Stephanie Valadez is the Executive Artistic Director of Xicameri Productions, a 501(c)3 organization that uplifts the voices of under-represented communities and promotes justice and equal opportunity through its thought-provoking music and dance.  She enjoys collaborative and multidisciplinary work, and works as a composer, singer, and multi-instrumentalist.  Some of her performances have included Showcase Artist Concert at the Zeltsman Marimba Festival, Reich's Drumming with Steve Schick and the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, and Cage's Branches and Inlets for the opening of the SF Symphony's SF SoundBox under the artistic direction of Michael Tilson Thomas. Mrs. Valadez is an Education Artist for MarimbaOne and enjoys performing on her Izzy marimba.  In addition to her career in performing arts, she is also pursuing a PhD in Cross-Cultural Musicology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she is a Cota-Robles Fellow.  Her research interest is in the music, dance, and ritual practices of indigenous communities in the Valley of Mexico.  Part of her work examines (mis)translations of Nahua narratives and how western art illuminates acts of appropriation of indigenous material for the benefit of a nation-state identity which often reverberates through colonialism.