THE TWDCC TEAM
This page is dedicated to our Founder and former Executive Director, Cat Willis. TWDCC would not be here today without her innovation, commitment, passion and leadership. As she dedicates herself fulltime to her groundbreaking Black Health Matters Initiative, Cat continues to change the landscape of our community towards equity, positivity and love, and we are forever grateful. Deepest thanks and gratitude for bringing artistic excellence and innovation to our community.
Micha Scott
Thank you, Cat!
Our Staff
Micha Scott
Executive & Artistic Director
Micha Scott has performed on stages around the world as a 13-year senior member of the renowned Garth Fagan Dance. She was a teacher at the Garth Fagan Dance School in Rochester, NY, and has taught master classes and workshops for the company worldwide. While in the company she performed leading roles in many of Mr. Fagan’s works, including ‘From Before’, ‘Collage For Romie’, 'Transition/Translation' and the seminal collaboration with trumpeter / composer Wynton Marsalis, ‘Griot New York’. She has been featured in Essence, Time Magazine, and Dance Magazine, and as a soloist in the PBS televised series Dance In America. In the fall of 2024 she returned to the Fagan stage as a guest soloist during their NYC season at the Joyce Theater.
Micha currently lives in Santa Cruz, CA and is deeply involved in the dance community there. She is Executive (since 2021) and Artistic (since 2011) Director at Tannery World Dance and Cultural Center, and has been a dance instructor at Dancenter since 2008. Over the past 16 years she has also taught at Mountain Elementary School, Motion Pacific, Steps, No Limits, International Academy of Dance, Kirby School, Mount Madonna, Monterey High School, Seaside High School, Cabrillo College, and throughout Monterey County as lead teacher with the Tandy Beal Dance Around the World Program. Ms Scott has held the position of lecturer in dance at Santa Clara University (2009, 2011, 2013, 2015), the University of California at Santa Cruz (2012), and at the State University of New York at Brockport (2000). Ms. Scott serves on the Black Health Matters Initiative Advisory Board, and on the Grants Committee for the Arts Council Santa Cruz County and the California Arts Council.
photo by Devi Pride
Angela Chambers
Youth Program & Community Engagement Director
As the Director of the Youth Program and Community Engagement at the Tannery World Dance & Cultural Center, Angela spearheads efforts to ensure access, equity, and excellence in the arts. For over 10 years, Angela has been committed to the future and success of TWDCC through her efforts in building community partnerships, curating and producing festivals, fundraising, teaching, and producing innovative youth programming. Certified as a Youth Protection Advocate in Dance, Angela integrates wellness and empowerment into her teaching and leadership, fostering personal growth and artistic expression in the next generation of performers. As an artist, Angela spent her youth performing Musical Theater. Upon moving to Santa Cruz to attend UCSC, Angela was introduced to formal dance training where she developed and expanded her knowledge of and relationship with dance not only as an art form, but as a tool for personal growth and as a catalyst for social change. At UCSC, Angela performed, directed and choreographed in many productions before graduating in 2014 with a BA in Intensive Psychology and Dance. When not at TWDCC, you can find Angela performing professionally on stages throughout Santa Cruz and the Bay Area, curating and producing events, and as a guest artist and choreographer at local universities and festivals. When not dancing, Angela has become a pillar of community leadership. As an social justice activist and fierce advocate for youth empowerment, Angela drives impactful change across the county. Her work is rooted in deep community connection, and she brings dynamic energy to her roles in the arts, wellness, and youth development. Angela is the cofounder and Director of the Black Health Initiative’s Youth Ambassador program in Santa Cruz County, where she uplifts Black youth through mental health advocacy, mentorship, and leadership development. By creating spaces of connection and purpose, she empowers young people to thrive, offering them critical opportunities to engage with their community and make a difference. In addition, Angela serves as Program Manager for this award-winning initiative, advising and supporting its mission of holistic wellness. Angela’s commitment to equity and community wellness extends further through her participation in the Community Foundation Santa Cruz Rise Together cohort, a coalition of leaders focused on advancing racial justice. She is also a dedicated advisor on the Tannery Arts Campus committee and was an IDEA AFP Silicon Valley Chapter fellow.
Eric Forbes
Finance Manager
I have more than 20 years of nonprofit finance experience. As a TWDCC parent from nearly the beginning, I am proud to manage the finances of an organization like this one.
photo by Crystal Birns
Raina Sacksteder
Youth Program Administrator
Raina began dancing at the age of 5 in the small town of Grass Valley, CA. She went on to train with schools across the country including Nevada City Ballet Academy, Holt Ballet Conservatory, Capitol Ballet Company, American Ballet Theatre, Cincinnati Ballet, and LINES Ballet. She attended Reed College, where she studied biology and developed and performed several choreographic works while training in contemporary dance, and then obtained her master’s degree in microbiology from UCSC. She is now a performer, choreographer, and dance instructor in Santa Cruz and the surrounding areas. She is happy to be part of the team at TWDCC!
Maha Taitano
Rental & Facilities Manager
Maha is a multimedia artist who works with all mediums including metals, wood, fabrics, papers, plastics and more. Maha was born in Baghdad, Iraq and lived in Beirut, Lebanon, Guåhan (Guam), and Morocco before her family finally settled in Alameda, California In 1983. In 2007 she earned a BA in Visual Arts University of California, Santa Cruz. In 2017 Maha returned to UC Santa Cruz to obtain a second Bachelor’s in Critical Race and Ethnic Studies. She recently completed an MFA in Visual Arts at Vermont College of the Fine Arts in February 2023. During her graduate program she focused on decolonizing her art practice and ideologies. Maha’s craft business also stems from a rooted indigenous research. She pulls from both Arab and predominantly Pacific Islander geometric patterns and designs to influence her woodworking. She has been involved with many artistic practices in Santa Cruz, from running the Y2K International Live Looping music festival to creating and performing fashion art pieces at the Pivot Art of Fashion shows. As a Tannery resident, who has raised both of her children here, she is an active community member at the Tannery Art Campus as well as Santa Cruz County as a whole.
Riley Butler
Safety Support Staff
Riley is a teacher of ballet and pilates to youth and adults in Santa Cruz County and is excited to help dancers create strong foundations and confidence. Currently studying sociology, computer science, and dance in school, she hopes to apply this to developing ways to make dance and education more accessible, empowering, and inclusive for communities. She is so happy to be a part of TWDCC!
Board of Directors
George Newell
Board President
George Newell has a long history in local government and community organizations. After moving to California from his home in Oklahoma in 1970, Mr. Newell established and managed the Veterans Reentry Program for Vietnam Veterans at Monterey Peninsula College. In 1974, George moved to Santa Cruz to work for Santa Cruz County and in 1978 became the County Administrative Officer. In 1989, he was hired by Sally Reed to be the Deputy County Executive for Santa Clara County, and in 2000 retired after serving as County Executive. Throughout his career George Newell has worked with many community organizations in both Santa Cruz and Santa Clara Counties. He has helped organize and govern groups supporting the delivery of programs for at risk youth, organizing neighborhoods for community development and expanding health care for people in need. He has served on the board of the Long Marine Lab Seymour Center and was part of the founding of the Cultural Council of Santa Cruz County and served as President of the Cultural Council during its 25th anniversary year. Since the fall of 2004 George Newell has served as Executive Director for the Tannery Arts Center. He is currently on the Boards of the Tannery Arts Center, Museum of Art and History, Art Forum, and the Tannery World Dance and Cultural Center and is a printmaker in the print shop of the Printmakers at the Tannery.
Jim Brown
Board Treasurer
Jim Brown has been working in the nonprofit sector since 2004 when he left his tech career to follow his passion to support creative self-expression. He has served as Executive Director of The 418 Project and The Diversity Center, as Program Officer at Community Foundation Santa Cruz County, and as Grants Manager, Deputy Director, and now Executive Director of Arts Council Santa Cruz County. Jim believes the arts are essential for our growth as individuals and as a society. Jim comes to this work through dance and poetry, his personal modes of creative self-expression. He was one of the founders of our local Dance Church in 2000, now called Dance Circle, where you will often find him on Sunday mornings at TWDCC. Jim has three children (Serenity, Andrew, and Nate) who he adopted through the foster system in 2012. In addition to parenting and dancing, Jim loves to hike and read fantasy & science fiction novels.
Val Miranda
Board Member
Valéria (“Val”) Miranda is the executive director of the Santa Cruz Art League, which celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2019. Val also teaches graduate art and museum education at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. She is passionate about the power of the arts and culture to change individuals, communities, and society. Val has worked in and with arts organizations since 1992. She was the Director of Education at the San Jose Museum of Art and at the Monterey Museum of Art. She also consults in equity and diversity, nonprofit administration, education, strategic planning, and fundraising. Val is a 2019 Americans for the Arts leaders of Color Forum Fellow, a 2013 graduate of the Multicultural Artists Leadership Institute at the School of Arts & Culture @ Mexican Heritage Plaza, and a 2001 graduate of Packard-funded Arts Leadership for the Future. She holds an MBA in Sustainable Management from Presidio Graduate School in San Francisco. A native of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Val’s artistic practice is in dance, and she was a member of amateur and semi-professional dance companies from middle school to college. She feels blessed by having grown in a family where art was a huge part of her family and cultural environment. Her mother took her to the theater for the first time when she was 5 years old and she has been in love with plays ever since. Her work for 13 years in a contemporary art museum gave her opportunities to not only develop audience-centered programming but to also to develop relationships with San Francisco and Monterey Bay Area artists and art organization leaders. Communities are central to the existence of any cultural organization and an extremely important part of Val’s professional and personal life. She is passionately committed to the sustainable power of collaborations and partnerships in leveraging cultural resources. Since 1992 she has worked with an extensive number of community groups including artists, business leaders, schools, neighborhood associations, artists, professional organizations, universities, city officials, and cultural advocacy groups. In Santa Cruz for the last twenty years, Val is also an avid urban homesteader, and spends lots of time in the art spaces, beaches and woods of Santa Cruz County with her spunky 17-year old son and many friends.
Maggie Collins
Board Member
Maggie Collins, Santa Cruz resident since 1986, has a long history with dance and community arts. Long ago and in her youth in another county she trained in ballet for 8 years. From this has grown a love of dance in all its flavors. She attended Scripps College (undergraduate) and the University of California Santa Barbara (graduate) For 23 years, she has worked as a Budget Analyst and Department Manager at the University of California Santa Cruz, which her last position being with the Educational Partnership Center supporting outreach programs to underrepresented students in local high schools and junior high schools. She retired in 2010. During all the years at UCSC, she also was on the Board of the Tandy Beal Dance Company serving at various times as treasurer and president of that Board. She serves currently as Treasurer to the Buddhist meditation center Insight Santa Cruz. She has been a San Francisco Ballet subscriber for 49 years, with the 50th coming up in 2025. Maggie has been particularly happy to support young people and their dance aspirations at TWDCC for the last few years.
Shawn Merriman-Roberts
Board Member