AEI Board Members : Arts Extension Service : UMass Amherst
humanities and fine arts hfa umass umass amherst university of massachusetts university of massachusetts amherst
The Arts Extension Institute, a 501(c)(3)nonprofit, is run by former AES Directors, staff, and others who work to bring the news from the field to AES to support our research and awareness of current trends.
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AEI Board Members

The Arts Extension Institute, a 501(c)(3)nonprofit, is run by former AES Directors, staff, and others who work to bring the news from the field to AES to support our research and awareness of current trends.

Senator Stan Rosenberg - Board President

Stan Rosenberg is a former Massachusetts state legislator who served in the House of Representatives from 1987 to 1991 and then the Massachusetts State Senate, retiring from that body in 2018. During his Senate career, Stan served as chair of several legislative committees, most notably three years as chair of the Senate Ways and Means Committee and as Redistricting Committee chair in both 2001 and 2011. He also served in other leadership posts, including president pro tempore, majority leader, and president of the Senate. His legislative work was committed to K-12 and higher education, the environment, social services, the arts and humanities, and social and economic justice. Prior to his service in the legislature Stan held several political staff positions including with Congressman Chet Atkins, State Senator John W. Olver, and the Massachusetts Democratic Party. Stan is a 1977 graduate of the University of Massachusetts Amherst where he subsequently developed multiple innovative programs. He was the founding director of the Arts Extension Service, launching it with a significant grant from the William H. Donner Foundation. He also founded the Citizen Involvement Training Project and was Director of the Community Development and Human Service Programs in the Division of Continuing Education.

Barbara Schaffer-Bacon - Board Treasurer

Barbara Schaffer-Bacon's career launched in 1977 at the UMass Arts Extension Service, a national leader in professional education for local arts managers, artists, and civic leaders. Barbara served as director from 1984-90. She led Fundamentals and Advanced Local Arts Management seminars and contributed to the Fundamentals of Local Arts Management textbook and The Cultural Planning Work Kit. In 1996 Barbara took a lead role with Pam Korza to conduct research for and shape Animating Democracy, a program of Americans for the Arts. It shone an early and bright national light on arts for change work and built knowledge about quality practice and created useful resources including Continuum of Impact: A Guide for Defining Social & Civic Outcomes & Indicators and Aesthetic Perspectives: Attributes of Excellence in Arts for Change. Barbara’s independent consulting work has focused on planning facilitation, program design and evaluation for local, state, and national arts agencies and private foundations. With Pam Korza, Barbara has conducted research and learning assessments for Barr Foundation’s Arts & Creativity program with: NEFA’s Creative City; The Boston Foundation’s Live Arts Boston; the Metropolitan Regional Planning Council’s Arts & Culture Department; and most recently compiled a profile of Organizations Supporting BIPOC Artists In Massachusetts. She currently serves as a program consultant for the Barr Foundation Creative Commonwealth Initiative. Barbara currently serves as a member of the Massachusetts Cultural Council. A Belchertown, MA resident, she served on the Belchertown School Committee for fourteen years. In 2018, Barbara received the Robert E. Gard Foundation Leadership Award.

Pam Korza - Board Secretary

From 1996 to 2022, Pam Korza co-directed Animating Democracy with Barbara Schaffer Bacon, a program of Americans for the Arts that worked to inspire, inform, promote, and connect arts and culture as potent contributors to community, civic, and social change. There she managed a national grant program supporting arts-based civic dialogue projects across the country. She coordinated related convenings, workshops and presentations on arts and civic engagement for artists, cultural organizations, funders, and at cross-sector gatherings across the country and in China and South Korea. She co-authored and edited numerous books and articles including Civic Dialogue, Arts & Culture; Critical Perspectives: Writings on Art & Civic Dialogue as well as the Art & Civic Engagement case study series and practical guides, including Aesthetic Perspectives: Attributes of Excellence in Arts for Change, The Continuum of Impact guide, and the Artist-Municipal Partnership Guide (2019). Pam was co-chair of the Assessing Practices in Public Scholarship research group for Imagining America, a consortium of colleges and universities that advances public scholarship in the humanities, arts, and design and a two-term member of IA’s National Advisory Board. Prior to Animating Democracy, Pam worked for eighteen years with the Arts Extension Service where she coordinated the National Public Art Policy Project in cooperation with the National Endowment for the Arts. She directed the Boston-based New England Film and Video Festival, coordinated the New England Arts Biennial, and was co-editor of and contributing writer to Fundamentals of Local Arts Management. Pam earned a B.A. in Art History from UMass Amherst.

Craig Dreeszen - Ph.D.

Craig Dreeszen is a former director of Arts Extension Service, serving in that role for twelve years. After retirement from the University, he directed Dreeszen & Associates. He provided planning, evaluation, teaching, facilitation, and research for nonprofits, foundations, and public agencies. He is an author of books, articles, and courses on strategic planning, cultural planning, board development, arts education, and program evaluation. He earned his Ph.D. in regional planning with a focus on cultural planning, from UMass. Dr. Dreeszen helped the Arts Extension Service develop the University of Massachusetts’ first asynchronous distant-learning program, “Introduction to Strategic Planning.” He pioneered research to document the practice of community cultural planning and helped over forty communities develop cultural plans. With Barbara Schaffer Bacon he developed the Peer Advising Program that trained experienced arts managers to serve in consulting roles for their peers throughout much of the country. He taught arts management for the University of Massachusetts, primarily strategic planning, program evaluation, and board development. He concluded his teaching career as adjunct faculty at Brown University where he taught cultural policy.

Dorothy Chen Courtin - Ph.D.

Dorothy Chen-Courtin is a management consultant to nonprofits where she adapts and applies best practices from the for-profit sector to the benefit of non-profit organizations. For three decades, she had been working with foundations, cultural, educational, and human services organizations, and museums, both regionally and nationally. Projects she has worked on/is working on include organizational expansion and right-sizing, strategic/business planning, board governance and leadership transitions, market feasibility studies, and the implementation of project plans that follow the strategic planning process. In terms of strategic thinking and planning, Dorothy’s approach is to facilitate and guide the nonprofit through the thinking and development process, leading to the creation of a dynamic strategic com business plan that the nonprofit proudly owns. This plan becomes an adaptive roadmap to reach that desired destination in a timely manner. A Barnard College graduate, Dorothy earned her MA and PhD in Asian Art History from Columbia University and an MBA from Northeastern University. She served on multiple regional, national, and international boards. Currently, she is the Board President of the Worcester Art Museum and serves on the executive committee of the Greater Lowell Community Foundation and on the advisory board of the Arts Extension Service at UMass Amherst.

Robert L. Lynch

Robert L. Lynch is the former president and CEO of Americans for the Arts, the national organization dedicated to advancing the arts and arts education in people's lives, schools, and communities. He was executive director of the National Assembly of Local Arts Agencies for twelve years and managed the merger of that organization with the American Council for the Arts to form Americans for the Arts in 1996. In 2005 he oversaw the merger of the Arts and Business Council, Inc. into Americans for the Arts. In 2005 Bob also created the Americans for the Arts Action Fund and its connected political action committee to engage citizens in advocating for the arts and arts education to ensure arts-friendly public policies. Under his twenty-three years of leadership, the services and membership of Americans for the Arts grew to over fifty times its original size in 1985. He has personally reached audiences in forty-nine states and eight countries, ranging from Native American tribal gatherings to the U.S. Armed Forces in Europe and the president of the United States. Prior to this body of work, Robert L. Lynch was the Director of the Arts Extension Service from 1976 to 1985. Bob currently serves on the board of the Craft Emergency Relief Fund, the Arts Extension Institute, and the UMass Amherst College of Humanities and Fine Arts Board. He earned a bachelor’s degree in English from UMass Amherst. Bob plays the piano, mandolin, and guitar, and lives in both Washington, DC and on Cape Cod.

Shirley Sneve