Our Team

Liza is Interim Director of NC State LIVE, where her passion for interdisciplinary collaboration and background in community engagement collide. In 2016 she moved from Brooklyn to a small farm in Hillsborough. Liza has worked as an artist and nonprofit arts manager with positions including Grants and Services Manager at Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and Artist Services and Development Manager at The Field. She co-founded The Institute for Psychogeographic Adventure, a collective that creates site-specific performance works in collaboration with communities. Liza holds a B.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies from Long Island University’s Friends World Program and an M.F.A. in Performance and Interactive Media Arts from Brooklyn College. Together with the NC State LIVE team, Liza has been nominated for the NC State University Equity for Women Award and the Chancellor’s Creating Community Award. Liza has also been nominated for the University Award for Excellence and has been awarded the Pride of the Wolfpack Award.

Liza was an Association of Performing Arts Professionals’ Leadership Fellow from 2017-2019 and a member of the National Dance Presenters Forum at Jacob’s Pillow in 2019 and again in 2023-24. Liza serves on NC State’s American Indian Advisory Committee and the Raleigh Arts’ Learning Community for Universal Access. When she’s not at NC State LIVE, you can find Liza at Woodcrest Farm & Forge where she studies chaos with her husband, two children, and too many animals to count.

Ariel Fay Gray (she/her) is the Program Coordinator for NC State LIVE. A true Carolina Girl, and Army Brat, she was raised between SC and NC when not traveling the world with friends and family. After graduating from UNC-Greensboro with a B.S. in Special Event Management and a Minor in Technical Theatre, she worked as a Character Performer with Walt Disney World Entertainment in Florida. Ariel continued her artistic career in NC as a Stage Manager, in-person with Cary Players and virtually with Blk Girls Luv the Bard. She then toured with StarQuest Dance Competition as a Front of House Lead and Concierge from 2018-2020. During the pandemic she was awarded Cary Players’ Pietzsch Award for Outstanding Stage Management and Raleigh Little Theatre’s Canty Award Rookie of the Year for House Management. Ariel’s experience in performing arts operations grew with The National Women’s Theatre Festival working as a Fringe’21 Streaming Technician, Fringe’22 Technical Assistant, and Fringe’23 Producer, Writer, Performer and Production Manager. Through her membership in the Raleigh Arts’ Learning Community for Universal Access, Ariel strives to build safe, inspiring and accessible spaces in order to create positive memories for agents, artists, staff and patrons alike. Today she simply identifies as a multi-racial multi-hyphenate parent artist. When not in the theatre-sphere, Ariel is catching the latest feature flick at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema or at Artspace, a non-profit visual arts center, on First Fridays with her partner and daughter.

Ana Teresa Galizes is a communications professional, visual artist and educator from Lisbon, Portugal living in Raleigh. She studied Media Production at William Peace University and Visual Communication at North Carolina State University. Currently, she teaches at various institutions while keeping an art practice that includes commissioned portraits, printmaking, and mixed media.