ARTIST PROFILE
Shaunda Erikka McDill
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Biography
Shaunda Erikka McDill founded DEMASKUS in 2006. She has nearly two decades of nonprofit executive and arts management experience. In 2017, she joined the Heinz Endowments as program officer for arts and culture, where most recently, she led the $10 million-dollar Pittsburgh’s Cultural Treasures initiative, part of the Ford Foundation’s America’s Cultural Treasures regional challenge program. Shaunda has worked for theater companies across the country, including The Goodman Theatre of Chicago, Second Stage Theatre, Yale Repertory Theatre, Pasadena Playhouse and Cornerstone Theater Company. Shaunda previously served as vice president of programming and cultivation at (the then) August Wilson Center for African American Culture. She managed all artistic and educational programs and oversaw a $1 million programming budget. As the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust’s director of public relations, she headed both national and local public relations campaigns, including all Broadway Across America productions. Shaunda has an undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College, where she studied under Pulitzer winner August Wilson, was directed by Ntozake Shange, and was instructed by Augusto Boal. She also holds an MFA in theater management from Yale University’s School of Drama. She is a member of the Alpha Alpha Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated and serves several local and national organizations and boards.
Credits and Rewards
- Shaunda is married to Homewood native Sager McDill and is the proud bonus Mom to four children, Matthew Levi Murray McDill (10), Maria & Melanie McDill (16), and Sager McDill, Jr. (19).
- For five years, Shaunda co-managed the Advancing Black Arts in Pittsburgh initiative, which received a $2 million dollar grant from novelist and philanthropist MacKenzie Scott in 2021.
- As an individual artist, Shaunda worked in residence with Quantum Theatre as part of the company’s inaugural InQubator class.
- In 2022, Shaunda co-Created & Produced Spirit Everlasting: A Tribute to Reverand Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. for which DEMASKUS received a bronze Telly Award in the non-broadcast category.