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.
Tiffany Trujillo
Board Secretary
Tiffany Trujillo grew up in Santa Cruz County and is deeply rooted in the area. She holds her B.A. in Anthropology from UCSC and has a professional background in financial management and the fast-paced world of recruiting. She lived briefly in Seattle, Washington until she settled in the heart of the Mission District in San Francisco, with her husband Ethan. In 2009, their daughter Ava arrived and Tiffany decided to be a stay-at-home mom; a title she proudly holds today. In 2013, Tiffany and her family moved back home to Watsonville to assist her mother with caring for her terminally ill father. Since then, they have settled into life in a multi-generational home in the diverse and inspiring community of Watsonville that she holds close to her heart. In 2014, Tiffany discovered TWDCC and her daughter has been an ongoing dance student and active member of the youth company since. Throughout the years, Tiffany has been inspired by the dedicated teachers, staff, and students at TWDCC. Seeing her daughter’s joy and witnessing TWDCC create a diverse, inclusive, dynamic environment for dancers of all ages strengthened Tiffany's resolve to become involved. In 2020, she was given the opportunity to serve on the board of directors. TWDCC‘s service-oriented mission of building bonds in our community through innovation, the creation of diverse spaces, community outreach, and sharing the artistry of movement uplifted and resonated with Tiffany. She is a proud member of the board and committed to ensuring the mission of service and opportunity continues throughout the community for decades to come.
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.
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.
Shawn Merriman-Roberts
Board Member
