Dafina is an entrepreneur, facilitator and question wizard. She has spent her career at the intersection of arts management, philanthropy, technology and communications. She is committed to bringing joy, curiosity and liberated processes to McMillan Works, a consulting business rooted in organizational development, strategic planning, staffing and team management. Current and past clients include artEquity, Black Theatre Commons, the City of Albuquerque, Center for Cultural Innovation, Mariposa Strategies, National Black Theatre, New Jersey Performing Arts Center, New Mexico Black Leadership Council, Penumbra Theatre, Revo Inc and Soul Rep Theatre Company.  

Dafina co-founded Crux, an immersive technology storytelling platform and co-op focused solely on creating and distributing content by and for Black artists. Previously, she was a program officer on the arts team of Bloomberg Philanthropies, where she managed a digital engagement initiative and a capacity-building program supporting more than 260 small and mid-sized arts organizations in six U.S. cities.  

Dafina served as the Director of Communications & Conferences for Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national service organization for not-for-profit theatre. In 2012, she was integral in launching TCG’s Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Initiative to support organizations and artists nationwide. Dafina was the Associate Managing Director of Penumbra Theatre in St. Paul, MN. She held numerous leadership positions at global public relations agency GCI Group (now Cohn & Wolfe) in New York, and consulted with the Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts on marketing and community engagement initiatives.  

Dafina is an alumna of the Kennedy Center’s International Arts Management Fellowship and a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin. She serves on the board of the National Performance Network (NPN) and is a certified Zumba® instructor based in Albuquerque, New Mexico (Tiwa Land).