Business
Work. Shouldn't. Suck. LIVE: The Morning(ish) Show with special guest Jamie Bennett, executive director of ArtPlace America. [Live show recorded: March 30, 2020.] Lauren and Tim are hosting daily livestreamed chats in April 2020 to connect with leaders in “real time” — about their lives, their organizations, their sector, and the world — during this unprecedented time in our lives. We come together as humans, as community, to talk about the concerns, the hopes, the hurdles, and the promise this particular moment in history offers us. Find the complete list guests, previous videos, and transcripts at WorkShouldntSuck.co (https://www.workshouldntsuck.co/wss-live) . Jamie Bennett is the executive director of ArtPlace America, a ten-year fund that supports artists working as allies in equitable community development. ArtPlace has invested over $100 million to support projects in rural, suburban, tribal, and urban communities of all sizes across the United States, as well as in sharing knowledge from that work in ways that are both useful and actually used by practitioners. ArtPlace convenes and connects people who are committed to this work in order to help build a strong and ongoing field of practice. Previously, Jamie was Chief of Staff and Director of Public Affairs at the National Endowment for the Arts, where he worked on the national rollouts of the "Our Town" grant program and of partnerships with the US Departments of Agriculture, Defense, Health and Human Services, and Housing and Urban Development. Before the NEA, Jamie was Chief of Staff at the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, where he worked on partnerships with the NYC Departments for the Aging, of Education, and of Youth and Community Development. Jamie has also provided strategic counsel at the Agnes Gund Foundation, served as chief of staff to the President of Columbia University, and worked in fundraising at The Museum of Modern Art, the New York Philharmonic, and Columbia College. He currently lives, works, worships, and plays in Brooklyn, NY, and has been sober since 2009. Lauren Olivia Ruffin currently serves as Fractured Atlas’s Chief External Relations Officer where she is responsible for the organization’s marketing, communications, community engagement, and fundraising. Prior to joining the team at Fractured Atlas, Lauren served as Director of Development for DC-based organizations Martha’s Table and the National Center for Children and Families. She was also fortunate to serve in various roles at and various positions at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Children’s Defense Fund, New Leaders, and AAUW. Before entering the nonprofit sector, Lauren held the position of Assistant Director of Government Affairs for Gray Global Advisors, a bipartisan government relations firm. She graduated from Mount Holyoke College with a degree in Political Science and obtained a J.D. from the Howard University School of Law. Previously, she served on the Board of Directors of Black Girls Code. And in her spare time, she can be found mountain biking or gesturing wildly at the teevee in support of Duke University’s men’s basketball team. Tim Cynova spends his time assisting teams and organizations with the things they need to create workplaces where people thrive. He is a certified Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR), a trained mediator, on faculty at Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity and New York's The New School teaching courses in People-Centric Organizational Design and Leadership & Team Building. He is a certified trainer of the bicycled across the United States (https://medium.com/series/4a1f464f6d6d) .