“Lisa Richards Toney, a self-described consultant in arts management and DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion), is to be the new president and CEO of the Association of Performing Arts Professionals (APAP), effective July 1,” writes Susan Elliott in Tuesday’s (5/26) Musical America (subscription required). “She succeeds Mario Garcia Durham…. Richards Toney’s last full-time affiliation was with the D.C.-based Abramson Scholarship Foundation, where she served as executive director … until 2018. The Foundation’s $3 million annual budget provides financial support and mentoring to selected D.C. high school students in their transitions to college. Prior to that, Richards Toney was deputy director of the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities. She was also the first executive director of the Debbie Allen Dance Academy. She holds a master’s degree in educational theater from NYU and a bachelor’s from Spelman College in Georgia…. Representing the presenting, booking, and touring industry, which has been dealt a crushing blow by the pandemic’s shut down in business, APAP claims an international and national membership of 1,700, including a ‘growing roster of self-presenting artists.’ The organization’s next major conference is still scheduled, as always, for January in New York City.”
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