Team Group: Board of Directors

Dance for Boys Program Director
Musical Theatre Dance Program Director

Tom Masters holds an MS in Special Education from The City College of New York and a BS in elementary education with a concentration in dance and movement for elementary school children. As a performer he has danced with The Park Avenue Dance Company in Rochester, NY, The Alvin Ailey Student Ensemble in New York City, and with various musical theatre productions both nationally and internationally. He has taught dance and creative movement since 1990. Most recently he was on staff at the Center for Kinesthetic Movement in NYC as an educational tutor using dance to teach literacy, and using movement to increase the attention span of students with ADHD. Tom has been with Berkshire Pulse since 2009 teaching dance for boys, Humphrey-Weidman repertory, tap, and Broadway jazz.

Nicole McKeen serves as the Director of Development and Marketing at Berkshire Humane
Society, where she combines her passion for animal welfare with over twelve years of experience in
the pet industry. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a minor in
English Communications, concentrating in Corporate Communications, which has equipped her
with a strong foundation in strategic marketing and organizational development.

Nicole’s career has been shaped by her work with respected local businesses and organizations
throughout Berkshire County, including Annie Selke Companies, several acclaimed restaurants in
the Berkshires and Napa Valley, and Benson’s Pet Center, where she excelled as Regional
Manager overseeing multiple locations in Pittsfield and the Albany area. Today, she has found her
“forever home” at Berkshire Humane Society, where her expertise and dedication help strengthen
community connections and support the organization’s mission.

Nicole is excited to collaborate with Berkshire Pulse, fostering deeper community engagement with
this vibrant arts and culture organization. She lives in Peru, Massachusetts, with her husband Ben,
their son Kellen, a spirited border collie named Lambert, and two beloved cats—twin brothers Burl
and Thurl—adopted from Berkshire Humane Society.

Moscelyne graduated from The Juilliard School in 2019. She began her dance training in the thriving artistic atmosphere of the Berkshires. She attended Walnut Hill School for the Arts where she received a broad dance education, as well as the opportunity to choreograph works for the student choreography showcases. In her time at Juilliard she had the pleasure of performing new works by Helen Simoneau, Katarzyna Skarpetowska, Roy Assaf, and Stefanie Batten Bland, as well as the repertoire of José Limón, Nacho Duato, Martha Graham, and Crystal Pite. During her summers she trained and performed with the Jacob’s Pillow Contemporary Ensemble, as well as the composing principles of Iztok Kovac at Dock 11 in Berlin. She won “Best Choreography” in the NY Theater Summerfest 2018 for the play He & She.

In addition to performing, Moscelyne enjoys choreographing and collaborating with other artists. Four of her works have been selected for Juilliard Choreographic Honors. “Tour of a Reverie”, originally choreographed for Juilliard’s ChoreoComp, was performed in the Triskelion Arts CollabFest in fall 2018. Her latest work “Room for Longing” was performed as a part of Senior Production in the Willson Theater at Juilliard. She recently performed an original solo by Johannes Wieland entitled “rule/breaker” for Juilliard’s Senior Showcase. She is currently a member of Post:Ballet in San Francisco, and jHSpro lead by Alexandra Wells.

Moscelyne is the recipient of the Joseph W. Polisi Award for Artist as Citizen. She recently established BODYSONNET, a dance collective which is creating work in the Berkshires.

Diane recently produced the award-winning short film, A Tree A Rock A Cloud, based on the short story by Carson McCullers, written and directed by actor, Karen Allen, as well as the short film, You Have A Voice for the Massachusetts Women’s Political Caucus/Berkshire Section about young women, leadership and civic engagement. Her current slate of feature projects includes the refugee story, Weeping Under This Same Moon, by Jana Laiz, a screen adaptation of Edith Wharton’s novel, Summer, by feature film art director/ production designer, Carl Sprague, and Mumbet: A Free Woman, the true story of Elizabeth “Mumbet’ Freeman, the first slave in Massachusetts to take her owner to court and win her freedom.

Diane has directed and produced projects locally for 1Berkshire, Berkshire United Way, McCann Technical School, Age Friendly Berkshires & the ROPE Program (Rites of Passage and Empowerment Program for young women of color in Pittsfield). She is currently partnering with Great Barrington Public Theater to direct/produce a series of original short films about nature by local Berkshire playwrights.

Diane served as Production Manager for the creation of a web-based health initiative for Canyon Ranch in Lenox, MA. She has also produced several industrial animation projects for Ben Hillman & Company of Sheffield, MA as well as the animated sequence for Spike Lee’s film, She Hate Me, directed by Hillman.

Diane was Executive Producer and General Manager of Mass.Illusion, a visual effects movie studio located in Lenox, Massachusetts and Alameda, California. From 1993 to 1998, she oversaw up to 200 employees and a through put of $8-$10 million per year on such films as The Matrix (Academy Award 2000, Best Visual Effects), What Dreams May Come (Academy Award 1999, Best Visual Effects), Starship Troopers, Evita, Eraser, Die Hard with a Vengeance, Judge Dredd, The Scarlet Letter, and Event Horizon.

In addition to her award-winning visual effects, Diane served as Supervising Producer for the production of three specialty films attractions for Circus Circus’ hotel, LUXOR LAS VEGAS. The $50M project was produced at The Trumbull Company, Lenox, MA. During that time, she produced the award winning behind-the-scenes documentary, “The Making of Luxor” for Director Scott Morris.

Prior to that, Diane worked for R/Greenberg Associates in New York City where she produced countless commercials and feature film title sequences.

Diane holds a degree from Vassar College and attended Princeton University and NYU Film School. She is Chairman of the Board of Berkshire Pulse, a performing arts center in Housatonic, MA. She also serves on the Board of Directors of the 1Berkshire Foundation. She is an active member of New York Women in Film and Television, The Massachusetts Production Coalition, New England Women in Film and The Visual Effects Society. Diane lives in Great Barrington, MA with her husband and two sons.

Sylvana Proano is the founder of Casa Multicultural, a nonprofit organization that supports immigrant families and communities through art, dance, music, and education. With over 10 years of experience in social work, Sylvana has a proven track record of working in the community for other nonprofit organizations. Sylvana began her career at Berkshire Medical Center, where she worked as a certified medical interpreter. When she became a part of the Social Berkshire Children and Families, now known as 18 Degrees, Sylvana’s passion for helping families and keeping them together grew tremendously. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Social Studies from a university in her home country of Ecuador. Sylvana’s passion is to empower families, especially immigrant families, as this was the main reason she founded Casa Multicultural. 

Sylvana lives in The Berkshires with her beautiful daughters and her husband. In her spare time, she enjoys walking with her senior dog Ricky. Her favorite season is Winter.

Emily received a B.A. in English Literature from Vassar College and a Master’s in Creative Writing from New York University.

Over the past 40 years she has taught poetry to children in grade schools and libraries in the Tri-State area and the Berkshires and published her poems in various journals and magazines including The Kansas Quarterly, Mudfish, Poet Lore, The New Yorker. She worked as an editorial assistant’s assistant at Alfred Knopf publishing, held various temp jobs in publishing (Viking, Scholastic, HarperCollins, Family Circle magazine), performed odd jobs, including reading, to a famous writer who is blind (Ved Mehta), and worked as an apprentice floral arranger at an Upper East Side flower shop. She wrote feature articles for The Berkshire Record and The Advocate, acted in plays in the Berkshires at Riggs Theater 37 (director, Kevin Coleman), and taught Creative Writing at Community Access to the Arts (CATA), where she serves on the Board of CATA since 1999, currently as Co-Vice President.

Emily met Bettina in the mid-90s when she saw her dance at the Richmond Furnace with Victory Girl. This was back when the seeds of Pulse were just stirring as The Flowering Child at Eden Hill. She’s been an ardent fan ever since.