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Emerging Leader Council: Member Bios

Lex Leifheit
Immediate Past Vice Chair
Executive Director
SOMArts Cultural Center
934 Brannan Street
San Francisco, California 94103
T 415-863-1414
E-mail: leifheit@gmail.com
Website: http://www.somarts.org/

Lex Leifheit

Lex Leifheit is executive director of SOMArts Cultural Center in San Francisco. Prior to working at SOMArts, Leifheit was assistant director of the Green Street Arts Center, a community arts and education center founded by Wesleyan University to provide an anchor for neighborhood revitalization in Middletown, CT. She also worked at Wesleyan's Center for the Arts, and was director of communications for the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center from 2001–2004.

In addition to her work as an arts administrator, Leifheit's work as an artist and teacher includes many collaborations with social service providers and neighborhood arts collectives. In Middletown, she hosted a weekly radio show about the arts, organized a citywide community photography exhibition, and produced a reading series with support from the Middletown Commission on the Arts. She has taught playwriting to underserved youth and was vice president of the North End Artist Cooperative, an affordable housing co-op for artists. In New London, CT, Leifheit directed more than a dozen plays as artistic associate for Secret Theatre, including several new works written in collaboration with the Alliance for Living, a nonprofit dedicated to improving the lives of people living with HIV/AIDS. She holds an M.A. in liberal studies from Wesleyan University, a certificate of achievement from the Moscow Art Theater School, and a B.F.A. in theater performance from Drake University.

TERM: 2007–2009