In October 2021, Denise Pate began her position as the Director of Community Investments for the San Francisco Arts Commission. Previously, as the Cultural Funding Coordinator for the City of Oakland, Denise managed their competitive, cultural arts grants process that awards over $1 million dollars to Oakland individual artists and nonprofit organizations. In 1982 she began developing and managing Denise Pate’s Dance for Children, a program that received numerous contracts in schools throughout the Bay Area. She has spent over 30 years working in the non-profit management community as an executive director, program manager, board member, development professional, dancer, and choreographer. She has raised funds, managed programs, and provided technical assistance for over 25 non-profit organizations in San Francisco, Alameda, Solano, Marin and Sonoma counties. Denise performed for many years with Dimensions Dance Theater, where she had the opportunity to work with some of the nation’s most celebrated choreographers like Donald McKayle, Garth Fagan, and Zak Diouf. She is the former Associate Director of Operations for California College of the Arts’ Center for Art and Public Life. Her past affiliations include Young Audiences, Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning through the Arts, Youth in Arts, and World Arts West (Producers of the SF Ethnic Dance Festival). She is the former Executive Director of CitiCentre Dance Theatre, a multi-cultural arts center that was once headquartered in Oakland’s Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts. She received her B.A. in Movement Education, and has an M.B.A.
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