Nancy Umanoff became the managing director of the Mark Morris Dance Group in 1986 and has served as its president and executive director since 2000, the same year she received the Arts & Business Council’s Encore Award for Excellence in Arts Management. Under her leadership the Dance Group launched the world-renowned Dance for PD© program and built the Mark Morris Dance Center in Ft Greene Brooklyn which provides a home for the company, rehearsal space for the dance community, outreach programs for local children and seniors, and a school offering dance classes to students of all ages and abilities. She has guest lectured on arts administration, served on numerous arts panels and currently serves on the boards of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership and the Downtown Brooklyn Arts Alliance. In 2017, she was named one of Musical America’s influential “Movers and Shapers,” 30 Professionals of the Year who are shaping the performing arts landscape for the future. A native New Yorker, Umanoff received a BA in Dance from the State University of New York at Brockport and an MFA in Performing Arts Administration from Brooklyn College.