CURRENT – 38th Anniversary Celebration

Snehal Desai – Artistic Vision Award
Incoming Artistic Director of Center Theatre Group

Snehal Desai is the incoming Artistic Director of Center Theatre Group (CTG), one of the largest regional theaters in the country. He is a champion of building community through compelling, transformative artistic works. Snehal comes to CTG, after seven years as the Producing Artistic Director of East West Players, designated an American Cultural Treasure by the Ford Foundation and the nation’s largest and oldest Asian-American theater company. A Soros Fellow and the recipient of a Tanne Award, Desai was in the Inaugural Class of Theatre Communications Group’s (TCG) “Spark” Leadership Program and the Inaugural Recipient of the Drama League’s Classical Directing Fellowship.

While at East West Players, Desai produced and directed the three highest grossing and most attended shows in EWP’s fifty-seven year history including the post Broadway premiere of Allegiance starring George Takei. During his tenure at East West Players, Desai led co-productions with Center Theater Group (CTG), Pasadena Playhouse, Rogue Artists Ensemble, the LA LGBT Center, Robey Theater Company, The Fountain Theatre, API Rise, the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center (JACCC) and TaikoProject to name a few. East West Players’ collaboration with singer/songwriter Daniel Ho was nominated for a 2022 Grammy Award. As an artistic leader, Snehal has sought to raise awareness on social issues that affect Angelenos through impactful and empowering storytelling.

Desai has served on the boards of the Consortium of Asian American Theaters and Artists (Caata), Theater Communications Group (TCG) and Los Feliz Charter School for the Arts (LFCSA). He currently serves on the board of the National Alliance for Musical Theatre (NAMT); is a member of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab; and was a literary fellow with London’s Royal Shakespeare Company. Most recently, Snehal was on the faculty of USC’s graduate program in Arts Leadership where he taught Executive Arts Leadership. He is a graduate of Emory University and the Yale School of Drama.

Olga Garay-English – Civic Engagement Award
International Arts Consultant & Director of the National Latinx Theater Initiative

Olga Garay-English is an international arts consultant, a role she embraced in 2014. Ms. Garay-English is a Director of the National Latinx Theater Initiative, which provides multi-year General Operating Support grants and professional development opportunities to Latinx theaters in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. Olga is Senior Advisor for International Affairs to Chile’s Fundación Teatro a Mil. She also serves as the consultant for the Artistic Directors of Color Alliance – Greater Los Angeles.

Ms. Garay-English was Executive Director of the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs (2008-2014), reporting to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. While at DCA, she raised more than $23 million from private and public funding sources.

Olga was Founding Program Director for the Arts for the Doris Duke Foundation (1998-2005), awarding $145 million in grants to national and international performing arts organizations.

She serves on the Steering Committee of the International Presenting Commons and on Boards of the International Society for Performing Arts (ISPA), South Arts Regional Arts Organization, and Ojai Playwrights Conference, among others. She was named a Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres in 2012.

She was born in Santa Clara, Cuba. Olga was married to the late Dr. Kerry English, the former director of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Pediatric Hub in Watts.

Mia Lehrer – Board Impact Award
President and Founder of Studio-MLA

Mia Lehrer, FASLA is president and founder of Studio-MLA, an international landscape architecture, planning, and urban design practice based in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Drawing insight from ecological systems, Mia is recognized for a research-based design process that advocates for resilient and just relationships between individuals, communities, and nature. She has led ambitious public and private projects including Inglewood’s SoFi Stadium and associated public parks, Dallas’s Fair Park Community Park, San Francisco’s Levi’s Plaza, the Public Gardens at the LA County Natural History Museum, and many urban river-related planning projects including the Rio Tietê in São Paulo, the LA River Taylor Yard G2 Park, and the Upper LA River & Tributaries Revitalization Plan. A native of El Salvador and educated at Tufts University and the Harvard University GSD, she is the recipient of the Cooper Hewitt/Smithsonian Design Museum’s 2021 National Design Award for Landscape Architecture, Commissioner on the LA Department of Water & Power, and served on President Obama’s U.S. Commission of Fine Arts from 2014-2018.