Zoot Velasco, Executive Director
(also handles PR/Marketing, Performing Arts & Communications)
Zoot started in the arts with a twelve year career as a dancer, mime and actor starting in 1982. He holds a BA degree in Dance from St. Mary’s College. He toured his oneman stage shows internationally; appeared in commercials, film and television; and taught in schools, juvenile halls, prisons, malls and hospitals under 16 grants and numerous commissions. He created and produced programs including the 1992 CACLA Riot Recovery Program in Watts with the California Arts Council and the 1994 Los
Angeles Earthquake Recovery Program. He received a California Arts Council Multi‐Cultural Community Leadership Fellows award and a City of Pasadena Fellows award and many commendations from the City of LA, Long Beach, Ventura and Oxnard for his community work.

From 1994‐2000, he managed a prison arts program creating the first inmate music CDs produced in prison, the first youth deterrent program in the form of a play and handmade books in museum collections at the Getty, Hammer and Library of Congress. In 2000, he managed all cultural programs in the Harbor area and opened four new art centers for the City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department. In 2002, he left the City to work as a non‐profit arts consultant raising more than two million dollars for a dozen organizations and planned four new youth centers. He served as a long‐term consultant for Bethune Theatredanse in 2003, a dance company of disabled youth. At the helm of the
Unusual Suspects Theatre Company in 2004, he developed the theatre program at juvenile facilities countywide, helping raise over $650,000. As interim director at Homeland Cultural Center in his neighborhood in Long Beach, he created a strategic plan that doubled the budget, space and programs in 2006. He started his tenure at the Muckenthaler in mid- June, 2007. He says it was love at first site!

Phyllis Melendez, Director of Operations (also handles Volunteers)
Phyllis Melendez is a capable administrator with 27 years of managerial and administrative experience, 14 of which have been in the nonprofit sector. An accomplished Office Manager, her hardworking and generous spirit contributed to her successful career growth which began in the manufacturing and textile industry in Los Angeles. She then relocated to Orange County in 1993 where she worked in the membership and development offices, finally becoming the Human Resources Manager of The Bowers Museum. In 2005, she joined the Muckenthaler Cultural Center as Associate Director, managing the business and operations. Phyllis received her B.A. in Business Administration from Cal‐State Dominguez Hills. She currently chairs both the Muckenthaler Youth Council and Latino Arts Committees at the Muckenthaler Cultural Center.

Jane Parker, President, Board of Trustees
Jane holds bachelor of arts degrees from the University of Michigan in English and Art History. She has been a long time community volunteer in Fullerton with the Junior Assistance League, National Charity League of Fullerton, and Meals On Wheels. Her journey at the Muckenthaler began when she started the first 'garden guild' in 1989 with over 100 members. She organized field trips and lectures so successfully that she was soon recruited to the board. Enthusiastically she supported and initiated the 'privatization' of
the foundation in 1990 and successfully negotiated a contract with the city that changed management of the center to the foundation in 1994. She helped inaugurate the car show festival now in its 14th year. She was elected board president in 2001 (her fourth term in that position).