Leadership Team
Meet the BU Office for the Arts Leadership Team
ELANA HARRIS | Interim Managing Director, BU Office for the Arts
Elana Harris currently serves as the Interim Managing Director for the BU Office for the Arts. Harris oversees the BU Office for the Arts’ portfolio of programs and initiatives, including the BU Global Music Festival, the BU Arts Council, the Student Advisory Council for the Arts, artist residencies, student community/wellbeing programs, the BU First Year Passport to the Arts, and the Fall Arts Fair, as well as programming and research grants, student arts memberships and discounts, and other impactful initiatives. Before coming to Boston, Harris worked for the Sandy Spring Museum and the Maryland Federation of Art, the oldest continuously operated non-profit gallery in the state of Maryland.
BITHIAH HOLTON | Administrative Coordinator, BU Office for the Arts
Bithiah Holton is a multidisciplinary artist and educator interested in the convergence of art, education, and identity. As the Administrative Coordinator for the BU Office for the Arts, Holton oversees the Sherman Gallery installations, prepares marketing materials, provides administrative support for events and meetings, and research support for development activities. They return to BU after diverse experiences at the Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center’s Pao Arts Center and Red Oak Program, and the Boston Public Schools in Roxbury as a visual arts teacher for K1-6th grade. As an artist, Holton often works in comics, illustration, printmaking, and ceramics.
LISSA CRAMER | Director, Boston University Art Galleries
Lissa Cramer is the Director of the Boston University Art Galleries. She received her MS in Arts Administration from Boston University and a BA in Art History from the University of Kansas. She has previously worked for The Art Institute of Chicago, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, MO, and Tufts University Art Galleries in Medford, MA. Cramer has achieved success with multiple exhibitions and publications throughout her career, including Shahzia Sikander: Parallax, Yuan Yunsheng: Chinese Myth, Folklore & History, and Life Altering: Selections from a Kansas City Collection.
JULIET FLOYD | Borden Parker Bowne Professor of Philosophy; Director, Boston University Center for the Humanities
Professor Juliet Floyd joined the faculty at Boston University from the City College of New York and C.U.N.Y. (1990-1994), where she served as Associate Director of the Ph.D. program at the Graduate Center (1993-1994).
Floyd is especially known for her work on philosophy of mathematics, art and AI, including the philosophies of Wittgenstein and Turing.
NICK VARGAS | Executive Director, Wheelock Family Theatre
Nick Vargas is the Executive Director of Wheelock Family Theatre (WFT), greater Boston’s home for professional, intergenerational theatre. He oversees the organization’s strategic vision and leads its artistic, educational, and social justice initiatives. A director and educator, Nick has helmed numerous WFT productions that embody the theatre’s commitment to storytelling that inspires creativity, empathy, and equity. He serves on the Board of TYA/USA and holds a BA in Theatre Education and Directing from Emerson College, as well as an MBA in Social Impact with a concentration in Leadership and Organizational Transformation from Boston University’s Questrom School of Business.
NICOLE WENDL | Executive Director, Boston University Tanglewood Institute
Nicole Wendl is an empathetic and dedicated leader. In her work with BUTI, she realizes a vision for an equitable and inclusive future of music based in community growth alongside students, faculty, staff, and supporters. As a professional violinist, Nicole serves as associate concertmaster in the Portsmouth Symphony, previously as associate concertmaster of the Opera Neo orchestra in San Diego, and has held various other chairs in orchestras up and down the east coast. She holds an undergraduate degree in music education and graduate degrees in violin performance and chamber music literature. Nicole is a former member of the prestigious Giannini String Quartet and performs on a violin by maker Andrew Ryan, Providence, RI. Outside of the office and off of the stage, Nicole is a voracious reader, salsa dancer, fitness instructor, and a dedicated friend and family member.
ANNETTE FROST | Public Humanities Manager; Director, Favorite Poem Project, Creative Writing Program, Boston University Arts & Sciences
Annette Frost is the Public Humanities Manager and the Director of the Favorite Poem Project at the Boston University Center for the Humanities where she creates public-facing programming in the arts and humanities. Annette brings a global focus to the public humanities through her background in higher education teaching at Istanbul University and her experience in international development in Washington, D.C. where she managed a $70M portfolio focused primarily on food security and climate resilience in West Africa.
Annette served as a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer in Niger. She holds an MFA in Poetry from Boston University and a BA in Postcolonial Studies and Creative Writing from New York University. Her writing can be found in such journals as Consequence Forum, Volume Poetry and 236 Magazine. She is a Robert Pinsky Global Fellow.
MOISÈS FERNÁNDEZ VIA | Manager, Arts|Lab
Praised by Gramophone Magazine as an “artist of coruscating verve and charm,” Catalan pianist Moisès Fernández Via is an international concert artist exploring the intersection of creativity and wellness. Since 2012 he has led BU College of Fine Arts Arts|Lab – a space for artistic social innovation; providing hundreds of art interventions in collaboration between BU student-artists and the vibrant communities at Boston Medical Center, Boston Healthcare for the Homeless, and Rosie’s Place. He is co-author of the book Music as Care: Artistry in the Hospital Environment, publish in 2021 by Routledge. A musician of inexhaustible creativity, he has collaborated with relevant figures of the international arts scene.
STAN SCLAROFF | Dean, Boston University Arts & Sciences
Stan Sclaroff is the Dean of Arts & Sciences (CAS) at Boston University. He joined the Arts & Sciences faculty in 1995. He has served as the Chair of the Department of Computer Science (2007–2013), Associate Dean of the Faculty for Mathematical & Computational Sciences (2015–2018), and Interim Dean of Arts & Sciences (2018-2019). He was appointed Dean of Arts & Sciences in 2019.
He holds a faculty appointment in the Department of Computer Science in the College of Arts & Sciences, and an affiliated faculty appointment in the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering in the College of Engineering. A globally respected scholar in the areas of machine learning and artificial intelligence, he is an elected Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the International Association for Pattern Recognition. He received his B.S. from Tufts University with majors in Computer Science and English, and he received his S.M. and Ph.D. from the MIT Media Lab.
MARIETTE DICHRISTINA | Dean, Boston University College of Communication
Mariette DiChristina is the Dean of the College of Communication at Boston University and an internationally recognized science journalist. She is also a BU parent of a graphic designer (CFA’18) and the daughter of a painter.
Before arriving in 2019, DiChristina was the editor-in-chief and executive vice president of Scientific American, where she had the privilege of working with illustrators on informational graphics for many years. The first woman to head Scientific American since its founding in 1845, she led the editorial team to honors including the coveted National Magazine Award for General Excellence. She was also executive vice president, magazines, of the magazine’s parent, Springer Nature, where in addition Scientific American work, she oversaw an editorial and publishing staff of more than 160 people across 10 countries.
HARVEY YOUNG | Dean, Boston University College of Fine Arts; Interim Vice President for the Arts, Boston University
Harvey Young is Dean of the College of Fine Arts (CFA) at Boston University, where he holds appointments as Professor of English, Theatre Arts, and African American & Black Diaspora Studies. He is the author/editor of ten books, most recently Theater and Human Flourishing (Oxford University Press, 2023) and has appeared on CNN, Good Morning America, NPR, CBC Radio as well as within the pages of the New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune among other major news outlets.
Appointed in January 2018, Dean Young provides primary leadership for the College of Fine Arts, which includes BU School of Music, BU School of Theatre, BU School of Visual Arts, BU Tanglewood Institute, BU Art Galleries, BU Bands, and Wheelock Family Theatre. Dean Young currently chairs both the President’s Advisory Committee on the Arts and the Arts Leaders Circle. A former Harvard and Stanford faculty fellow, Dean Young graduated with honors from Yale and holds a Ph.D. from Cornell. In 2021, he was inducted into the College of Fellows of the American Theatre.