Today, the National Arts Policy Alliance (NAPA) — a research and organizing coalition working to advance economic rights and justice for creative and cultural workers — announces the appointment of three co-directors: Althea Erickson as Director of Advocacy & Policy; Helena Huang as Director of Stewardship, and Lolan B. Sevilla as Director of Organizing.

Established in 2024, NAPA has since been administered and incubated by United States Artists with funding from Hewlett Foundation, Good Chaos, Kenneth Rainin Foundation, Barr Foundation, Doris Duke Foundation, and Rockefeller Brothers Fund. These new appointments mark a significant milestone as the organization moves from its founding co-design phase into full implementation: launching local organizing assemblies, building cross-sectoral alliances, and developing the policy infrastructure needed to win systemic economic reforms for creative workers across the country.

Together, the three directors bring decades of combined expertise in labor policy, philanthropy, civic engagement, and community organizing to the initiative’s mission of reshaping economic conditions and equity for creative and cultural workers across the nation.

Leading NAPA’s advocacy and policy work, Althea Erickson is a nationally recognized professional with more than twenty years of experience building and leading advocacy operations in both the corporate and nonprofit sectors. Her work is anchored in labor rights and social protections for the self-employed artists. Through her independent research and policy firm, Working Matters, she applies worker-centered design methodologies to co-create systems that serve those most often left out of traditional labor protections.

Erickson previously served as Director of the Sol Center for Liberated Work at the Center for Cultural Innovation, Vice President of Global Advocacy & Impact at Etsy, and Advocacy Director at Freelancers Union. She has also conducted research at the Rockefeller Foundation and served as a community and campaign organizer across multiple grassroots organizations.

Overseeing NAPA’s communications, fund development and evaluation, Helena Huang brings more than twenty-five years of leadership experience at the intersection of culture, philanthropy, and public policy. She has dedicated her career to bridging the worlds of foundations and advocacy and supporting artists, organizers, and communities in working toward lasting policy and systems change.

Most recently, she served as Project Director for the Art for Justice Fund (A4J), a time-limited fund created in partnership with the late-art collector and philanthropist Agnes Gund, the Ford Foundation, and Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. Under her leadership, A4J distributed over $127 million in grants and fellowships to more than 450 artists and advocates. Huang has also co-founded state-level civic engagement organizations and led successful campaigns for voting rights, including helping pass automatic voter registration in Oregon in 2015.

Alongside fellow Co-Directors, Lolan B. Sevilla brings to NAPA a unique expertise as a cultural worker and organizer whose practice is rooted in community, study, and sustained movement work. As Organizing Director, Sevilla will work to promote collective power building among creative and cultural workers, driving strategy toward policy reforms that establish genuine economic rights for all.

Sevilla’s approach centers cross-sectoral leadership, conflict transformation, and anti-oppression frameworks, bringing both rigor and warmth to complex coalition work across various organizations and initiatives, such as Funders for Justice, the NYC Anti-Violence Project, CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities, and more. Sevilla also serves as a newly elected Trustee of Forbes Library.

For more information on NAPA’s leadership and strategic plan, visit artspolicy.org.

About National Arts Policy Alliance
National Arts Policy Alliance (NAPA) is a coalition incubated within United States Artists in partnership with organizations across the country, dedicated to building collective power among creative and cultural workers to establish cross-sectoral economic rights for all. By providing a supportive infrastructure, NAPA seeks to mobilize artists and creative workers to advocate in solidarity with workers in other sectors to build organizing capacity, establish campaigns, and achieve success in advocacy campaigns for economic rights at the local, state and federal levels.