Davon Russell, WHEDco President

Davon Russell is a lifelong educator and mentor who believes in the transformative power of early childhood and youth education and the arts. In his work, he is a dedicated fighter for equity and opportunity for communities of color, and a thoughtful leader of a talented and committed staff that serves families and communities across the city.

Born in Jamaica to a single mother, Davon excelled early on as a scholar and athlete at the prestigious Kingston College high school and was recruited by the University of Oregon on a full track scholarship. While in Eugene, he also discovered a love of the theater as an outlet for personal expression and persuasion. After earning his BA in Humanities and his MA in Journalism and Theater, he was a professional actor with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

Prior to becoming WHEDco’s President in 2017, Davon had long combined his love for the arts with support, guidance, mentoring and educating for youth. He began his career at WHEDco in 1997 as a part-time after school teacher and steadily rose through the organization over 20 years, serving as Executive Vice President since 2010. Under Davon’s leadership, WHEDco’s youth programs—serving infants, toddlers, school-age youth, and teens— have helped tens of thousands of young people build their skills, access resources, develop their creative and innovative potential, and become leaders.

Davon is the co-founder and Board Chair of the South Bronx Early College Academy Charter School and serves on the Boards of Bronx Lacrosse and DreamYard. He is a Captain in the founding coalition of the Bronx Community Relief Effort. He is also a member of the Racial Justice and Equity Task Force for the Weill Cornell Department of Medicine, as well as the Lehman College School of Education Professional Education Advisory Committee. He previously served on the Board of Grace Church School and was appointed by two consecutive Bronx Borough Presidents – Adolfo Carrión Jr. and Ruben Diaz Jr. – to serve eight years on the New York City Department of Education’s Community Education Council.

Nancy Biberman, WHEDco Founder & President Emerita

Nancy began her career as a Legal Services lawyer. She was part of a team that sued New York City and State, winning the first class action lawsuit in the country to give battered women access to the court system and police protection. In 1980, she helped to create the SRO Law Project, and became the director of its East Side office. In search of more permanent solutions to the housing crisis plaguing the city’s poor, Nancy left the SRO Law Project in 1985 when she was awarded a Revson Fellowship to study at Columbia University’s School of Architecture and Planning. During that time, she developed a multigenerational housing plan for low-income tenants and raised $8.6 million for a 100-unit dwelling on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. The completed project is the nationally recognized West End Intergenerational Residence, known for its breakthrough programs.

In 1988, Catholic Charities hired Nancy to manage a $60 million, city-financed housing rehabilitation project in the South Bronx. Nancy then formed the Women’s Housing & Economic Development Corporation (WHEDco) and set her sights on the neighboring Morrisania Hospital, a stately but severely dilapidated building that had been abandoned for over twenty years. Raising $23 million to restore the building was an uphill battle in an often-hostile political climate, but in 1997, the restoration known as Urban Horizons began operations.

Nancy’s work has received recognition including the 2016 Peter B. Goldberg Aramark Building Community Executive Leadership Award, the 2009 National Charles L. Edson Tax Credit Excellence Award for Green Housing, the Paul Davidoff Award for Leadership in Housing and Equal Opportunity from the American Planning Association (2008), a James A. Johnson Fellowship from the Fannie Mae Foundation (2007), and a Revson Fellowship to study at Columbia University’s School of Architecture and Planning (1987). Nancy received her BA from Barnard College of Columbia University and her JD from Rutgers University School of Law. Nancy serves on the Board of Directors of Hostos Community College, the Freelancers Union Insurance Company and the South Bronx Early College Academy Charter School.

Elena Martinez, Co-Artistic Director, Bronx Music Heritage Center

Elena is the Co-Artistic Director of the Bronx Music Heritage Center, a gallery and performance space that celebrates the Bronx’s musical and artistic legacy, and she has been a Folklorist at City Lore since 1997. She has produced or co-produced documentaries such as From Mambo to Hip Hop: A South Bronx Tale (PBS 2006, winner of a 2007 ALMA Award for Best TV Documentary), We Like It Like That: The Story of Latin Boogaloo (SXSW Festival 2015), and Eddie Palmieri: A Revolution on Harlem River Drive (Red Bull Academy 2016). She has worked as a curator or assistant curator on several exhibitions, including ¡Que bonita bandera!: The Puerto Rican Flag as Folk Art and Nueva York: 1613-1945. She has published numerous articles and reviews in scholarly journals and publications, and she serves on the Advisory Boards for Casita Maria/Dancing in the Streets’ South Bronx Culture Trail, the Center for Puerto Rican Studies Archive at Hunter College, and Los Pleneros de la 21. She has been awarded a 2013 BOROMIX Puerto Rican Heritage Award, Comité Noviembre’s Lo Mejor de Nuestra Comunidad 2013, and a 2016 Community Award by El Maestro’s Cultural & Educational Center. Presently, she is working on a research project focusing on the Afro-Puerto Rican participation in the 369th Regimental Band (the “Harlem Hellfighters”) during WWI. (Photo of Elena Martinez by Francisco Molina Reyes II.)

Bobby Sanabria, Co-Artistic Director, Bronx Music Heritage Center

Bobby Sanabria is a 7-time Grammy-nominated drummer, percussionist, composer, arranger, conductor, producer, educator, and bandleader. He has performed and recorded with legends such as Tito Puente, Mongo Santamaría, Ray Barretto, Cándido, Henry Threadgill, Larry Harlow, and the Godfather of Afro-Cuban jazz, Mario Bauzá. His first big band recording, Live & in Clave!!! was nominated for a Grammy in 2001. His 2008 Grammy-nominated Big Band Urban Folktales was the first Latin jazz recording to ever reach #1 in the national Jazz Week charts. In 2009, the Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra he directs at the Manhattan School of Music was nominated for a Latin Grammy for Kenya Revisited Live!!!, a reworking of the music from Machito’s greatest album, Kenya. In 2011 the recording Tito Puente Masterworks Live!!! was nominated for a Latin Jazz Grammy. His 2012 big band recording, inspired by the writings of Mexican author Octavio Paz, entitled MULTIVERSE, was nominated for a Grammy (in the Latin Jazz category he and others fought to reinstate after NARAS decided to eliminate many ethnic and regional categories in 2010). He is an associate producer of documentaries, The Palladium: Where Mambo Was King, winner of the IMAGINE award for Best TV documentary of 2003, and PBS’ From Mambo to Hip Hop: A South Bronx Tale. DRUM! Magazine named him Percussionist of the Year in 2005; he was also named 2011 and 2013 Percussionist of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association. This South Bronx native of Puerto Rican parents was a 2006 inductee into the Bronx Walk of Fame. He holds a B.M. from the Berklee College of Music and is on the faculty of the New School and the Manhattan School of Music, conducting the Afro-Cuban Jazz Big Bands at both schools.

Oxil Febles, Arts Education Program Liaison

Oxil Febles is an educator, poet, professional Bomba and Plena dancer, choreographer, cultural activist, curator, and founder of Paso Negro, a nonprofit organization dedicated to designing workshops, educational and artistic venues focused on the legacy of African Diaspora in the Caribbean. As an independent artist, she has collaborated on several transnational cultural projects. Over the last seven years, Oxil has taught Bomba dance in the BMHC’s Music and Dance Class (MAD) Program and has performed in variety of community-based arts performances sponsored by the BMHC and our many community and cultural partners. She has benefited from a close relationship with BMHC Co-Artistic Director, Elena Martinez, who has connected Oxil to performance and professional development opportunities that have enabled her to develop, perform, and earn a living from her craft.

Lynne Mold, Arts Education Coordinator & Venue Manager

Lynne is a theatre artist, arts administrator and educator with over 25 years’ experience developing and implementing arts education programs and producing and directing community performances. She is the Arts Education Coordinator and Venue Manager at the Bronx Music Heritage Center (BMHC) where she manages the arts education classes, builds community partnerships, facilitates educational workshops and provides production support for a busy event calendar including performances, exhibitions and panel discussions. Previously, Lynne worked as a teaching artist and director at Imagine Arts Program and LESS Charter School, and was the first director of the Visual and Performing Arts Department for Lenox Hill Neighborhood House. Lynne was a founding member and general manager of the former Cooper Square Theatre company, artistic director of the Lenox Hill Neighborhood Players Community Theatre and Crossing Borders Repertory. She has toured as an actress both nationally and in Canada, studied with Lee Strasberg and is a graduate of NYU Tisch School of the Arts.

Katerin Burgos, Marketing & Communications Associate

Katerin is a Colombian journalist and digital marketing expert based in New York City, with more than 10 years of experience in audiovisual production and engagement in local communities. Currently she works as the Marketing and Communications Associate at the Bronx Music Hall, where she focuses on reaching all those interested in art, culture, and education in the Bronx and New York City, providing them with leisure and learning spaces. In addition to her work at the Bronx Music Hall, Katerin has worked in women's clinics in the Bronx, empowering the community on reproductive rights issues. Katerin is known for her ability to communicate complex topics in a concise and accessible manner for all types of audiences. Her focus on community work and her desire to make an altruistic and humanitarian difference, especially with the most needy and minorities, are fundamental aspects of her career. In her free time, she enjoys running and photography.

Anthony Amato, Technical Director

Anthony has been working in the theater for 27 years as an IATSE stagehand. He has worked as a Head Carpenter, Head Flyman, Head Rigger and Production Manager for several theaters in CT where he lives. He has worked on Broadway Tours such as Wicked, Les Miserable, and Miss Saigon. He has also worked on Several movies and TV shows such as The Irishman, John Wick 3, and Law And Order SVU. He is thrilled to be The Technical Director for the new Bronx Music Hall.