NONPROFIT
The Wooden Floor, one of the country’s foremost creative youth development organizations, has appointed two new members within its distinguished Board of Directors and appointed a new governance chair, Jehan Jayakumar, founding partner of Carlson & Jayakumar LLP. Joining the organization as members at large are Seán Curran, Arts Professor and Chair of the NYU Tisch School of the Arts Department of Dance and Laura King, Account Director at Salesforce.
“For over a decade, The Wooden Floor has taken a proactive approach in developing exceptional board governance practices. Strategic and diverse board development has remained one of our highest priorities,” states Dawn S. Reese, Chief Executive Officer of The Wooden Floor. “Each one of our board members reflects our organizational values and brings their unique lens and talents to our mission to inspire and transform the lives of young people through the power of dance and access to higher education.”
Seán Curran’s career in the arts spans 35 years, beginning with traditional Irish step dancing as a child in Boston. He is known for his performance work with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane dance company, for which he was honored with a “Bessie” award, and as an original New York City cast member of STOMP! Curran’s 30 dance works for his professional ensemble Seán Curran Company are characterized by collaborations across genres and have toured to over 100 venues in the U.S., Europe and Asia. A sought-after choreographer and director for opera and theatre, Curran is also a faculty member of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and he is currently serving as Arts Professor and Chair of the Department of Dance. He has over 25 years of teaching experience in modern technique, improvisation, body percussion and composition. Irish American Magazine selected Curran as one of its “Top 100” in 2002 and he has been awarded several Choreographer’s Fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts.
Laura King currently works as Account Director at Salesforce, a company that she has admired for years due to its mission and focus on philanthropy, diversity, and inclusion. Prior to Salesforce, she transitioned out of high-end luxury retail management and into a career in wealth management in 2016. In addition to serving on The Wooden Floor’s Board of Directions, King has an extensive list of board and committee involvement for organizations including Women for American Values and Ethics (WAVE), serving as a committee member for the Shea Center, the Jewish Federation of Greater Long Beach and West Orange County, and Women’s Impact Council.
As the organization celebrates its 40th anniversary, these new appointments embody
the The Wooden Floor’s core values and help achieve its long-term vision to break the cycle of poverty through generational change. TheWoodenFloor.org
