Dr. Heidelberg (she/her) is an organizational management consultant, educator, and researcher. She is a Professor of Arts Management in the Department of Arts & Entertainment Enterprise at Drexel University where her research and practical work focus on psychological safety in organizations. Dr. Heidelberg’s ongoing research interests include human resources theory and practice and the intellectual history and professionalization of the field of arts management. Her book Human Resources in the Arts (Routledge, 2025) focuses on how to create and maintain cultural organizations that are humane and equitable. Her work with ISO Arts Consulting also helps organizations operate efficiently, equitably, and humanely. This includes supporting organizations in executive searches, employee and board member recruitment and retention, stakeholder engagement and empowerment, organizational assessments, and workshop facilitation. She has also helped several granting institutions at the local, state, and federal levels reimagine their processes to be more equitable and inclusive. Dr. Heidelberg has had a wide range of professional experiences that includes time as a dancer and choreographer, positions in community engagement and programming at both visual and performing arts organizations, and work in federal and state-level government agencies.
Dr. Heidelberg is also interested in how class, gender, and race are presented in popular culture in ways that reflect and reject societal norms and harms. This work includes a critique of Hamilton's color-blind casting in Global Hip Hop Studies, a chapter in Hip-Hop and American Literature on Black women overwriting phallocentric songs with lyrics centering their own desires (co-authored with Justin Burton), and a forthcoming chapter in Hip-Hop and Comics (co-edited with Sheena Howard and Justin Burton) that discusses rap artist Leikeli47 as a Black feminist superhero (co-authored with Justin Burton).
Dr. Heidelberg earned her MS in Human Resource Development from Villanova University and her doctorate in Arts Administration, Education, and Policy from The Ohio State University.