2025 East Coast Regional Gathering

Garrett Mendez

Garrett Mendez is a passionate musician, educator, and arts leader with over 20 years of experience in performance, education and administration. He currently serves as Director of Performing Arts at King School in Stamford, Connecticut, where he leads a comprehensive K–12 arts curriculum and teaches instrumental music, including band, jazz ensemble, music theory, and composition.

Garrett is the founding Artistic Director of Project Music, an intensive after-school youth music program, and Artistic Director of The Archipelago Project, a renowned chamber music ensemble dedicated to advancing the musical arts through performance, residencies, and educational outreach.

As an active performer, Garrett tours internationally with Archipelago and serves as the bass trombonist with both the Bridgeport and Waterbury Symphonies. His eclectic performance career includes appearances with ensembles such as the Detroit Chamber Winds and the Funky Dawgz Brass Band, as well as tours with iconic groups including the Glenn Miller Orchestra, the Sigmund Romberg Orchestra, and the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra.

Garrett holds both Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Trombone Performance and Chamber Music from the University of Michigan, and has completed doctoral coursework at the University of Illinois. Through his work, he remains deeply committed to the power of music as a force for education, community, and personal transformation.

Karin Venegas

Karin leads the Arts & Culture practice at anat., a full-service communications and public relations firm that exclusively serves nonprofits. Her clients include Brooklyn Children’s Museum, National Dance Institute, and Anne Frank The Exhibition, among others. She has experience helping clients develop strategic communications plans and thought leadership, produce exhibition previews and press conferences, and secure impactful press stories that drive audience attendance, fundraising, and public policy. Prior to joining anat., Karin served as Director of Development & Communications at Exploring the Arts, the arts education nonprofit founded by legendary singer Tony Bennett. There, she led the organization’s external communications strategy and effectively fundraised to sustain programmatic expansion from 14 to 46 schools. A native New Yorker, Karin’s career began as a child actor in NYC’s off-off Broadway theatre scene. She attended LaGuardia High School of the Performing Arts and Mount Holyoke College. She brings a lifelong passion for the arts and storytelling to her client work. She is proudly married to a professional musician. Their daughter, who attends a public elementary school, is studying violin and musical theater.

Louis Diez

Louis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies. He is the founder of the Donor Participation Project and the Annual Fund Toolkit. Previously, he taught at the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, was Executive Director of Annual Giving at Muhlenberg College, and Director of the Annual Fund and Development Business Operations at the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. In these roles, he led teams that created growth in number of donors and dollars raised through a model he calls the Sustainable Revenue Engine.

Of varied interests, Louis holds an MBA from CUNEF, a PhD in Business Administration from Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (both in Spain), and an MM in Music Performance from the University of TN. His thesis applied neural networks to predict economic performance indicators. He has also published articles on the investment value of musical instruments, edited peer-reviewed papers exploring applications for economic theories of legitimacy, and been featured in the music business section of the College Music Society’s journal.

Derry Deringer

Principal – Deringer Consulting LLC

Derry understands your challenges and opportunities, having worked with over 70 nonprofits since 2011. Derry brings 20 years of fundraising expertise as an independent consultant and director-level individual and institutional giving staff. Before a 2002 transition to the public sector, he was a regional sales manager at UUNET, a business-to-business internet technology firm based in Northern Virginia. 

A dynamic problem solver and motivator, Derry has 30 years of professional experience in business, nonprofit, and international organizations. He uses step-by-step advisory and coaching techniques to empower staff and board members on implementing successful capital campaigns and major gifts programs.

Dan Trahey

Manager of Creative Youth Voice & Leadership at El Sistema USA and the Director and Founder of Peabody’s Tuned-In Program

Dan Trahey is a musician, composer, educator, and social entrepreneur who designs socially conscious music programs rooted in youth and community voice. He has helped launch initiatives across the U.S. and internationally, including OrchKids and Tuned In at Peabody Conservatory, where he serves as Director. He also founded The Collective Conservatory to expand immersive music-making nationwide. Dan holds an M.M. from Yale and a B.M.E. from Peabody.

Dr. Ivonne Chand O’Neal

Founder and Chief Research Officer of MUSE Research

Ivonne Chand O’Neal, Ph.D., is a leading expert in creativity research, arts impact assessment, and cultural strategy, serving as the Founder and Chief Research Officer of MUSE Research, where she works with educational institutions, government agencies, and the entertainment industry to advance equity, access, and human flourishing through the arts.

Natalie Frakes

Natalie Frakes is a Detroit born and bred musician and educator who believes deeply in using music as a vehicle for social change. When she’s not teaching, she keeps busy performing with quartet Six Mile Strings and live productions for current artists such as Stevie Wonder, Jennifer Hudson, Ed Sheeran, Laufey, Burna Boy, Kygo, Ariana Grande, Smokey Robinson, and whoever else calls.

Natalie is a passionate educator and has devoted her time as a teaching artist and educator in the public schools and with El Sistema-inspired programs. She’s held teaching positions with Oxford Community Schools and Detroit Public Schools and has been a teaching artist with the Sphinx Organization’s Overture Program, Detroit Symphony’s Civic Youth Ensembles, MSU Community Music School-Detroit, and El Sistema-inspired programs including Accent Pontiac, and Baltimore Symphony’s OrchKids.

Natalie is currently Director of Orchestras at Niles West High School. Within her district she is a leader on the equity team and instructs trauma-informed mindfulness in the classroom. She is also a teaching artist at Living Word Church on the south side of Chicago, conducts the South Loop Symphony Orchestra, and is a coach for the Firebird Fellowship with the Academy for Impact through Music.

Pete Tashjian

Pete Tashjian (he/him) attended the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University where he studied with 7 time Grammy Award winner Paul Wertico, Ed Harrison (Lyric Opera), and Reuben Alvarez (LP).

Since graduating in 2010, Pete has been a guest artist and designed projects for the YOLA (LA Philharmonic), Tuned-In Program (Peabody Institute), ORCHkids (Baltimore Symphony Orchestra) in Baltimore, Bard College in Boston, El Sistema Ravinia and the YOURS Project in Chicago. In 2020 Pete co-founded the Collective Conservatory in an effort to bring comprehensive online music programming to youth music organizations across the country. He currently works with SHIFT:Englewood on the south side of Chicago.

Pete is also an active member of the Chicago music scene performing with Miss Remember, the Goran Ivanovic Trio, and the Localvores and has been a featured soloist with the Indianapolis Symphony, the Grand Rapids Symphony, and the Alexandria Symphony.