About Us - Staff

Executive Director
Melissa Fenton Herrod
mherrod@citylightsnyc.org
Melissa brings fifteen years of work experience in both the corporate and nonprofit sectors to City Lights Youth Theatre. Most recently she conducted an evaluation of the effectiveness of a nationwide election program for the Carnegie Foundation. She has served as a Principal Consultant at PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) where she assisted Fortune 500 clients and Higher Education Institutions with strategic planning, marketing, and merger integration. She has taught courses in Logic in Writing and Thinking at PwC and Leadership Exploration and Development to first-year MBAs at the University of Chicago. She has also worked in Development and Student Affairs with the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU. While there, she created and implemented NYU’s first Parents and Friends Fund campaign. This work also involved planning major fundraising events with entertainment executives, including the premiere of Martin Scorsese’s Casino; a musical theatre tribute to Kitty Carlisle Hart; and a Bill Cosby comedy event to benefit a scholarship fund. Prior to NYU, she managed a small modern dance company in New York where she was responsible for all aspects of the company’s general management and organized a tour to South East Asia. She gained legal experience with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, Frauds Bureau, working on white collar criminal cases.

Her passion for the arts originated at a young age through her own involvement with dance and theatre, and she has a strong belief in City Lights mission. Throughout her lifetime she has choreographed, danced, sang, and acted in numerous performances. She volunteers her time as an alumni fundraiser for Williams College. Melissa also serves as Vice Chair on the Alumni Board of Governors for Williams College and as President of her alumni class.

Melissa received a B.A. in English from Williams College and a M.B.A. from The Graduate School of Business, University of Chicago in Strategic Management and Organizational Behavior. She lives in Manhattan with her husband and two sons.

Artistic Director
Robert McIntosh
rmcintosh@citylightsnyc.org
Rob McIntosh is honored and thrilled to join City Lights as Artistic Director.  Rob founded and, for the past five years, has directed the Children’s Aid Society’s nationally recognized, award-winning Advantage Theater and Film Program, a comprehensive after-school performing arts program.  Advantage students study classic Shakespeare, acting, playwriting, poetry, film-making, musical theatre, set, lighting & sound design, magic, juggling, improvisational comedy and the development of original, issue-based plays.  Previously a senior teaching artist with ENACT Inc., he developed curriculum and trained teaching artists to use theater games and improvisation to teach conflict resolution in New York City classrooms.  Rob is also a co-founder and co-artistic director of Theater Garden, a non-profit Equity theatre company dedicated to the production of educational theater for audiences of all ages.  As a performer (AEA) Rob’s credits include leading roles in “Hamlet”, “The Suicide”, “The Kingdom of the Sun” and “The Angry Young Man, A Modern Misanthrope”.   He also juggles knives and flaming torches and rides a unicycle.  Rob holds an MFA in Acting from Brandeis University and a BA in Theater Studies from Emory University.

Development Director
Laurren Scialpi
lscialpi@citylightsnyc.org
Laurren brings nine years of business experience working in a real estate investment firm where she worked directly with the CEO handling finances and planning events. Some highlights include the dinner for National Association of State Treasurers with guest speaker Jeff Greenfield of CNN; the Regional Roundtable meeting with the National Association of Real Estate Investment Managers; and the New York orientation meeting for the Alaska State Pension Investment Board with guest speaker William J. Bratton.  While there, she was involved with White House affairs corresponding with the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board.  Having had her own start in a youth theatre, Laurren shares a belief in City Lights’ mission, and is an example of the impact that theatre has in shaping every aspect of a young person’s life.  She began acting in a youth theatre at the age of nine and went on to perform in many original works, touring regionally as well as throughout Europe.  She earned her Actors' Equity card and continued acting in various productions including “Veronica’s Room” and “Twelfth Night”. Laurren holds a BFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.

Education Director
Tom Demenkoff
tomdemenkoff@citylightsnyc.org
Tom has developed his career both as a teacher and an artist throughout the country for over 30 years.  Recently Tom completed three years on the roster with Periwinkle National Theatre, serving as a teaching artist, residency coordinator and curriculum author.  In New York City he has also taught and contributed to the mission of Muse Educational, using role-play as a pathway to achieve “teachable moments” with At-Risk Youth in K-12 classrooms.  With Muse, Tom also facilitated a series of professional development workshops for NYC administrators, counselors, teachers and staff professionals, and delivered one of the inaugural workshops at Columbia University for the debut of The New York City Department of Education’s HIV-AIDS Curriculum. 

He taught as a member of the faculty at Cornell University andworked with Cornell’s Outreach Program in Chicago, High Jump, a vibrant middle school playwriting residency.  As a master teaching artist with Florida Studio Theatre, he co-directed and guided a team of teaching artists delivering a statewide playwriting curriculum, which yielded new works for one of the most successful young playwrights festivals in the United States. 

He has also taught at The State University of New York at New Paltz, developed and taught an innovative approach to using the basic tenets of Meisner, Stanislavski, Grotowski and Boal to train 3D animators for Pixar and Disney at the Ringling School of Art & Design and taught acting for students in Marist College’s Correctional Facilities Program. 

A graduate of Ithaca College, Tom debuted in New York City with the original productions of both Godspell and Grease and has been an actor and director in regional theatre, network television and feature films, including: a recurring role on General Hospital; several characters on Law & Order; original cast member of Zoot Suit, written by Luis Valdez and produced by The Mark Taper Forum;regional honors for directing A Few Good Men, 1776 and Equus; and three international film festival awards as best director for his documentary The Children of Izieu, which aired on PBS. 

He continues to serve as an Artistic Associate with the award winning Off-Off B’way group, The Drilling CompaNY, directing and acting with the company and leading their signature theatre immersion workshop which he co-developed: The Drilling CompaNY Workout.

Program Associate
Liz Wexler
ewexler@citylightsnyc.org

Elisabeth Wexler is delighted to be back at City Lights after previously interning in the Education and Development departments. She came from MCC Theater where she worked as the Development Assistant and coordinated the company's annual benefit gala.  As a current actress and director in New York, her current projects include acting in "Tangle," a site specific performance art piece in Lower Manhattan, and directing "Popera Rain," an original Korean Pop Opera translated into English.  Elisabeth worked with 7th – 12th graders over several summers at Explorations, an educational summer program at Wellesley College and Yale University. At Explorations, she was the Assistant Director of the Programming Office; served as a resident advisor, and designed and taught courses for teens in Acting, Directing, Improvisation, and Costume Design.  At Connecticut College she was the producer of the student theatre company, Group Art Attack, and the chair of their annual Dinner Theatre. Elisabeth graduated Cum Laude from Connecticut College with a BA in Theatre.

Marketing Associate
Funmi Olosunde
folosunde@citylightsnyc.org
Funmi joins City Lights from SonyBMG where she served as an intern with the Urban Promotion Department.  She also worked as the Students Events Coordinator for the ’62 Center for Theatre and Dance in Williamstown, Massachusetts.  She discovered her passion for the performing arts at an early age and pursued that interest at Williams College.  On stage, she choreographed for, and performed with, Sankofa step team; directed the College’s gospel choir; founded Essence, an a cappella group and danced with NBC hip-hop dance troupe. Behind the stage, Funmi directed a stage reading based on the works of playwright Tyler Perry; hosted the annual “Stalwart Originality” Conference highlighting black performance and organized “Steady Steppin’ Forward,” Williams’ first annual inter-collegiate step competition. Funmi is also interested in popular culture and entertainment and coordinated/DJ-ed social events at Williams. Funmi studied abroad at the University of London and graduated from Williams College with a Bachelors degree in American Studies with a concentration in African American Studies.