Taneshia Nash Laird is the Executive Director of Project REAP, the nation’s leading initiative advancing equitable opportunity in commercial real estate. She also serves as an Associate Professor at Berklee College of Music, where she teaches Entrepreneurship in Black Creative Expression, helping students explore the intersection of creativity and commerce.

Previously, Taneshia served as CEO of Newark Symphony Hall, where she led a nationally recognized turnaround of the historic performing arts center, raising over $15 million to restore its legacy and future. She is also the co-founder of MIST Harlem, a multimillion-dollar entertainment venue in New York City. Across her ventures, she has partnered with acclaimed artists and entertainers to launch and consult on creative, community-centered businesses.

Her work has expanded opportunity for thousands—from emerging real estate professionals and performing artists to underinvested neighborhoods reclaiming cultural power.

She is the creator of the Culture Core Blueprint—a framework for revitalizing communities through cultural institutions, strategic partnerships, and economic development—and the architect of Harmony in Leadership, a values-based model rooted in the belief that community organizations already possess the wisdom and capacity to thrive—what’s needed is strategic orchestration and bold stewardship.

A widowed mother of two teenage daughters, she leads with both grit and grace, drawing on her lived experience to champion access, equity, and innovation across sectors.