Hailey Gabriel (President)
Hailey Gabriel currently serves as the Chief Marketing Officer for Covered Insurance Solutions, a digital insurance marketplace committed to making insurance easy to understand and painless to purchase. Hailey has successfully worked in senior executive positions as a recognized change agent in both publicly and privately-owned businesses in the retail, financial services, technology, and healthcare industries. She has held a variety of strategic and operational positions including roles as President, New Ventures Division, VP of Marketing, VP of Product Operations, VP of Sales and has served as Chief of Staff to multiple C-Suite Officers. She recently drove a radical restructuring and rebuild of the Marketing strategy and department at Shipt, in addition to creating and deploying a corporate-wide business prioritization and innovation organizational model. Previously, a few of Hailey’s career highlights include forming and leading the Enterprise Data and Identity sales organization at Acxiom, launching MyFICO.com while at FICO, and starting her career as a NASA Research Scientist, designing life support systems for long distance space travel. She credits her foundational education and early career experience with developing the skills to deconstruct and optimize business processes as she has an uncanny ability to determine the true levers for growth and profitability within a company. Her passion is to build out and deploy sustainable, integrated capabilities that not only drive material business results, but inspire employees at all levels to cultivate a high-performance culture.
Hailey earned a Bachelors and Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Colorado, Boulder and completed partial studies towards a PhD in Aerospace Engineering at Stanford University.
Hailey first discovered her love of Taiko 30 years ago when she was a student of the San Francisco Taiko Dojo for several years. Life got in the way, and she ended up taking a break until 6 years ago when she found her way back to playing Taiko through Taiko Arts Midwest. Joining the board in 2109, she loves using her corporate expertise to support TaikoArts Midwest’s growth as an organization and commitment to making the world a better place, one drum beat at a time. When she isn’t playing the role of Corporate Diva, TAM Board Member or Taiko Student, she has the best job in the world, being a Mom to her amazing 13-year-old daughter.
Jennifer Houston
Jennifer Houston (she/they) currently works as a consultant at Better World Partners. She brings over 20 years experience in leadership, board and consultant roles in the areas of: nonprofit management, organizational development, fundraising, communications, community engagement, strategic planning, board governance, executive coaching, and most recently, diversity, equity and inclusion based on the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) framework. They have worked at the intersections of race/ethnicity, gender/gender orientation and identity, and other areas of identity that are marginalized to bring more social justice in the world.
They identify as a queer adopted Korean American woman with deep lived professional and personal experiences that inform her practice. She envisions a world where all people can be seen with respect, care and dignity for who they are and is working to build this through her work. Jennifer has a BA in psychology and women’s studies from the University of Minnesota and an MPA in nonprofit management and public policy from the Humphrey School, and recently completed a certificate in Facilitating Culture Change and as a Qualified Administrator of the IDI. Jennifer is an avid outdoors person, studies energy healing modalities, and has two cats and a partner who she pets regularly.
Liz Kane
Liz has been in the business of developing talent and improving the performance of organizations for more than two decades. She brings an organizational development lens to her work with TaikoArts Midwest (TAM). In addition to her business background, she is a student of taiko – taking her first class in Sept 2008. She became an intern with Enso Daiko in 2017, and a performing member in 2019.
She joined the TAM board in 2017 when the organization became independent after the long-standing relationship with Theater Mu. She was part of the initial TAM kick-off, the Finding Her Beat kickstarter, and many other initiatives as the organization has grown and evolved. She looks forward to the next phase of TAM with a deeper connection to our community and expansion into our own taiko Center.
Gloria Kumagai
Gloria Kumagai has a history in education, administration, and community engagement. Her journey in the field of education spans various roles and demonstrates her commitment to fostering learning environments that are both inclusive and impactful.
Gloria's career in education began with positions in the St. Paul Public Schools, where she served as a professional development coordinator, director of multicultural education, and elementary school principal at Parkway and Museum Magnet, where her focus was on the development and success of students.
Within higher education, Gloria worked in administrative licensure programs at both the University of Minnesota and Walden University, eventually earning the title of professor emeritus.
Her commitments to community service and advocacy reflect her passion for the arts, education, and community development. She actively participated as a board member in organizations such as Theater Mu, COMPAS, Friends of the St. Paul Public Library, and the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, where she also served on the Asian American cultural advisory committee.
Currently, Gloria is a board member of the Twin Cities Japanese American Citizens League (TC JACL), focusing on fostering cultural awareness, social justice, and community engagement.
Gloria has been a steadfast supporter of TaikoArts Midwest since its early days as part of Theater Mu. She is excited about the organization's growth, particularly through initiatives like Her Beat, as it evolves into a national and international cultural destination.
Dayna Martinez
Dayna Martinez is the new Executive Director of the Twin Cities Jazz Festival, an annual 2-day Festival in Mears Park, Saint Paul that happens in June. She comes to the Jazz Fest from the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts where she served for 25 years in various capacities starting in development and the box office, spending many years as Contract Manager, and ending her tenure there in 2023 as Vice President of Programming & Education. As a programmer, she curated an annual season of music and dance, and oversaw the education and community engagement teams. She also served for 11 years as director of the annual Flint Hills Family Festival. She holds a BA in Music from Avila University and an MA in Performing Arts Management from Columbia College – Chicago. Dayna currently sits on the boards of the St. Paul Festival Association, Minnesota Presenters Network and TaikoArts Midwest. She is actively involved in the Association of Performing Arts Professionals (APAP). She enjoys genealogy as well as seeing live performance and lives in South Minneapolis with her cat, Rocky.
Katrina Mendoza (VP)
Katrina was born and raised on the West Side community in St. Paul. She independently raised 3 children who grew up to be organizers and activists seeking to build a better world. She was raised by her grandma who was undocumented and still found a way to be a light to her community. Katrina has over 25 years working alongside community with houseless folks, young people and LGBTQIA2 providing community health education. Currently supervises the work of organizers building collective power on the West Side. In addition she co-facilities leadership cohorts with the Shannon leadership Institute. She's a community auntie, married with 5 "bonus babies" makes her a mother to 8 and 3 grandbabies Onyx, Lazuli & Solana with one "baking". Her life is abundant in the blessing of family. She is an unapologetic fighter for social and racial justice and strives to be someone both her ancestors and descendants will be proud of.
Wesley Mouri
Wesley (he/him) is a Twin Cities based artist and advocate with over a decade of experience performing both locally and internationally. Wesley's theatrical work includes Theater Mu, Guthrie Theater, Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, Park Square Theatre, History Theater, Jungle Theater, Children's Theater Company, and Chanhassen Dinner Theaters. Wesley's passion for Asian representation in the arts extends behind the scenes through his work as Development Director for Theater Mu.
Sarah Senseman
Sarah Senseman has been engaged with the taiko community for more than 20 years. She was a performing member of Mu Daiko and later joined Ensemble Ma and studied Edo Bayashi under Iris Shiraishi. Sarah is the mom of two teen boys, two bulldogs, and a cat, and is a public health practitioner by day. She lives in Northeast Minneapolis and makes frequent trips to a cabin in Northwestern Wisconsin with her spouse Davis.
Rick Shiomi (Emeritus)
Rick Shiomi is a playwright, director, taiko artist and artistic director who has been a leader in the Asian American theater community for over thirty years. He has written over twenty plays, including the award winning Yellow Fever, Mask Dance and Fire In The New World. He was a co-founder of Theater Mu in 1992 and the Artistic Director there for twenty years, directing many plays including Into The Woods, Yellow Face and The New Mikado (his own version). He has directed at InterAct Theatre in Philadelphia, the Asian American Theater Company in San Francisco and Theatre Esprit Asia in Denver. As a taiko artists he was the founder and leader of Mu Daiko for over ten years. He has received the McKnight Distinguished Artist Award, the Ivey Award for Lifetime Achievement and the Sally Ordway Irvine award for Vision. He is a co-founder and currently co-artistic director of Full Circle Theater.
Josh Vang (Treasurer)