Skip to main content
Back
Popular Pages
Educators
Businesses
Learners
About
  1. Influential Leaders
Influential Leaders

Damian Bazadona

President, Situation Group and Situation Project
Recognition Year(s): 2025
Area of Impact: Community or Social Impact
School: Massry School of Business, University at Albany, State University of New York
Location: United States

Summary

Damian Bazadona’s 20-plus years working on Broadway have epitomized philanthropy, innovation, and community engagement. A first-generation college graduate from the University at Albany Massry School of Business, he founded Situation Interactive to bring Broadway to the web in 2001. Since then, the marketing agency has evolved into Situation Group, a collective of companies—including the nonprofit Situation Project, which connects students from underfunded school districts to the arts. His entrepreneurship has not only evolved the ways experiences are marketed but also positively impacted the community.

Entrepreneurial Impact

Bazadona believes that the power of the human spirit is remarkable, and he brings that conviction to his company, his clients, and the industry at large. Situation Project, the nonprofit wing of Situation Group that he pioneered in 2011, demonstrates his commitment to social good. The equitable and impactful experiences it provides have had a profound impact on New York City (NYC) public school students.

Before founding the nonprofit, Bazadona was frustrated that about 20 percent of Broadway seats were going unsold each night, and arts programs in the city’s boroughs remained underfunded. As public school funding cuts for the arts grew, the severe inequity in the participants of arts and culture events widened each year. He considered it disgraceful that while NYC remained the epicenter for live arts and entertainment, its own students remained locked out by unaffordable ticket prices. Bazadona created Situation Project to address this inequity.

One impactful intiative, which garnered global attention when it won Situation Project a Clio Award, was the nonprofit’s partnership with SIX THE MUSICAL, Condé Nast’s Teen Vogue, and the NYC Department of Education. Together, these organizations brought 900 public school students to a Broadway show performed exclusively for them.

Bazadona and his team leveraged key relationships with public school principals from under-resourced districts, editorial leadership at Teen Vogue, and the SIX production team to pull off a memorable event that turned NYC public school students into theater fans. Despite a districtwide bus driver shortage and rising crime in NYC public transit, the partnererd organizations welcomed 900 students from 29 schools in all five NYC boroughs to a live performance—the first for almost every student in the audience.

Bazadona also arranged for a post-show discusion, or talkback, with the cast and Tony Award®-winning creative team led by Claire Dodson. The talkback offered an inside look into professional arts careers. The Situation Project team filmed the students’ reactions to the show and shared the video with them so they would have an enduring, inspiring memento. Planning, organizing, and producing this special performance and post-show talkback earned Bazadona a Bronze Clio Award.

Examples of Impact

By 2023, Bazadona and his team at Situation Project had engaged 10,377 students over 388 hours. They reached over 100 volunteers and now work with 11 NYC organizations to bring live arts to public schools with limited arts funding. Situation Project partnered with Purlie Victorious on an educational initiative to bring more than 2,250 public high school (MS 233) and college students to the Ossie Davis classic.

Further, the nonprofit hosted over 10 career development workshops in 2023, including one for the entire seventh-grade class of public school M 278. For the first time ever, they also took students from public school MS 343 X on a campus tour of New York University. With plans for three more college visits during the 2024–25 school year, Bazadona and his team are partnering with NYC universities to grant public school students access to the global exposure that these campuses afford.

Today, Situation Project has expanded its mission to include not only culturally immersive experiences but also career development and community engagement opportunities. The organization’s work supports overall student outcomes and aligns with U.N. Sustainable Development Goal 4—creating greater equity and access to education.

Additional Information