Linda-Denise Fisher-Harrell is the Artistic Director of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. Linda-Denise ascended to this role in 2021, after an extraordinary career as a professional dance artist and educator.

Linda-Denise was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and began her dance training at the Baltimore School for the Arts under the guidance of Sylvester Campbell and Stephanie Powell. She was an apprentice with the Capitol Ballet in Washington D.C. and a full fellowship student at The Ailey School. While a student at The Juilliard School, she was invited by Hubbard Street founder Lou Conte to join the main company at the age of 19, thus beginning her professional dance career.

After three seasons with Hubbard Street, Linda-Denise became a Principal Dancer with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, under the direction of Judith Jamison. During her 13-year tenure with the company, Linda-Denise performed all over the world and was featured in the works of Alvin Ailey, Robert Battle, Talley Beatty, Ron K. Brown, John Butler, Donald Byrd, Ulysses Dove, George Faison, Rennie Harris, Geoffrey Holder, Judith Jamison, Louis Johnson, Alonzo King, Lar Lubovitch, Donald McKayle, Elisa Monte, Jennifer Muller, David Parsons, and Dwight Rhoden.

Linda-Denise was invited to give a number of special performances throughout her career, including the White House State Dinner in honor of the President of Kenya, Mwai Kibaki, and the 12th Annual Kennedy Center Gala with Nancy Wilson and Liza Minelli.

Linda-Denise has led a distinguished career as a dance educator in her hometown of Baltimore where, since 2005, she has been a Professor of Dance at Towson University and has served on the faculty of the Baltimore School for the Arts. Her research and scholarship in continuing the Ailey legacy within the Towson University and Greater Baltimore community has resulted in the Ailey II residencies from 2011-2019 hosted by Towson University and the establishment of AileyCamp Baltimore at Towson University in 2014 where she served as Director. Ms. Fisher-Harrell holds a Master of Fine Arts Degree in dance from Hollins University and is an ABT® Certified Teacher. As a scholar, her entry "Alvin Ailey" has been published by the Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism

Linda-Denise and her husband have three children.

Two time “Bessie Award” winner, Hope Boykin was an original member of Complexions, danced with Philadanco, and most recently completed her 20th and final year with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Hope has choreographed for numerous dance companies including Philadanco, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, Minnesota Dance Theater, BalletX, Ballet Black of London, American Ballet Theatre Studio Company, and has created three works for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, along with commissions ranging from contemporary dance to ballet by Damian Woetzel, the Kennedy Center, and Vail Dance Festival. Hope has garnered much acclaim with her virtual work for Carolina Performing Arts, Guggenheim Works And Process Virtual Commissions initiative, and the National Black Theatre. As a motivator, Hope has been an annual keynote speaker for Lincoln Center Activate, a national education forum, which has included a special Weekend With Hope, a series of talks with friends and dance industry professionals, discussing crucial topics in our dance world. Hope serves as Artistic Advisor for Dance Education for the Kennedy Center and Artistic Lead for the Kennedy Center Dance Lab. She is Artist-In-Residence at USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance and was advisor for the Howard University Department of Dance for their 2021 spring semester.  Hope continues to build on her work as a writer; blending her words and cadence as a the foundation of her developing movement-language. As a director and dance-maker, Hope received a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for her own Covid Safe residency #BoykinBubble and in the fall of 2021 premiered a full evening of her choreography, An Evening of Hope at 92nd Street Y in New York City, to much acclaim. Most recently she released “Beauty Size & Color” a short film commenting on what has changed in the first twenty years of the 21st century on AllArts.org. As an educator, creator, mover, and motivator, Hope firmly believes there are no limits.

Dr. Suzet M. McKinney is a public health expert, medical executive, thought leader, strategic thinker and nationally recognized expert in emergency preparedness and response.

As Principal and Director of Life Sciences for Sterling Bay, Dr. McKinney oversees relationships with the scientific, academic, corporate, tech, and governmental sectors involved in the life sciences ecosystem. She also leads the strategy to expand Sterling Bay’s footprint in life sciences nationwide. She previously served as CEO and Executive Director of the Illinois Medical District, where she managed a 24/7/365 environment that included 560 acres of medical research facilities, labs, a biotech business incubator, universities, raw land development areas, four hospitals and more than 40 healthcare-related facilities. Within two years of leadership, Dr. McKinney accomplished a financial turnaround of the IMD, successfully retiring more than $40 million in debt.

In 2020, Dr. McKinney was appointed by Illinois Governor JB Pritzker as Operations Lead for the State of Illinois’ Alternate Care Facilities, a network of alternate medical locations designed to decompress the hospital system during the COVID-19 pandemic. She worked with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and multiple construction, architecture and project management teams to prepare five facilities to open for overflow patient care.

Dr. McKinney is also an experienced on-camera expert who has frequently discussed healthcare disparities and racial inequities amplified by the pandemic, climate-related emergencies, biological and chemical threats and natural disasters. She’s been feautured on CNN, ABC, NBC Nightly News, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Crain’s Chicago Busineses and The Chicago Tribune.

Prior to leading the IMD, Dr. McKinney served as the Deputy Commissioner of the Bureau of Public Health Preparedness and Emergency Response at the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH), where she oversaw the emergency preparedness efforts for the Department and coordinated those efforts within the larger spectrum of the City of Chicago’s Public Safety activities, in addition to overseeing the Department’s Division of Women and Children’s Health. She also provided support to the U.S. Department of Defense’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency, lending subject matter expertise in biological terrorism preparedness to the country of Poland.

Previously, she served as the Sr. Advisor for Public Health and Preparedness at the Tauri Group, where she provided strategic and analytical consulting services to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS), BioWatch Program. Her work at DHS included providing creative, responsive and operationally based problem-solving for public health, emergency management and homeland security issues, specifically chemical and biological early detection systems and the implementation of those systems at the state and local levels.

Dr. McKinney serves on numerous boards and advisory committees. Her current board memberships include the Board of Directors for Wintrust Financial Corporation, Lurie Children’s Hospital, and Thresholds. Dr. McKinney is Co-Chair of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM), Health and Medicine Division’s Forum on Medical and Public Health Preparedness for Disasters and Emergencies. She also serves on the Science and Security Board for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, and is the former Chairperson of the Board of Scientific Counselors for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, Center for Public Health Preparedness and Response. She has led multiple emergency response efforts, including Chicago’s 2014-2015 Ebola response; the operational response to the 2009 H1N1 outbreak; as well as CDPH’s participation in the 2012 NATO Summit response and the 2010 Haiti Earthquake response. She is a member of The Chicago Network and the Economic Club of Chicago.

In academia, Dr. McKinney serves as an Instructor in the Division of Translational Policy and Leadership Development at Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She previously served as Adjunct Assistant Professor of Health Policy Administration at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health. She is the co-author of the text: Public Health Emergency Preparedness: Practical Solutions for the Real World (2018) and was named one of Chicago’s 50 Most Powerful Women (2020), and one of Chicago’s Notable Women in Healthcare (2018 & 2019).

Dr. McKinney holds her Doctorate degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health, with a focus on preparedness planning, leadership and workforce development. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Biology from Brandeis University (Waltham, MA) where she was also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Fellow. She received her Master of Public Health degree (Health Care Administration) and certificates in Managed Care and Health Care Administration from Benedictine University in Lisle, IL.