Alyssa Wright serves as the Co-Director of Raising Change and it's Director of Programming. With a background in the theatre arts, Alyssa has been and still is an advisor to various arts-oriented organizations including Serious Play! Theatre Ensemble, Festive Evolution, The York Art Association, WAM theatre company, PeaceJam, Feminist.com and many more organizations working to bring a better future to their communities through arts education, youth leadership and the elevation of women’s voices. In her role at Raising Change, Alyssa works to develop programs & products that make sure all projects, organizations and social ventures working for a greater good are fully funded, invested in story and values-oriented in all aspects of their work. She believes that when we put dignity and love at the forefront of the process by which we create social change, there is no way we will ever fail in what we have set out to do.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS TO DATE:

Credited for her work at the JoakimInterfest in Serbia in Fall 2009, as both a performer & a fundraiser, Alyssa contributed to the ensemble winning an International Award for Artistic Courage in Belgrade. As an actor with Serious Play! Theatre Ensemble, Alyssa recently shared the stage with Eve Ensler & Angela Davis in the Rosenberg Fund for Children’s “Carry It Forward” event in 2013 as a proud advocate for theatre for social change. As a national workshop instructor, Alyssa coached what has been called “hands down, the BEST training I have ever been to about fund development!” (Michelle Surdoval, YCSA) with the Maine Association of Non Profits in York, ME in 2015. As a fundraising consultant, supported the vision and grown of ZanaAfrica that launched in 2010 when the organization hit a wall in strategy, governance, and fundraising in it’s US non-profit that was jeopardizing mission fulfillment for girls across East Africa. Managed the transition from a founding board to a fundraising board smoothly and thoughtfully. Traveling to Burma in 2016 to craft a stateside performance that will shine light on the work of the incredible women activists in Myanmar, she is currently a featured artist on Festive Evolution, a new platform that uses the power of art to shine a spotlight on women around the world who are actively engaged in preventing conflict, building peace, advancing gender equality and empowering women. As a co-founder and instructor at the Recovery Theatre, a program launched in response to the Opiate Addiction Epidemic ravaging youth and communitites in Massachusetts, Alyssa co-designs and facilitates a five day intensive to support young adults struggling to overcome addiction as they collaborate and share their stories through movement, voice work, puppets, mask making and work on large apparatus (aerial fabrics, flying trapeze). As an activist in the current global refuge crisis, spent summer of 2015 working in East Africa in partnership with HeshimaKenya, UNHCR and other NGO's such as ZanaAfrica and The Global Trauma Project. Supported and continues to support during this crisis the various global artisans to redefine their lives with dignified work and economic stability. Visit Alyssa’s blog at WILDEMPATHY.COM to learn more about her thought-leadership.

Book Alyssa to come speak at your organization or institution by emailing [email protected].

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