Attorney
Colleen's Bio
Based in and licensed to practice in NY, Colleen has extensive experience working with nonprofits and fiscal sponsors. Colleen earned her Bachelor of Science in Theater from Skidmore College and her J.D. from New York Law School.
Prior to Tovella Dowling, Colleen spent fifteen years working in the nonprofit sector as an administrator and manager at organizations such as Fractured Atlas, Signature Theatre, St. Ann’s Warehouse, The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Berkshire Theatre Group, and Orchard House Museum. During her time in the nonprofit sector, Colleen’s experience spanned nonprofit compliance, fundraising and development, programming, accessibility, and marketing.
Her work in the fiscal sponsorship sector includes managing the Programs Team at the largest Model C/Pre-Approved Grant Relationship fiscal sponsor in the country, leading the launch of a new fiscal sponsorship contract for 3500 sponsees, managing the tax filings for the fiscal sponsorship program, and navigating fiscal sponsor legal matters with outside counsel.
Colleen has volunteered with organizations such as Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts and CO/LAB Theater Group and served two terms on the Brooklyn Democratic County Committee. Additionally, Colleen previously directed and produced theater in Boston and New York City.
Outside of the office, Colleen loves to take advantage of the vibrant cultural sector in New York City, and she is an avid runner and knitter.
Before becoming an attorney, I spent nearly a decade directing and producing independent theater in Boston and New York City. I worked alongside emerging artists and small venues, often with limited resources but an extraordinary belief in the power of storytelling. What drew me to theater was never the spotlight itself. It was the transformation that could occur when someone was given the space, encouragement, and confidence to step into it, and how that transformation can inspire others.
Live performance taught me that finding your voice is rarely a solitary act. More often, it begins because someone listens before the rest of the world does, someone who believes there is something worth hearing and helps create the conditions for it to be heard. One of the final productions I worked on before law school, You Sound Like a Girl, explored how women come to understand, inhabit, and assert their own voices. That work reinforced for me that a voice is more than a means of expression. It is how we claim our identity, advocate for what matters, and begin to shape the world around us.
That lesson has remained at the center of my legal career. The organizations I serve are working to advance ideas, strengthen communities, and champion causes that may not otherwise receive the attention or resources they deserve. I see my role much as I did when directing theater: collaborating behind the scenes to build the structure, weave the story, anticipate the obstacles, and create the platform that allows others to step forward with confidence. The most important work often happens long before the curtain rises, in the patient work of shaping a vision and helping others bring it to life. This remains true in my legal practice, I help clients give form to their vision, strength to their voice, and staying power to their mission so that their work can take center stage and reach the people it was meant to serve.
I remain connected to that purpose through my service on the board of an arts nonprofit that provides mentorship, education, and resources to young female, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming composers. Their work is a powerful reminder that talent does not flourish through ability alone. It flourishes when people are given the tools to develop it, the opportunity to share it, and the assurance that their perspective belongs.
My “why” is rooted in the belief that every voice carries the potential to create change, but potential alone is not always enough. Sometimes, it takes an advocate who will listen, a collaborator who will help shape the vision, or someone willing to build the stage and then step aside. Whether I am helping an artist bring a new work to life or helping a nonprofit turn conviction into lasting impact, I am inspired by the opportunity to help others claim their place, tell the stories that matter, and create something the world would not have experienced without them.