The AAAE Board of Directors is responsible for the general direction of AAAE. Financial and administrative oversight is provided by an Executive Committee. Daily management and operations are provided by the Executive Director and Associate Director.
OFFICERS
 | Diane Claussen Co-President DePaul University |
 | Anne Frost Secretary Humber College |
 | Aaron Dworkin AAAE Co-EDI Liaison University of Michigan |
 | Dr. Yuha Jung Co-Treasurer University of Kentucky |
 | Dr. Sharbreon Plummer Co-President Consultant Artist |
 | Jim O'Connell Co-Treasurer University of Wisconsin -Stevens Point |
 | Dr. Jaleesa Wells Vice President University of Kentucky |
 | Dr. Tiffany Bourgeois The Ohio State University |
 | Cheryl Slay Carr Belmont University |
 | Larry Epstein Drexel University |
 | Dr. Dan Green Carnegie Mellon University |
 | Destyni Green Cleveland Institute of Art |
 | Rebecca Peirson Centennial College |
EX-OFFICIO
 | Ximena Varela, American University |
 | Michal Lázňovský, ENCATC Representative, DAMU |
Milena Deleva
Executive Director
Contact Milena
Milena Deleva holds an MA in Arts Administration from Baruch College in New York. Prior to joining the AAAE, she was the executive director of the Elizabeth Kostova Foundation for 14 years, overseeing the organization’s offices in Bulgaria and the United States. Under her leadership, the EKF spearheaded numerous fellowships for writers and collaborations with the Open Letter Books at University of Rochester in the US, the National Writers Center in Norwich and University of East Anglia in the UK and was shortlisted for the The London Book Fair's International Excellence Awards 2021. Milena helped curate the New Literature from Europe Festival in Manhattan, along with EUNIC members from the New York cluster.
Milena also served the Staten Island Council on the Arts and Humanities as a capacity building consultant and the European Cultural Foundation in Amsterdam as Cultural Policy Education Group’s coordinator and a steering committee member for the Policies for Culture Program. She has held several fellowships in the field of arts management, including CEC ArtsLink at both New York Public Library and Lincoln Center, Amsterdam-Maastricht Summer University and Salzburg Summer Academy.
Milena is a co-author of Cultural Policy, Politics and Change (Amsterdam: Boekmanstichting, 2005) and the author of Technological Park Culture (Bucharest: Ecumest, 2005).
Haley Carlson
Associate Director
Contact Haley
Haley Carlson is a dedicated arts manager, advocate, and enthusiast, with a passion to advance opportunities for creatives in all sectors. She has worked at large and small arts organizations alike, such as Dia: Beacon, Southern Highland Craft Guild, and the City of Atlanta Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs. She received her master’s in Arts Leadership & Cultural Management from the LEAP Institute for the Arts at Colorado State University in 2017. Haley is an active member in the arts and nonprofit world, serving on the board of S.T.A.M.P. (Sustainable Training for Artists, Musicians, and Performers) and volunteer Production Coordinator for the Giving Kitchen's annual Team Hidi Fundraiser. In 2018, Haley co-founded the Dream Warriors Foundation, a grantmaking organization that serves womxn in the area of the Arts, Community Impact, Personal Crisis, and Entrepreneurship.
Jamila Johnson
Arts Administration Intern
Jamila Johnson is an art educator and working artist from eastern Iowa. She graduated from Iowa State University with a Bachelor’s in Fine Arts with a specialization in Integrated Studio Arts and now studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in the Master of Art Administration and Policy program.
Her work presents the everyday lives of Black Americans, particularly children, with a dose of magic. She works primarily with watercolor and pen illustration, and relief printmaking. By juxtaposing sublime landscapes and mystical elements with the mundane reality of everyday life, Jamila’s art takes on a sense of familiarity among the surreal. Her work evokes longing for an imaginary place and farsickness for the chimerical.
Her future goals include establishing a non-profit organization specializing in arts education programming for QTBIPOC young adults and children, advocating for rural and urban arts funding on a national level, and displaying her artwork in major museums around the world.