Liz Gray

Arts & Nonprofit Consulting

Liz Gray is a candidate for her MFA in Arts Leadership and has a Graduate Certificate in Nonprofit and Nongovernmental Organization Management at Virginia Tech. Previously, she attended NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts (Stella Adler Studio, BFA Theatre), The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (London, Certificate), and The Upright Citizens Brigade (NYC).

Liz has been a researcher, consultant, theatre-maker, and adjudicator for nonprofit organizations, schools, theatres, and competitions across the country. She is currently an Endowment Strategist and Capital Campaign Coordinator with the Academy Center of the Arts in Lynchburg, VA. Recently, Liz worked as a Strategic Planning Specialist with the Academy Center of the Arts in Lynchburg, VA; as a Research Consultant for the Jefferson Center in Roanoke, VA; as a Strategic and Development Consultant with Livelihoods Knowledge Exchange Network in Lexington, KY; and, as an Instructional Facilitator and Project Manager for Virginia Tech’s Center for Communicating Science in Blacksburg, VA. In graduate school at Virginia Tech, she worked in Community Engagement and Programming at the Moss Arts Center and in the Marketing and Management Office in the School of Performing Arts. Previously, she was the Communications Director and Company Manager for the Merely Players theatre company, while also teaching on the faculty in the Performing Arts Department at Fort Lewis College in Durango, CO.

Liz has presented her research on nonprofit/city-entity embeddedness at the League of Historic American Theatres’ 48th National Conference, and has facilitated workshops at Rutgers University and for the Society for In Vitro Biology. She served as the moderator for a conversation called The Culture and Aesthetics of Disability, Dance, and Art, with international artists from Candoco Dance Company, which was held at the Moss Arts Center.

Liz is passionate about fundraising and development in the third sector, aesthetic accessibility, strategic change management and generative succession planning, multi-modal educational practices, and engagement with community through artistic practice. In her spare time she volunteers as the Director of Development with Backyard Stages, a 501(c)3 theatre company in New York City.