Changemakers

Dorothy Gunther Pugh is the CEO and Founding Artistic Director of Ballet Memphis, which she founded in 1986 with two dancers and a budget of $75,000. Today, the Company has 25 dancers, a budget of more than $4.4 million, and is opening a new multi-million dollar administrative and studio space in the heart of Memphis’ arts and theatre district in August of this year. Under Dorothy’s direction, Ballet Memphis has been lauded by the Ford Foundation, the Hearst Foundations, and the Mellon Foundation, among others. Dorothy has appeared on several national dance panels, including PBS NewsHour, the National Endowment for the Arts Dance Panel and the Glass Slipper Ceiling Symposium. A member of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, she has received the Women of Achievement Award for Initiative and the Gordon Holl Outstanding Arts Administrator’s Award, and is a recipient of a fellowship from the Center for Social Innovation at Stanford University Graduate School of Business. She