Renae Williams Niles

For over 30 years, Renae Williams Niles has served the nonprofit arts sector in roles including executive director, COO/diversity liaison for a university dance school, touring company manager, grantmaker for Los Angeles County, VP of programming, chief content and engagement officer, adjunct professor, consultant, guest curator, and moderator. Her career has allowed her to work with, advise, present, and commission new work by over 100 dance companies, choreographers, and directors, and to moderate conversations with acclaimed artists across dance, music, literature, and film. Renae regularly mentors artists and serves as a panelist/advisor for national grantmakers. Her board service includes Dance/USA, Dance Resource Center of Greater Los Angeles, American Dance Movement, and 13 years with Western Arts Alliance (WAA), including as President. She was a three-year advisor for New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project and recently returned to that role. She is the immediate past board chair of the Association of Performing Arts Professionals and serves on the board of councilors for USC’s Kaufman School of Dance. A fellow with the Los Angeles Institute for the Humanities since 2014, Renae received the 2017 WAA Service to the Field Award, was named a 2021 Unsung Hero by the California Legislative Black Caucus, and honored by Dance Lab New York in 2024 for her advocacy. An alum of USC’s School of Journalism, she holds a certificate in Diversity and Inclusion from Cornell University. Renae lives in Los Angeles with her husband and son and is a proud mother of three.