Liz Gray

About Liz

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 an arts educator, researcher, consultant, theatre-maker, and adjudicator for nonprofit organizations, schools, theatres, and competitions across the country. She is currently the Director of Development for Backyard Stages, a 501(c)3 theatre company in New York City and teaches Arts Management at Virginia Tech. Recently, Liz worked 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 instructor and project manager for Virginia Tech’s Center for Communicating Science in Blacksburg, VA. 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 also presented her research on nonprofit/city-entity embeddedness at the League of Historic American Theatres conference and has facilitated conference workshops for the Society for In Vitro Biology.

Liz is passionate about ethical leadership and generative board governance, the communication of science and research to non-scientists, multi-modal educational practices, aesthetic accessibility, strategic change management, and engagement with community through artistic practice.