Administrative Staff
Professor Adam Banks, Faculty Director
Email: ajbanks@stanford.edu
Adam Banks is a professor of education in Stanford’s Graduate School of Education as well as a professor and faculty director of the Program in Writing and Rhetoric, an affiliate faculty member of the African and African American Studies Program, the Science, Technology and Society Studies Program and the Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity Program, all in the Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences. He earned his PhD at Penn State University and has taught writing, rhetoric and digital media at Syracuse University, and the University of Kentucky as well as serving as the 2010 Langston Hughes Visiting Professor at the University of Kansas. Banks is the author Digital Griots: African American Rhetoric in a Multimedia Age and of the award-winning Race, Rhetoric, and Technology: Searching for Higher Ground. His most recent book is a collaboration with Keith Gilyard: On African American Rhetoric was released in 2018.
A-lan Holt, Director
Phone: 650-723-4402
Email: aholt@stanford.edu
A-lan Holt is Director at the Institute for Diversity in the Arts at Stanford University. There she trains undergraduates in the areas of diversity and culture; arts leadership and social justice. She is a mother and practicing artist whose work includes theater, poetry and film. She is a 2018 Sundance Fellow, a 2018 SF Film Screenwriting Fellow, and a frequent contributor on-air at KQED Arts. In 2016 A-lan's artist book Moonwork was published by Candor Arts Chicago and was shortlisted for the Cornish Family Prize at the Melbourne Art Book Fair. Since its release, Moonwork resides in several private and public institutions around the country. A-lan has over ten years of experience considering questions of identity, diversity, culture and aesthetics and holds a degree with honors in Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity from Stanford University.
Gina Hernandez-Clarke, Director of Community Engaged Learning, Arts
Email: ghclarke@stanford.edu
Gina is the Director of Community Engaged Learning (DCEL) in the Arts. She develops arts programs for undergraduates and supports faculty and departments in expanding arts courses at Stanford. Gina received an MFA from UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television and a BA in history at Stanford. She is also a graduate of the Smithsonian Institution Latino Center’s Museum Studies Program. She currently teaches courses in Latino visual and public art in Comparative Studies in Race & Ethnicity at Stanford. Gina has served in the position of academic program staff at Stanford University since 2001. As executive director of the Institute for Diversity in the Arts (IDA) from 2001 to 2011, she developed and implemented over 20 visiting artist residency projects with artists of color. IDA is an interdisciplinary program in the humanities that involves students in the study of culture, identity and diversity through artistic expression. During her time at IDA, she launched the Community Arts Fellowship in collaboration with the Haas Center. In 2011 she joined the Office of the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education (VPUE) in the position of Director of Arts in Undergraduate Education, which she held until transitioning to the DCEL role. In this new role within VPUE, Hernandez is a primary resource for students and faculty interested in engaging community with the arts in their courses and studies across all disciplines. Prior to her posts at Stanford, Gina has worked in arts development for the Arts Council of Santa Clara County, City of Long Beach, and other nonprofit organizations. She has also worked as a freelance creative producer for independent film, video, and live performance projects.
Amara Tabor-Smith, Artist-in-Residence
Email: amarats@stanford.edu
Amara Tabor Smith is the Artist in Residence at the Institute for Diversity in the Arts and Artistic Director of the Committee on Black Performing Arts at Stanford. Amara is an Oakland based choreographer/performance maker who describes her work as Afro Futurist Conjure Art. Her dance making practice utilizes Yoruba spiritual ritual to address issues of social and environmental justice, race, gender identity and belonging. A San Francisco native and Oakland resident, she is the artistic director of Deep Waters Dance Theater (DWDT) and was the co-artistic director of Headmistress, an ongoing performing collaboration with movement artist Sherwood Chen.
Jazlyn Patricio-Archer, Associate Director
Email: jazlyn@stanford.edu
Jazlyn brings dynamic experience working with founders to develop and scale category-defining brands and organizations. She was the Head Of Brand at FLY BY JING and Our Place, and the first community manager at Billie, a wellness company that offers body care for people across gender expressions. Her unique background in designing organizational systems and structures, building multicultural coalitions, and connecting to larger cultural movements and narrative strategies, all while mentoring young creatives, is an exciting addition to the IDA team during this moment of growth for the organization. Jazlyn brings with her a deep commitment to the arts and social justice, as well as experience as an organizer, having worked on pivotal campaigns as an undergraduate at Stanford like “Who's Teaching Us,” which championed faculty diversity and put a spotlight on inequitable practices within university tenure processes.
L. Song Wu, Program Coordinator
Email: lsongwu@stanford.edu
L. Song Wu is a figurative painter originally from Tampa, Florida, currently residing and working in Stanford, California. Wu has a dual major in art and engineering. Her provocative paintings delve into the interplay between intimacy and alienation, challenging viewers to confront their own sense of belonging. Drawing inspiration from anime, YouTube thumbnails, and the dynamics of female friendships, Wu's meticulously crafted world is both inviting and oppressing. Wu often explores what it means for her to be an Asian woman in America, showing that the line between “subjecthood” and “objecthood” is often blurred in the romanticized Asian woman. Wu was a finalist for the AXA Art Prize 2023 and has exhibited her work with various contemporary art galleries and cultural institutions, such as: IRL Gallery, New Image Art, SOMArts, Stanford University, and Weserhalle.