Board of Directors

NOEL BARRION (he/him) President

Based in San Francisco, Noel has a passion for effective teams and organizations.  He practices this as a Human Resources professional focused on the healthcare industry and with experiences in global settings, having lived and worked in San Francisco, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. He is an avid student dancer, having been part of a Filipino Folk Dance company in his youth and is currently a student of the hip hop dance community here in San Francisco, and also during his stints abroad. Noel has a Masters in Human Resources and Organization Development and an undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering.

BETSY CARROLL

Betsy is a higher education administrator and solo consultant working in the Hudson Valley, NY, mainly in strategic planning and organizational development. This work, and her consulting work, focuses on supporting decision making and change in non-profit and values-driven organizations. She has a BA from University of Rochester and an MBA from Binghamton University. After college, Betsy worked for dance companies and a theater in NYC and since then has been an enthusiastic audience member of the performing arts.

EMILY GOLEMBIEWSKI (she/her)

Emily Golembiewski is based in San Francisco and works in the architecture field on conceptual design and user experience for large scale developments including sports arenas in the US, museums in Europe and Asia, universities and airports in the Middle East, and cities in Brazil and Panama. In her board work, Emily led the strategic planning for SFMOMA in advance of their expansion and reopening, and stayed on as part of their membership committee. She was on the board of ODC, Oberlin Dance Collective, for six years, including several years as Vice President, where she worked on diversifying and expanding the donor base, and the Executive Director search. She holds two Master’s degrees and PhD coursework in Architecture from UCLA. She studied ballet as a child with Beatrice Collenette, who was a protegee of Anna Pavlova and the first ballet teacher of Twyla Tharp. She came back to dancing as an adult and Wendy and Ryan are two of her favorite teachers. 

CYNTHIA A. JONES (she/her) Treasurer

Cynthia has a deep love of dance and an unshakable belief in the power of art to affect the lives of people. She has a B.A. in Psychology and an M.A. in Gerontology and is retired from serving the community for 35 years as an investigator focused on legal issues pertaining to the elderly, concluding her career in a management position. She worked in concert with multiple legal, medical and social service segments of San Francisco, and was enriched by the great diversity of cultures that grace the Bay Area. Cynthia has lived in San Francisco for the past 35 years.

NIKKI PEARL (she/her)

Nikki works in the health and wellness space, where she has pioneered integrative health concepts and programs in the workplace. Her passion is shining a light on people and groups that need health and wellness support, and helping them create a culture of health in their communities. She is the founder of a San Francisco food security non-profit as well as a women’s midlife health education program. Nikki has her masters in Integral Health Studies and a background in natural foods marketing. She is an avid dancer, a budding gardener and is passionate about food, health and animals. She has two young adult kids and lives in San Francisco.

CHARLENE SMITH (she/her)

Forty-five years ago, Charlene moved to San Francisco from a very small town in Vermont. In the early years, she was very active with the League of Women Voters, serving as President of the SF League and as a member of the California League board. Most recently, she served for ten years on the board/executive board of Richmond Main Street Initiative. After receiving her MBA in Arts Administration from Golden Gate University, she started working in nonprofit development and for the past 30+ years she has been a development consultant, contract grantwriter, and staff member, including Director of Development, for large and small arts/culture organizations in the Bay Area.

STACEY YUEN (she/her)

A Bay Area native, Stacey received her BFA in Dance from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. She went on to work with Seán Curran and the Santa Fe Opera, and to travel to Greece to perform in works by Johannes Wieland and Stella Zannou at the one small step dance festival. She spent three seasons as a dancer and rehearsal director with the Sticky Trace Company in Germany. Since returning to the Bay, Stacey has worked with Robert Moses, Katie Faulkner, Jennifer Perfilio, Lenora Lee Dance, Alyssandra Katherine Dance Project, and RAWdance.

Advisory Board

GISELLE CHOW, RANDAL FIPPINGER, ANNE FRENCH,
MARGARET JENKINS, JENNIFER NORRIS

RAWdance Board of Directors are passionate in their support of RAWdance’s mission to expand the definition of contemporary dance, create bold new work, and uplift the Bay Area and Hudson Valley dance communities. If you’re interested in learning more, please read the role description below and feel free to reach out to raw@rawdance.org with any questions.

Photo by Hillary Goidell