Erica Barreto Vice President (she/her) is a multicultural educator, arts administrator, and creative placemaker interested in using the arts to produce experiential spaces for education, dialogue, and action. Erica is currently the youngest appointed member serving on the board of directors for WAM Theatre where she serves on the Governance committee. She was introduced to WAM during her undergrad at Mass. College of Liberal Arts where she graduated with a B.A. in English/Communication and Arts Management, and was immediately inspired by the organization’s mission to work at the intersection of arts and activism. Erica also serves on the executive leadership team for board of directors for BRIDGE, a grassroots organization dedicated to advancing equity and justice by promoting cultural competence, positive psychology, and mutual understanding and acceptance. As Coordinator of the Institute for the Arts and Humanities at the Mass. College of Liberal Arts (MCLA-IAH), Erica’s work focuses on increasing faculty and students’ access to Berkshire County’s arts and humanities resources while also advancing possibilities for collaborative engagements between the College and surrounding communities. In support of the College’s strategic goal 3: to strengthen and demonstrate our commitment to DEI, Erica’s goal at IAH is to catalyze the development of high-impact experiences by establishing opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration and cross-sector connections that can also serve to activate a regional network of shared resources and support for all students. As the Multicultural Alliance program advisor at Berkshire Arts & Technology (BART) Charter Public School, Erica also works with students in grades 6-12 using the arts to explore notions of community, identity, and multicultural excellence. In 2019, the Multicultural Alliance was recognized as the Berkshire Eagle’s “Classroom of the Week.” Erica is an alum of the Creative Community Fellows Program (2019) through National Arts Strategies (NAS) (2019). In 2021, she joined BRIDGE’s IDEA Institute’s Inclusive Leadership Cohort for Social Change, a peer accountability network that supported 60 teams across sectors in embedding diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) within their organizations’ short-term and long-term strategies. As a creative placemarker and hybrid artist, Erica loves facilitating community engagements that encourage participants to discover unique ways to create, share, and think together. She has facilitated her participatory workshop “The Creativity Capsule” at Figment Project North Adams (2017), North Adams O+ Festival (2019) and North Adams DownStreet Art (2019). Erica loves living, working, and discovering opportunities for play in the Berkshires. She is an avid writer, cat-mom to Apollo, and proud daughter of immigrants from Impenema, Rio de Janerio, Brazil, and Guia Monte Juntos, Algarve, Portugal.