Welcome to another edition of Meet The PAC Staff! Today we talk to Niamh (Neve) Thurman, who pays the bills, balances the budget, and keeps the lights on.
Position:
Business Manager (since October!)
Alma Mater:
American University (Econ/Int’l Relations); Columbia Business School (MBA)
About my job:
I pay the bills and help keep the lights on. A lot of lights. I also pay the people who screw in the light bulbs, and everyone else who makes sure the show goes on. Finally, I work with financial matters among the artists and the community organizations that use our spaces. It’s unlike any organization I’ve worked with before!
Dream job as a child:
Newspaper writer! I worked for a while in local news, then the Hearst newspapers, then the MacNeil-Lehrer Report. Do you know how hard it is to afford a car on a starting journalists salary? I pivoted to a job in economic forecasting instead, and ended up working with the United Nations in Ghana.
A coworker who inspires me:
There are a bunch! In my short tenure so far I’ve seen a lot of people at PAC taking on new or expanded roles with tenacity and grace. It’s a truly positive and rewarding workplace.
An event I’d like to see at the PAC:
A regular student showcase. With all the budding artists we have here in dance, recording tech, music, theatre, all kinds of writing, and a million other disciplines, I’d love to offer our audiences a sneak peek at the things that bubble up among our students when a chance to perform arises.
Interests outside of work:
Outside of work I’m really interested in landscape architecture, and how a site can inform choices in how we live in and use space. Working outdoors makes for unpredictable outcomes and wonderful surprises. Choosing plant materials can be a matter of editing what the site gives us, or overlaying a whole new vision on the spaces we live in outside.
What is your favorite thing about working at the PAC?
The opportunity to see small performing troupes or acts that I might never have thought to seek out—the first show I saw here was Flamenco Legends, and the jazz-inflected performance blew me away!
A fun fact:
For a while I worked in a telecom company and spent several months climbing telephone poles. I’m really good at inside wire!
