Valerie G. Lewis
Valerie G. Lewis has served as the Executive Director of the GRAMMY® Award-winning Brooklyn Youth Chorus Academy since October 2009. BYCA, which is now in its 19th season, is one of the country's leading children's choruses and the ensemble of choice for internationally renowned musicians, orchestras and composers.
Since joining BYCA, she has worked with the board of trustees and staff to balance and build its budget, restructure the organization both managerially and programmatically, and develop a vision and strategy for the future. She has fortified BYCA's budget by broadening its foundation base, adding a new group of board members, attracting new individual donors, and reactivating its base of community and family supporters.
Prior to BYCA, Ms. Lewis spent 11 years at the Alliance for Downtown New York, the largest Business Improvement District in North America. During her tenure, she served in four positions, most recently holding the title of Senior Vice President of Marketing and Communications. As SVP, Ms. Lewis directed and implemented a wide variety of marketing, branding and public relations campaigns for the BID that focused on promoting Lower Manhattan's strengths as a commercial business district, a residential community and a year-round cultural destination. She also developed and directed all of the BID's cultural programming including concerts series, lecture series, historic walking tours and culinary events. Ms. Lewis is a founder of the award-winning River to River Festival, which was launched in the aftermath of 9/11 to utilize the power the arts as a revitalization tool for Lower Manhattan.
