Karen Gahl-Mills, executive director

Karen Gahl-Mills brings over two decades of arts administration experience to Cuyahoga Arts & Culture. She is widely recognized for her innovative perspective on the role that artists and arts organizations can play in building vibrant communities, and she has built a reputation as a forward-thinking leader and champion for good governance and financial responsibility in organizations.

Ms. Gahl-Mills was named Executive Director of Cuyahoga Arts & Culture in November, 2009. Under her leadership, the five-year old agency remains one of the nation's top five sources of local public funding for arts and culture. In total, CAC has granted almost $65 million dollars to 150 local arts organizations, big and small, throughout Cuyahoga County.

Ms. Gahl-Mills’ career began in Los Angeles where she worked for an award-winning cinematographer as part of a team creating national and international advertising for many well-known global brands. Her work then led her to Chicago and back to her roots as a musician, first as a development officer for the celebrated Ravinia Festival, summer home to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and then as Managing Director of The Rhythm Cafe, an award-winning advertising music production company. Ms. Gahl-Mills went on to serve as executive director of the Westchester Philharmonic and then as President and Executive Director of the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra.

Ms. Gahl-Mills’ civic endeavors include service on the board of directors for Copland House and Positively Cleveland, and on the visiting committee for the Maxine Goodman Levin School of Public Affairs at Cleveland State University. She is an experienced grant panelist, having been appointed to serve on panels for the Ohio Arts Council, the New York State Council on the Arts, the New Jersey State Commission on the Arts, and the Connecticut Commission for the Arts. She is a member of the Leadership Cleveland class of 2011, participated in the inaugural Executive Leadership Program for the League of American Orchestras in 2007, and was named one of Westchester’s “40 Under 40,” an award given by the Business Council of Westchester, Class of 2005.

Ms. Gahl-Mills holds a Bachelor of Music degree from DePaul University and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. A vocalist and former cellist, she currently resides in Cleveland Heights, Ohio with her husband, Laurence Mills-Gahl, a software developer and trombonist.