KRISTEN COURY

FOUNDER, CEO & PRODUCING ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, GULFSHORE PLAYHOUSE, NAPLES

Gulfshore Playhouse’s 70 full-time staffers, 35 part-timers and more than 150 visiting artists every year ensure that its region is provided with Broadway-level plays and musicals, and an array of educational opportunities spanning in-school and extracurricular training for students aged 5-18, as well as adult programming. Coury founded the organization in 2004. “Having just opened our stunning Baker Theatre and Education Center, a brand new, state-of-the-art cultural center, our region is filling with civic pride and much excitement over not only the beautiful addition to the Naples architectural scene, but all of the artistic, educational and engagement opportunities that lie therein,” Coury says.

EDUCATION: State University of New York at Albany (BA)

FIRST JOB: Selling shoes for Thom McCann in my local mall when I was 16 years old.

DREAM ALTERNATE CAREER: I would have loved to have been a photographer for National Geographic.

NONPROFIT PASSION
“I am quite passionate about what Captains for Clean Water is doing.”