Debra J.T. Padilla served as the executive director of the Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC) from 1993 to 2018. Prior to being at SPARC, Ms. Padilla was the managing director of Borderlands Theater in Tucson, Arizona, for seven years. She has served on numerous panels and committees, including but not limited to: the Rockefeller Foundation, the J. Paul Getty Trust for the Visual Arts, the Ford Foundation-Working Capital Fund Panel, the Hispanic Heritage Awards Foundation-Youth Awards Committee Chair, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Latino Theatre Council for the Latino Theatre Initiative at the Mark Taper Forum, the John Anson Ford Latino Audience Initiative Advisory Council, the Los Angeles Cultural Tourism Department, the City of Santa Monica Cultural Grants Panel, the Los Angeles County Arts Commission Civic Art Panel, the Tucson/Pima Arts Council Grants/Heritage Panel, Arizona Commission on the Arts Grants Panel, the Tucson Museum of Art Advisory Board, and served for fourteen years on the Board of Directors of Cornerstone Theater Company and for five years on the Diversity Advisory Committee for the Center Theatre Group of Los Angeles. Ms. Padilla was selected by the California Community Foundation to be part of their leadership fellowship program entitled “Ambassadors Within” and was part of the inaugural group of twelve women selected in Los Angeles for the Women’s Leadership Circle (WLC). She is a proud recipient of the Durfee Foundation Sabbatical Award.
