IMPACTability: The Nonprofit Leaders' Podcast · Soukup Strategic Solutions

From Stage to Strategy: Using Creativity to Strengthen Communities

October 21, 2025·50 min·4 clips

Alicia Dawn recalls yelling 'stop' at age two when ballet appeared on TV, sparking her journey to becoming a professional dancer.

Cheryl Sukup opens by naming Impactability as a place where nonprofit leaders can pick up useful ideas, resources, advice, and sector stories, then welcomes Alicia Dawn from United Arts Collier. Alicia receives the invitation warmly, and the conversation settles into a clear interview about leadership, community need, and the tricky job of being one arts organization that works with many partners at once. The word Alicia keeps coming back to is ecosystem. She describes United Arts Collier as an organization that listens across the community, notices gaps, and responds when arts access or arts needs are not being met. Cheryl puts that in plainer terms: from a layperson view, the organization brings different arts groups to the table instead of serving one art form or one corner of the community. Alicia takes that and makes it sharper. United Arts Collier is both a convener and a catalyst. That gives the work a friendly but active shape. Cheryl has a nice little moment with those science words, and it says a lot about the show's style. A leadership term does not stay abstract for long. It turns into a way to talk about service. From there, the conversation moves toward health. Cheryl points to United Arts Collier's work across health, health care, health needs, and the arts, and Alicia agrees to explain the connection. First, she backs up to when she came on board and had to explain an organization that simply does a lot. Her examples include free arts programs for 2,500 students annually, advocacy work, arts funding, arts education, arts community building, and arts advocacy. That part will feel familiar to nonprofit leaders. The episode is strongest when Alicia is trying to make a broad mission sound clear without flattening it. By the end, listeners are sent toward contact information, the Impactability newsletter, subscribing, and leaving a review so other nonprofit peers can find the show.

As heard by us

An arts nonprofit working as a convener, catalyst, and bridge for the community.

Alicia Dawn argues for United Arts Collier as a convener and catalyst, not just a program provider. The conversation stays close to the ground: listening to the community, serving 2,500 students each year with free art programs, and pushing for arts funding beyond the…

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Why you'd press play

Hear how an arts nonprofit acts as a convener and catalyst, linking community needs with the arts.

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