Megan has been committed to expanding dance in Vermont since 2019, when she co-founded Lines Vermont Studio in South Burlington. Her desire to create more opportunities for adults to dance soon expanded into an even bigger vision: helping Vermont reach its full potential as a destination and incubator for high-quality dance. She was thrilled at the chance to bring this vision into focus at VDA. Previously, Megan served as Creative Director for the Let’s Grow Kids campaign, and as the Communications & Development Director for the Humane Society of Chittenden County. Megan is a graduate of the University of Virginia, the New York Academy of Dramatic Arts, Leadership Champlain, and the Women's Small Business Program.

Joy Madden is a choreographer, performer and bodyworker. She has performed throughout the US and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland. In 2001 she co-founded The Moving Laboratory, an innovative performing arts incubator in Boston, MA. She served as the Managing Director of Boston Dance Alliance from 2000-2003. Since moving to Vermont in 2007, her work has been presented by The Flynn Center for the Performing Arts, Burlington Dances, Arts Riot, The Burlington Fringe Festival, UVM, and The Philly Fringe, among many others. In 2014 and 2015, she served as Community Mentor for Stephan Koplowitz’s online course, Creating Site Specific Dance and Performance Works, by California Institute of the Arts. Joy is the current President of the VDA Board of Directors.

Sarah Briggs (she/her) is a dancer and artist based in Charlotte. She is the Executive Director of the Middlebury Studio School, and is passionate about making arts opportunities accessible to all Vermonters. Briggs joined the Board of Directors of VDA in 2020, and is thrilled to help promote dance education in Vermont.

Nicole Ullman (she/her) lives in Rutland. She is a mom of three. She is serving as the Secretary for the Vermont Dance Alliance. At the start of 2022, Nicole joined with other dancers to form the Marble Valley Dance Collective. This group is working to bring high quality dance experiences; classes, workshops, and live performances, to the Rutland County community. Nicole holds a MA in Dance and Dance Education from Teachers College, Columbia University.

Mary Chris DeBelina is a choreographer, dancer, educator and the previous executive director of the Vermont Dance Alliance. Mary Chris dances regularly with Willow Wonder and Hannah Dennison, and is a Principal Guest Artist with Boston-based Juventas New Music Ensemble. Her choreography was part of Juventas’s 2020 presentation of Shell & Wing David Biedenbender, which won the 2020 American Prize Ernst Bacon Award for the Performance of American Music. She has also presented her choreography at Phantom Theater and The Barn.

Mary Chris is a passionate educator with a focus on creative dance with children. She teaches in Vermont at the Contemporary Dance and Fitness Studio and Montpelier Senior Activity Center. In 2005, MC founded the Hopkins Center’s Children’s Creative Dance Program at Dartmouth and taught every class until 2012 when her family relocated to Philadelphia. As a faculty member at Dartmouth she was fortunate to perform with, and choreograph for, the Dartmouth Dance Ensemble and was a frequent guest teacher. In Philadelphia, MC met Keila Cordova and was introduced to Dance for PD. She attended the Teacher Training Workshop in Brooklyn in 2013 and taught movement for Parkinsons classes for two years in Philadelphia.

MC (b. 1982) was raised in Chicago, IL. She studied Biology and Dance at Dartmouth College (B.A. 2005) and combined her two passions at Sarah Lawrence College receiving an MFA in Dance (2008). Her thesis work focused on the links between science and art. After having four children, MC is excited to be finding her way back to dance again. MC can be found dancing in Montpelier, Vermont, hiking up mountains or folding mountains of laundry. MC finds dance in everything and currently her biggest inspirations are her four tiniest dancers.

Kristin joined the VDA Board in 2022. Her life with dance began at the age of 3, and she never looked back. She moved to Vermont for the first time to attend law school, returning years later once she had begun her career. While she does not currently reside in Vermont, she lives across Lake Champlain in Plattsburgh where she remains deeply passionate about dance within Vermont.