KEYNOTE SPEAKER: With over nine years of experience planning and building arts education programs for diverse communities, Mauricio Salgado served as the Director of Programming for Artists Striving to End Poverty (ASTEP), a nonprofit that provides arts education and empowerment programs for underserved youth. As a founding member of ASTEP, Mauricio recruited and trained volunteers to serve in ASTEP’s domestic and international programs and managed and evaluated partnerships while researching and developing new programs. Originally from Miami, Florida, Mauricio graduated with a BFA from The Juilliard School and he is now completing an MFA in Directing at Brown University. As an actor, he appeared in Love’s Labour’s Lost at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington DC, The Cenci at Ohio Theatre, La Llorona/The Crying Woman at the Beckett Theatre, John Jezurun’s  Philoctetes at the Kaaitheater [Brussels], and the premiere of Marco Ramirez’ Mermaids, Monsters and the World Painted Purple at the Kennedy Center. Mauricio has also devised new works for Santa Clara University in California, Laguardia Community College in New York, and is currently devising a new piece at the Boston Conservatory. ​​Mauricio has been invited by organizations around the world (the Dominican Republic, South Africa, Peru and India) to teach the ASTEP methodology. In March of 2009, he was presented with the prestigious Martin E Segal Award in recognition of his work with ASTEP.