Lissa Rosenthal Executive Director | bio
lissa<at>futureofmusic.org

Casey Rae Deputy Director | bio
casey<at>futureofmusic.org

Chhaya Kapadia COO | Events Director | bio
chhaya<at>futureofmusic.org

Kevin Erickson Communications Associate
kevin<at>futureofmusic.org

Anna-Kaisa Kaila Operations Manager | bio
anna<at>futureofmusic.org

Jean Cook Director of Programs | bio
jean<at>futureofmusic.org

Michael Bracy Policy Director | bio
michael<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 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.

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.

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.

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 Policy Summit 2011), manages the organization's finances, keeps the website running and as snazzy as possible, and handles assorted HR duties. 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.

Anna-Kaisa Kaila

Anna-Kaisa Kaila is a musician, music researcher and music journalist - in short, an all-around music aficionada. As Operations Manager, Anna keeps the wheels of Future of Music Coalition running by managing the office, coordinating sponsorships and development, working with bookkeeping and organizing events. Prior to joining FMC, she was developing music programming at Classic Radio, managed communications for various non-profits and produced concerts and international arts education events both in the DC area and in her native Finland. Anna has BA in Communications from University of Helsinki and MA in Musicology from University of Turku.

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 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 including a multimedia DIY opera called The Nitrate Hymnal. 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. She is the co-director of the Artist Revenue Streams project.

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