Nick Rabkin Executive Director:
Nick has been the executive director of the Center since 2001. He is co-author and
co-editor of Putting the Arts in the Picture: Reframing Education in the 21st Century,
the Center’s first book, and has written about arts education for The Washington Post, Education Week, and Educational Leadership, and was invited to attend the first UNESCO World Conference on Arts Education in 2006. From 1991 to 2001 he was a senior program officer for the arts and culture at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, where he was instrumental in publishing Champions of Change: How the Arts Impact Learning (1999), reports on seven pioneering research projects. He was a founding board member of the Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education, which has pioneered the use of the arts as a strategy for transforming schools in one of the country’s largest education reform efforts. He served for two terms as a board member of Grantmakers in Education, and currently serves as Vice President of the Arts and Business Council of Chicago. Nick was the deputy commissioner of cultural affairs for Chicago for seven years, serving under Mayors Harold Washington and Richard M. Daley. Nick’s arts background includes a four year stint as the executive director of
the Organic Theater in Chicago, where he produced many original plays.

Robin Redmond Associate Director:
Prior to joining the Center, Robin was the program officer for arts and culture at the William Penn Foundation in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she managed the Foundation's arts and culture grantmaking and special cultural initiatives. Her career includes experience in arts education and community arts, and she holds a masters degree in public policy from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
While living in Philadelphia, she worked for Settlement Music School and the Fairmont Park Art Association, where she coordinated the New Land Marks initiative. Robin began her career as an artist-in-residence, teaching photography to inner city youth at the Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild, a pioneering youth arts, education, and community organization in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She is the co-editor of Putting the Arts in the Picture: Reframing Education in the 21st Century, the Center’s book on arts education.

Victoria Malone Associate Director:
Victoria helped to establish the Center at Columbia College Chicago and has been
with the organization since it was founded in 1996. She is an artist, administrator and program developer with experiencs in community arts, documentary and oral history. She is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Interdisciplinary Arts at Columbia College Chicago.

Irma Friedman Assistant to the Director:
Irma joined the Center in May 2002, after 2 years with the Institutional Advancement office at Columbia College Chicago. Prior to joining Columbia’s community, Irma worked for Cinema/Chicago as logistics manager of the Chicago International Film Festival. She started her career in the arts in her native Ukraine where she studied dance and theater management. Irma toured Europe as a member of professional dance company based
in Vilnius, Lithuania. During stationed rehearsal time, she choreographed and taught at Children’s Musical Theater in her hometown Kiev, leading the company as artistic director. Irma organized dance festivals around her country, and continued her studies in folk dancing in England and Israel. She completed her education by earning her B.A. in Arts Management from Columbia College Chicago.