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.

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.

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.