Alissa serves as the Executive Director of Texas Accountants and Lawyers for the Arts (TALA).

She leads a small team that matches 400-500 low income Texas artists with pro bono representation each year. During her tenure, Alissa has expanded TALA’s services to include under resourced inventors in Texas through development and coordination of a Patent Pro Bono program in partnership with the USPTO. She has extensive experience building educational and revenue enhancing programs in the arts and entertainment industries.

Throughout her career, Alissa has produced over 250 professional development events related to the creative industries that have served over 20,000 participants.

During the pandemic, Alissa swiftly repositioned the organization to better serve creative entrepreneurs, providing programs and services to assist with access to available government and private relief funding. In addition to TALA’s normal caseload, Alissa led sustainability initiatives that served over 1200 artists who make their living in the creative fields. These artists received free one-on-one counseling and advice from TALA staff and volunteers regarding finances and maintaining income while they were unable to work. Additionally, she developed a program in partnership with the City of Austin to assist music venues apply for the SVOG (Shuttered Venues Operators Grant) and to re-open successfully.

Prior to TALA, Alissa held positions at Austin Music Foundation, Austin Creative Alliance, and SXSW. Appointed by Austin City Council member Ora Houston, she served as the first Arts Commissioner to represent the newly designated District 1 in Austin from 2015-2019. She worked as a consultant and author on the Austin Music Census, a comprehensive report of the Austin music industry released in June 2015, which is still used today as a baseline for City of Austin initiatives related to the music sector. In November 2019, Alissa was awarded the Cindi Lazzari Artist Advocate Award, that recognizes efforts to protect artist rights, by the State Bar of Texas Entertainment and Sports Law Section. Alissa currently serves on the Board of Lawyer Referral Service of Central Texas and is a newly elected Council Member in the Entertainment and Sports Law Section of the Texas Bar.

Alissa brings decades of dedication and experience in serving lower income and minority populations. She has been involved with the creation of numerous cultural organizations, including a founding director of Black arts organization Capitol View Arts. Alissa is recognized for building diverse teams and serving diverse populations. TALA’s programming comprises 64% people of color. Alissa’s passion is providing resources to under-represented communities that allow individuals to fully contribute their creative expressions without limits due to economic status or personal heritage.

Alissa holds a JD from Texas Tech University School of Law and a BA in Political Science from University of Texas at Arlington. She is a member of the Texas Bar.

Angela has been involved with TALA since she clerked for us as a law student in 2004. She's served as TALA's legal director since 2015. As Legal Director, Angela oversees artist services and the wrangling of many hundreds of statewide volunteers. 

Angela began her legal career working in disaster relief in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. From there, she spent almost a decade representing survivors of gender-based violence through her work with the NAACP, Texas Advocacy Project, and Asian Family Support Services of Austin. She's especially passionate about access to justice: in 2010, she was recognized by the State Bar of Texas as a recipient of the Poverty Law Section Impact Award for setting an important legal precedent protecting indigent and self-represented litigants. 

Prior to studying law, Angela worked in the arts as the Producer and Senior Film Programmer of the SXSW Film Festival, as a Festival Coordinator for UT's CinemaTexas Film Festival, and as a coordinator for the Austin Jazz Festival. Angela holds a BA in Linguistics from the University of Texas and a JD from The University of Houston. She and her family maintain a strong connection to the local arts community through her husband's work as a musician and music writer.
Fun fact: Angela is a full-time goldsmith whose small business subsidizes her nonprofit work. She's also actively involved with a variety of community organizations serving East Austin, where she's lived and volunteered since the early 90s. Her current favorite endeavor is volunteering at Blackshear Fine Arts Academy, a Title I AISD elementary school- you can usually catch her there any day of the week supervising a messy craft project. 

Meet Lisa Sretenovic, CPA, The Velocity Detective! With 30+ years empowering entrepreneurs and nonprofits, she cracks the business success code by aligning them with their values and vision-quickly.

Mary has been TALA's digital marketing manager through her agency Thames Royal Media since 2022.