Kayla is a Chicago-based creative professional with 15 years of experience serving nonprofit and cultural organizations. Currently Operations & Business Manager for Creative Fundraising Advisors, she has worked in development, marketing, and finance for nationally recognized institutions such as Goodman Theatre and Writers Theatre, and she has served as a producer for Steppenwolf Theatre Company’s critically acclaimed Garage Rep series. As a consultant for Artistic Fundraising Group, her client organizations included Arts of Life, BrightSide Theatre, Chicago Composers Orchestra, Chicago Mosaic School, Oak Park Festival Theatre, Snow City Arts, and Windy City Playhouse. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Kayla served as Executive Director and Development Director of The Youngstown Playhouse, shepherding the 100 year-old organization through a concentrated period of comprehensive restructuring and strategic planning while completing a capital campaign and sustaining the entirety of the operating budget via contributed revenue sources and alternative programming. The organization has successfully emerged from the pandemic with an operating budget doubled from its pre-pandemic size.A member of Actors’ Equity Association, Kayla's performance credits include productions with Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Drury Lane Theatre, Porchlight Music Theatre, Mercury Theater Chicago, Music Theater Works, Fireside Theatre, Capital City Theatre, Bigfork Summer Playhouse, and Huron Playhouse. Throughout COVID-19, she wrote and produced CALL ME ELIZABETH, a one-woman show about the early life of Elizabeth Taylor. The play premiered live in the 2022 Hollywood Fringe Festival after premiering as a film via Broadway On Demand and continues to tour internationally following sold-out engagements at Off Broadway's 59E59 Theaters and Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Presentations of the piece have been awarded grants by Illinois Arts Council and Arts Midwest. Kayla is proud to serve as a founding member of the Artistic Council of the Sarah Siddons Society, which acts as conduit between the Sarah Siddons Society Board of Governors, recent Sarah Siddons Society scholarship recipients, and professional members of the Chicago-area theatrical community to offer mentoring, networking and career guidance opportunities.She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Professional Writing & Editing from Youngstown State University, summa cum laude, and is a Certified Nonprofit Professional (CNP) through the Nonprofit Leadership Alliance.CliftonStrengths: Relator, Strategic, Achiever, Focus, Responsibility