New Year, New Leadership

CounterPulse is pleased to announce the hiring of a new Executive Director – completing the assembly of the new Executive-Artistic dual-leadership team. New hire, Tomás Riley, will serve as Executive Director in partnership with recently appointed Artistic Director, Julie Phelps. Tomás and Julie will lead the next phases of the organization’s commitment to catalyze social action through serving and supporting risk-taking, assumption-shattering art.

Tomás brings us nearly twenty years of leadership in creative community engagement and education throughout California and the US. He was the Executive Director of ArtsChange, creating arts engagement opportunities for teens in the city of Richmond, while also leading a capital campaign to further develop the organization. After his move to the Bay Area in 2002, Tomás served as a “poet mentor” for Youth Speaks, initiating literacy programs throughout the Bay Area. Most recently he served as the Director of Experience and Community Engagement at the Children’s Creativity Museum in San Francisco. His united leadership experience in community-based arts programming and social-justice driven artistic practice qualifies him as an outstanding addition to the CounterPulse team.

Julie Phelps has been with CounterPulse for over seven years, serving most recently as Program Director, before being appointed Artistic Director in the Fall of 2014. She embodies the hybrid strategies of curator, artist, and community activist, as a mode of advancing the multi-missioned agenda of CounterPulse. As part of her work at CounterPulse, she has led the design and implementation of numerous initiatives including transitioning from a rental venue to an entirely curated program, launching community-based programming with low-income neighboring residents, and instigating cross-cultural exchange projects in Germany, the UK, Switzerland, Sweden and most recently the African continent. In addition to her work at CounterPulse, she has toured nationally and internationally as a performer. In the coming year, Julie will lead the design of the facility and programming at CounterPulse’s new home on Turk Street.