Leadership & Staff

Jonathan Stafford*

Zita Ezpeleta Artistic Director and Chair of Faculty

Jonathan Stafford began his ballet training at age 8 with Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet. After attending two summer courses at SAB, he enrolled full time in 1997. He joined New York City Ballet in 1999, was promoted to soloist in 2006 and principal dancer in 2007. Mr. Stafford joined SAB’s faculty in 2007 and was named the School’s first Professional Placement Manager in 2015.

After retiring from dancing in 2014, Mr. Stafford served as Ballet Master for New York City Ballet. In 2017, he led New York City Ballet’s four-person interim artistic leadership team and was named Artistic Director of both New York City Ballet and the School of American Ballet in February 2019.

Carrie W. Hinrichs

Executive Director

Carrie W. Hinrichs joined the School of American Ballet as Executive Director in September 2017. She brings to SAB more than 20 years of experience in school administration and nonprofit fundraising, as well as a lifelong passion for ballet. Under her leadership, SAB has significantly strengthened its financial sustainability, increased it support of its talented students and dedicated faculty and staff, and continued to deepen SAB’s commitment to diversity and inclusion. Ms. Hinrichs returned to SAB following five years as Director of Advancement at The Spence School, where she oversaw fundraising, alumnae relations, and school communications. Previously in her career, she served as SAB’s Director of Development and Planning, Director of Development for Careers Through Culinary Arts Program, and held fundraising positions at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and the American Museum of Natural History. Ms. Hinrichs graduated from Princeton University with a BA in Politics, magna cum laude.

Aesha Ash*

Head of Artistic Health and Wellness

Ms. Ash hails from Rochester, NY, and began dancing at age five at the Joyce Winters School of Dance. She began her pursuit of classical ballet at age 10 at the Draper Dance Theatre. Ms. Ash attended three Summer Courses at SAB before enrolling as a full-time student. She was the recipient of the Mae L. Wien Award for Outstanding Promise in 1996 and joined New York City Ballet later that year. After 7 years with NYCB, Ms. Ash joined Béjart Ballet Lausanne as a soloist.  She subsequently danced with Alonzo King LINES Ballet and Christopher Wheeldon’s Morphoses before retiring from performing in 2009. Ms. Ash served as a guest teacher at SAB’s 2016 and 2017 California Workshop for Young Dancers and during the 2017-2018 Winter Term. She was SAB’s Visiting Faculty Chair from September 2018 to July 2020, and joined the faculty in September 2020. Ms. Ash served as Associate Chair of Faculty from 2022-2024 and was named Head of Artistic Health and Wellness in September 2024. Ms. Ash is a founding member of SAB’s Alumni Advisory Committee for Diversity and Inclusion, and she continues to head The Swan Dreams Project, a not-for-profit she founded in 2009 whose mission is to dismantle stereotypes surrounding race, beauty and talent through imagery and programming.

Jenifer Ringer*

Director of Intermediate/Advanced Divisions and Artistic Programming

Jenifer Ringer was born in New Bern, North Carolina, and was raised in Summerville, South Carolina, where she began her dance training at age 10 with local teachers. At age 12 she entered the Washington School of Ballet, where she studied for two years. She attended SAB’s Summer Course at age 14, which led to an invitation to train full time in SAB’s Winter Term. She became an apprentice with New York City Ballet in October 1989 and a member of the corps de ballet in January 1990. She was promoted to soloist in January 1995 and to principal dancer in spring 2000. She retired from performing in February 2014. While still performing, Ms. Ringer served as Artistic Director of the New York State Summer School of the Arts in Saratoga Springs and was appointed a School of American Ballet teaching fellow from 2010-13. In 2017, she co-founded the Colburn School’s Dance Academy with James Fayette in Los Angeles and served as Dean of Colburn’s Trudi Zipper Dance Institute until 2021. After relocating to her home state of South Carolina, she served on the faculty of the Dance Conservatory of Charleston in South Carolina from 2021-2024. Ms. Ringer joined the School of American Ballet’s artistic leadership team in August 2024 in the new role of Director of Intermediate/Advanced Divisions and Artistic Programming. Ms. Ringer was the recipient of both a Dance Magazine Award and the Jerome Robbins Award in 2011, and Dance Teacher magazine recognized her with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015.

Katrina Killian*

Director of Children’s/Preparatory Divisions

Following early ballet study in Pennsylvania with Marcia Dale Weary, Ms. Killian began her SAB training with the 1977 Summer Course and subsequently enrolled in SAB’s Winter Term from 1979 to 1981. George Balanchine invited Ms. Killian to join New York City Ballet in 1981. She rose to the rank of soloist in 1989. In 1997, she joined the School of American Ballet as a guest teacher upon retirement from performing. She was appointed to the faculty in 1998. In 2018, Ms. Killian was named the School’s Children’s Division Manager overseeing SAB’s progressive classical ballet syllabus for children and supervising teaching training programs. She rose to Senior Manager in 2022 and was named the Director of Children’s/Preparatory Divisions in September 2024. Ms. Killian currently also serves as Repertory Director for the New York City Ballet’s Education Department, staging productions featuring SAB’s Intermediate and Advanced students for NYCB programs which reach over 2,000 public school children each year.