In Transition: Alliance Theatre Board of Directors Elects Jocelyn Hunter as Chairperson

In her capacity as board chair, Hunter will help lead the Alliance through two seasons of recovery and growth post-COVID, which will see an ever-bolder effort by the staff of the theater to carry out their mission of expanding hearts and minds onstage and off.

STORY BY Kathleen Covington

In December of 2020, Jocelyn Hunter was chosen as the new Chair of the Alliance Theatre’s Board of Directors. She previously served as the Vice Chair of the Board of Directors, is a member of the Governance and Executive Committees, and has served on the Alliance Theatre Board of Directors since 2006. As Vice President and Deputy General Counsel for Home Depot, Hunter brings a wealth of leadership and legal experience to her role as Alliance Board Chair. She is also the first person of color elected to Chair any board of directors at the Woodruff Arts Center.

“We have been tremendously fortunate in having had a streak of fiercely smart and deeply passionate board leaders, and I’m delighted to see that trend continuing,” said Susan V. Booth, Jennings Hertz Artistic Director of Alliance Theatre.

In addition to her deep support and involvement with the

Alliance, Hunter’s long history of volunteerism and leadership has benefited numerous organizations and causes in the Atlanta community. Additional volunteer positions include serving on the Advisory Board for the Duke Law Center for Judicial Studies, as a fellow of The College of Labor and Employment Lawyers, and as a member of the Board of Visitors of Duke Law School, where she is cochair of the Future of the Profession task force. Hunter also serves as the Board Chair for the Atlanta History Center. In 2013, Hunter had the prestigious honor of receiving the Georgia Multicultural Leadership Award.

Hunter succeeds Lila Hertz as the previous Chair. Under Hertz’s leadership, the Alliance successfully completed its first season on the brand-new Coca-Cola Stage, welcoming tens of thousands of new and returning patrons to this beautiful, state-of-the-art venue. The Alliance also expanded its education and in-school partnerships focused on literacy, learning, and imagination to more than 90,000 annual participants, as well as codified and launched antibias and allyship training programs for corporate and non-profit clients through its Alliance@work corporate training department. With Hertz’s long-standing, deep, and thoughtful leadership, the Alliance also finished a successful strategic planning phase in December 2020 which saw the theater reach for growth and expanded mission from 2021-2025.

“Lila Hertz has been and continues to be,” Booth continued, “a consummate example of a tireless and inspiring leader who is ready, willing, and able to spend her phenomenal social capital on behalf of the Alliance. That we get to follow that with Jocelyn Hunter’s leadership is truly a gift that builds strength on strength. Jocelyn has a brilliant strategic mind and has long been a driving voice both within and on behalf of the Alliance. I so look forward to these next years of her thought partnership and guidance as the theatre moves ever upward and onward.”

Jocelyn Hunter's term as Board Chair will start June 1, 2021.