Mitch Menchaca has served as executive director for the City of Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture since 2018. An Arizona native, he relocated from Phoenix to Washington, DC in 2009 to lead the Local Arts Advancement Department at Americans for the Arts. Prior to 2009, he served as the senior director of grants and programs at the Arizona Commission on the Arts. Mitch also served as the executive director for the Association of California Symphony Orchestras, and as the first chief operating officer for Chorus America, a national arts service organization. He is the past chairman of The Association of American Cultures (TAAC); president of the Robert E. Gard Foundation; on the advisory board for SMU DataArts (formally the Cultural Data Project); and served on the boards for Latinos LEAD and Californians for the Arts.