Bainbridge Performing Arts recently announced the addition of Debbie MacLeod as the organization’s new development director.

MacLeod’s four-year tenure as board president and three-and-a-half terms as a BPA board member yielded a finely honed, front-row perspective on the positive impact BPA has on the lives of theatre school students, performers and audience members, officials said.

“It’s a privilege to take a role in expanding engagement opportunities for youth and adults alike,” MacLeod said, adding she relishes the opportunity to “build for the future of the organization by stewarding our current donors and engaging the next generation of supporters.”

A high school theatre kid, MacLeod earned a degree in communications from the University of California at San Diego, and completed a teaching credential program at San Francisco State University. While still a sophomore at UCSD, she began work on the founding team of AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination), a college readiness system for elementary through higher education that is designed to increase school-wide learning and performance.

Over the next 30 years, MacLeod worked at AVID in numerous capacities, from tutor, to editor of ACCESS (the AVID quarterly journal), to project manager, and archivist.