Founding Director
Women of Color in the Arts (WOCA)
Kaisha S. Johnson is the Founding Director of Women of Color in the Arts (WOCA), a national service network dedicated to creating racial equity in the performing arts. Kaisha co-founded WOCA to provide a platform to give voice and visibility to women of color, to help fortify leadership roles for arts administrators of color, and to reinforce a world where everyone has a seat at the table. Prior to her work with WOCA, Kaisha served as a program director at Center for Traditional Music and Dance for over a decade, organizing in NYC immigrant artist communities working to promote, preserve, and present performance traditions from around the world. With a strong commitment to facilitating culturally equitable programming, Kaisha has served as a consultant providing vision of curation, program development, and community integration. She has consulted with countless organizations including Lincoln Center, The Apollo Theater, and Dance/NYC and has served on numerous grant panels including the NEA, USArtists International and MAP Fund. Working across the globe, Kaisha also serves as a thought partner providing consultation to organizations to help foster understanding about equity and race and their impact on organizational culture, structure, and systems. A love of community learning has led her to teaching positions at City University of New York and the Center for Bronx Non-Profits. A longtime resident of Harlem, NY, initially Kaisha got her start in her hometown of Houston, Texas as a classically-trained violinist. Ms. Johnson holds a Bachelor’s degree in music from Hampton University, a Master’s in music business administration from NYU and has done post-graduate work in ethnomusicology. Kaisha has over 20-years experience as an arts manager and is a proud alumna of the Intercultural Leadership Institute. Ms. Johnson is a staunch advocate for the arts, believing in its innate ability to create social change.
