IAC Board Members

Current IAC Members

Anica Isabel Acuña - PRESIDENT

Sanger, CA & Summerville, SC
Stage Manager (Theater), Second-Year

Anica has worked on musicals, plays, operas, new works, and more! Recent credits include Something Rotten!, Romeo et Juliet, The Ana Project, and The Tragedy of Coriolanus. She is a member of Columbia's Student Leadership Advisory Council and enjoys getting involved in community in any shape or form. Anica is a coffee enthusiast and loves reading, dancing, cooking traveling, and is a big fan of the oxford comma (used thrice in this bio).

Anyang Kual Ayai - VICE PRESIDENT

Chattanooga, TN
Writing, Second-Year

Anyang (She/Her/Hers) is a second year essayist who writes cultural and music criticism, and experiments with lyrical aesthetics on the page. She loves going to the movies (shoutout AMC Stubs A-list members!), taking walks along Morningside and Riverside Parks, and exploring different boroughs in the city. A fun fact about her: she is a South Sudanese and her name in Dinka means crocodile!

Kailynne Lee Chiu - TREASURER

Taipei, Taiwan & Boston, MA
Creative Producing (Film & TV), Second-Year

Kailynne (She/Her/Hers) is a second-year M.F.A. candidate in Creative Producing at Columbia University's School of the Arts, where she also serves as Admissions Assistant and Artists’ Resource Center fellow, and holds leadership roles in the Green Film School Alliance. At ARC, she counsels students and alumni on resume building, grants, and fellowships, while also connecting them with relevant professional development resources. When she's not working, you can find her museum and bar hopping around the city, playing flute, hitting the tennis courts, or settling in with a historical film and her favorite country and jazz tunes.

Alek Green - SECRETARY

Victoria BC & Halifax, NS
Sound Art, Second-Year

Alek (He/Him/His) creates opportunities for somatic listening and playful collaboration through printed matter, video, sound, and performance. He loves being outside with microphones, playing pretend, dancing, and hanging out. 

Laila Anise Bearden

Hayward, CA
Film MFA, Second-Year

Laila Bearden (She/Her/They/Them) is a filmmaker and educator who is committed to showcasing the complex spectrum of the human experience – specifically focused on Black and queer characters. She has a fascination with the horror and thriller genres, and is an advocate for supporting one’s community. 

Zacha Del Rosario

New York, NY
Creative Producing, Third Year

Z is a NYC native whose documentary, experimental, and transmedial works foreground co‑creation, ethics, and measurable impact. Drawing on Peace Corps service in Madagascar and a Fulbright in Hungary, they bring systems thinking, pragmatic resourcefulness, and a listen‑first spirit to their role as Salon Chair on Columbia’s Interdisciplinary Arts Council.

Brittany Camacho

New Jersey
Theater (Acting), Third Year

Brittany Camacho is a 3rd year acting student from New Jersey. After organizing an entrepreneurship workshop with the IAC last year she decided to apply for a position in the IAC. She’s excited to lead more events that foster connections that thrive beyond the rooms of Dodge. Her intention is to help you make the most of your experience at Columbia. 

Dayana Matasheva

New York, NY & Montreal, MFA
Visual Arts, First-Year

Dayana Matasheva (She/Her) is a writer, video artist, and filmmaker whose work examines algorithmic automation, AI, labor outsourcing, and global social media trends. Drawing on psychoanalysis, literature, and cinema, she stages moving-image installations that test what remains of authorship, agency, and narrative coherence when machines mediate production and circulation. Her practice proceeds from the premise that questions of good and evil, life and death, and the possibility of transcendence persist within automated climates. Matasheva is the co-founder of a corporate artist duo, DemonLovers Inc. She is a Fulbright Canada scholar currently in the MFA at Columbia University, with recent support from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec (CALQ), and LOJIQ, with solo and group exhibitions in Montreal and internationally.

Iris (Yi Youn) Kim

Seoul, San Jose, and Los Angeles
Nonfiction, First-Year

Iris (Yi Youn) Kim (She/Her/Hers) is a first-year MFA candidate in nonfiction writing. She’s currently working on a memoir about her experience navigating the legal system as a Korean American woman. Previously, she worked on digital, audio, and video stories at NBC News, Wondery, and HBO Max. When she's not writing, you can find her eating tacos, watching Korean dramas, or napping.

Leon Li

Hangzhou, China & New York, NY
Film and Media Studies, First-Year

Leon Li (He/Him/His) is a first year graduate student in Film and Media Studies.

Miguel Gallego

New York, NY
Sound Art, Second Year

Miguel Gallego (He/Him/His) is a New York-based artist and musician. Working with sound, video, and language, his practice examines the elusive ways the various mediums we use to communicate shape and condition our daily experience. He is particularly interested in signal and noise as a crucial site of ideological and technological contestation in contemporary life. He uses gestures, programmatic processes, and acts of (mis)translation to uncover the elisions and assumptions in the heuristics we use to parse signal from noise in the din of the everyday. He has exhibited work at the Wallach Art Gallery, TRAMPS, and TheBLANC.

Osimiri Sprowal

Playwriting MFA, First Year

Osimiri Sprowal (they/them) is an Afro-Indigenous, Trans/queer, and Disabled writer and musician from Philly, by way of New Orleans. They got their start in slam poetry over a decade ago, and have evolved  into a curious multidisciplinary artist. They are an internationally award winning slam poet (CUPSI 2018), and have performed poetry and facilitated workshops nationwide. They were the founder of deadname.arts, Philly’s first exclusively Trans and gender-expansive art collective. Their first chapbook Gemini: Duality of Self, was a winner of the 2019 Shockwire Micro Chapbook Contest.  They were a 2021 Co-Lab Arts Artist in Resident. Most recently, they received the 2022 Marshall Scholarship, and completed a MA in Applied Theatre from the University of Warwick, and MSc of Human Rights from the LSE. Their play, Perseus, appeared as a staged reading at the 2024 Camden Fringe Festival in London. Outside of the arts, they work in activism, specializing in LGBT and housing justice.

Sahil Verma

Hyderabad, India

Sahil (He/Him) is a first year MFA student in non fiction with an uncontrollable gravitation to contemporary art. His work focuses on ekphrasis. He got his start by publishing a coffee table book titled Hyd and Seekh at the age of 15, working to revive traditional Hyderabadi culinary traditions and that process has evolved into a creative practice that has its roots firmly in the oral tradition culture of India. His work operates under the idea that we are all museums of experience and in seeking out art, we are unlocking new rooms in this museum. If you see him around, ask for a music recommendation!

Past Members

2024–2025

Anshool Pradhan
PRESIDENT
Writing

Nailah Jonquil Smith
VICE PRESIDENT
Writing

Anica Acuña
SECRETARY
Theater

Kailynne lee Chiu
TREASURER
Film

Melissa d’Arabian (Film)
Zacha D. R. (Film)
Alek Green (Visual Arts)
Anyang Kual Ayai (Writing)
Ása Önnu Ólafsdóttir (Sound Arts)
Xiaoyu Song (Film and Media Studies)

2023–2024

Ghina Fawaz
PRESIDENT
Theatre

Helna Volbeta
VICE PRESIDENT
Film

Nailah Smith
SECRETARY
Writing

Anshool Pradhan
TREASURER
Writing

Emerita Baik (Visual Arts)
A.G. Berman (Writing)
Melissa d'Arabian (Theatre)
Danica Kelley (Theatre)
Hetvi Pathak (Film)
Yejia Sun (Theatre)
Ann Wang (Film and Media Studies)
Shuyin Zheng (Film)

2022–2023

Emily Johnson
PRESIDENT
Writing

Ariel Joy So
VICE PRESIDENT
Writing

Rebecca Winterich-Knox
SECRETARY
Writing

Nicholas Farhi
TREASURER
Visual Arts

Sharvari Bhat (Film)
Mary Alex Daniels (Theatre)
Meiyi Liu (Film and Media Studies)
Nathan Motulsky (Writing)
Alison Nguyen (Visual Arts)
DeAndre Short (Theatre)
Helena Volbeta (Film)
Patrick Wei (FIlm)

2021–2022

Anthony Sertel Dean
PRESIDENT
Sound Art

Kyra Armstrong
VICE PRESIDENT
Theatre

Cal Langston
SECRETARY
Theatre

María De Barros (Theatre)
Sharvari Bhat (Film)
Mary Alex Daniels (Theatre)
Tara Ebrahimian (Film)
Zuko Garagić (Film)
Ariel Joy So (Writing)
Patrick Wei (Film)
Rebecca Winterich-Knox (Writing)

2020-2021

Nicole Saldarriaga
PRESIDENT
Writing

Fernando González Ortiz
VICE PRESIDENT
Film

Ye Odelia Lu
SECRETARY
Writing

Yuri Yuan
TREASURER
Visual Arts

Kyra Armstrong (Theatre)
Sean Anthony Chia (Theatre)
Hallel Mujingila Diakalenga (Film)
Yulong Hu (Film and Media Studies)
Callie Langston (Theatre) 
Aurora Real de Asua (Film)
Anthony Sertel Dean (Sound Arts)
Khari Turner (Visual Arts)

2019-2020

John Brunner
PRESIDENT
Theatre

Raad Rahman
VICE PRESIDENT
Writing

Felix Van Kann
SECRETARY
Film

Sean Chia
TREASURER
Theatre

Julian Day (Sound Art)
Lila Mullins (Theatre)
Khari Turner (Visual Arts)
Fernando González Ortiz (Film)
Jie Zou (Film and Media Studies)
Nicole Saldarriaga (Writing)
Yuri Yuan (Visual Arts)
Hallel Mujingila Diakalenga (Film)
Ye Odelia Lu (Writing)

2018-2019

Kate Irwin 
PRESIDENT
Writing

Manola Gonzalez 
VICE PRESIDENT
Writing

Karlee Rodrigues
SECRETARY
Film and Media Studies

Barbara Twist 
TREASURER
Film

Kamari Carter (Sound Art)
Brianna Williams (Writing) 
Jacquelyn Gallo (Writing)
Mengtai Zhang (Sound Art)
Julian Day (Sound Art)
Felix van Kann (Film)
Lila Mullins (Theatre)
John Brunner (Theatre) 
Sean Chia (Theatre) 

2017-2018

Christopher Maxwell
PRESIDENT
Theatre

Kate Irwin (Spring 2018), Writing
Catherine Kosiba (Fall 2017), Film
VICE PRESIDENT

Brianna Williams
SECRETARY
Writing

Tina Chang
TREASURER
Theatre

Claire Brooks (Film)
Kamari Carter (Sound Art)
Myranda D'Apolito (Film and Media Studies)
Jacquelyn Gallo (Writing)
Manola Gonzalez (Writing)
Kate Irwin (Writing)
Philippa Kane (Theatre)
Kio Shijiki (Film)
Barbara Twist (Film)
Mengtai Zhang (Sound Art)

2016–2017

Irene Plax
PRESIDENT
Writing

Christopher Maxwell (Spring 2017)
Rory McGregor (Fall 2016)
VICE PRESIDENT
Theatre

Catherine Kosiba
SECRETARY
Film

Apoorva Charan
TREASURER
Film

Tina Chang (Theatre)
Nana Dakin (Theatre)
Yingjia (Lemon) Guo (Sound Art)
Hugh Hayden (Visual Arts)
Jane Rebecca Marchant (Writing)
Kalle Mattila (Writing)
Bryan Perley (Writing)
Ayal Prouser (Film Studies)
Kio Shijiki (Film)

2015–2016

Benita de Wit (Theatre) PRESIDENT
Michael Scholar, Jr. (Theatre) VICE PRESIDENT
Jessica Shields (Film) SECRETARY
Mustafa Kaymak (Film) TREASURER

Jane Rebecca Marchant (Writing)
Daniel Lefferts (Writing)
Irene Plax (Writing)
Apoorva Guru Charan (Film)
Sara Stern (Visual Arts)
Ilana Harris-Babou (Visual Arts)
Alice Emily Baird (Sound Art)
Rory McGregor (Theatre)
Paige Carter (Theatre)

2014-2015

Bonnie Chau (Writing)
Carla Cisno (Sound Art)
Benita de Wit (Theatre)
Mustafa Kaymak (Film)
Catherine Kirch (Writing)
Elina Mishuris (Writing)
Gina O'Connor (Visual Arts)
Mackenzie Roberts (Film)
Valerie Schenkman (Film)
Michael Scholar, Jr. (Theatre)
Jessica Shields (Film)
Vivian Qin (Visual Arts)
Xiaoshi Vivian (Visual Arts)

2010 - 2011
**Information Coming Soon**               
                
2009 - 2010
**Information Coming Soon**