About AGMA

Griff Braun, National Organizing Director, Professional Bio

Griff Braun (he/him/his) joined AGMA’s professional staff as a negotiator in 2014 and was promoted to Director of Organizing and Outreach in 2019. In 2022, his title was changed to National Organizing Director.

Prior to joining AGMA’s staff, Braun had a successful career as a professional dancer - as a company member of American Ballet Theatre, The Royal Swedish Ballet, Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, Complexions, and the Metropolitan Opera Ballet, and as a guest artist with the San Francisco Ballet, Washington National Opera, Minnesota Dance Theatre, Ballet Hawaii, and others. In addition to performing at major venues across the United States and Canada, he toured extensively throughout Europe, Asia, and South America. In 2003, Braun received the Natalie Skelton Award for Artistic Excellence in his hometown of Dallas, Texas.

Throughout Braun’s career as an artist, he was an active AGMA member and leader, serving as a union delegate and participating as both a member and the Chair of several negotiating committees, with both ABT and the Met. Braun was the recipient of the Richard Porter Leach Fellowship at SUNY Empire State College, where he completed a BA in both dance and American History while still performing. He also received a Graduate Certificate in Labor Relations in 2017 from the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies.

As an AGMA staff member, Braun has served as the lead negotiator in bargaining with numerous signatory companies, lead multiple new organizing campaigns, and expanded AGMA’s capacity for member engagement. He has also served as the AGMA staff liaison to the Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO, the Coalition of Broadway Unions and Guilds (COBUG), Dance Artists National Collective (DANC), and the Entertainment Community Fund.