The Team
Creative Economy/CreativeGround Team at
New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA)
NEFA’s Creative Economy program strengthens New England's creative community by supporting its visibility, networking, and knowledge building - both internally among creatives as well as externally with the broader community. This is in service of the vision of a New England creative economy that can strengthen and sustain itself.
CreativeGround enables NEFA to continue compiling important data to add to its over 40 years of research quantifying and demonstrating the impact of the New England creative economy. It also complements other program activities such as peer learning events that focus on creative economy community initiatives. Go here for more info.
We’re the faces on the other side of your phone calls and emails; helping you to make the most of your CreativeGround experience.
Contact Us or Schedule a phone call - we love to hear from you.
Natalya Tausanovitch
Program Administrator She/Her/Hers
Natalya drives the CreativeGround team's technical project management - she's here if you need support with your profile, have dreams of a new CreativeGround functionality, or are experiencing any technical difficulties.
Prior to NEFA, Natalya served as the programs and database manager at a community-based nonprofit in Massachusetts, where she supported ESL programs for adult English language learners, and in a client-facing role at a Boston retail tech startup. Pursuing her intersecting interests in language and teaching, she earned her CELTA credential in teaching adult ESL in 2019. Natalya has a lifelong love for the arts and humanities and is passionate about the central role of the arts in creating thriving communities.
Sharon Amuguni
Program Officer
She/Her/Hers
Sharon focuses on promoting CreativeGround and building community by supporting workshops and events, the CreativeGround blog and social media, and cross-promotion by users and network cohorts.
Sharon is passionate about supporting artists at all stages of their creative practice and believes a diverse, sustainable, and connected creative economy is vital to a thriving community. Before joining NEFA, she served as program manager for the City of Boston’s Artist-in-Residence program (Boston AIR). In addition to being an arts administrator, she’s a poet, baked-good enthusiast, and co-caretaker of two bossy cats.
Dee Schneidman
Senior Program Director
She/Her/Hers
Dee is our creative economy expert and is your point of contact about CreativeGround data or partnership opportunities.
Dee oversees NEFA’s data collection, documentation, and creative economy activities. These include commissioned reports; CreativeGround: New England’s online directory of creative enterprises and artists; regional events and convenings such as the Creative Communities Exchange, and knowledge-sharing projects. Dee holds a master’s degree in Educational Psychology with a focus on empirical research in the fields of creativity, human development and assessment.