ESTA has announced the creation of the ESTA Foundation. For the past few years, members of ESTA have been working on the identified need to provide entry-level entertainment technicians with the essential skills necessary to practice their craft. To further this purpose, the ESTA Board of Directors created the ESTA Foundation, to be established as a 501(c)3 organization. ESTA’s Technical Education Committee and its subcommittees - Essential Skills, Publications & Assessments and Seminars & Training - have been moved under the auspices of the Foundation.
Members of the inaugural Board of Directors are: Chair, Bill Price – Director of Systems, Barbizon; Vice-Chair, Rick Rudolph – Executive Vice President, Stage Equipment & Lighting; Secretary/Treasurer, Mark Heiser – Managing Director, New York State Theatre at Lincoln Center; and Directors Gavin Berger – Director of Concert Halls, Lincoln Center Inc.; Bill Groener – Vice President of Sales for North America, Color Kinetics; Michael Peitz – Executive Director, Educational Theatre Association; Lori Rubinstein – Executive Director, ESTA; David Saltiel – Partner, Bell, Boyd & Lloyd; Robert Scales – Professor Emeritus, University of Southern California; Frank Stewart – owner, Specialty TECH Services; and Jim Utterback – Training Director, IATSE Local 22. Serving as special consultant to the board is Andrea Sussman – Vice President, KSA-Plus Communications.
The ESTA Foundation’s mission is to develop, publish and market educational programs to establish and provide the knowledge, skills and training necessary to pursue careers in the entertainment technology industry; fund research, publications and education on safety and the advancement of technology within the industry; provide scholarships and grants to individuals or related organizations to further education; and provide financial aid and assistance to members of the entertainment technology community who demonstrate need based on serious illness, accident or death. For information contact Greer Morrison at 212-244-1505 or gmorrison@esta.org.