Jessica Satava Women in Business Award 2026

Jessica Satava

Greenville Symphony

Executive Director

Greenville

Jessica Satava is a passionate advocate for the power of symphonic music to activate and unite communities.

In September 2022, she came to Greenville to serve as the executive director of the Greenville Symphony, now in its 78th year of service to South Carolina’s upstate through music. Previously, she was executive director of the Johnstown Symphony Orchestra in Pennsylvania, served in artistic operations roles at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, the Aspen Music Festival and School, and in fundraising at Baltimore’s Enoch Pratt Free Library.

Satava received a Certificate in Business Management Development from Carey School of Business, Johns Hopkins University and is an alumna of the League of American Orchestra’s Essentials of Orchestra Management 2019. She was honored to be a speaker in the closing plenary session of the League’s 2023 National Conference in Pittsburgh.

She is an alumna of the Peabody Institute, where she is on the Professional Studies faculty, teaching a graduate course that prepares artists to apply for and secure funding to further their work.

Satava currently serves on the board of the Community Foundation of Greenville and the Dean’s Advisory Council for the School of the Arts and board of Visitors at Converse University. In the past she served on the board of directors of Beginnings, Inc.; the Business Sector Committee of the Cambria County Drug Coalition and led the Arts and Culture Sector for Johnstown’s Vision Together 2025.

Satava and her husband Joe, a pianist and fundraising professional, met at Peabody.

How do you define leadership?

Leadership is showing up with enthusiasm for and focus on the mission especially when times are tough, belief in the future and in people's potential, and communicating with honesty, frequency, and clarity.

What makes you an effective leader? What are you still working on?

I take action. I have never waited until I was "ready." I'm tenacious. I'm striving every day to be better for my team and community — there is no area of my work or life that I feel is "good enough."

Is there a mentor who has meant a lot to you in your career?

I could not be successful in my work without my mentors, bold orchestra leaders who are always willing to take my call and offer sound advice — thank you, Andrew Kipe and Scott Faulkner.

What is your greatest fear, and how do you manage fear?

My greatest fears are stagnation and letting people down. I manage fear by taking action, facing it head on.

What’s the best advice you have received in business that you wish to pass on to our readers?

The measure of intelligence is the ability to change. — Albert Einstein

What would you say is your greatest professional accomplishment to date?

Stewarding the launch of the Greenville Symphony's Music Director Lee Mills and supporting the bold artistic vision that has created such joy, positivity, and forward motion for the music community in our city.

What one thing have you learned that has served you well over the years?

That I have so much to learn, and that I can never know enough.

If there is one thing you could go back and do differently what would it be?

I would be kinder to myself when I was young and figuring it out. When I moved a few years ago, I had the chance to flip through old pictures, big papers from college, and various mementos from that time in my life. It was emotional to remember how unimpressive, how behind, how less-than I felt. It wasn't true.