Debbie Chinn

Debbie Chinn (she/her) brings over 30 years of professional experience at all levels of arts administration to partner strategically with organizations on emergency, annual and capital fundraising; organizational effectiveness; mentorship; community engagement and board development.

Debbie has held Executive and Managing Director roles at Theatreworks Silicon Valley; Baltimore Center Stage; California Shakespeare Theater; Opera Parallele; Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey; Carmel Bach Society; and currently for Anna Deavere Smith’s Pipeline Girls Project.  She serves on several boards, including as Board President of the San Francisco Community Music Center. Debbie’s leadership work in community engagement is featured as one of 13 case studies in “Creative Social Change: Leadership for a Healthy World” in the International Leadership Association Series, available through Amazon.

Full Bio:

Debbie has held C-suite positions as Executive Director of TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, Opera Parallèle, Carmel Bach Festival, as Managing Director of California Shakespeare Theatre, Baltimore’s Center Stage, and Shakespeare Theater of New Jersey. She was engaged as a consultant by the Philadelphia Orchestra to support the acquisition of international corporate sponsorships and the planning of global exchange programs associated with their inaugural China Residency Initiative which launched in Beijing, China in May 2012 to coincide with the 40th anniversary of President Nixon’s historic visit to the People’s Republic of China.

From 2020 – 2024, she was the Managing Director for Anna Deavere Smith’s “Pipeline Girls” Project. The Project addresses inequality by working within communities of Indigenous people and people of color, eliciting their stories, and providing them with meticulously constructed opportunities for expression. 

Debbie serves as Board President of the San Francisco Community Music Center and is on the board of the Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco. She is past-Board Chair of Theatre Bay Area. On a national level, she served on the Leadership Council of the National Small Business Association - the nation’s first small-business advocacy organization based in Washington. D.C.  Her past board affiliations include Theatre Communications Group, the Association of California Symphony Orchestras (Board President), and Network of Ensemble Theatres.

Debbie’s transformative leadership work in the realm of community engagement is featured as one of 13 case studies in “Creative Social Change: Leadership for a Healthy World” in the International Leadership Association Series, available through Amazon, which assembles thought leaders to reimagine leadership in building a healthy, sustainable, and equitable world.

The breadth of her entire career - as an artist, performer, community builder, event producer, board member, mentor, consultant, activist, author, and CEO - will be archived with the Performing Arts Legacy Project. She will be known as a Legacy Artist joining esteemed colleagues such as Len Cariou, Dana Ivey, Randall Duk Kim, Andre de Shields, LeRoy Reams, and other creative artists whose careers will also be archived and memorialized. She is the first arts executive to be included in this Project.

Her book, “Dancing in Their Light, a Daughter’s Unfinished Memoir”, published in March 2022, chronicles her life growing up in a restaurant and Polynesian nightclub as influenced by the pioneering impact her family of immigrants have made to advance the fields of research, science, medicine, academia, engineering, arts, humanities, cultural diplomacy, and culinary hospitality in the U.S. Her recent book, “Year of the Dragon – a Colorable Graphic Memoir” was published in January 2024. She has a third book under development with a scheduled published date of Fall 2024.For more information, go to www.debbiechinn.com.