about.
This is where creativity is treated not as a product to be optimized, but as a practice to be tended. It is a space built around the belief that the most meaningful work happens when people feel seen, when narratives are handled with care, and when leadership is understood as something you return to again and again, not a destination you arrive at. Every project, partnership, and platform that lives under this collective is guided by those principles.
At its core, TLF Collective Co. is the framework for how Ty-Juana moves through her work and life; and it holds the through line between these spaces: a commitment to centering people, honoring context, and creating with purpose. The collective is less about a single output and more about a consistent orientation toward curiosity, toward community, and toward the kind of cultural work that leaves something real behind.
la jefa aka founder
Ty-Juana L. Flores career has taken her across the full ecosystem of the creative economy — from city government to higher education to the nonprofit sector. As the former Director of Grants and Programs in the City of Boston's Mayor's Office of Arts and Culture, she managed and co-distributed a $3 million federal American Rescue Plan grant to arts organizations across the city, developed citywide programming strategy, and cultivated interdepartmental and community partnerships that expanded access to the arts. She currently serves as Director of Identity-Based Programs at Berklee, where she oversees a portfolio of student success and engagement initiatives, manages a $1.5 million grant, and leads programs that have supported more than 700 students since 2018.
A published scholar and sought-after speaker, her work has appeared in the Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice and on stages including the WBUR Festival and the National Symposium on Student Retention. She served as Chair of the Boston Cultural Council and sat on the Board of Directors of The Record Co.
Her expertise is a rare combination of institutional fluency, community trust, and programmatic rigor shaped by a career spent asking the questions the room forgot to ask. Her robust career has led her to create TLF Collective Co. and obtain a WSET Level 1 Wine certification, which has brought new meaning to her work.