Executive Staff

Sharon Jensen, Executive Director

For the past 23 years, Sharon Jensen has served as Executive Director of Alliance for Inclusion in the Arts.  Earlier this year, Jensen and the Alliance received the 2011 Tony Honor for Excellence in Theatre and in 2009, in recognition of “significant contribution to the City’s entertainment industry,” the Alliance received the “Made in New York” Diversity Award given by the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting.  For 15 years, she concurrently served as Equal Employment Opportunity Consultant to The Broadway League and chairperson of the Equal Employment Opportunity Committee, a joint committee of the League and Actors’ Equity Association.  In 2007, the Alliance created DEAL—Disability in Entertainment and Arts Link—a collective of 24 arts and entertainment unions, guilds, trade associations, and practitioners in theatre, film and television dedicated to the full inclusion of people with disabilities. Participants include representatives from Actors’ Equity Association, Screen Actors Guild, AFTRA, The Dramatists Guild of America, Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, New Dramatists, WGA West, and WGA East Foundation, as well as independent producers, writers and disability experts.  Nine years ago, Jensen organized and chaired an industry-wide Theatre Diversity Coalition including The Broadway League, Actors’ Equity Association, Casting Society of America, League of Off Broadway Theatres and Producers, Theatre Development Fund, Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, The Dramatists Guild of America, A.R.T./New York, Theatre Communications Group, National Association of Talent Representatives and Alliance for Inclusion in the Arts.

From 1971 to 1975, Jensen worked in the casting department of Theatre Communications Group and or the next 13 years, served as Executive Director of the League of Professional Theatre Training Programs.  Jensen is a Member of the Board of The Actors Center (NYC); the Advisory Board of Deaf West Theatre (LA); and served on the Task Force for the 1998 and 2009 National Summits on Careers in the Arts for People with Disabilities, organized by the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the U.S. Departments of Education, Labor, Health and Human Services, Social Security Administration and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Jensen currently serves on the Executive Committee of United Cerebral Palsy’s Tenth Annual Women Who Care Luncheon.

Sindy F.M. Gordon, Director of Communications

Sindy Gordon, Director of Communications, brings more than 20 years’ experience in communications, marketing and public relations to the Alliance.  In 2006, she co-founded BAT Entertainment Inc. a unique firm serving corporations, organizations, production companies and filmmakers.  In furtherance of the goal to support the creative community, BAT developed REELot.com, a free, interactive Internet tool for filmmakers and writers to gain exposure for their work and promote their careers.  In 2002, Gordon joined the Writers Guild of America, East’s Executive Staff in New York City to execute all public relations and events.  Working closely with the communications department, she wrote and designed marketing materials and created campaigns.  She co-produced the 2003 WGA Awards and served as Producer from 2004 to 2006.  During her tenure, Gordon negotiated and coordinated all sponsorships and represented the Guild at the Nantucket Film Festival, Austin Film Festival, National Association of Latino Independent Producers Writers Lab, IFP Market and Alliance for Inclusion in the Arts. Gordon began her career in Toronto, Canada working with independent writers, directors and producers as well as orchestrating mainstream film releases.  In 1998, she moved to New York City and co-founded Psychosis Productions, a PR and marketing firm.  For more than 10 years, she has represented films at the Toronto, Sundance and Tribeca Film Festivals. Gordon has participated on panels for several industry-related organizations, including NALIP, the Austin Film Festival, New York University Tisch School of the Arts Dramatic Writing Program, New York Film Academy, SAG Foundation, the IFP Market and the Reelabilities Film Festival in NYC.  She currently serves on the Advisory Committee of the tri-union (SAG, AFTRA, Actors’ Equity) I AM PWD (Inclusion in the Arts & Media of People with Disabilities) campaign.

Christine Bruno, Disability Advocate

Christine Bruno comes to the Alliance with a varied background, working nationally and internationally as an actor, singer, director, freelance writer and copy editor.  A member of AEA, SAG and AFTRA, she is the 2011 Co-Chair of the I AM PWD global civil rights campaign and is a member of the Tri-Union committee for Performers with Disabilities.  As Disability Advocate, Bruno has represented the Alliance at symposiums, forums, panels, resource events and radio outlets across the country and internationally at arts festivals in Melbourne, Australia and Manchester, England.  She is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Skidmore College, where she received a BA in Theatre and Political Science, holds MFA  in Acting and Directing from the Actors Studio Masters Program at the New School for Social Research and is a lifetime member of the Actors Studio.  As a performer and director, Bruno has worked throughout the U.S., across the U.K. in Scotland, England, and Ireland and in Australia.  She most recently completed a run at London’s Oval House Theatre and a U.K. tour of the new musical, Raspberry.  November 2010 also marked the U.K. premiere of her one-woman show, Screw You, Jimmy Choo!, as part of DaDaFest International 2010 in Liverpool.

David Harrell, Disability and Programming Associate

David Harrell is an actor, dancer, writer, speaker and advocate.  He served as Accessibility and Outreach Director for the Raleigh Ensemble Players Theatre Company (REP) from 2002-2004.  With funding from the North Carolina Council on Developmental Disabilities, REP worked to make their theater space and performances more accessible and inclusive.  In 2004, in recognition of is work with REP, Harrell was awarded the Triangle Access Award from the Alliance of Disability Advocates.  He presented with REP at the VSA International Festival in 2005 and served on the Board of Directors for Arts Access in Raleigh, NC.  Harrell holds a BFA. in Theatre Performance from the University of Southern Mississippi and a M.F.A. in Theatre Performance from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.  In 2008, he moved to New York City to continue his acting and advocacy work and in 2010, was nominated for a New York Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Solo Performance in his one-man show, A Little Potato and Hard to Peel. Harrell is also a member of choreographer Heidi Latsky’s acclaimed dance ensemble GIMP and recently appeared in Richard III with New York Classical Theatre.

Simi Linton, Ph.D., Disability Arts Consultant

As a writer, consultant and public speaker, Simi Linton is one of America’s foremost experts on disability and the arts.  She works with a diverse range of cultural organizations—theatre companies, film and television producers, museums, nonprofit arts organizations, universities, and other groups across the country—to improve and increase the way disability is represented and depicted in all art forms.  She is the author of Claiming Disability: Knowledge and Identity (New York University Press, 1998), and the memoir My Body Politic (University of Michigan Press, 2006). Currently, Linton is Co-Director/Producer of the documentary film, Invitation to Dance, about disability and dance.  For more information, please visit www.similinton.com.