Keith (he/him) brings nearly 20 years’ experience as a development professional with some of New York’s most prominent and diverse cultural and social service nonprofits. He is currently the Assistant Vice President, Institutional Advancement for the Museum of the City of New York. In this capacity, Keith oversees all aspects of the Museum’s development efforts in support of individual giving, and has direct responsibility for the generation of major gifts. Keith previously served as Director of Development for the James Beard Foundation, the signature culinary nonprofit and producer of the renowned James Beard Awards, overseeing the creation of a comprehensive fundraising strategy and organizational culture. Keith was Director of Institutional Partnerships for Services and Advocacy for GLBT Elders (SAGE), overseeing both the major gifts and institutional giving portfolios for the organization (approximately $4.5 million annually). Additional nonprofit experience includes development roles and leadership with Film Forum, the Cunningham Dance Foundation (formerly the Merce Cunningham Dance Company), Dance Theatre Workshop, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Inc. He has taught “Development in the Performing Arts” as part of NYU’s Master’s program in Performing Arts Administration, and served as the Fundraising Specialist for Dance Theatre Workshop’s Laboratory in Arts Management. Keith holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Voice Performance (cum laude) from Boston University and a Master of Arts degree in Performing Arts Administration from New York University.

A Florida native residing in the Washington, DC area, Benjamin Coy is a charismatic fashion creative and digital strategist with a strong academic and tactical background in digital communication management, event logistics, content strategy, and brand development. Through collaborations with both private and non-profit entities, Benjamin's expertise is centered on pivotal issues such as Black liberation, representation, intersectionality, and education equality. Benjamin's remarkable portfolio includes notable partnerships with Lambda Literary, the New York Anti-Violence Project, the National Black Justice Coalition, the Anacostia Arts Center, Harlem’s Fashion Row, as well as other prominent political and entertainment figures. As a sought after speaker and thought-leader, Benjamin has been featured in publications like Vogue Club by VOGUE, Fashion Bomb Daily, BlaqueOUT Magazine, Voyage Baltimore, and on-air with Living Local DMV on the CW. Along with being a co-host/moderator with Team Rayceen Productions, Benjamin is the co-host of the “Cocktails and Culture Podcast” and host of The National LGBTQ Task Force’s Instagram Live series “X is a Queer Issue.” Benjamin holds a Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communication (PR/Advertising) from Bethune-Cookman University and a Master of Arts in Strategic Communication (Digital Communication Strategies and Analytics).

Jess Ducey (They/Them) is a Queens-based writer, producer, fundraiser, and event manager. They spent the last decade in Aotearoa, New Zealand, where they were a regular Naked Girls Reading performer, a dancer in queer comic ballet Sapphic Lake, co-founder of Queer AF, Wellington’s first queer arts festival, and creator of Unfinished Business, in which artists shared in-progress works over a three-course dinner in their flat. They’re a member of Primary Stages’ 2023 Echoes writing group for emerging playwrights. Jess enjoys nature, queer joy, knitting, elaborate dinner parties, public transit, books, learning to clown, cheese, and cycling (slowly!) around the city.

Aaron Moore Ellis (They/Them) is a nonbinary dramaturg, scholar-artist, editor, facilitator, activist and organizer, working at the intersection of embodiment and radical ethics in pursuit of collective liberation. They currently split their time between Lenapehoking (so-called NYC) and Timucua, Seminole and Miccosukee lands (so-called Orlando, Florida). Aaron has an M.A. in Religion, Ethics & Philosophy, and a Ph.D. in Theater Studies from Florida State University, where they also worked for many years with LGBTQ+/disability theater production company Mickee Faust, volunteer-taught Poetry Performance at a rural, North Florida prison, and served as Executive Director of the peer-to-peer “free school,” FSU Center for Participant Education. Currently, Aaron wears many hats with Latinx theater company Descolonizarte TEATRO and is a freelance facilitator for the Peace and Justice Institute. Aaron also works as a Dramaturg and Lead Coordinator of the Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion initiative for the historical and educational theatre company, Theater with a Mission, in historic Anhaica, and serves as co-Editor of the peer-reviewed, open-source Pedagogy and Theater of the Oppressed Journal.

Kazem Ghouchani (they/them/theirs) joined the board of National Queer theater in May 2024. Kazem is a Brooklyn-based development and marketing professional with over six years of experience in community building and cultural programming. They hold an MBA from Hult International Business School and have a passion for raising funds to develop programs for LGBTQ grassroots initiatives and communities. Social/racial/environmental justice has always been a driving force pushing them to look for ways to use social and cultural programs as a medium to build up diverse communities. As a queer atheist born in Tehran, Iran, Kazem also currently serves as a Major Gift Officer of Stonewall Community Foundation and fundraising and development consultant for the Emruz Festival. They served the Entertainment Community Fund (formerly known as The Actors Fund) as a Major Gifts Manager and Rattlestick Theater as a Development Manager in the past.

Joseph Hayes (He/Him) is a casting director and advocate who is at the forefront of creating and inciting the change that is inevitable in our industry. Having worked at companies like Stewart/Whitley Casting, Tara Rubin Casting, and Indigo Casting, Joseph recognizes that making a more inclusive, collaborative, and innovative industry starts from within these rooms. His affiliation with NQT began in 2022 when he was the Casting Director for the Criminal Queerness Festival at Lincoln Center. Joseph’s additional casting experience includes Broadway shows, such as Chicago, Hadestown, SIX, Dear Evan Hansen, The Phantom of the Opera, Aladdin, and Sing Street, national tours, including Hairspray, Sound of Music, Les Miserables, Cats, and Aida, TV shows such as Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies (Paramount+), Blood Work (HBO Max) and The Wise Guys film (Starring Robert de Niro, Dir: Barry Levinson). His producing credits include Fairycakes (Off-Broadway), and Fowl Play. Joseph coaches musical theatre students at universities such as NYU and Rider University and has taught seminars with/for One on One Studios, Cast Black Talent etc.

Rajendra Ramoon Maharaj (he/him) is a multi-disciplinary American Theater Artist, Administrator, and Cultural Activist who investigates the complexities of narrative, perception, identity, political, social, and community storytelling, through research driven work that explores BIPOC narratives that have been historically bypassed in the American Theatre. He is an alumnus of the Art Equity BIPOC Leadership Circle in partnership with the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University, member of the Metropolitan Opera / American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA) DEI Council, a member of the Geva Theatre Engagement Committee, the former Associate Artistic Producer at Milwaukee Repertory Theater, and the former Artistic Director of New Freedom Theatre and American Stage Theatre Company. He has twice been a New York Times Critics Pick for playwriting and a finalist for the Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference. Mr. Maharaj is the Founder and former Director of Artistic Programing for the Voices at the River Biennial Latinx and African American Playwright’s Residency Program, in partnership with Arkansas Repertory Theatre. He is currently the Assistant Professor of Stage Direction (Musical Theatre & Theatre) at SUNY Geneseo.

Nicholas R. Wallace is a writer, speaker and an attorney in New York City. His practice focuses on corporate matters, representing a variety of institutions, including multinationals, startups and emerging growth companies, in transactions across many industries, including tech, life sciences, health care, entertainment and financial services. He maintains a busy pro bono practice on matters of civil rights, immigration, entrepreneurship and LGBTQ rights. In 2018,  Nicholas graduated from both The University of Michigan Law School and The University of Michigan Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy with a joint JD/MPP degree. Prior to venturing to the Midwest, Nicholas attended Fordham University in New York City and studied Philosophy. He then went on to teach in Europe for a number of years before returning to the U.S. He is a patron of the arts and his passions lie in travel and supporting the City’s many entrepreneurs and creatives.

Sid Quinsaat (they/them) is a queer human hailing from the Philippines, currently residing in upstate New York by way of Texas, Michigan and Oakland, California. They love singing, making music, playing tennis, writing code and poetry, and having long conversations with their friends. Sid holds a bachelor of choral music education, and has been lucky to serve many roles as music educator, music director, choir conductor/accompanist, carpenter, cat parent, coder, and hopes to bring a variety of perspectives and experiences to their work on the board. They know that we can  all always listen better, and dream that one day we can all be free. They believe that self and collective liberation are inextricably tied together, and that making art as a queer person is an essential expression of that freedom, especially facing a world that seeks to destroy us. They are glad to be serving on a board for an organization that helps queer youth make art and theatre.

Donny is a professional fundraiser, organizational strategist, and freelance writer. He is currently the Development Director at Envision Freedom Fund, a Brooklyn-based nonprofit freeing immigrants from detention and advocating for decarceration across New York. He holds a MS in Nonprofit Management from The New School. His fundraising career began Off-Broadway at Signature Theatre and New York City Center. As a freelance writer, his published work is focused on adapting the theatre industry, including “Woke Supremacy” and “Anti-Racism and the Institution” (HowlRound) and “Adapt or Perish” (Brooklyn Rail).

Mahima is an award winning actor, choreographer, writer and educator from New Delhi, India. With a Bachelor's in History and over 10 years of experience in street theatre Mahima's  mission is to create work that manifests the most potent magic of which storytelling is capable of. Work that spreads beauty and understanding of the human experience. Work whose function is to rouse the audience from their torpor, their state of inactivity and through a heightening of the emotions make them aware of the mystery, wonder and the inexhaustibility of the human spirit.

Select NY credits: Elyria (World Premiere Atlantic Theater Co.) Queen (NY Premiere, APAC. Nomination: Best Actress in a Leading Role NYIT Awards); Hiding Kanye (Winner: Best Featured Actress, Tamasha-Hypokrit Theater); Jhaanjar Di… (National Queer Theatre); INVASION! (DramaWallah, Winner: Best Ensemble, SAIPAF);  Mary V (NY Fringe Festival). Internationally, Mahima has worked with the Akshara National Theater of India where she originated the role of Kasturba Gandhi in Gandhi’s Gita and played the titular role in Shaw’s Saint Joan. Workshops/Development: Vigil-Aunties, Karma Sutra Chai-Tea Latte, Lost in the Fire (Gingold Theatrical Group); I Love Sean (Playwright’s Realm); Dance Nation (Atlantic); Night Diary (Children’s Theatre of Charlotte), among others. With the Atlantic Acting School Mahima has directed several productions for their Acting Conservatory Program.

Writer, Executive Producer, Community Mobilizer, and Culture Curator, DaShawn Usher (He/Him) hails from the Bronx, New York. DaShawn is an award-winning advocate, published researcher and celebrated leader within the LGBTQ+ and HIV prevention field. Having cultivated more than 15 years of extensive experience in research, program development and design, health communications, and campaign development and implementation, he was featured in OUT Magazine’s “OUT 100” list. DaShawn currently serves as the Director, Communities of Color and Media at GLAAD. He has served as the voice of infusing HIV and Black communities into the entertainment industry with features in The Hollywood Reporter, Vanity Fair, Los Angeles Times, Forbes and more. DaShawn is the Founder and Executive Director of Mobilizing Our Brothers Initiative (MOBI), a series of curated social connectivity programming for Black gay and queer people of color to see their holistic selves while promoting community, wellness, and personal development. Continuing to make waves in Hollywood, DaShawn was selected and completed the inaugural Ben the Writers Room, a virtual TV pilot and feature film writing workshop for underrepresented writers of color and LGBTQ+ storytellers shepherded by writer, producer, and showrunner Ben Cory Jones.