Carmen Morgan is a national activist leading conversations at the forefront of the field on equity, inclusion, and racial justice. She is the Founder and Executive Director of artEquity, a national organization that supports the intersection of art and activism. Founded in 2015, artEquity provides programming that centers the global majority and the needs of Black, Indigenous, artists and art leaders of color, with a throughline of intentional support for Black artists and leaders. With over 15,000 participants and an ever-growing alumni network, artEquity provides leadership development, community building, strategic convenings, wellness resources, and direct fiscal support to artists and activists through the Artist + Activist Community Fund and has established itself as a cornerstone organization providing culture change and equity in the arts. 

In addition, Carmen has provided leadership development and organizational planning for staff, executives, and boards for over 100 nonprofit organizations. She is the 2020 recipient of the Paul Robeson Award by Actors’ Equity Association and Actors’ Equity Foundation and a YBCA 100 honoree. She’s on faculty at Yale’s David Geffen School of Drama where she addresses issues of identity, equity, and inclusion in the arts. 

Carmen’s work is rooted in popular education, community organizing, and a commitment to social justice. She remains dedicated to community building and activism, and has worked in the nonprofit sector for over 25 years. 

For over 12 years she worked with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) on structural and organizational equity. With her guidance, OSF implemented innovative programming, policies, and new organizational structures to support ongoing inclusion efforts. In addition, she served as the consultant for Theatre Communications Group (TCG)’s diversity and inclusion initiatives and programming, where she partnered with TCG to launch a national Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Institute for theatres. She has supported national and regional cohorts and provided customized resources to theatres and arts organizations in the US and Canada, including Art Institute of Chicago, National Endowment for the Arts, New York Theatre Workshop, Woolly Mammoth, Long Wharf Theater, Hubbard Street Dance, Stages Repertory, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Cal Shakes, Steppenwolf, New York Foundation for the Arts, Association for the Performing Arts Service Organization, League of American Orchestras, Opera America, Association of Performing Arts Presenters, and Professional Association of Canadian Theatres, to name a few. 

Prior to founding artEquity, for 15 years Carmen directed Leadership Development in Interethnic Relations (LDIR), a nationally-recognized social justice program co-sponsored by Asian Americans Advancing Justice, the Central American Resource Center, and the Martin Luther King Dispute Resolution Center. Prior to her work with the LDIR program, Carmen was the Associate Regional Director for the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), an international human rights organization where she oversaw human rights work on the US/Mexico border; gay liberation and sovereignty education work in Hawai’i; and tenant rights and racial/economic justice work in California and Arizona. 

Carmen is a founding member of the California Chapter of the National Association for Multicultural Education, a former Human Services Commissioner, and is currently on the Board of Directors for Black Women for Wellness, a community-based organization serving women in South Los Angeles. She has presented at numerous national conferences including, but not limited to, the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity, National Association for Multicultural Education, Grantmakers in Health, Grantmakers in the Arts, Americans for the Arts, The California Endowment, and the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation.