Kacy O’Brien (Director of Programming) has led cross-sector teams in Camden, Asbury Park, Trenton, Highlands, Elizabeth, Atlantic City, the Skylands region (tri-county), and Hammonton through CNJ’s engagement process, including planning and facilitating large-scale public engagement events for each community, and for three statewide engagement events focused on regional collaboration. She helps communities to leverage their own creativity and innovation through coaching and network building beyond public engagement events. As a facilitator for retreats, panels and conferences, she has conducted workshops on creative decision-making, community engagement, leadership, and time management for groups such as the Environmental Leadership Program, Geraldine R. Dodge Emerging Leaders, Citizens Campaign, and creative placemaking initiatives.
As a theatre producer, she spent the majority of her career developing and producing new plays. She joined Passage in 2007 from Manhattan Theatre Club where she worked on original, award-winning Broadway and off-Broadway productions with artists including Cynthia Nixon, Jeff Daniels, David Lindsey-Abaire, Michael Cerveris, and Donna Murphy. At Passage, she oversaw producing, technical, and administrative activities.
She also managed and produced Passage’s environmental collaborations – an unprecedented collaboration between Passage and New Jersey-based environmental organizations to bring environmental justice-themed shows to the stage, as well as lectures, workshops and classes on environmental issues to local schools and universities. Artists included Climbing PoeTree, Peter Donaldson, and Kaiulani Lee. Passage’s environmental project culminated in Dancescapes New Jersey – a collaboration between a youth jazz trio, DanceSpora Dance Company, Passage and D&R Greenway Land Trust in two outdoor parks, one rural and one urban, preceded by nature walks with local experts, poetry readings, and a touring photographic exhibition of the process. See the video of Dancescapes from CivicStory here.
In addition, she is Victoria Emerging Leaders Program (VELP) ’18 Fellow, Lead NJ ’15 Fellow, a member of the Geraldine R. Dodge Emerging Leaders, and volunteered for six years at the Mercer County Wildlife Center where she helped to rehabilitate all manner of wildlife.
