Andrea Hanley, 40, ’89 B.A.

Native arts advocate

In 1991, just two years after earning her B.A. in Studio Art from ASU, Andrea Hanley was living in Washington, D.C., working for the National Museum of the American Indian, at the Smithsonian Institution. It was a dramatic rise for the young Navajo arts administrator, but one she felt ready for.

"A lot of what I learned volunteering at the Harry Wood Gallery (at ASU) helped lead to that position,” Hanley said.

Since graduating from ASU, Hanley has built an impressive career in the arts – as a curator, project manager, volunteer, lecturer, and writer. She’s guided by her love for the arts, as well as her commitment to her Navajo heritage.

After working as a special assistant to the director at the Smithsonian, she spent eight years there as an exhibition developer and project manager. A few years ago, Hanley returned to Tempe, where she now lives with her husband of four years, Kade Twist. She spent several years as fine arts coordinator for the city of Tempe, curating a variety of exhibits at the Tempe Public Library, the U.S. Post office on Mill Avenue, and Tempe’s City Hall Gallery. She also served as executive director for Atlatl, a Phoenix-based nonprofit dedicated to promoting Native American art.

Currently, Hanley serves as sponsorship and major gifts officer for Artrain, USA, an art museum housed in railroad cars that tours the country by way of the train tracks. She remains focused on introducing community members to the arts, and non-Native persons to the work of outstanding American Indian artists.

"My goal is to help institutionalize social change through American Indian art,” she said.

Kim Komando, 41, ’85 B.S.

Digital goddess

Kim Komando is one of the most successful women in radio. Her weekly radio show – focusing on computers and all things digital – is heard on over 400 radio stations across the country, with an average of 9.7 million listeners each week. Komando believes people are listening because she has fashioned winning content. “People want to be entertained, “ she said. “And they need a good topic to take home.”

Komando also is the author of several books, writes a syndicated newspaper column, and her newsletter boasts a subscription base in the millions. Komando oversees her computer advice empire via Westar Talk Radio Network, a company she started with her husband, KFYI talker Barry Young. “We have 30 employees now,” she said. “I’ve done every job at the company, right down to changing the light bulbs.”

The radio revolutionary keeps her eye on the prize, always looking for the next challenge. “I’m starting a ring tone business,” she said. “I like what I do. I don’t need any more money. Well, I would like a private jet.”

Courtney Klein, 22, ’05 B.I.S.
Jon Beekman, 26, ’02 B.S., ’02 B.A.

Social entrepreneurs

Some business people dream of building a better mousetrap; others, who call themselves “social entrepreneurs,” dream of creating not-for-profit programs that ease societal ills and erase civic problems. Jon Beekman, 26, and Courtney Klein, 22, are examples of this new breed of business maven.

Beekman was a Fulbright Scholar studying in Mexico City in late 2003 when he discovered his primary means of connecting to local volunteer opportunities, surfing the Web, brought back very few hits from Mexican Web sites. After researching the state of the Internet in Mexico and Latin America, Beekman found that although Internet usage is surging in the region, particularly among young people, nonprofit organizations lagged behind government and corporate entities in terms of having a Web presence.

Spurred by his research, Beekman soon launched Go-NGO, an organization dedicated to providing free template-based Web sites to nonprofit organizations in Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America. Beekman, Klein and others journeyed to Mexico City this April to spend four days interviewing potential Go-NGO clients. Each year, a new set of students will run the organization, using their work on it as part of an honors thesis for the Barrett Honors College or capstone project for their school or college. Beekman plans to stay on board as a facilitator for the organization.

Klein was part of Go-NGO during the 2004-2005 school year and used her studies in nonprofit management and communications to work as the project’s marketing/business director. Her passion for volunteer and nonprofit work spills beyond Go-NGO, however. Her most recent project is the Youth Re:Action Corps, an educational nonprofit that intro-duces world issues to high school students and assists them in planning sustainable ways to assist those in need. The organization is scheduled to pilot in three Mesa high schools in November; instead of raising money through car washes or other one-shot fundraising activities, students will choose a community in need and research the problem, communicate with those in need, create a business plan for their project, and solicit funds from community "investors.”

Rayn Hookala, 32, ’02 B.F.A.,’05 M.F.A.

Rayn, dancer

In May, Rayn Hookala earned her MFA in Choreography from ASU. One month later, she opened the Rayn Dance Center for the Arts in Tempe. The center offers dance classes, low-cost performance and rehearsal rentals, free open art nights, and boasts a small collection of local artists' work adorning the walls.

Even before finishing graduate school, Hookala had won quite a bit of attention for her choreography. Hookala won the Arizona Choreography Competition in both 2000 and 2001. Her choreography has been showcased at California’s Casa del Prado Theater, the American College Dance Festival, California’s McCallum Theater, and Seattle’s East Hall Theater.

The award-winning choreographer is also an acclaimed dancer. Last year, she performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., during the American College Dance Festival.

The focused young entrepreneur is busy building her business, and providing quality dance instruction to the public. “Modern dance is our specialty,” she said. “But we offer Hip Hop, Ballet and Jazz.”

Her goal is to build the center into a thriving hub for professional dance. “The professional dance scene is growing here in the Valley,” she said. “We want to help make it happen.”

Profile credits:
Hanley, Komando and Hookala written by Phoenix freelance writer Michael Hammett
Klein/Beekman written by managing editor Liz Massey.

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Andrea Hanley

Kim Komando

Courtney Klein

Jon Beekman

Rayn Hookala