In 2015, Todd S. Polikoff was named the President & Chief Executive Officer of the Jewish Federation of Las Vegas. (The organization is now known as Jewish Nevada). Todd is a graduate of Stockton University and earned his MBA at Cleveland State University. He has three children: Samuel, Shira and Jordan. Born in 1971 to a steelworker and hairdresser, Jack and Judy Polikoff, Todd grew up in Philadelphia, became a bar mitzvah there, and shocked his mother when he explained he was putting college on hold to move to Israel. In addition to stories about these life memories, Todd also traces his career path to decision-making to a meaningful trip to Moscow a where a defining moment helped him understand his own relationship with Judaism. To the time of this interview, Todd has invested over twenty years in leadership of Jewish Federation and AIPAC in states that include New Jersey, Delaware, Texas, Ohio and Nevada.
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Interviewed by Rodrigo Vazquez. Cruz was born in Lima, Peru to Carmen, who retired from CCSD as a teacher's aide, and Jaime, who was a professional soccer player. When young Jaime emigrated to the United States in 1987, it was to join his mother and brother in Las Vegas. The culture shock was significant, but he was undaunted. And, despite his engineering degree, the only employment he could secure was that of dishwasher. Cruz quickly understood the employment barriers that he would encounter and thankfully with the encouragement of mentors he improved his English skills and never omitted his degree from his resume. Eventually, it was noted and the decision to take a position that utilized this training would be one he never regretted. Today Cruz is the Executive Director of Workforce Connections, Southern Nevada's Local Workforce Development Board.
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Part 1: Interviewed by Stefani Evans. Myron G. Martin, President and CEO, and Donald D. Snyder, Chairman of the Board of Directors, share their memories of the founding of The Smith Center for the Performing Arts from the first non-for-profit foundation formed in 1996. The second iteration led by Snyder in 1999 brought in Martin--former Director of UNLV Performing Arts Center--and created a sustainable business plan for a center for the performing arts that would be accessible geographically and culturally for all segments of Nevada society. Here, Martin and Snyder recall how land, funding, and legislation for The Smith Center depended on the ""power of the project"" and the Snyder-Martin team's ability to overcome skeptics in the public, the Nevada Legislature, the Clark County Commission, the Las Vegas City Council, and the Don Reynolds Foundation. Martin and Snyder satisfied the various requirements for each organization and earned unanimous approval at each stop--in fact, the $50 million donation to The Smith Center was the largest the Don Reynolds Foundation had ever granted largest. That the approvals came on three consecutive days from competing municipal jurisdictions makes the accomplishment even sweeter. Subjects: Las Vegas, NV; Cultural center; Performing arts; The Smith Center for the Performing Arts; The Smith Center; Not-for-profit;; Nevada Legislature; Clark County Commission; Las Vegas City Council; The Don Reynolds Foundation; Fundraising; Planning; Endowment; Part 2: Interviewed by Stefani Evans. Martin, who was the youngest of three boys raised in suburban Houston, Texas, likes to say that in college at the University of North Texas he played for the Atlanta Braves and the Texas Rangers. So he did--as the organist. He earned a Bachelors of Music in piano, organ, and voice and an MBA from Golden Gate University. He came to Las Vegas after a fifteen-year career with the Baldwin Piano Company as executive director of the Liberace Foundation; he later became president of UNLV?s Performing Arts Center and in 1999 he became president of the Las Vegas Performing Arts Center Foundation. Here, Martin and Snyder recall the process whereby they hired architect David Schwarz of Washington, DC, to create The Smith Center's ""timeless, elegant"" look; creating a ""shared vocabulary"" by visiting 14 performing venues in 5 European countries; the City of Las Vegas's RFP that resulted in hiring Whiting-Turner Contracting Company; the exterior art/artists, significance of the bell tower, Founding Fifty(seven), and the ability of the theater to adapt from staging The Book of Mormon to staging a community funeral for two slain police officers. Subjects: The Smith Center; The Smith Center for the Performing Arts; Architecture; Fundraising; Acoustics; Public private partnerships; Request for proposals; Whiting-Turner; Theater Projects Group; vocabulary; Part 3: Interviewed by Stefani Evans. Author Jack Sheehan, joining this third session on The Smith Center in his role as Don Snyder's biographer, explains the way he envisions the place of The Smith Center in the larger context of Las Vegas. Martin and Snyder provide names for the group that grew out of the Call to Action meeting and founded the original Las Vegas Performing Arts Foundation. They share anecdotes of a 2005 trip, wherein they were joined by Las Vegas City Councilman Lawrence Weekly, City of Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, and consultant to the City of Las Vegas Dan Van Epp to visit City Place and the Kravis Center for Performing Arts in West Palm Beach as an example of a place where a performing arts center was a catalyst for revitalization in an area of underused and underutilized urban land. They discuss opening night, March 10, 2012, /From Dust To Dreams: Opening Night at the Smith Center For The Performing Arts/, which was produced broadcast live on national Public Broadcasting System (PBS) television stations, produced by George Stevens Jr. and directed and produced by Michael Stevens for The Stevens Company; hosted by Neil Patrick Harris; and featuring Jennifer Hudson, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Emmylou Harris, Martina McBride, Carole King, Arturo Sandoval, Joshua Bell, Mavis Staples, Pat Monahan; American Ballet Theater dancers Marcello Gomes and Luciana Paris; also Broadway performers Brian Stokes Mitchell, Laura Osnes, Cheyenne Jackson, Sherie Rene Scott, Montego Glover, and Benjamin Walker. Martin describes how provisions of Nevada SB235--introduced March 6, 2017, signed into law by Governor Bob Sandoval, and became effective October 1, 2017--for the regulation of ticket sales to an athletic contest or live entertainment event affect The Smith Center ticket sales. They talk of providing 3,600 good construction jobs during the recession, of Discovery Childrens Museum, of future development plans for the entire 61-acre Symphony Park parcel, and of a second capital campaign to increase the endowment to $100 million to enable The Smith Center to be economically sustainable.
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Oral history interview with Michael Arage conducted by Dalton DuPré on November 12, 2021 for Reflections: The Las Vegas Asian American and Pacific Islander Oral History Project. In this interview, Michael Arage discusses his upbringing in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), Ontario, Canada with his sister and his Filipino-Palestinian heritage. He talks about how his parents immigrated to the United States, his life and education in Toronto, and his relocation to Los Angeles, California where he married his wife. Michael Arage shares how the couple moved to Las Vegas, Nevada in 2012 when his wife started a job at Zappos. Because he lacked a work visa, Michael Arage began playing poker and working in sports betting. In 2019, he founded a community organization to support the people of Palestine, called Nevadans for Palestinian Human Rights. Michael Arage talks about his activism efforts, anti-Arab racism, his cultural upbringing, and of Filipino and Arabic foods and customs. He also shares his views of living in Las Vegas, the difficulties of raising a child away from her cousins, and differing governmental policies and healthcare between Canada and the United States.
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From the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, Theta Theta Omega Chapter Records (MS-01014) -- Ivy Leaf magazines and event souvenir programs file.
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Oral history interview with Irene Bustamante Adams conducted by Monserrath Hernández and Claytee D. White on May 13, 2020 for the Latinx Voices of Southern Nevada Oral History Project. Irene discusses her personal history, her culture and family traditions, and her previous employment. She also talks about her time in Las Vegas and how she came to be a representative for District 42 in the Nevada Assembly. Subjects discussed include: Migrant Farmworkers; California; Mexican culture; Equal Opportunity Program.
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Oral history interview with Marvelys Lopez Omaña conducted by Monserrath Hernandez and Barbara Tabach on February 21, 2020 for the Latinx Voices of Southern Nevada Oral History Project. In this interview, Marvelys Lopez discusses her childhood and growing up in Caracas, Venezuela, where her father owned a toy store. She attended an all-girls Catholic School and from a young age knew that she wanted to be a doctor. In 1993, at the age of seventeen, she was able to study abroad in the United States for one year and moved to Las Vegas, Nevada. She returned to Venezuela to attend medical school and while attending medical school she met her husband, who was studying to be a registered nurse at the time. Lopez Omaña recalls volunteering as a firefighter in Venezuela, and discusses the political change that happened in Venezuela during her last years in medical school. She moved to back Las Vegas with her husband in 2003 and began working as a caregiver. She recounts Her first son's birth story, and describes how she became a Certified Professional Midwife.
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Oral history interview with Brendan Ly conducted by Cecilia Winchell and Stefani Evans on March 27, 2021 for Reflections: The Las Vegas Asian American and Pacific Islander Oral History Project. Brendan discusses his background growing up in communist Vietnam in the early 1970s and fleeing with his family as refugees; they immigrated to Hong Kong, China before moving to the United States to live briefly in North Carolina before settling in California. Brendan talks about working at a young age picking fruit, working in catering, and having positions in retail before pursuing higher education and studying pharmaceuticals. He shares stories of his work experience with Walgreens and how this led to him opening a pharmacy with his brother, which they've managed together for the past 18 years.
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Oral history interview with Lynnette Sawyer conducted by Nathalie Martinez on January 03, 2019 for the Latinx Voices of Southern Nevada Oral History Project. Barbara Tabach and Laurents Bañuelos-Benitez also participate in the questioning. Lynnette Sawyer identifies as a Puerto Rican woman born and raised in Spanish Harlem in New York. Her ancestry extends from Spain to Africa and has helped her identity, as she became an educator and museum curator. She describes her life in New York and her journey to Las Vegas. As the founder of the Hispanic Museum of Nevada, she wanted to create a space that would teach young Latinos about their history and heritage.
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