Todd Dellinger

Todd Dellinger is an accomplished arts executive, educator, and entrepreneur with nearly three decades of leadership. Before coming to Russell Sage, Dellinger served as founder and program manager of the Arts & Entertainment Industries Management (AEIM) program at Rider University, where he synthesized his lifetime of experience to build the AEIM program from the ground up.

Dellinger equips aspiring arts leaders with the practical, strategic, and entrepreneurial tools required to make the arts sustainable, resilient, and accessible in the modern creative economy.

He has dedicated his career to bridging the gap between rigorous academic theory and real-world industry practice. His deeply ingrained belief that arts leadership is a catalyst for community empowerment is rooted in his own lived experience. He supported himself through his undergraduate and graduate studies at American University in Washington, D.C., where he earned a master’s in Arts Management while serving as a prestigious Teaching Fellow in Theater — discovering early on that, at his core, he was a teacher.

Before transitioning into full-time academic leadership, Dellinger spent nearly 20 years in executive roles, building a reputation for stabilizing, transforming, and revitalizing major cultural institutions. Most notably, he served as the managing (executive) director of the historic Martha Graham Dance Company & School in New York City during a period of profound crisis following the founder’s death. Under his strategic stewardship, the company was saved from near-closure. Dellinger established the Martha Graham Trust and Foundation, orchestrated the complex separation of licensing, secured a new permanent studio space, and restored record-breaking domestic and international touring alongside peak enrollment in the professional training school. His business acumen also included licensing Graham’s iconic image for Apple’s historic “Think Different” marketing campaign and finalizing the transfer of the Graham archives and artifacts to the Library of Congress.

Following his landmark work with Martha Graham, Dellinger continued to guide premier organizations across the United States. As executive director of Elisa Monte Dance in New York City, he expanded the company’s footprint at the Joyce Theatre and international circuits, while his swift implementation of crisis and survival planning following the tragic national events of September 11, 2001, ensured the company’s resilience when many peer organizations folded.

In Los Angeles, as executive director of A Noise Within Classical Repertory Theater, he initiated the strategic and board planning that ultimately led to the company’s permanent home in Pasadena, while also producing high-profile collaborations, such as A Midsummer Night’s Dream with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl. Later, in Austin, Texas, he co-founded TexARTS Association, serving as executive director and executive producer. Over a six-year tenure, he grew the organization into a regional powerhouse, building a 110-seat venue, producing multi-hundred-thousand-dollar “Broadway Series” productions at the historic Paramount Theater, and serving over 3,500 patrons and 600 students annually.

Throughout this expansive career as a vision-focused arts leader, teaching remained Dellinger’s anchor. From his earliest days directing creative drama and acting programs for youth throughout the greater Washington, D.C., region – including the Bethesda Academy of Performing Arts/Imagination Stage – to teaching arts management at St. Edward’s University in Austin, he has consistently focused on cultivating the next generation of creative voices.