Colleges of the Fenway is pleased to announce the appointment of Carla Otero and Kristen Duffy Young as Co-Directors of the Colleges of the Fenway Center for Performing Arts. Having served as interim co-directors for the past year, Carla and Kristen responded with flexibility, vision and a strong sense of student centeredness to the ever-changing realities.
Carla Otero
Carla is an alumna of Simmons University and one of the founding members of COF Dance; she has been a member of the COF community for almost 15 years. This unique connection gives Carla an intimate understanding of the student experience, focusing on ways to enhance collaboration and relationships across the colleges and with program alumni. In 2011, Carla started teaching ballet and Latin Dance for the COF Dance ensemble and in 2014 became the Assistant Director. In this role, Carla leveraged online platforms to introduce live streaming of performances and further the program’s visibility. As interim Co-Director, she led the efforts to modernize and streamline the Center for Performing Arts registrations, record keeping, and report generation. She steered the adoption of virtual classes via Zoom and increased the use of social media to improve the engagement of the COF community. In addition, she successfully launched the new virtual Performing Arts Workshop Series with offerings open to faculty, staff, students and alumni.
Carla serves as the Treasurer of the Massachusetts Dance Education Organization, the regional chapter of the National Dance Education Organization. Carla has been teaching and choreographing professionally for over 15 years. As an artist and educator, Carla has received grants from the Winthrop Cultural Council and the Massachusetts Cultural Council to further her work of making dance more accessible to all. Originally from Puerto Rico, her early training began at the Conservatory of Ballet Concierto where she received scholarships to attend ballet intensives nationally and abroad. She later became a professional ballerina, entering the company as corps de ballet member performing in great classics like Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, Coppelia, Sleeping Beauty, Don Quixote, Giselle and George Balanchine’s Serenade. Carla has also performed contemporary and modern works by Bill Evans and Jesus Miranda and been a guest artist with the Chambersburg Ballet Theater in Pennsylvania.
Carla earned her BA in Political Science and International Relations from Simmons University and stays connected to her Alma Mater working as Graduate Admissions Reader for MPH@Simmons and Nursing@Simmons and previously serving as a mentor in the ALANA Students and Alumnae/i Mentoring (ASAM) Program for two years. Carla Otero is a passionate and determined leader who is dedicated to offering high quality arts programming.
Kristen Duffy Young
Kristen is the founding Director of the COF Dance ensemble and has been a member of the COF community for the past 15 years. She created the ensemble in 2006 with 22 students and expanded it to include more than 150 students, faculty, staff, and alumni participants each year. In addition to teaching contemporary dance classes and creating diverse educational and performance opportunities, Kristen also increased recognition for the program through its participation in the annual American College Dance Education Conference. As Interim Co-Director of the COF Center for Performing Arts, Kristen spearheaded the program’s new mission and name change to encourage collaboration across the campuses. Kristen is also an adjunct faculty member of the Emmanuel College Theater Arts Program, where she teaches courses in dance and choreographs mainstage musicals. She joined the department in 2010. Past appointments include Salem State University and the Longy School of Music. Kristen has also worked in fundraising and development for the Boston Arts Academy and the educational organization, Facing History and Ourselves.
In addition to her work at COF, Kristen serves as President of the Massachusetts Dance Education Organization, the regional chapter of the National Dance Education Organization. She was recently awarded the prestigious 2020 Arts|Learning Distinguished Arts Education Advocate Award for Dance. Her passion for developing community dance programs also led her to serve on the boards of the Boston Dance Alliance and Boston Youth Moves.
As an artist, Kristen performs, choreographs, and co-directs Accumulation Dance, a Boston based dance company. She has received grants for her choreography from the Boston Foundation and New England Foundation for the Arts. Her work has been presented throughout Massachusetts by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Center for the Arts, Dance Complex, and Green Street Studios. She has also performed professionally with Bill Evans, Caitlin Corbett, Bosoma Dance Company, and Weber Dance.
Kristen earned an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts from Goddard College and a BA in Dance and BBA in Marketing from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She is also a Certified Movement Analyst from the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies in New York. Kristen is an educator, administrator, choreographer, performer, and arts advocate, who has dedicated her career to developing accessible arts education programs.
The COF Center for Performing Arts is a collaboration of faculty, staff, and students from the five member colleges and universities. Its mission is to engage and support students and faculty in all areas of the performing arts and to provide resources and activities that further the arts as a method of expression, critical inquiry, and community engagement. The Center for Performing Arts is an inclusive program that welcomes participants of all abilities and experience and works to enrich student life and shape communities through access to the arts. This spring, the COF Dance ensemble is collaborating with COF Sports and Recreation to offer classes in Pilates, Pound, Zumba, Yoga and Meditation.
We are excited to have the opportunity to recognize Carla and Kristen’s experience and contributions with this promotion and look forward to how their vision will help shape the future of the COF Center for Performing Arts.