2026 Next Level Award Panelists

Darlene Jackson

Darlene Jackson aka DJ Lady D (she/her) is a Chicago-based international DJ, Producer, Remixer, Artist, Music Publisher, and Founder of her independent record label and marketing brand, D’lectable. 

Hailed as “Chicago’s House Music Queen” by Chicago Magazine, Jackson has toured North America, Europe, Asia, and Russia. Her appearances at South by Southwest (SXSW), Lollapalooza, Burning Man, Chosen Few, and brand influencer, charity, and celebrity events have solidified her trailblazing career. A member of the Screen Actors Guild and a voting member of National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, Jackson first acted professionally in The Marva Collins Story (with Cicely Tyson and Morgan Freeman) and has since been a featured subject in numerous print, television, and film media, including the music documentaries Move Ya Body (Hidden Light) and The War Against Disco (PBS), Girl, The Godfather of Disco, and Slipcue. Her story is also captured in the books Do You Remember House by Micah Salkind, How To DJ Right by Frank Broughton, and Disco Demolition: The Night Disco Died by Dave Hoekstra. 

As a host, producer, writer, and researcher, Jackson has worked with various media outlets, including the Chicago Tribune, URB Magazine, Discoid, Chicago Public Media, Vocalo Radio, NPR, and BBC Audio. Jackson holds a Master’s Degree from Northwestern University and presides as the CEO/Executive Director of Collaboraction Theatre's group for social change.

Alice Jones

Raised in Austin, TX, Alice Jones is a flutist, composer, teacher, and administrator whose multi-faceted career pushes against the boundaries of what it means to be a musician, whose voices can be heard, and what success looks like. In 2020, she became the Associate Dean of Community Engagement and Career Services at the Juilliard School, drawing upon her commitment to music creation, education, and collaboration.

A versatile performer, Alice was praised by Mario Davidovsky as “the flute player who could really play” and Fanfare Magazine called her 2017 album with Ensemble 365 “pretty music faultless... required listening.” She has been featured with Bard SummerScape, Chamber Music Campania (Italy), Composers Now Festival, The Curiosity Cabinet, Ensemble Échappé, International Contemporary Ensemble, Look and Listen Festival, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Sugar Hill Salon, and Yale-China Music Exchange in China. Her recent commissions come from Amity Trio, Decoda (Carnegie Hall), Gaudete Brass, Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, Millikin University, and the Phoenix Orchestra (Boston). In 2026, she can be heard on Mary Hubbell’s album all these little things, performing her song cycle in which she sets poetry by Black American women of the 1890s celebrating the limitlessness of human imagination.

Alice teaches flute at Juilliard’s Music Advancement Program and Montclair State University, and in the college division at Juilliard she teaches entrepreneurship and classroom pedagogy. She is a sought-after teaching artist, having led workshops for Ensemble Connect, the Frost School (University of Miami), Imani Winds Chamber Music Festival, Mostly Mozart Festival, New York Philharmonic, Opportunity Music Project, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Sphinx Organization, and University of New Mexico. Her previous teaching appointments include Aaron Copland School of Music at CUNY Queens College, Queensborough Community College, CUNY, Borough of Manhattan Community College, CUNY, SUNY Purchase College, UpBeat (an El Sistema program in the Bronx), and Luzerne Music Center.

She is a skilled fundraiser and strategic arts administrator, having led the Development Department at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music for four years. At the Conservatory, she also designed and curated three seasons of Parlour Room Sessions, an audience-engagement-driven chamber music series which featured female and BIPOC musicians on stage in every performance. She currently curates the Faculty Artist Recital Series at Luzerne Music Center. In 2018, she was named to the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs inaugural Leadership Accelerator cohort, a group of dynamic cultural leaders from traditionally underrepresented groups. She currently serves as the Treasurer of the Board of the National Flute Association.

Alice graduated from Yale University (BA), SUNY Purchase (MM, AD), and the CUNY Graduate Center (DMA). She is a Haynes artist.

JJJJJerome Ellis

JJJJJerome Ellis (any pronouns) is a Grenadian-Jamaican-American artist, surfer, and person who stutters. Through music, performance, writing, video, and photography, Ellis asks what stuttering can teach us about listening, generosity, and justice. JJJJJerome has the great privilege of being married to poet-ecologist Luísa Black Ellis. They live in a monastery on a creek in traditional Nansemond and Chesepiooc territory, aka Norfolk, VA. JJJJJerome dreams of building a sonic bath house!

Mariela Acuña

Mariela Acuña is an arts administrator and curator. As Director of Exhibitions and Residency at Hyde Park Art Center, she oversees the Art Center's exhibitions program, the Jackman Goldwasser Residency, and the micro-publishing platform Green Lantern Press. Through her administrative and curatorial practices, Acuña champions the work of social practice and underrepresented artists in Chicago and supports transnational connections for artists and curators. 

Acuña has held positions at the Norton Museum of Art, the University Galleries at Florida Atlantic University, and Girls’ Club, Fort Lauderdale. Mariela holds a BA in Art History, a BFA in Sculpture from Florida Atlantic University, and a dual MA in Art Administration and Public Policy and Art History, Theory, and Criticism from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She serves as Board President of Comfort Station, an artist-run micro-cultural center that activates a historic building with free programs at the intersection of art and life.

Louie Marin-Howard

Louie Marin-Howard is a passionate dance artist, educator, and community leader dedicated to using the power of movement to connect, inspire, and uplift. A graduate of the University of Florida New World School of the Arts under the direction of Daniel Lewis, Louie earned his B.F.A. with High Honors in 2005 on a full scholarship. He also trained as a scholarship student at the Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance and Jennifer Muller/The Works School.

Louie’s professional performance career includes work with companies such as Dance NOW! Miami, Freddick Bratcher and Co., Sasha Soreff Dance Theater, Amanda Selwyn Dance Theater, Paskal Rekoert/Flexicurve, Graham II, and Carolyn Dorfman Dance, where he continues to coach and teach with purpose and pride. Louie has taught regionally, nationally, and internationally, and is known for his dynamic, breath-driven classes that emphasize the power, speed, and passion of contemporary modern dance and the rigorous demands of today’s repertory. Locally, he has brought masterclasses to institutions including Chattanooga High School Center for Creative Arts, Chattanooga Dance Theatre, the Baylor School, Ballet Esprit, Chattanooga Theatre Centre, and Middle Tennessee State University.

In 2024, Louie stepped into a new chapter of service as Executive and Program Director of The Pop-up Project—a role that reflects both his creative vision and deep commitment to community impact. Under his leadership, The Pop-up Project continues to grow as the bridge in dance education for Hamilton County, working to expand access to high-quality, age-appropriate dance programming. Together with an extraordinary team of teaching artists and administrators, Louie is advancing a mission rooted in JOY, equity, and connection—ensuring every student can experience the transformative power of dance.

Tiffiny C. Reckley

Tiffiny C. Reckley is a Brooklyn-born music education veteran who blends her love for working with students and teachers as an arts administrator. Tiffiny, who often attributes her success to her foundation as a proud HBCU graduate, holds Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Music Education and is certified as a principal. Her work has brought her to teaching music across the K-12 continuum, in some of the nation’s most notable districts.

During her work as a band director in urban areas, she discovered her passion for addressing social justice issues impacting urban arts education classrooms and actively worked toward finding sustainable solutions. No stranger to spreading the word on all platforms, she continues to leave a lasting impression as a band clinician, facilitating presentations in the US and abroad, writing various publications, and as a guest on podcasts. Ms. Reckley maintains membership in several leading professional, academic, and social organizations, and enjoys performing in community band ensembles.

Cheryl Lynne Bruce

Cheryl Lynn Bruce has performed on stages across the country as well as in Europe and Mexico, and created the role of Elizabeth Sandry for Steppenwolf’s Tony Award-winning production of “The Grapes of Wrath,” adapted and directed by Frank Galati for Broadway’s Cort Theatre, Britain’s National Theatre, and La Jolla Playhouse. In 2016, she played the role of Hillary in Lucas Hnath's “Hillary and Clinton” and workshopped and performed in “The Compass,” Michael Rohd's interactive theatre piece for Steppenwolf's Theatre for Young Audiences program. She performed the lead role of Shelah in Tarell McCraney's “Head of Passes” at Steppenwolf Theatre and Berkeley Repertory. Ms. Bruce also premiered in Danai Gurira's “The Convert,” which premiered at McCarter Theatre, Goodman Theatre, and Kirk Douglas Theatre. In 2003, Ms. Bruce workshopped and premiered in “Race,” Lookingglass Theatre’s inaugural production directed by David Schwimmer and Joy Gregory. A proud company member of Teatro Vista, Ms. Bruce served as Assistant Director of “Tamer of Horses” and “A View From the Bridge.”

In 2002, her direction of Congo Square's production of “From the Mississippi Delta” won The Black Excellence Award from the African American Arts Alliance of Chicago and a Black Theatre Alliance Award.

Ms. Bruce received a 3Arts Award in 2010, a 3Arts fellowship in 2015 to attend the Robert Rauschenberg Residency, a Yale Research Residency in 2011, and a Jane Addams Hull House Association’s Woman of Valor Award in 2010.

In Spring 2007, Ms. Bruce traveled to Japan to study Bunraku puppetry for her staging of Rythm Mastr, Kerry James Marshall’s urban comic which premiered at the Wexner Center for the Arts. As a 2006 Inaugural Fellow of the Institute for the Study of Women and Gender in the Arts and Media at Columbia College Chicago, Ms. Bruce received both grant and research support.  

Giselle Byrd

Giselle Byrd is the Executive and Artistic Director of The Theater Offensive in Boston, Massachusetts, making her the first Black trans woman to lead a regional theatre company in the United States. A Tony Award-nominated leader, Byrd is passionately continuing and amplifying the organization’s mission to uplift and elevate the work of queer and trans artists of color, LGBTQIA2S+ youth, and their allies through bold, community-centered storytelling rooted in art and social justice.

With more than a decade of experience in talent management, production, casting, script coverage, fundraising, and brand partnerships, Byrd has built a career dedicated to championing artists and expanding opportunities for underrepresented voices. Prior to joining The Theater Offensive in 2023, she worked at The Katz Company in New York, where she managed the careers of actors, musicians, activists, and content creators while developing partnerships with organizations and brands including Gucci, Google, Netflix, GLAAD, BET, and The WNBA.

Byrd also made history as the first Black trans woman appointed to the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women, where she serves as Vice-Chair of the Programming and Planning Committee.

As a producer, Byrd was the first transgender woman accepted into the Through Her Lens: The Tribeca CHANEL Women’s Filmmaker Program. Her recent work includes Grammy-nominee Diovanna Òbafunmilayo’s When We Arrive As Flowers, producing alongside actress Alexandra Billings, and starring in Candyland, by David Gil, which premiered at NewFest in 2024 and was most recently screened in Paris at A Shaded View on Fashion Film Festival. Born and raised in Augusta, Georgia, Byrd earned her BFA from Savannah College of Art and Design.

Maya Malan-Gonzalez

Maya Malan-Gonzalez (she/ella) is an actor, playwright, and teatrista. She is currently Interim Artistic Director of Milagro Theatre and an ensemble member with Studio Luna in Los Angeles—she is affiliated with companies that uplift Latine culture in American theater and center women's voices. She has performed with the Latino Theater Company, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Seattle Rep, Portland Center Stage, South Coast Repetory, Cara Mia Theatre, and El Teatro Campesino among others. 

Her produced plays include Blast Off, Huelga, Worry Dolls, and A Xmas Cuento Remix. She has been commissioned by University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Portland Opera, Milagro Theatre, and Cleveland Public Theatre. Her story Down the Side of the Mountain is featured in the Audible Original Talking While Female and Other Dangerous Acts. 

Maya received her BFA in Acting from The Theatre School at DePaul University, and she is a graduate of the Candela Playwriting Fellowship and the NALAC Leadership Institute. 

Jaklin Romine

Jaklin Romine currently lives in Altadena, CA but was raised in East Los Angeles/San Gabriel. She completed her Master of Fine Arts at the California Institute of the Arts in 2017. She takes over spaces and confronts the intersection of feminist ideals that are formed by her identity as a disabled, queer, Latinx, POC, person living in the Southern California landscape. 

Romine uses performance art to confront inaccessible art spaces in Los Angeles by documenting her body sitting outside for an entire art opening or closing. With zine and art book making as the last area of practice that she has picked back up over the past five years, she continues to expand her artistic practice.

Anne Collins Smith

Anne Collins Smith is the Chief Curator at the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA). Smith’s professional interests include arts and the economy, audience development, the evolving role of the curator, and artistic and cultural practices across the African diaspora. Before joining NOMA, Smith was director of the Xavier University of Louisiana Art Gallery and held positions including Curator of Collections at the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art in Atlanta, Andrew W. Mellon Curatorial Fellow at the Davis Museum at Wellesley College, and Romare Bearden Fellow at the Saint Louis Art Museum. In 2021, Smith was selected for a prestigious Center for Curatorial Leadership fellowship. Smith holds an MA in Visual Arts Administration from New York University and a BA from Spelman College.

Edra Soto

Edra Soto is a Puerto Rican-born artist, educator, and co-director of The Franklin. She fosters conversations about socioeconomic and cultural oppression, history erasure, and cultural loss. Growing up in Puerto Rico and now based in Chicago, she explores social constructs, diasporic identity, and colonial legacy.

Soto's recent solo exhibitions include el Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, PR (2026), Luis De Jesus Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA (2026), Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO (2026), The Sculpture Center, Cleveland, OH (2025); Comfort Station, Chicago, IL (2024); Maine College of Art & Design (2024); Morgan Lehman Gallery, NY (2024); Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, IL (2023); Institute of Contemporary Art San Diego (2023). Her work has been featured in group shows at the Carnegie Museum of Art, Driehaus Museum, and MSU Broad Art Museum.

She has received awards such as the United States Artists Fellowship, Joyce Award, a 2023 3Arts Next Level Award, Illinois Arts Council Fellowship, Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grant, Bemis Center’s Ree Kaneko Award, US LatinX Art Forum Fellowship, and MacArthur Foundation International Connections Fund. Soto has also completed public commissions for the Public Art Fund in Central Park, Noor Riyadh, the Chicago Architecture Biennial, Terminal 5 at O'Hare, the Chicago Botanic Garden, and Millennium Park.

Her work is held in collections including the Whitney Museum of American Art, Pérez Art Museum Miami, Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and the Art Institute of Chicago.