Our Team

For nearly two decades, Piper Gunnarson has helped nonprofit arts organizations navigate growth, leadership transitions, strategic change, and organizational transformation. As the founder of Gunnarson Consulting, she partners with arts organizations, artist collectives, foundations, arts service organizations, and cultural nonprofits across the country to strengthen leadership, governance, fundraising, strategic planning, and long-term sustainability.

Piper brings a rare combination of executive leadership experience and hands-on operational expertise. Before launching Gunnarson Consulting, she served for eight years as Executive Director of On Site Opera in New York City, where she more than doubled the organization's operating budget, led the implementation of a multi-year strategic plan, expanded and diversified the Board of Directors, strengthened financial oversight and governance, and oversaw more than twenty sold-out site-specific opera productions—including four world premieres—in partnership with institutions such as The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Museum of Natural History, Wave Hill, and Breaking Ground. She also led the organization's fundraising, marketing, finance, technology, human resources, and day-to-day operations while helping establish On Site Opera as one of the country's most innovative opera companies.

Earlier in her career, Piper served as Managing Director of Random Farms Kids' Theater, where she helped transform a founder-led educational theater into a stronger, more sustainable nonprofit organization. Working alongside the organization's founder and board, she helped increase the operating budget by 60%, developed a multi-year strategic plan, doubled board membership, expanded fundraising, strengthened financial systems, and built the administrative infrastructure necessary to support continued growth. Piper found her passion for arts administration in rising roles at Geffen Playhouse, Will Geer Theatricum, Abingdon Theater, and NYU’s Gallatin Arts Festival.

Today, through Gunnarson Consulting, Piper serves as a strategic planning consultant, interim and fractional executive leader, governance advisor, and facilitator for organizations navigating periods of growth, transition, or change. Recent clients include emerging and established organizations such as Skyline Symphony, Collective Voice Lab, RiverArts, Irondale Theater, Backyard Kids Theater, and other nonprofit arts organizations, foundations, and service organizations throughout the United States. Her work includes strategic planning, executive transition support, board development, fundraising strategy, organizational assessments, retreat facilitation, executive coaching, and fractional executive leadership.

Piper is known for combining big-picture strategic thinking with practical implementation. Rather than delivering reports that sit on a shelf, she works alongside boards and leadership teams to build consensus, strengthen organizational culture, develop realistic action plans, and create systems that organizations can sustain long after the consulting engagement ends.

Piper holds an MA in Leadership for the Arts from New York University and a BA in Theatre from the University of California, San Diego. She is an active member of OPERA America and previously served on the organization's Trustee Council and Women's Opera Network Steering Committee. Throughout her career, she has been invited to speak and facilitate conversations on nonprofit leadership, governance, fundraising, audience engagement, strategic planning, and innovation in the performing arts.

Priti Gandhi is an accomplished arts executive and nationally recognized leader in artistic administration, talent strategy, and institutional advancement in the opera industry. With more than 25 years of experience spanning international performance and leadership, she is known for building artistic excellence, advancing organizational strategy, and developing the next generation of operatic talent.

Following a distinguished international performing career with organizations including the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Opera, Seattle Opera, Théâtre du Châtelet (Paris), the Philadelphia Orchestra, and UNAM (Mexico City), Ms. Gandhi transitioned into senior arts leadership. Most recently, she served as Associate Director of the Metropolitan Opera’s Laffont Competition, leading nationwide operations, overseeing administrative strategy, cultivating donor relationships, and serving as a national representative and talent scout. Previously, she served as Artistic Director of Portland Opera and as Vice President of Artistic at Minnesota Opera, where she directed artistic planning, managed multi-million-dollar budgets, strengthened organizational operations, and championed diversity and community engagement.

A respected thought leader, Ms. Gandhi is a frequent national panelist, serves on the Artistic Advisory Council of the Asian Opera Alliance, and has advised grant panels for the National Endowment for the Arts, Arts Midwest, and OPERA America. She is an Executive MBA graduate in Arts Innovation from the Global Leaders Institute, an alumna of the American Express Women in Leadership Academy and OPERA America’s leadership programs, and a frequent adjudicator for leading national and international competitions.

Ms. Gandhi is also an in-demand lecturer, master class instructor, mentor, and artistic consultant, recognized for fostering artistic innovation, leadership development, and the future of opera.