Dr. Rachel Skaggs is an Associate Professor in the Department of Arts Administration, Education and Policy through The Lawrence and Isabel Barnett Endowed Professorship of Arts Management. Dr. Skaggs completed her PhD in sociology at Vanderbilt University where she was a fellow at the Curb Center for Art, Enterprise and Public Policy. 
Dr. Skaggs’s research focuses on how workers in post-bureaucratic employment situations (freelance, project-based, self-employment, and other forms of free agency) are able to craft careers out of a series of self-directed projects and jobs, particularly in creative industries. She is especially interested in how workers in these situations collaborate and cooperate along the way. Her research has focused on topics such as the importance of social networks in music industry careers, arts entrepreneurship, how artists learn to deal with rejection and failure, and the public perceptions of artists in local communities. This work has been published in sociological and arts-focused venues such as Work and Occupations, Artivate: A Journal of Entrepreneurship in the Arts, and Business Creativity and the Creative Economy.

Angela Meleca is a nationally recognized arts advocate, strategist, and educator whose career has focused on ensuring the arts are valued as essential to strong communities. She is the founder of Meleca Creative Advisors and the creator of the Return on Art™ Framework, which helps arts organizations demonstrate how creative experiences build confidence, belonging, empathy, and human connection. Angela previously served as Executive Director of CreativeOhio, where she led a statewide coalition that secured $160.7 million in public funding for nonprofit arts organizations and artists across Ohio.

Her career also includes work as a journalist covering government and public policy and service as Press Secretary to the Ohio Senate President, experiences that shaped her belief in the power of advocacy, storytelling, and leadership. Angela is an Adjunct Faculty member at Miami University, where she teaches arts policy and advocacy, and she hosts the ARTS Redefined podcast. She is passionate about encouraging young women to use creativity as a force for impact and change. Angela is also a parent of Francesca (Frankie), Class of 2027.

Stephanie Matthews is a leading voice in reimagining education through creativity, music, and human-centered design. Her work challenges traditional learning models by posing a simple but powerful question: What happens when education honors curiosity, emotion, and creative expression—not just outcomes? As Executive Director of A Tribe for Jazz, Stephanie has led the development of innovative initiatives including Jazz Lab™ and An Exploration of Emotions and Color through Jazz Music, demonstrating how jazz can function as a dynamic framework for learning—one that reflects how people think, feel, collaborate, and grow.

Her leadership sits at the intersection of arts, empathy, and education, advancing a forward-looking vision of learning that is rigorous, inclusive, and deeply human. Under her leadership, A Tribe for Jazz was named a 2025 Columbus Business First Diversity in Business Award Honoree in the Outstanding Diversity Organization category. Stephanie has been recognized for her impact with the 2024 Paul E. Young Outstanding Achievement in Education Award from Columbus Landmarks, the 2025 Jim Arter Arts Educator Award from the Greater Columbus Arts Council, and was named a 2025 Jazz Journalists Association Jazz Hero.

Leah L. Wong born in Qingdao, China. Leah received her BFA in oil painting from the China Academy of Arts in Hangzhou, China and earned her MFA in painting from Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. She currently lives and works in Columbus, Ohio. 

Leah’s paintings and paper cutout installations have been exhibited and collected widely for many years. Her work has been exhibited in the Power Station of Art, a contemporary art museum in Shanghai; MoCA Shanghai; Shanghai’s M50 Art Center; and other public spaces in China and the US. She has also exhibited at The Ross Art Museum at Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio; Southern Ohio Museum, Portsmouth; The Ohio Craft Museum, Columbus; Sotheby’s Institute of Art - Los Angeles; and the Daforma Gallery, Rome, Italy, among others. Leah is represented by Sherrie Gallerie in Columbus, Ohio. She received the Ohio Arts Council 2017 Individual Excellent Artist Award and was selected as the 2017 summer artist-in-residence at the Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown, MA.