Staff + Board

Kate Hutter Mason is founder and owner of Stomping Ground L.A. – a new community arts space in East L.A. planned to open in January 2020.  As a foundational experience for this next step in her artistic and entrepreneurial career, Kate co-founded the L.A. Contemporary Dance Company (LACDC) in 2005, and held the Artistic Directorship from 2005 - 2015.  Today, she serves as the President of the Board of Directors.  Additionally, Kate works in the corporate sector applying her skills learned in non-profit arts as Director of Strategic Initiatives for the aerospace design and manufacturing company, Click Bond, that was founded by her parents and is in its 2nd generation of leadership as a family-owned and operated company.  Kate is thrilled to hold many careers in balance and see how each is informed by the other including continuing to instruct dance, choreograph, and be the mother of two spirited and wonderfully free willed children, Charley and Rory, with her husband Eric.    

Kate is an alumnus of the Walnut Hill School and a graduate of the University of Southern California with a BFA in Theatrical Design. Kate also holds an MFA in Dance and Choreography from Purchase College, SUNY. Kate has presented her choreography at prestigious venues throughout L.A. including the Broad Stage, Celebrate Dance at the Alex Theater, Ford Amphitheatre, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, L.A. Theatre Center, Diavolo Dance Space and Highways Performance Space. Kate was also the movement director for the band Foster The People on their 2013 Summer Tour and part of the Move campaign by indie clothing retailer Alternative Apparel. Kate has been a visiting artist at USC, UCLA, California State Long Beach, Santa Monica College, Scripps College, Chapman University, Ohio State University, Wayne State University, and Loyola Marymount University.

Michelle Jolly (Mierz) is co-founder and previous Executive Director of the L.A. Contemporary Dance Company. She trained as a dancer herself since the age of four. Michelle combined her passion for dance and her business background to create LACDC with Kate Hutter at USC. Michelle graduated magna cum laude from the USC Marshall School of Business Honors Program/ Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies with a BS. Her professional credits outside of LACDC include work with the consulting firm, CounterIntuity, as a Project Manager, interim operations manager for the Ford Amphitheatre in Hollywood, Associate Producer with LA Stage Alliance for the 2004 Ovation Awards, and Associate Producer for the Choreography Media Honors 2008-2009. In 2011, Michelle graduated from Yale University's School of Management with her MBA. She now resides in her hometown of Seattle, WA and is a Principal Product Manager at Amazon.com.

Casey Cowan Gale's extensive experience ranges from co-designing the lighting for the world premiere of Angels in America, Part One: Millennium Approaches to designing the architectural lighting for ABC's Nightline offices in Washington D.C. Her most recent work includes the lighting designs for The Music Man, My Fair Lady, Mame, Camelot and The Sound of Music at the Hollywood Bowl with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, all directed by Gordon Hunt. For her work she has received a Dramalogue Award, the L.A. Weekly Award, and awards from the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America. She served for 6 years as a lighting designer for Walt Disney Imagineering, where she designed the lighting for various attractions at Disneyland Paris, Tokyo Disneyland, and Walt Disney World. She spent an additional 5 years at Walt Disney Imagineering Research and Development researching and evaluating lighting technology for any and all branches of the Walt Disney Company. Casey was the Director of Lighting Design for the University of Southern California School of Theatre for 8 years, and is currently a free lance Lighting Designer.

Lauren Dragicevich has a wonderfully storied history with LACDC.  She met Kate Hutter while attending the University of Southern California and participating in USC’s Repertory Dance Company.  Lauren was also a member of the Trojan Dance Force at USC and had formal training in various forms of dance growing up from the age of 3.  In 2005, Lauren joined LACDC as one of the founding dancers. 

After graduating from USC in 2007 with a BFA in Acting, Lauren began a career in entertainment marketing, using her creative roots to build media and artwork for the film, TV and gaming industries.  Campaigns include work for Disney, Relativity, Focus World, Activision, Ubisoft and Microsoft.  During this time, Lauren also served as LACDC’s Operations Coordinator from 2010 to 2013 and has since volunteered at events.

In a city as rich and diverse as Los Angeles, Lauren enjoys volunteering as a means to get involved with the community.  Previous and ongoing commitments include; Torrance Memorial Hospital, Marley’s PitStop Rescue, Long Beach Police and World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms.

Elisa Smith is a California native who has been part of the performing arts community the majority of her life. Her musical training began at an early age, 4 years old, with piano lessons. The lessons were classically-based, focusing on the Suzuki Method. In addition, she studied contemporary dance and ballet with local schools and companies.This eventually led to a Bachelors of Arts Degree in Music from the University of California, Riverside. In her last year of college, she had the opportunity to travel to and study the music of several countries which included: Venezuela, Brazil, South Africa, Malaysia, Singapore and India.

She has worked as a ballet piano accompanist for classes throughout Los Angeles and in Pasadena. At Chapman University, she studied and worked as a music therapist while studying elementary education at the University of LaVerne and working as an elementary school teacher in public schools.

Currently, she has her own piano studio, teaching piano to children as well as adults, hopefully fostering an appreciation for music and the performing arts in general.

Justin Trout is co-Founder and COO of Health-Ade.  Over the past six-and-a-half years Justin has worked in all aspects of the business.  Entrepreneurship, curiosity, and continuous improvement are what drive Justin to succeed.  As a youngster, Justin was a dedicated musician, consistently practicing the guitar for 6-8 hours daily.  This hard work and discipline landed him a major scholarship at the acclaimed Berklee College of Music where he earned a degree in Music Production and Engineering.  

Post college, Justin worked in Los Angeles as a studio and live performance musician, arranger, composer, studio engineer, producer, and songwriter.  Applying the craftiness and agility required to succeed in the competitive entertainment industry, Justin took to business as a Sales and Logistics Director at Toppik, Inc.  It was at Toppik that Justin saw the power of entrepreneurship in his business mentor, Mark Kress.  Mark allowed Justin to move through the Toppik organization to ultimately manage the full company P&L and lead International Sales, a business that Justin grew from $5mm to $10mm annually by opening accounts in the Middle East and Asia.  …but even that was merely more training ground for the next journey: Health-Ade.

The Founding Trio started Health-Ade by forming a 3-person “Entrepreneur Club”.  With the support of fellow Founders and a built-in determination, Justin et al swiftly took Health-Ade from one win to another.  Justin believes in hard work, discipline, honesty, support, care, learning, and a big vision.  This general theme has played out in everything Justin has done both personally and professionally.  The next frontier will involve acts of service to help others see the potential resting in themselves.

Ramón Valdez is a proud graduate of the USC School of Dramatic Arts where he now serves as the Assistant Director of Admissions. He is also Rogue Machine Theatre's Resident Stage Manager and Membership Coordinator.