFA from MICA & Graphic Design BFA from U of Iowa.
Nelle also serves on the board of the NC-based Durham Art Guild.
Heidi Gruner
she/her/hers
Executive Director
Heidi is a dynamic and excitable creative professional who works to foster spaces of inevitable connection through enduring and thoughtful work. She has worked as a gallery director, graphic designer, and organizer. Currently, she manages the design department for a company in Asheville, North Carolina, and takes on freelance projects as time and interest allow.
At SotA, Heidi is committed to doing the work to host an equitable space of communal learning and collective care, and to continually expand and nourish the ways we do both. She will always prioritize the most marginalized among us, and do the work to create a space where we all feel safe(r).
Some other interests include being a helicopter plant parent, thoughtfully dressing her apartment, singing her heart out in SotA’s house band B*I*T*C*H (“ruff growl”), and working on new and radical ways to connect with people she loves who are separated by distance.
Maria Judice she/her/they/them
Board member
M is a visual storyteller working in cinema, writing, photography, and public art. M holds an M.F.A. from CalArts in Film/Video. Wired magazine called M a "filmmaker provocateur." Her artist's role is to not disrupt but interrupt the signal to noise, propaganda imagery, and missive narratives. M makes films about little girls realizing themselves in the future. PALM TREES DOWN 3RD S.T. won the Adrienne Shelly Award for excellence in directing and aired on B.E.T.'s "Lens on Talent." PALM TREES was called "a masterpiece" by Film Threat. M's award-winning sci-fi MOONLESS was featured in Stigmart/Videofocus13. Her films have screened around the world and are represented by Flourishing Films. INDIGO IMPACT was founded in 2016 with a mission to bring left of center stories and creators to global audiences. As an Impact Producer, M brings affordable music, literature, art, and performance to the Bay Area. Centered within a beloved community, Indigo's promotes participatory cinema, decolonization frameworks, and native narratives.
You can find M in San Francisco hidden among the fog offering gifts of gratitude to Queen Khalifia, Queen of California.
