YBCA Welcomes Three New Board Members

As we start a new year with renewed energy and hope, I am thrilled to welcome three new board members to the YBCA family: Clyde Valentín, Sunya Berkelman-Rosado, and Nazli Parvizi. These dynamic people have done impressive work at the intersection of art and social change, and have championed the power of the arts to ignite social progress. With their commitment to YBCA, we are confident that our Board will continue to build momentum in forging a path for artists as critical drivers, leading us to a more equitable and just future.

Meet our new board members:

Born and raised in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, Clyde Valentín is a producer, creative entrepreneur, and cultural strategist with over twenty years of executive experience managing start-up organizational environments and multidisciplinary projects and live events. He is the inaugural Director of Ignite/Arts Dallas: People, Purpose + Place, the community engagement initiative at SMU Meadows School of the Arts whose mission is to challenge the imaginations of students and citizens to envision more just and vibrant communities through art and culture experiences. He most recently joined the Local Advisory Board for Year-Up DFW and he serves on the boards of Texans for the Arts, the only statewide advocacy organization for public funding in the arts in Texas, and the Trinity Park Conservancy, which is building the 200-acre Harold Simmons Park in the heart Dallas, Texas, on the Trinity/Arkikosa River. 

Sunya Berkelman-Rosado is an anthropologist, community organizer, and collector of womens’ art. A Belizean-American, Sunya grew up in the Glen Park neighborhood of San Francisco and on an island offshore Belize City, Belize. Her academic work has focused on the ethnography of power, race, and representation in public spaces of cultural production. She is currently leveraging her skillset to develop a social justice incubator and thought leadership program on the Flathead Reservation in Western Montana. Her current project examines dynamics of access and identity in mural and street art in the Bay Area and she sits on the board of the Homeless Prenatal Program. 

A proud immigrant, Nazli Parvizi and her family escaped from Iran in 1981 after the Iranian revolution, eventually settling in Massachusetts. She is passionate about the arts, which she views as a language of liberation. Her work often resides at the intersection of government, hospitality, and the arts. She was recently named the new President of the Museum of Food & Drink, a new kind of museum that uses the lens of food and drink to share knowledge, history, and a broader understanding of ourselves and our shared cultures. She began her career in government under former NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg as the youngest agency head in NYC history, heading up the City’s Volunteer Center (now NYC Service) before becoming Commissioner of the Mayor’s Community Affairs Unit. She currently serves on the board of the Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkeley, CA and was prior Board Chair at Groundswell Community Mural Arts, a social justice youth arts organization in Brooklyn, NY.

Clyde, Sunya, and Nazli join a group of civic-minded leaders, influencers, and staff who are dedicated to helping YBCA meet its mission to center artists as essential agents in catalyzing social and cultural movement. We are thrilled to have them with us.