About Kia
She's lived it. Now she helps you build it.
Kia Baird is a consultant, strategist, and speaker whose career spans nonprofit governance, workforce development, arts leadership, and community service. Her work is grounded in decades of showing up — on boards, on stages, and in rooms where real decisions get made.
A career built on stages
From Ledyard to the Cotton Club — and everywhere in between
Kia grew up in Ledyard, Connecticut and went south to Winston-Salem State University — a historically Black university in the UNC system — where she earned a Bachelor's in Music and studied the business of the art form, not just the art. She studied sacred and classical music and concentrated in jazz under D'Walla Simmons Burke, Richard Heard, and Dr. David Legette. She later earned a Master of Business Administration from Eastern University.
Her performance career has taken her to the historic Harlem Cotton Club, to the stage of the African American opera Barefoot — narrated by the late Dr. Maya Angelou — and to the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Chorus, where she continues to sing. She is the featured soloist for RPM Voices of Rhode Island and a new board member of the Connecticut Lyric Opera. She studied classical and sacred music under Richard Heard at Wake Forest University and with Jolie Rocke Brown.
That performance background isn't a footnote — it's the foundation. The same discipline that makes a great performer makes a great consultant: preparation, presence, the ability to read a room, and the commitment to show up fully every time.
Service
Community leadership
Kia's consulting practice is inseparable from her community work. She has spent decades in governance roles across the region — not as a figurehead, but as someone who does the work.
NCNW — New London County Section
Past PresidentNational Council of Negro Women, founded 1935 by Mary McLeod Bethune to advance women's rights and the rights of young people.
Eastern CT Chamber of Commerce
Former Ambassador & Board of TrusteesServed as a Young Professionals Ambassador and member of the Chamber's Board of Trustees.
OutCT
Past President, 10-year board memberServed on the board of directors for a decade, including as president.
Equality CT
Current board memberAdvancing LGBTQ+ equality across Connecticut.
Southeastern CT Re-entry Council
ChairServing individuals returning to the community after incarceration.
Avalonia Land Conservancy
Advisory board memberProtecting open space and natural resources in southeastern Connecticut.
Norwich Arts Center
Former board member & program creatorCreated Miss Lottie's Café — a jazz-theater series named for community activist Lottie B. Scott — and founded Girls in Jazz.
Norwich Bulletin
Former Diversity Board member & guest columnistFeatured multiple times as a guest columnist.
How Kia works
Kia's dream is to connect people with passion and creativity to opportunities — and to help strengthen the community as a whole. That vision runs through every engagement, whether she's working with a nonprofit board, an emerging artist, or an audience of leaders.
Honest over comfortable
The most useful thing a consultant can do is tell you what you need to hear — not what you want to hear. Kia has built her reputation on that kind of directness.
Practical over theoretical
Every recommendation is grounded in what the organization can actually implement. Kia doesn't hand you a report and disappear — she works with you until the work is done.
Capacity-building over dependency
The goal of every engagement is to leave the organization stronger than she found it — not to create a need for ongoing consulting. She builds your capacity, not hers.
Also
KiaB Music
Kia is the founder of KiaB Music, an artist management and development company built on the same principles as her consulting practice: honest guidance, practical strategy, and a deep respect for the work artists do. KiaB Music is where her two worlds — performance and business — come together.
KiaB Music
Artist management & development — where performance meets business strategy.
See arts consulting servicesReady to work together?
Whether you're building a stronger board, launching an artistic career, or looking for a speaker who brings real experience to the stage — Kia is ready to talk.