EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT & DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATE: Runa King
Runa King grew up in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where her dance training began at the Dance Center of Tuscaloosa and the Alabama Ballet. She went on to study politics, geology, and dance at Washington and Lee University, graduating in 2021.
After college, Runa spent several years working for Moondance Adventures, working both in operations and as a backcountry wilderness guide in Alaska and Norway. This was an experience that deepened her commitment to the relationship between art, environment, and human experience. She also completed the Camino de Santiago during this period.
Runa joined ShaLeigh Dance Works in 2023, bringing a background spanning operations, development, and institutional partnership. She has held roles at Gibney Dance Center, Joffrey Ballet School, Artichoke Dance Company, and American Ballet Theatre, and recently completed her MA in Arts Administration at Teachers College, Columbia University.
Her work is guided by a long-standing interest in the intersection of art and the natural world, which has been a thread that runs through her career in dance, her time in the wilderness, and her continued practice as a photographer.
“Working with SDW has opened my heart and mind to the expansiveness and innovation of a creative process that centers care, community, curiosity, and compassion. Supporting these artists and this team over the past three years has shown me how truly democratic thinking expands the field and helps imagine new futures. It is such a joy to work with and make art alongside these lovely humans, and I’m so excited for SDW to continue to grow and set an example for how the arts make space for community development, healthy leadership, and an equitable society!”
CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER: Jo Bear
Jo Bear is a poet, scholar, and educator. They are a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee and a 2023 Zoeglossia Fellow. They hold an MFA in Poetry from North Carolina State University and an MA in Drama and Performance Studies from University College Dublin. They are currently a PhD student in Creative Writing at the University of New Brunswick, and their poems appear or are forthcoming in Poetry Northwest, Grist, Foglifter, Apogee Journal, ONLY POEMS DAILY, The Adroit Journal, The Offing, Shō Poetry Journal, West Branch, Poetry Ireland Review, and elsewhere. They can be found on Instagram @jobearwriting or on their website jobearwriting.com.
“I am a devoted student of my own disabled bodymind and I am committed to exploring the intersection of lived experience and imagination as a way of building liberatory crip futures. I am particularly interested in the aesthetic possibilities of accessibility, a sensibility that initially drew me to SDW. While living in Ireland, I worked with numerous disabled artist collectives and performance-makers and I am deeply excited to be continuing that work with this remarkable team.”
DIRECTOR OF GRANTS: Jessica Stevermer
Jessica Stevermer is a grants professional, strategist, and longtime advocate for ShaLeigh Dance Works. Since first joining the organization as a volunteer in 2018, Jessica has become one of SDW’s most steadfast champions and a trusted thought partner to founder and Artistic Director ShaLeigh Comerford. Together, they have helped envision and shape the future of the organization, identifying new opportunities for growth, innovation, and community impact while building the resources needed to sustain that vision.
Professionally, Jessica serves as a Grants Officer at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, where she specializes in identifying funding opportunities and providing pre- and post-award support for complex research, center, and training grants. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Lynchburg University and a Master of Public Affairs from Western Carolina University. Over the course of her public health career, she has worked at the community, county, state, and university levels, supporting programs that improve health outcomes, strengthen workforce development, and expand opportunities for underserved communities.
Her expertise in research administration, grant development, strategic partnerships, and funder relations has been instrumental in helping SDW navigate periods of growth, challenge, and transformation. Often working quietly behind the scenes, Jessica has been a driving force in turning ambitious ideas into funded realities. From supporting groundbreaking artistic projects to helping secure resources for community-centered programs, her dedication has helped shape the organization’s trajectory for nearly a decade.
Jessica’s partnership, perseverance, and belief in the transformative power of the arts have helped shape SDW’s growth and expand its reach and impact.
“Behind every meaningful project is a community that believes in it. My role is helping connect vision with the resources needed to make lasting impact possible.”
CREATIVE LEADERSHIP ASSOCIATE: Sophia León
Sophia León is a queer, disabled creative – whether it be through dancing, acting or singing, movement and expression within her body is what makes her feel most alive. In her youth, she trained in modern and ballet at the City Dance Center in Maryland and took summer intensives at the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet and American Dance Festival. Through divine timing, she also took a class taught by ShaLeigh Comerford at Elon University in 2016.
She received a BA in Creative Writing and Art History with a minor in Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies. Before graduating, she wrote a blog called Dancing with Dysautonomia about her experiences navigating chronic illness, disability and her love for dance. She also published poetry, served as a collegiate writing tutor and teaching assistant in feminist theory, and went on to work for three years as an LGBTQ+ relationship specialist and matchmaker. Learning and writing about the intersection of art-making with feminist movements, queer theory and disability justice has been central to her journey.
In the Summer of 2026, she began as an intern with SDW. For her, affirming the lived experiences and innate creative power of all people through dance is a source of immense inspiration and the reclamation of her deepest dream. She looks forward to how she will be moved by and grow from the incredible voices that shape this movement.
“In my body, I have always related to dance as a spiritual portal to an inner world of light; My belief that every human being deserves access to this portal was validated when I found ShaLeigh Dance Works.”
BOARD
ShaLeigh Comerford, President
Dorothy Recasner Brown, Vice President
Steckley Lee, Treasurer
Davian Robinson, Access Committee Chair
Chemae Mebane, Member-at-large
ADVISORS
Fran Kirmser, Fran Kirmser Productions
Myra Weise, Proxemic Media