ST. LOUIS, MO - June 12, 2012 - Effective July 31, Lisa Harper Chang, MSW, will step down from her position as Community Projects Director of The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts. In 2007 Harper Chang was appointed by the Pulitzer and the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University to oversee this community projects initiative. She played a key role in developing and implementing programs that explored the intersection of social work and art while engaging the local community, area schools and social service agencies, and other art institutions with the Pulitzer’s exhibitions.

Harper Chang was integral in the conception and realization of the Pulitzer’s most notable community project, Staging Old Masters, an innovative social work program geared at helping former prisoners and homeless veterans transition to stable lives. In March 2012 Harper Chang and her team concluded a second iteration of the Staging project with the Pulitzer’s Reflections of the Buddha exhibition. Between the Pulitzer and Prison Performing Arts, St. Patrick Center, and Employment Connection, the Staging project built connections between art and audiences through theater, visual arts, and social work while transforming lives and fostering connections between communities. The project garnered attention from multitude national media outlets, among them the Washington Post, The Huffington Post, and Tricycle Magazine.

In her position at the Pulitzer, Lisa Harper Chang paved a new path for social workers and the field of creative cultural practice. The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts is grateful to her for the significant contributions she made to the institution and the St. Louis community.