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.**

Current Advisory Committee:

treasurer:

Mara Thomas

Board of directors:

Heidi Gruner | she/her
Executive Director

Heidi is an art director, designer, and organizer who brings care and precision to every project. With a background spanning gallery direction to graphic design, her work blends big ideas with thoughtful, creative behind-the-scenes magic. Her work is defined by genuine curiosity, strong aesthetics, and a talent for making complex ideas feel cohesive and real.

At SotA, Heidi is committed to creating an equitable space for communal learning and collective care, and to continually expand and nourish the ways we do both.

Some other interests include being a helicopter plant parent, thoughtfully dressing her apartment, and singing her heart out in SotA’s house band B*I*T*C*H (“ruff growl”).

Nelle Dunlap | she/her
Board member

Nelle is a costume, digital, and performance artist and bassist in SotA’s house band B*I*T*C*H (“Yip yip”) 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.

Alexis Brunkow | she/her
Board member

Alexis C. Brunkow is a Los Angeles based designer and artist whose practice is grounded in clay and storytelling through acts of preservation, memory, and interconnectedness. A community-taught artist with a varied background in the architecture and design industry, she brings an unconventional path to her work—one that embraces messiness, imperfection, and trusting intuition over convention.After a transformational first visit to Black Mountain, NC for SotA in 2024, Alexis joined the Advisory Committee, and then returned for the empathetic community and empowering, non-hierarchical learning experience that expanded both her sense of self and her practice. As a Board member, she’s committed to working to sustain and support SotA’s experimental, care-centered model.