Rachel Macklin Olszewski (Macklin) [she/her and they/them]
has been an advocate and contributor to the arts community in Buffalo-Niagara for many years. Her scholarship includes a BFA in Theatre Performance at Niagara University in 2012, followed by an MA in Arts Management at the University of Buffalo in 2015, with a research emphasis on the arts as an impetus for economic growth and urban rehabilitation, the municipal policies that encourage the commodification of art as a mechanism to promote urban renewal, and the repercussions of such policies with regard to commodification of the art product and art-washing as contributors to gentrification in post-industrial cities. 

Professionally, Macklin has been working as an arts administrator since 2012, with over a decade of experience through various non-profit organizations and educational institutions. Macklin served as the Program and Operations Director at the Niagara Arts and Cultural Center in Niagara Falls, NY from 2012-2020. She joined UB in 2017, where her duties spanned many roles including Graduate Program Coordinator, interim Undergraduate Program Coordinator, and interim Department Administrator for the Theatre and Dance Department. In 2020, Macklin relocated to San Luis Obispo, CA, where she served as Administrative Director for the Art and Design Department at California Polytechnic University. Macklin was invited to return to UB in 2023, where she resumed her position as Interim Department Administrator for Theatre and Dance and eventually joined Art Department as the Department Administrator.

Outside of her professional life, Macklin is committed to the advocacy, autonomy, and accessibility of arts programming in the Buffalo-Niagara Region. Her volunteer efforts include service as the Secretary on the Board of Directors for Post-Industrial Productions, LLC.  (2018-Present), Secretary on the Board of Directors for Big Easy Buffalo, LLC. (2017-2020), and as a member of the Advisory Board for the Kavinoky Theatre at D'youville Campus in (2023-Present). Macklin is currently in collaboration with members of Patchwork Theatre of Niagara to write a one-act musical about Homan Walsh, an Irish immigrant who lived in Niagara Falls in the mid-1800's. In 1848, Walsh participated in a kite flying contest conceived by an American civil engineer, Charles Ellet Jr., to enable him to build the first suspension bridge between Niagara Falls, USA and Niagara Falls, CA. At the age of 16, after multiple failed attempts and a brief set back that left him alone in the Canadian wilderness in the dead of winter, Walsh succeeded to fly his kite 800 feet over the Niagara Gorge. The string of the kite was used to thread a cable across the escarpment and enabled the construction of the first suspension bridge.