Garley ‘Gigi Tonye’ Briggs, President - Elect

Garley 'GiGi Tonye' Briggs, a Nigerian-American, is best known for her infectious energy and joyful expressions. A woman of faith, mother, and lover of movement arts, health, and wellness, GiGi has been featured on CBS News, Fox 32 News and more. She is the Founder | CEO of GiGi Tonye' Arts & Fitness - a revolutionary mobile dance and fitness studio, as well as the creator of the first Dance and Wellness™ Hub and Fitness and Wellness™ Hub in Chicago.

Bringing together her passion for dance, health, and wellness, GiGi fuses these elements through a lens of clinical care. With a Masters in Health Care Administration and over 15 years of experience in health administration and clinical patient care, she also holds certification in Creative Dance from Luna Dance Institute. As a professional dancer, choreographer, and dance educator with over 10+ years of experience, GiGi is a multi-year member of the National Dance Education Organization, International Sports Sciences Association, Medical Fitness Association and more! Her talent has graced many stages as a lead dancer and Zumba® instructor, including the Millennium Park Summer Workouts 2019-2023, Chicago Parent Conference, American Diabetes Association, and Bantu Fest, among others.Her leadership achievements include being the recipient of Bapson College's Black Women Entrepreneurial Leadership Award and being an alumni of Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program. 

But GiGi's impact goes beyond just dance and fitness - through her multi-year partnerships with clients like Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois, Chicago Public Schools, and Forest Preserves of Cook County, she is making a unique positive change in the arts, health and wellness of organizations, communities, families, and individuals globally.

Laura Migas, Board Treasurer

Laura Migas has been teaching dance in public education since 2005, first for the New York City Department of Education and then for Chicago Public Schools. She is currently teaching at Ravenswood Elementary School. She loves teaching dance and believes dance should be accessible to all students as it can unlock hidden talents, passions, and gives students new ways of thinking about the world. Laura received her M.A in Dance Education with K - 12 certification at New York University and her B.S in Dance and Social Welfare from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. As a dancer, she has studied ballet, modern, tap, jazz, hip hop, and various partner dance styles.

Paula Peters, Board Secretary

Paula J. Peters (MFA) is an Independent Dance Artist, Educator, Author, and Administrator based in Chicago, IL. Her teaching, scholarly, and creative research explores rooted jazz dance aesthetics, and pedagogy methods which serve all types of learners. Her choreography has been presented at Men In Dance, Cornish Dance Theater, University of Washington, SUNY Fredonia, University at Buffalo, MuCCC Dance Festival, Ujima Theatre Company, Teatro Zinzanni Chicago, BOOSTmeUp Festival, and International Dance Day Festival, Lebanon, among others. She has presented original research at Society for Dance History Scholars, Dance Educators Association of Washington, New York State Dance Education Association, Dance Studies Association, and National Dance Education Organization national conferences, and her scholarship has been published in Seattle Dance Magazine, the Journal of Dance Education in Practice, and in the textbook Rooted Jazz Dance: Africanist Aesthetics and Equity in the 21st Century. She has been on faculty at Cornish College of the Arts, Cornish Preparatory Dance, Dance Fremont, University of Washington, and Pacific Lutheran University, and served as an Associate Professor of Dance and the Dance Program Director for SUNY Fredonia. During her time at Fredonia, she revised the Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance curriculum to be in alignment with best practices in contemporary dance education and created a Bachelor of Science degree in Dance. She received her BFA in Dance from Cornish College of the Arts, and her MFA in Dance from the University of Washington. Prior to entering academia, she was a principal dancer with Spectrum Dance Theater in Seattle for 14 years, performing and restaging works by choreographers of national and international prominence such as Anne Reinking, Lynne Taylor-Corbett, Dwight Rhoden, Donald Byrd, Margo Sappington, and Daniel Ezralow.