Board of Directors

Chair

Reneé Rodríguez is an instructional designer and strategist, as well as an award-winning theatre director, instructor, and private coach.  San Francisco might best recognize Reneé’s name as the founder of the Bay Area Actors Network Group (BAANG), a social network which ran for 8 years, long before Facebook or blogs came into recognition. As Executive Director of Curious Frog Theatre Company (2007-2012), she produced and directed several plays and events. Under Reneé’s direction, Toni Seger’s Rope of Sands, part of the 2011 Planet Connections Festivity, earned nominations for Best Playwright and Best Actress, as well as Best One-Act Production Set. Reneé earned her MFA at Indiana University Bloomington, is an associate member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, and an associate member of the Association for Talent Development. As an actor, she has worked with theatre companies in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boise, and Chicago, earning awards for acting and directing, and appearing on PBS shows, local and regional commercials, and podcasts as a director, executive director, and strategist. Reneé formerly worked with the Board of EILEEN FISHER, Inc., and has served as Board Chair for Curious Frog Theatre Company in NYC and Act Now! Theatre Company in the San Francisco/Bay Area.  She has also served on the Advisory Board of Opera Singers Initiative, and has spent some time working with a Forbes 50 company board. It is her pleasure to serve as Board Chair for a dance company as authentic as Amalgamate. When not designing, strategizing or coaching, Reneé can be found around Brooklyn with her 8-year-old son or at home extracting LEGOs embedded in the bottoms of her feet!

President

Alana Marie Urda is the Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Amalgamate, where she pursues using dance for a purpose through her choreographic works, documentaries and company events. Urda has envisioned and produced a range of distinguished dance events, charity projects, and educational workshops with Amalgamate. Her repertoire has been celebrated in renowned NYC venues and tours both nationally and internationally. Commissioned for numerous projects, she has set choreography on dancers across the states and presented work at Jacob's Pillow Inside/Out Series, Boston University, BBKings, Sant'Angelo in Vado, Italy, Brunei, Asia, The Times Center, Ailey Citigroup, and Merce Cunningham Studio. With a BFA in dance from FSU, she is Co-Director of The Trinity School After School Program, a Teaching Artist at New York City Center and The Events in Orlando, FL. Her extensive freelance highlights include choreographing for Lily Chiam’s debut album concert in Brunei, Asia and Off-Broadway productions, Angels, the Musical / Duke Theatre, Dear Mr. Rosan / 777 Theatres, and Into the Woods Jr./ The Marjorie S. Deane Little Theater. She has worked with artists such as Peter Kalivas, Ronnie Demarco, Suzanne Farrell, Dan Wagoner, and Jawole Zollar. As an entrepreneur, she continues to create dance events that involve community engagement and provide more job opportunities for dancers.  Alana is a mama of 2 energetic boys and can be found at the nearby park playing baseball or tending to skateboarding and rollerblading injuries!

Vice President

​Marcus Cheong is a producer and project manager for media, live events and design based in New York. In 2008 Marcus became the producer of the musical Angels and the subject of the documentary series Angels in New York. In 2011-12 Marcus was a project manager in affiliate marketing at Halogen TV.  In 2012 Marcus produced the live stream of The Global Citizen Festival from Central Park, New York, which was performed to a live audience of 60,000 and broadcast to millions around the world. From 2012 to 2014, Marcus was the project manager for 9 time Tony award winner Tommy Tune. Marcus is the manager of Sera Angels LLC which is producing Angels on stage and across multiple media formats including, audio recordings, video and books.

Treasurer

​Jennifer McMillon, Certified Public Accountant, has worked in the Financial Services Industry for the past five years and currently works at Centerbridge Partners, L.P. She is a Certified Public Accountant licensed in Georgia and New York. Jennifer is active in the charity community, focusing on organizations that target education and cancer awareness. Jennifer has a great appreciation for the arts and acknowledges the hard work and sacrifice that comes with every performance.

Secretary

Sarah Foster is an interdisciplinary performing artist and producer with a background in contemporary dance, theater, and opera, and has been a company member with Amalgamate since 2011. For over twenty years, she has produced and choreographed a variety of compelling dance theater works, ranging from full length stage productions, to immersive site-specific events on Governors Island, to music videos for the Afro-punk band, The Gentleman Brawlers. She has produced several of Amalgamate’s events throughout the years including the Amalgamate Artist Series and Guest Artist Showcases and has also participated in several of Amalgamate’s Italy programs. Beyond the performing world, she has over ten years of experience in the magazine publishing industry and has an MBA in Public and Nonprofit Management, an MS in Information Systems, an MS in Arts Administration, and a BA in French Language and Literature. Her goal in life is to make beautiful things and to make people happy (and to someday speak Italian fluently)!

Board Director-at-Large

Bindia Malhotra is a lawyer, philanthropist and thought leader whose experience spans the globe from London, Hong Kong, Singapore and New York. Having worked for Allen and Overy, Citibank and Amex, Bindia's legal expertise focuses on banking, finance and corporate law. Now based in New York, Bindia has been deeply involved in building the community through active involvement in schools, churches and charities. She has served as president of the PTA at Parkside School and is currently chair of The Faculty and Staff Appreciation Committee at Basis School. In her role as a leader of Connect Groups at C3 Church Manhattan, she has coordinated significant assistance for the RDJ Refugee Shelter, Bowery Mission, Habitat for Humanity and UWS Family Group. Bindia has a long-standing commitment for the creative arts and supports The Art Refinery and Sera Angels as a legal consultant. Bindia looks forward to combining her professional expertise, passion for the community and love for the arts with Amalgamate.​

Board Advisory

​Kayla Carpenter has held various roles at JetBlue since 2010 and currently leads JetBlue’s award-winning volunteer programs which drive engagement for more than 23,000 crew members in over 100 destinations. In 2016, Kayla led the brand launch of JetBlue For Good, which brought together a broad range of social impact work JetBlue supports year-round under one overarching platform. She began her career in NYC at Roundabout Theatre Company where she worked on classroom-based and theatre-based education programs. She later joined their Development office, supporting various fundraising events and campaigns. Kayla earned a Bachelor of Music in Music Education from Grove City College and is thrilled to be serving Amalgamate and its mission to “dance for a purpose.” After joining Amalgamate behind the scenes in 2008, she quickly became invested in the company’s commitment to providing opportunities to emerging artists and using meaningful collaboration to impact new audiences through dance.