Alumni Spotlights

Finding Space to Make the World Better

Karen DiLossi ’98

Karen DiLossi ’98 knows a lot about how difficult it is for theatre companies and other performing groups to find places to practice their art. In her role as director of programs and services at the Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia in the early 2000s, she learned that finding suitable locations was a consistent need across the performing arts. And she learned firsthand the challenges of putting on productions in unusual spaces when she directed an open-air production of Twelfth Night on the grounds of a private estate turned county park.

“The one thing people always came to my previous job looking for was space. They needed rehearsal space, they needed performance space, they needed space to build costumes, they needed space for all kinds of reasons,” DiLossi said. Because of this, she explored every venue that came across her desk.

Around this same time, a non-profit called Partners for Sacred Places approached DiLossi. They were working on a study of different congregational spaces that were willing to share their facilities with local artists. They came to her hoping she would contribute her expertise and knowledge of the local arts scene to help wrangle the Philadelphia arts community to participate in the project.

After that study wrapped up, she wrote the president of Partners and expressed an interest in helping them develop this project further, and the next thing she knew, she had a job.

“I’ve shaped my job a little bit. Partners allowed me a lot of freedom to do what I needed to do,” DiLossi said. “You could either say I’ve answered the door when opportunity knocked, or I’ve gone where the wind has blown me. Maybe it’s a combination of the two.”

In her new role at Partners, she worked with artists in NYC, Chicago, Baltimore, and Austin, to expand homes for the arts in local places of worship. For the next decade, she worked solely on finding spaces for artists. However, during the pandemic, she was approached by someone in Philly with a problem: because schools went remote, they needed a way for kids who didn’t have a computer, internet, or adult supervision to do their online schooling.

DiLossi went on to help open three community learning hubs in the Philly area, providing safe places for kids to learn during the pandemic. This experience showed her that the work she did to bring artists into congregational spaces could apply to anyone or any group looking for space.

Today, DiLossi is the senior director of programs at Partners for Sacred Places and views having a deeper understanding of what these spaces provide to their communities as very important.

“The way I see it, I’m using my talents and the things I was trained to do at Washington College and beyond to make this world a little better than how I found it.”

Alumni Collaborate on Preserving the Eastern Shore

Lauren Halterman ’87, Owen Bailey ’07 M’09, Larisa Prezioso ’19

The Eastern Shore Land Conservancy (ESLC) exists to conserve, steward, and advocate for the unique rural landscape of Maryland’s Eastern Shore. The Easton, Maryland-based nonprofit organization works to preserve the integrity of the region, believing its value arises from the combination of agriculture, natural spaces, outdoor recreation, and natural resource economies.

Out of a staff of 12 people, three are Washington College alumni: Lauren Halterman ’87, Owen Bailey ’07 M’09, and Larisa Prezioso ’19. Together they represent several of the different approaches this small but impactful organization must take to protect the Eastern Shore.

Prezioso works as the enhanced stewardship manager. Her main responsibility is overseeing conservation easements. These are legal agreements with landowners that ensure their property is up to certain environmental standards and that they are executing any required conservation practices.

“As a stewardship person, I go to those easements once every year and make sure those conservation values are being upheld,” Prezioso said. “Enhancement includes things like habitat restoration or living shoreline projects. Anything that takes a conservation value and makes it a bit better.”

Bailey, the director of land use and policy, works with several levels of government.

“I’m the offense to Larisa’s defense,” he said, meaning he gets projects up and running, whereas she makes sure they comply with whatever the parties have agreed to do.

On the local level, he works with towns and counties on zoning updates, parks, and any sustainable land use. At the regional level, he helps to bring together towns and counties to collaborate on larger projects, like a current initiative to develop a regional trail network. In essence, he feels that it’s his job to connect people to the land they inhabit.

“If people feel more connected to the landscape, they’ll have more of a passion for protecting it, both at the local and state level,” Bailey said.

Halterman works as the director of finance and operations. She oversees everything from building management to HR to finance.

“If Larisa is defense and Owen is offense, I guess I’m the coach,” she said. “I’m trying to make sure we’re following the rules, and I’m building everybody up. It’s a great group of very different people, and it’s something different every day.”

“Land doesn’t grow on trees,” Halterman joked. “Just because you don’t see houses and buildings on certain parts of the Eastern Shore doesn’t mean that land is empty. We want to protect what we have and be smart about it.”

ESLC believes it’s important for developers and landowners to think about where and how they’ll grow and make sure they’re not taking away anything that’s integral to the environment. They’re not anti-development, but they are pro-smart development.

“In this area, we do a lot of agricultural land preservation, but we’re not the Maryland Agricultural Land Preservation or anything,” Prezioso added. “We’re for open space of any kind: that can be forests, parks, meadows, wetlands.”

—Timothy Corrao