About Lisa Richards Toney

Lisa Richards Toney became President and CEO of APAP on July 1, 2020. She will work with the APAP board of directors and staff to address both the strategic vision of the organization and the immediate and emerging needs of the performing arts field in response to the COVID-19 crisis. Richards Toney brings more than 20 years of experience leading a range of small and large arts and humanities organizations, managing change and building stability.

Richards Toney, who lives in Washington, DC, served most recently as the Executive Director of the Abramson Scholarship Foundation, where she mentored scholars pursuing careers in the arts, and prior to that, as the Interim Executive Director and the Deputy Director of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, an organization she joined in 2006 as an Arts Programming Manager and where she worked tirelessly on behalf of the diverse resident artists and arts organizations of the District of Columbia. Highlights of her career include serving as the first Executive Director of the Debbie Allen Dance Academy and as Director, Literature to Life, for The American Place Theatre where she presented performances at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and The Library of Congress.

Among her many accomplishments and contributions to the performing arts, Richards Toney currently serves as the Strategic Planning Chair of the Mosaic Theatre Company of DC, co-chair of the Jack and Jill DC Chapter Jumoke Black History Festival. She was previously a booking and producing consultant for cellist Okorie “OkCello” Johnson. Other highlights include past consulting work for the Reel to Reel Filmmaker’s Project for the Prince George’s County Arts Council, and, earlier in her career, she supported Moving Forward Dance Company/Dana Tai Soon Burgess with tour management strategic planning.

Richards Toney got her start in the performing arts in dance and theater. She earned a master's in educational theater from New York University with coursework in arts administration and a bachelor's degree as a presidential scholar from Spelman College in drama and English. Richards Toney was awarded a Vilar Institute for Arts Management Fellowship with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as well as a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship to study the management structure of Black British dance companies in the United Kingdom.