Raleigh, NC -- (ReleaseWire) -- 03/28/2008 -- Lisa Van Deman, formerly with the National Children’s Museum project, has been appointed Executive Director with North Carolina Arts in Action. The mission of NC Arts in Action is to transform the lives of North Carolina school children through dance. Using dance as a catalyst, NC-AIA seeks to engage children and their communities through participation in the arts. NC-AIA fosters the love of the arts, pride of achievement, and a confidence that will carry over into all aspects of their lives. Additionally, it provides children with an opportunity for increased physical activity.

Lisa Van Deman has spent nearly 20 years in non-profit management and administration, working primarily with transitioning museums. Most recently, she served as Vice President and later as senior consultant to the National Children’s Museum project in Washington D.C, where she directed the development of the master program plan and the development of 35,000 sf of exhibitions for children 0-12, their families and caregivers. She also served as a program consultant to the Association of Children’s Museums for their national child-health initiative, Good to Grow! In previous years, Lisa served in senior positions at the Capital Children’s Museum in Washington D.C, Whitaker Center for Science and the Arts in Harrisburg, PA and the Orlando Science Center in Florida. She began her career as an Equity actress at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, where she fell in love with informal learning, and later founded the organization’s first museum theater program. She has written numerous articles about theatre as an interpretive strategy for learning and was an adjunct Professor of Theatre at Rollins College in Orlando, FL. She resides with her husband and two young children in Durham, NC.

North Carolina Arts in Action used the services of Capability Company, a Raleigh-based executive search firm for nonprofits, for this search.