Letitia Fernandez Ivins is the Assistant Director of Civic Art with the Los Angeles County Arts Commission.  With the Civic Art Program staff, she collaborates with artists, designers, government stakeholders, and community members to produce innovative, socially relevant and transformative artwork for public spaces. Ms. Ivins has worked in the nonprofit arts sector for more than 10 years at the Getty Foundation, Ryman Arts, and the Arts Commission. She is a board member of the Pilipino Workers’ Center, a board advisor to Outpost for Contemporary Art, a co-chair of the Public Art Coalition of Southern California, a member of the Americans for the Arts national Emerging Leaders Council, and a founding member of the Emerging Arts Leaders Los Angeles network. In her free time, Ms. Ivins designs and makes jewelry and rears a toddler.

Emerging Leader Preconference Session(s):
Joint Preconference Closing Plenary--Multiple Meanings: The Expanding Role of Leadership in Creating Place

John is an artist, designer, and innovator with over a decade of experience creating public art, public space, and community participation projects. As a Rebar founder and principal, he led the creation of Park(ing) Day, The Panhandle Bandshell, The Victory Garden, and Showplace Triangle. While at CMG Landscape Architecture in San Francisco, he helped craft the Treasure Island Redevelopment Plan, Mint Plaza, and the Concord Naval Weapons Station Reuse Plan. John lectures and teaches worldwide and is a senior lecturer at the California College of Arts in San Francisco. John studied Landscape Architecture and Environmental Design at the University of California, Berkeley, Biology and Biochemistry at the University of Massachusetts, and fine art and sculpture at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. John is a registered landscape architect in the state of California.

Session(s):
Joint Preconference Closing Plenary--Multiple Meanings: The Expanding Role of Leadership in Creating Place

Jason Schupbach is the Design Director for the National Endowment for the Arts, where he oversees all design grantmaking and partnerships.  Previous to his current position, Jason served as the first-in-the-Nation Creative Economy and Information Technology Director at the Massachusetts Department of Business Development. In this job he focused on the nexus of creativity, innovation and technology to grow the innovation industries cluster in the state, including software, hardware, film, tv, digital media, videogames, design, advertising, music, and publishing businesses.  He formerly was the director of ArtistLink, a Ford Foundation initiative to stabilize and revitalize communities through the creation of affordable space and innovative environments for creative entrepreneurs.

Jason worked for the mayor’s office and Department of Cultural Affairs in Chicago, and he was the staff urban planner and capital projects manager for the Department of Cultural Affairs in New York City. Jason has a degree in public health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a master's degree in city planning from MIT.  Jason is graduate of the UMASS Center for Collaborative Emerging Leadership and was recipient of the MIT Excellence in Public Service Award.

Session(s):
Joint Preconference Closing Plenary--Multiple Meanings: The Expanding Role of Leadership in Creating Place