Dr. Meida Teresa McNeal works with the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events as the Deputy Commissioner of the Cultural Grants & Resources Division. Previously, Meida served as Senior Manager of Art and Community Impact Investments at DCASE where she spearheaded the design, implementation, coordination, and execution of technical assistance for grant programs and launched the Chicago Arts and Health Pilot Program for Creative Workers (now publicly known as Healing Arts Chicago), an innovative arts and mental health focused training and apprenticeship program.Prior to this role, Meida worked with the Chicago Park District as Arts & Culture Manager supporting community arts partnerships, youth arts, cultural stewardship, and civic engagement initiatives. Projects included cultural planning projects from neighborhood cultural center activations and citywide asset mapping to developing special arts & civic engagement residencies, and a cultural stewardship training program, focused on neighborhood resource development through the lens of arts & culture in communities.Meida is also Artistic and Managing Director of Honey Pot Performance. She received her PhD in Performance Studies from Northwestern University and her MFA in Choreography & Dance History from Ohio State University. Over the past two decades, she has produced numerous creative projects as both a solo artist and with Honey Pot Performance, with works performed in Illinois, Rhode Island, Ohio, California, and Trinidad. Positioning her work as an Independent Artist and Scholar at the intersection of performance studies, dance and critical ethnography, she has taught courses in dance, critical performance ethnography, and black diasporic cultural production at Northwestern University, Brown University, Governors State, Columbia College Chicago, and University of Chicago.