Karen Farber serves as the first Director of the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts, a position she has held since December 2005. Ms. Farber was previously Major Gifts Officer for Houston Grand Opera, and prior to moving to Houston in 2004, served as Director of Development for Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts. She has been a strategic planning and management fellow at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., and has worked in administration and programming at New York City cultural organizations including the 92nd Street Y; the Eldridge Street Project, a museum on New York’s Lower East Side; and International Production Associates, a production and management company for the performing arts. Ms. Farber is a New York City native, was raised in Los Angeles, and is a graduate of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts with an M.A. in Performance Studies, and a B.F.A. in Experimental Theater. She serves on the boards of the Fresh Arts Coalition, Lawndale Art Center, and The Catastrophic Theatre.