Sasha Anawalt, director
Sasha Anawalt is director of arts journalism programs at USC Annenberg School for Communication. In August, she launched a new Master’s degree program in Specialized Journalism - the Arts, which is a partnership with the five USC arts schools.

Anawalt is a lecturer on the USC Annenberg faculty, teaching arts reporting to graduate and undergraduate students. Founding director of the USC Annenberg/Getty Arts Journalism Program and founding director of the NEA Arts Journalism Institute in Theater and Musical Theater at USC Annenberg, Anawalt runs both fellowships as she has for the past seven years. She wrote the best-selling cultural biography, The Joffrey Ballet: Robert Joffrey and the Making of an American Dance Company and served as chief dance critic for the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, LA Weekly and KCRW, National Public Radio in Santa Monica. Her dance, theater and television writing for the New York Times, New York Times Magazine, Los Angeles Times, Montreal Gazette, Dance Magazine, TV Guide, Ballet Review, KUSC and MSNBC are archived online. Her recent writing can be found on ARTicles, the blog for the National Arts Journalism Program.

Anawalt served on the 2006 and 2007 Pulitzer Prize Committee juries for criticism. A native of New York City and a graduate of Barnard College, Anawalt serves on the advisory board for Art Sanctuary in Philadelphia, the board of L.A. Stage Alliance and is an official USC Ambassador. She holds the office of Arts and Culture Commissioner for District 5 in Pasadena, where her husband, three children and she have a home.

Arianna Sikorski, program coordinator 
Arianna Sikorski is program coordinator for the USC Annenberg/Getty Arts Journalism Program and the NEA Arts Journalism Institute in Theater and Musical Theater at USC Annenberg School for Communication. Before taking on this position in 2006, she was the voiceover scheduler for Sutton, Barth and Vennari Talent Agency, managing a schedule with over 200 clients.  She previously held the position of production coordinator for USC Thornton School of Music for four years working on over 500 concerts annually with guest artists such as Randy Newman, Bobby McFerrin and Yo-Yo Ma.  Arianna was also a key member of the support staff for Thornton’s esteemed Grammy’s in the Schools program. Through the University of Pittsburgh, she was a student on the Fall 2005 Semester at Sea program and served as the A/V Assistant for the ship. Onboard, she had the rare privilege of one-on-one conversations with Archbishop Desmond Tutu, 1984 Nobel Peace Prize winner, the program’s keynote speaker and guest teacher for their travels across the Atlantic Ocean from Brazil to South Africa.  Educated at Idyllwild Arts Academy, her involvement in and passion for theatre, dance, music, poetry and visual art is extensive. Arianna is a graduate of the University of Southern California in communications with a minor in cinema/television.