New York, NY – MacDowell, the nation’s first artist residency program, has announced that Chiwoniso “Chi” Kaitano will join as executive director, succeeding DG member Philip Himberg as the 10th person to lead the organization since 1907. Kaitano’s appointment received unanimous support by MacDowell’s Board of Directors at a special meeting Tuesday afternoon after an international search conducted by Management Consultants for the Arts. Kaitano is the former executive director of Girl Be Heard, a global NGO that advocates for social change through performing arts and storytelling in all of its forms.

Kaitano, who will begin her job in MacDowell’s New York offices on March 13, said in a statement, “I look forward to working with the board and staff to sustain and grow funding and to build upon the extraordinary vision for artist support that Edward and Marian MacDowell articulated when they welcomed the first artists-in-residence...I am thrilled and honored to be part of advancing this important mission.”

Originally from Zimbabwe, Kaitano holds a law degree from the London School of Economics and a Master’s in International Affairs from Columbia University’s School for International and Public Affairs. She began her career in human rights activism, where she helped build community programs for non-profits such as the Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation and SEEDCO. She serves on the boards of the International Contemporary Ensemble, The Center for Fiction, the Downtown Brooklyn Arts Alliance, and the Jazz Leaders Fellowship—a program of the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music—and is founder of the literary series TheSALON. She is an avid traveler and has lived on three continents.