Hannah Gottlieb-Graham is the Founder and CEO of ALMA, an award-winning arts & culture firm in New York City, operating at the intersection of contemporary art, social change, partnerships and innovation.

Hannah grew up in the Midwest but frequently traveled to Europe, Latin America and West Africa alongside her writer and researcher parents. As a dancer turned photographer, writer, publicist and founder, she’s interested in the complexities of identity, movement, multiculturalism and storytelling. Prior to founding ALMA, Hannah held senior communications positions at The Aperture Foundation, Sutton, Nadine Johnson and Third Eye, managing hundreds of global campaigns over the span of 10+ years.

In her role at ALMA, Hannah splits her responsibilities as the Founder and the team’s most senior publicist, making press placements in high-level national and international publications, facilitating partnerships and events with leading brands and cultural institutions and collaborating with artists, galleries, museums, nonprofit organizations and publishing companies. Hannah studied photography, art criticism and dance at The University of Oxford and Sarah Lawrence College as a Dean’s Merit Scholar at both institutions.

Andrew Samuels, ALMA’s COO & General Counsel, is a native New Yorker who comes to the world of contemporary art after 15 years as a corporate attorney and operational consultant. He’s a strategic problem solver and analytical thinker, inspired by building and facilitating relationships, tools, processes and systems.

From a young age, Andrew developed a love of space, design and furniture. These loves led him to a career in real estate law, practicing as in-house counsel to some of New York City’s leading real estate portfolios, where his counsel contributed to over $50m in increased asset value. Leaning into his longtime passion for movement, Andrew has also helped launch numerous fitness concepts in New York, offering both legal knowledge and his expertise in building and scaling business operations.

At ALMA, Andrew combines these experiences and passions and is committed to empowering efficiency, creating space for the team’s growth and ensuring client satisfaction.

Ash Tyner, ALMA’s Associate Director of Partnerships, is a writer, filmmaker and former editor with over a decade of editorial and media experience. She’s specifically interested in creating space to center marginalized voices in the worlds of art and culture.

Growing up between Baltimore and Dayton, Ohio, Ash was an avid reader with a passion for stories, absorbing literature ranging from Shakespeare, Nabokov and Faulkner to Toni Morrison, James Baldwin and Maya Angelou. A curiosity about the human need for belonging and connection has always driven her work.

Prior to her role at ALMA, she served as Culture & Special Projects Editor at i-D Magazine and led Special Projects for GARAGE Magazine, working at the intersection of editorial work and brand partnerships. Ash’s focal points address art and culture emerging from the Black diaspora, particularly intersecting with social impact. She studied literature at Middlebury College and Columbia University.

Whitney Badge, ALMA’s Design Director, is a graphic designer who focuses primarily in culture, creative technology, and the arts. She is interested in creating work that is conceptual, typographic, and contextually-aware.

Raised in Michigan by educators in music and architecture, Whitney grew up designing spaces and charting ideas on draft paper. This foundation informs her work today– translating simple, research-based ideas into robust graphic systems that serve both form and function.

Whitney has experience in a wide range of environments, including design studios, museums, consumer technology, social platforms, entertainment, fashion and more. In addition to her work at ALMA, Whitney is a lead designer at Pentagram. Whitney received a BFA in Communication Design from Parsons and has been featured in The Brand Identity, Fast Co, and Creative Review.

Jane Balfus, ALMA’s Executive Assistant, grew up in Los Angeles and moved to New York to study multimedia art and computer programming at Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts. She was a Merit Scholar Recipient and graduated with high academic honors. She spent much of her undergraduate experience working in the nonprofit arts sector.

Jane grew up studying in Immersion Spanish language programs and was raised in a home with psychologists, writers and musicians. Her appreciation of the arts, emotional resonance and linguistic expression led her to establishing her own studio practice, wherein she incorporates writing, computer programmed videos and animation in her installations.

Prior to working for ALMA, she held assistant positions in the downtown Manhattan gallery circuit, acted as a studio manager for artist Olivia Erlanger and worked as an independent web-developer. At ALMA, she brings a wealth of creativity and computational skills cultivated through her background in the art and technology sectors, making her an invaluable asset to the team.