Michael Bracy Policy Director | bio | michael<at>futureofmusic.org
Jean Cook Director of Programs | bio | jean<at>futureofmusic.org
Kevin Erickson Communications Associate | bio | kevin<at>futureofmusic.org
Anna Kaila Operations Manager | bio | anna<at>futureofmusic.org
Chhaya Kapadia COO | Events Director | bio | chhaya<at>futureofmusic.org
Alex Maiolo HINT Program Coordinator | bio | alex<at>futureofmusic.org
Casey Rae Deputy Director | bio | casey<at>futureofmusic.org
Lissa Rosenthal Executive Director | bio | lissa<at>futureofmusic.org
Kristin Thomson | bio | kristin<at>futureofmusic.org

Future of Music Coalition
1615 L Street NW, Suite 520
Washington, DC 20036
(202) 822-2051

Staff Bios

Michael Bracy

Michael Bracy is a partner in the government affairs firm Bracy Tucker Brown & Valanzano. He also co-founded the Future of Music Coalition and currently serves as a board member and Policy Director and co-owns Misra, an independent record label.

Michael is known for his policy work in front of Congress and the FCC, including media consolidation, radio regulation (including Low Power FM), and ensuring public interest principles are at the heart of the legal structures that will help dictate new technological frameworks. Michael is a recognized public advocate both for the music community and for the need for increased citizen participation in the policy process. He has testified before the Congress and the FCC, and speaks often on these issues at conferences and in the media, including CNN, MSNBC, National Public Radio, Washington Post, New York Times, Billboard and elsewhere.

Michael attended Georgetown University, where his courtship with his future wife, Kelly, began in earnest when they co-hosted a radio show on the campus station. After graduation, Kelly and Michael spent seven years in Seattle, where Michael worked in the educational communications field specializing in producing and directing live, interactive educational and government television programming. Kelly and Michael have three children, Eliza, Sophie and Owen, and live in Arlington, VA.

Jean Cook

Jean Cook is a musician, producer and Director of Programs for Future of Music Coalition. She is a founder and director of Anti Social Music, a New York-based new music collective. She currently records and tours with Ida/Elizabeth Mitchell, Jon Langford, and Beauty Pill. She has recorded on over 50 albums; recent appearances include projects by New York avant jazz artists William Parker, Tom Abbs/Frequency Response, Assif Tsahar/KJLA 4Tet, and Taylor Ho Bynum/Spidermonkey Strings. Jean’s administrative background includes working as a publicist and curator for Washington Performing Arts Society, producing and hosting radio programs for 89.9 WKCR-FM, New York, and producing dozens of new music performance projects. In 2004 Jean worked for Air Traffic Control, a political action group helping musicians to be more effective in the 2004 election cycle. For FMC, she covers a wide range of issues including jazz and classical music metadata, jazz radio playlist composition and (and how to improve data collection), and understanding how copyright impacts indigenous artists in places like Ethiopia, Tajikistan and Australia. For the last two years, Jean co-directed FMC's Artist Revenue Streams project, a groundbreaking initiative offering data-driven insight into US-based musician income and how it correlates with genre, career arc, roles played, tech savviness, radio airplay, and other critical factors (more info here). She is a member of New Music USA's New Media Council and also currently serves as Chair of APAP's Classical Connections Committee.

Kevin Erickson

Kevin Erickson has over a decade of experience at the intersection of grassroots arts, community organizing, and policy. Before joining FMC's team in 2012, he directed All-ages Movement Project, a national non-profit network of all-ages music venues and youth music programs. His experience spans the full range of the music industry, from community radio to live show booking and promotion to brick & mortar music retail management. He remains active as a musician and recording engineer at Swim-Two-Birds recording studio in DC, and volunteers with Positive Force DC.

Anna-Kaisa Kaila

Anna Kaila is a musician and music researcher with a long nonprofit and arts management experience both in the DC area and in her native Finland. As FMC's Operations Manager, Anna wears many hats coordinating fundraising campaigns, organizing events and managing the office. Prior to joining FMC, she developed music programming at Classic Radio Finland, worked as a music journalist and produced various concert and arts education programs in Europe and in the US. Anna has BA in Communications from University of Helsinki and MA in Musicology from University of Turku, Finland.

Chhaya Kapadia

Chhaya is Future of Music Coalition’s COO and Events Director and has been with the organization since 2006 (aka when we still worked out of Jenny Toomey's spare bedroom). Prior to moving to Washington, DC, she spent several years coordinating tours at noted Boston roots music booking/management agency Concerted Efforts for artists such as Orchestra Baobab, Ali Farka Toure, Rokia Traore, Booker T. & The MG's, Yat-Kha and others. She has also traveled internationally tour managing Pape & Cheik and The Holmes Brothers.

At FMC, Chhaya organizes events (most recently FMC Summit 2012), manages the organization's finances, keeps the website running and as snazzy as possible, and handles assorted HR duties. She serves on the Board of Directors of Words Beats & Life. She received a BA from Emerson College with a major in Audio Engineering and was also previously an in-house engineer with WERS-FM Boston.

Alex Maiolo

Alex Maiolo has worked with The Future of Music Coalition for eleven years, primarily focusing on the health insurance crisis as it relates to the working musician. In 2005, with the aid of a Cummings Grant, the Health Insurance Navigation Tool (HINT) was developed. Musicians in need of health insurance advice can access HINT for free consultations. There's nothing for sale, just free, unbiased advice on how to sift through the complex world of health insurance. In addition, Alex plays guitar in the pop rock staple, Fan Modine, owns Seriously Adequate recording studio, is a Senior Contributor for Tape Op Magazine, and writes for Premier Guitar. He is a partner with an insurance agency in the Carrboro/Chapel Hill area of North Carolina. Insurance as it relates to the artist, studio owner, and musician is part of a typical day's tasks. He has been an active musician since he was nine years old, and an active fan since he was learning to crawl. In addition to appearing on various panels (SXSW '06-'012 TapeOpCon '04-'08; Potluck Con '08, '09, 12; Pop Montreal '06; FMC Policy Summits '03-'011; PopAsheville '07-'09; Six Points Music Festival '07; San Francisco Tech Summit '11; Berlin Music Week '12) to discuss the troubling state of health insurance in the U.S., he has given his time to educate young musicians as to how they can stay active in music-related projects for their entire lives.

Casey Rae

Casey Rae is a musician, recording engineer, educator, journalist and media pundit. Casey regularly speaks on issues such as new business models for artists, telecommunications policy and intellectual property at conferences, universities and in the media. He routinely works alongside leaders in the music, arts and performance sectors to bolster understanding of and engagement in key policy and technology issues, and has written dozens of articles on the impact of technology on the creative community. Casey is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University, and also serves on the Board of Directors of the Media & Democracy Coalition and the National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture. He currently records and publishes under the moniker The Contrarian and is the Grand Poobah of Lux Eterna Records.

Lissa Rosenthal

Lissa Rosenthal is a dedicated champion of the arts and a formidable music fan. She is committed to improving the lives of musicians whose work enriches everyone. Lissa brings 20 years of experience in arts leadership, advocacy and nonprofit development to her role as Executive Director of the Future of Music Coalition.

Prior to joining FMC, she was a marketing and fundraising consultant and the Development Director of the Pittsburgh Glass Center. As Director of Programs for the American Council for the Arts (presently Americans for the Arts), she spearheaded national Arts Advocacy Day and the Nancy Hanks Lecture on Arts and Public Policy in the mid-nineties. As Development Director of P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center — an affiliate of The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City — Lissa led fundraising and community outreach initiatives for the internationally renowned institution, produced its highly acclaimed Warm Up music series and played a vital role in the historic merger with MoMA.

As a social justice advocate, she has served as the National Program Director for PAX: Real Solutions to Gun Violence where she directed its highly acclaimed national public health campaigns dedicated to reducing youth gun violence in America, including SPEAK UP — a teen violence prevention initiative in partnership with Teen People Magazine, MTVNetworks and Atlantic Records. She has also worked extensively in AIDS fundraising and event production, raising millions of dollars and awareness for AIDS service organizations nationwide.

Her volunteer service includes work with Share Our Strength’s Taste of the Nation program, ranking her among their most effective national advocates. A promoter of all things green, she has authored several “green” cover features for Pittsburgh Magazine.

Kristin Thomson Consultant for Artist Revenue Streams project. Read her bio here.