Jamie J. Brunson

Executive Director, First Person Arts

Jamie J. Brunson is the executive director of First Person Arts and producer, host and co-writer of the monthly radio hour on WHYY, Commonspace.  She is also member of the strategic planning committee for the City of Philadelphia Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disABILITY Services’ Engaging Males of Color Initiative.  Over the past 25 years, she has fused a business acumen that combines not-for-profit leadership experience with the insights of a practicing artist within different spheres of the arts and cultural community.  Her administrative resume includes senior management positions at not-for-profits including: New Freedom Theatre, the Providence Black Repertory Company and the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts.  She is also a performing storyteller, memoirist, published poet whose work has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies; four-time NEA grantee for playwriting and an award-winning playwright who was named a “New Voice in American Theatre” by the Edward Albee Theatre Conference. Her plays have been produced across the country from New York to Alaska.  Her community service includes a Mayoral appointment to the Philadelphia Cultural Fund Board of Directors where she was vice-chair; board memberships on the Mental Health Association of Southeastern Pennsylvania, Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance’s Groundswell, First Person Arts, Inc, (Board Member Ex Officio), Rhode Island Citizens for the Arts, Philadelphia Avenue of the Arts and Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia. She has also served as a peer panelist for:  Delaware Division of the Arts, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and Connecticut Council on Arts & Tourism.  Ms. Brunson holds a Master of Fine Arts Degree in Theatre from Sarah Lawrence College and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Radio-Television-Film from Temple University. She thanks God for the ability to serve the community.