Cultural Catalysts with Alison McNeil

Suzan E. Jenkins, CEO of the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County (AHCMC) and leadership coach, joins Cultural Catalysts as the first funder to appear on the show — and she wastes no time demystifying what a local arts agency actually does. From distributing the largest arts grant funding of any local agency in Maryland, to advocating with county legislators, to managing the complex ecosystem of individual donors, private foundations, state and federal dollars.

Suzan breaks down: 

• How grant-making actually works, including the part most people miss: that funders also have to raise money, navigate politics, and work within real constraints
• The Montgomery County Cultural Plan, a years-long community-driven process built on seven modes of engagement, seven languages
• The guiding principle she carried from her childhood in the Caribbean: all of we is one

Find out more:

• Connect with Suzan: 
  • LinkedIn
• Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County
  • Website
  • Facebook 
• Open Sky Jazz
  • Website
  • Leadership Coaching
  • Email

Want to know more about the Impact Roadmap: The Art of Describing Your Impact? Get your copy today.

🔗 Connect with Alison:

• LinkedIn
• Instagram

🌐 Find out more about McNeil Creative Enterprises.

Two-time Artios Award-winning casting director Erica A. Hart joins Cultural Catalysts to pull back the curtain on one of the most influential yet least visible roles in all of entertainment. She traces her path from growing up in Washington, DC, to stumbling into casting at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts when a classmate needed someone to fill the last slot on a crew list, to spending seven years at ABC Primetime Casting and eventually going independent in 2020 with Hart Casting. She speaks candidly about the realities of entrepreneurship, the guilt of taking a vacation, and the emotional intelligence required to navigate rooms full of competing producers, directors, and studio execs — all trying to agree on one person out of hundreds, sometimes thousands of submissions. 

Erica breaks down:

• How casting really works — describing herself as the "detective" of the industry, given a set of clues (the script and character breakdowns) and sent out to find the talent to bring a story to life.
• Why casting is fundamentally a buyer-and-seller relationship, and how the job shifts depending on budget and medium 
• What she's actually looking for when she watches self-tapes: not someone trying to stand out, but someone grounded in a natural, truthful quality.
• How casting is a producer's job, and after 90-plus years, the Academy has finally started recognizing it as a category 

Find out more:

• Connect with Erica: 
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
• Hart Casting:
  • Website

Want to know more about the Impact Roadmap: The Art of Describing Your Impact? Get your copy today.

🔗 Connect with Alison:

• LinkedIn
• Instagram

🌐 Find out more about McNeil Creative Enterprises.

Welcome back to Cultural Catalysts — the podcast that takes you behind the scenes with the people shaping culture. They are the creative visionaries working behind the scenes in arts and entertainment. The producers. The publicists. The dealmakers. The funders. The creative leaders. The people making things happen who don’t always get the spotlight. We’re back for Season 3 — and now, we’re on YouTube.

This season: what it really takes to build a career in the business of creativity. 

Cultural Catalysts. Season 3.
Listen wherever you get your podcasts, subscribe — and now, watch on YouTube.

Want to know more about the Impact Roadmap: The Art of Describing Your Impact? Get your copy today.

🔗 Connect with Alison:

• LinkedIn
• Instagram

🌐 Find out more about McNeil Creative Enterprises.

Consultant, strategist, and CJAM Consulting Principal Candace Jackson joins Cultural Catalysts for this season’s final episode to trace how an operations and HR leader inside arts organizations became a designer of what she now calls “executive management consulting.” She shares how believing in serendipity and deja vu as confirmation helped her recognize when she was on the right path, including the “accident” of shortening her too-long business name—Candace Jackson Arts and Management Consulting—into CJAM at a client’s request so it would fit on a check. Candace unpacks early missteps in setting her hourly and day rates based on her last salary, before realizing she needed to price in overhead, insurance, and employer taxes, and reflects on being repeatedly tapped as an interim executive director by boards navigating leadership transitions. 

Candace’s experiences clarified that she no longer wanted to stay inside the organizational frame permanently and instead wanted to enter as an external partner who can stabilize, support, and then step back out through CJAM’s executive management consulting model—combining interim leadership, executive searches, and deep partnerships with leadership teams. Throughout the episode, Candace talks about naming and claiming her lane, treating “accidents” as alignment, and building a consulting practice that centers clarity, structure, and care for the people doing the work.​

Find out more:

• CJAM Consulting / CJAM Consulting on Instagram
• Candace Jackson

Want to know more about the Impact Roadmap: The Art of Describing Your Impact? Get your copy today.

🔗 Connect with Alison:

• LinkedIn
• Instagram

🌐 Find out more about McNeil Creative Enterprises.

Entertainment executive and booking agent Anshia Crooms joins Cultural Catalysts to share how a small-town girl who fell in love with film and music, built a nearly 20-year career shaping live experiences and artist opportunities. As founder, CEO, and Chief Booking Agent of Briclyn Entertainment Group, Anshia has evolved her company from an artist management shop launched at age 23 while in grad school at The New School into a boutique booking and events agency representing Adam Blackstone, Eric Roberson, Gabby Samone, and more, placing them on stages from Afropunk to the Kennedy Center and Jazz Café in London. She breaks down the difference between management and booking, how her SummerStage apprenticeship became a masterclass in live production, and why every artist on her roster must be able to deliver a powerful live show. 

Anshia also discusses the role of relationships and team “zones of genius” in sustaining festivals like the Love Music Festival and East Orange’s Mac Fest, and how her faith and instincts guide who she works with and which pivots to make as the live events landscape shifts. Anshia is candid about seasons of being broke in New York, weathering slow ticket sales and economic uncertainty, and using affirmations, prayer, community, and simple joys like nails, massages, and quarterly “friend dates” to stay grounded while continuing to pour into others.

Links:

• Briclyn Entertainment Group
• Anshia on Instagram
• Project Hygiene: [email protected]
• The Recording Academy: MusiCares | Grammy U
• Mastering Publicity Strategies with Nyle Washington: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

Want to know more about the Impact Roadmap: The Art of Describing Your Impact? Get your copy today.

🔗 Connect with Alison:

• LinkedIn
• Instagram

🌐 Find out more about McNeil Creative Enterprises.

Tony-nominated choreographer, director, and artistic director Camille A. Brown joins Cultural Catalysts to talk about how a shy Black girl from Jamaica, Queens who choreographed to DuckTales and TailSpin theme songs grew into one of the most influential voices in contemporary theater and dance. From early training at Bernice Johnson Cultural Arts Center and the Ailey School to dancing with Ronald K. Brown/Evidence and then founding Camille A. Brown & Dancers, Camille shares how movement became both a safe space and a calling as she navigated body policing, “ideal” ballet standards, and the scarcity of Black women choreographers on major stages. She opens up about creating a distinct choreographic voice, saying no when asked to imitate others, and building an organization that now includes mentorship, touring concert works like Black Girl: Linguistic Play and ink, and her social dance platform, Everybody Move, which celebrates African American social dances as archives of history and joy. 

Camille and Alison also dig into the realities of being the first Black woman since Katherine Dunham to direct and choreograph a Broadway play, the toll and responsibility of “breaking glass,” and the lineage of Black women artists and administrators whose names and labor she insists on honoring. Along the way, Camille reflects on directing and choreographing across Broadway, opera, and film; the collaborators and administrators who helped her grow from a one-woman shop; and how she is learning to hold grief, boundaries, rest, and humanity alongside unprecedented professional visibility.

Find out more:

• Camille A. Brown & Dancers
• Every Body Move
• NEFA's National Dance Project Production Grant
• Six Black women choreographers whose Broadway work precedes Camille: 
  • Katherine Dunham 
  • Debbie Allen
  • Mabel Robinson 
  • Hope Clarke 
  • Diane McIntyre 
  • Marlies Yearby 

Want to know more about the Impact Roadmap: The Art of Describing Your Impact? Get your copy today.

🔗 Connect with Alison:

• LinkedIn
• Instagram

🌐 Find out more about McNeil Creative Enterprises.

Tewodross Melchishua “Teo” Williams—award-winning filmmaker, animator, Afrofuturist, and Professor & Department Chair of Visual Communication & Digital Media Arts at Bowie State University—joins Cultural Catalysts to explore how movement, music, and Black futures shape his visual storytelling. From being inspired by seeing Black people in space in Star Trek and Star Wars, to creating his “visual jazz” style, Teo shares how synesthesia, hip hop, jazz, reggae, and house music inform his animation, film work, and live projections for projects like Cinderella: The Remix at Imagination Stage and the Shaolin Jazz “The 37th Chamber” and “Page to Stage” collaborations. He dives into Afrofuturism as a lens for centering Black narratives, details his new sci-fi feature he’s calling, ‘The Beat,’ and explains how HBCUs like Bowie State function as interdisciplinary laboratories where dance, immersive media, VR, gaming, fashion, and film collide. 

Find out more: 

• About Tewodross “Teo” Williams:
  • Visual Jazz studio: visualjazzmedia.net 
  • Instagram: @soulcinematic
  • "Planet X Marks the Spot: Nommo Music for the Suckas" 
• Bowie State University – Department of Fine and Performing Arts / Visual Communication & Digital Media Arts (VCDMA)
• Megamind Media / Tressa “Azarel” Smallwood 
• Shaolin Jazz 
• Listen to Above the Clouds by Gang Starr: Spotify | Apple Music

Want to know more about the Impact Roadmap: The Art of Describing Your Impact? Get your copy today.

🔗 Connect with Alison:

• LinkedIn
• Instagram

🌐 Find out more about McNeil Creative Enterprises.

Shirley Taylor, Executive Director of Mind-Builders Creative Arts Center, joins the show to share the story of her journey from visual artist to transformative arts administrator, and the creative vision that powers her legacy in New York City. In this conversation, Shirley reflects on her early days at NYFA, her award-winning student arts exhibitions, and launching youth career pipelines at the Apollo Theater. She discusses what it means to design programs that empower young people, support whole-person growth, and offer real-world opportunities—from internships to paid creative jobs. Together with host Alison McNeil, Shirley opens up about the personal values that guide her leadership, the challenges of fundraising and strategy, and her deep belief in centering community, preserving cultural heritage, and making arts access a reality—especially for historically underrepresented youth. If you care about mentorship, creative careers, or building authentic opportunity through the arts, this episode offers wisdom, energy, and hope for what’s possible when the community leads.

Find out more: 

• Mind-Builders Creative Arts Center
• The Apollo Theater
• Shirley Taylor on LinkedIn 
• Laura Greer

Want to know more about the Impact Roadmap: The Art of Describing Your Impact? Get your copy today.

🔗 Connect with Alison:

• LinkedIn
• Instagram

🌐 Find out more about McNeil Creative Enterprises.

Kitab Rollins, Assistant Vice President of Performance and Broadcast Rentals at NJPAC, joins Cultural Catalysts to unpack two decades of creative leadership in Newark’s dynamic arts world. As a proud Newark native, Kitab shapes how the arts connect communities—working on major productions, innovative broadcast rentals, and strategic programming that uplifts local talent and celebrates cultural diversity. He shares insights from his journey through almost every behind-the-scenes role, reflecting on mentorship, collaboration, and how he stays true to Newark while elevating its artists.

Find out more: 

• New Jersey Performing Arts Center
• Follow Kitab on Instagram
• Baraka Sele
• Donna Walker-Kuhne

Want to know more about the Impact Roadmap: The Art of Describing Your Impact? Get your copy today.

🔗 Connect with Alison:

• LinkedIn
• Instagram

🌐 Find out more about McNeil Creative Enterprises.

Colleen Jennings-Roggensack has shaped the arts landscape for decades as Vice President for Cultural Affairs at Arizona State University and Executive Director of ASU Gammage. A Tony Awards voter and recipient of a Tony Honor for Excellence in Theatre, she has built a career grounded in curiosity, mentorship, and community connection. In this episode, Colleen shares how she reimagined ASU Gammage with its Connecting Communities mission, created spaces where Broadway and boundary-pushing performance coexist, and nurtured generations of leaders by insisting that leadership is horizontal, not vertical. From producing her first neighborhood show in fourth grade, to commissioning groundbreaking works, to guiding the national arts field as Vice Chair of the Broadway League, Colleen demonstrates the power of vision rooted in service. Listeners will leave inspired to expand their own curiosity, honor the shoulders they stand on, and become shoulders for others.

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Find out more: 

• Arizona State University Cultural Affairs
• ASU Gammage
• Email Colleen: [email protected] and [email protected]

Want to know more about the Impact Roadmap: The Art of Describing Your Impact? Get your copy today.

🔗 Connect with Alison:

• LinkedIn
• Instagram

🌐 Find out more about McNeil Creative Enterprises.