Elz Cuya Jones, currently serving as managing director of special campaigns for North Star Fund, has been named the executive director of the Tony-honored nonprofit Broadway Advocacy Coalition.
Jones, who also fundraised for the Let Us Breathe Fund—the only New York-based fund led by and for Black activists organizing for Black liberation—will join BAC September 23. She will succeed Adrian Budhu, who is the interim executive director.
"I believe that storytelling is our greatest power, which is why I am thrilled to join the team at Broadway Advocacy Coalition,” said Jones in a statement. “At BAC, artists and activists create a culture that values our communities, encourages dialogue, and activates our empathy. I won’t remember every detail of a 76-page policy paper, but I will never forget a young person’s poem about her parents’ immigration, or a letter written by an incarcerated elder, or the song of a mother whose son was murdered by the police—because those stories didn’t just raise my awareness, they moved me to act."
“We are excited to have Elz Cuya Jones as the new executive director for the Broadway Advocacy Coalition,” stated Richard Gray, chair of the BAC Board of Directors. “Elz comes to BAC with a tremendous range of leadership capacities and experiences and, most importantly, a new energy and vision of transformational change that will lovingly challenge us to seek new ways for our work to grow and have greater impact.“
"Seven years of working with Robb Nanus, our first executive director of the Broadway Advocacy Coalition, gave us great success and laid a strong foundation, preparing us for the opportunity to partner with a leader like Elz,” added President and Artistic Director of BAC Britton Smith. “Her unwavering commitment to equity and the intersection of arts and advocacy is evident in both her expertise and her impressive history in ethical fundraising and leadership. Elz's vibrant vision and passion for our next phase are the driving forces we need to guide us through our next step of growth. I couldn’t be more excited for what lies ahead with her leadership."
Prior to working in the nonprofit sector, Jones, who was born to immigrant Filipino parents in San Francisco, spent a decade in the newsroom. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Mass Communications at the University of California, Berkeley, and her Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Nonfiction at Hunter College.
Founded in 2016, BAC's mission is to use arts and storytelling to build a more equitable society—and build the collective capacity of individuals, organizations, and coalitions to do the same. Broadway Advocacy Coalition will present its annual gala, The Artivism Ball, October 14.
Visit BwayAdvocacyCoalition.org.
