Cynthia Ries, MPA, is executive director of Greater Cleveland Community Shares where she oversees fundraising for 45 social justice organizations. Her thirty years of experience in management, fundraising, and marketing for arts organizations includes posts at The Metropolitan Opera, American Composers Orchestra, Theatre Development Fund, New York State Council on the Arts, Ohio Alliance for Arts Education, New York Foundation for the Arts, and Children’s Museum of Manhattan. She has taught an arts management elective in the Milano graduate nonprofit management program at New School University. Ries serves on numerous boards including the Artist Community Federal Credit Union. She holds an MPA from NYU's Wagner School in arts policy, planning and administration.  Ries teaches Development for the Visual and Performing Arts at NYU SPS.