// OUR PEOPLE
Over 50 years of teaching the arts in the Bay Area
Workshop Artists
Andreina is a mover, creator, musician, and coach from Maracay, Venezuela. Her background is in Afro-Venezuelan dances from the Coastal region, salsa, merengue, and bachata. Andreina holds a bachelor’s degree in Anthropology, Animal Behavior and Dance from Indiana University. She is interested in how traditional art forms like music and dance inform the cultural identity of a group of people and how the arts are used to create narratives about people’s experiences and hopes for change. Andreina has worked with the African American Dance Company, Bangogla Music and Dance Ensemble of Cote D'Ivoire, Saakumu Dance Troupe of Ghana and Flores do Samba of Brazil. She is currently a member of Duniya Dance and Drum Company, CherieHill Afro-modern Irie Dance and Dancing Earth Indigenous Contemporary Creations. Andreina joined the Workshop in August 2017.
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Carmen is a dancer, choreographer, educator, filmmaker, and emerging scholar. She has been teaching Creative Dance and Afro-Peruvian dance to youth and adults in the San Francisco Bay Area and in rural communities in El Salvador and Peru for over 8 years. Carmen enjoys guiding children to express their ideas and their world through the art of dance and believes all children should have access to quality dance education. Carmen re-joined the workshop in January 2019.
Carmen has published dance research in theAfrican Performance Review. She was awarded a U.S. Fulbright Fellowship in Dance to Peru in 2015 - 2016. Her first dance documentary “Herencia de Un Pueblo(Inheriting a Legacy )” shot in El Carmen, Peru, was awarded Best Documentary and Best Cinematography at the San Francisco Dance Film Festival. She is the founder and artistic director of Cunamacué, a contemporary Afro-Peruvian dance company. Carmen holds a B.A. in Dance from San Francisco State University and an MFA in Dance from Mills College.
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Chinchin Hsu, Dancer, was born and raised in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. She has trained in ballet, modern, contemporary, Chinese martial art, Chinese ballet, Tai-chi, improvisation and dance composition. She graduated summa cum laude from New World School of the Arts under the direction of Daniel Lewis, and received her BFA in dance from University of Florida. In 2008, Chinchin moved to San Francisco and has danced with ODC, KUNST- STOFF, Anne Bluethenthal and Dancers, Tanya Bello's Project.B., Kara Davis of project agora, Lenora Lee’s Asian Improv, Christy Funsch, LEVYdance and Margaret Jenkins Dance Company. Chinchin joined Performing Arts Workshop in November 2008. Chinchin teaches creative movement, world dance, and serves as an artist mentor at Performing Arts Workshop.Chinchin loves to move, create and share; she is interested in creating forum that allows students to practice critical thinking, problem solving, and building empathy and community through dance. Chinchin is curious about each student's story and seeks for moments when she is growing with her students.
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Elaine T. Nguyen joined Performing Arts Workshop in November 2018. She is a painter, sculptor, and installation artist. Her work centers on memory and abstraction. She has been teaching art to youth for two years and is excited to help students explore art as a means of expression. Elaine has been a part of several different creative communities: Baltimore Asian American Pacific Islander Creatives, Women of Color Luncheon, and is a current Artist in Residence at a collective in San Francisco. Her recent projects have included creating an artist residency in Algodones, New Mexico and creating a collective for Asian American Pacific Islanders based in the SF Bay Area. She is a graduate of Maryland Institute College of Art where she earned a dual degree in Painting and Humanities. www.elainetnguyen.com
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Emma Lanier is a dance artist based in San Francisco, where she co-directs a new company called Kickbal. She has performed her choreography nationally at Pulitzer Arts Foundation in St. Louis, MO, David Zwirner Gallery in New York, NY, and locally at LevySalon, Studio 210, 63 Bluxome Street, Spruce Street Co-op, ODC Pilot, Dance Lovers 8, and SPF12. She studied at the Conservatorio Superior de Danza María de Ávila in Madrid and at Skidmore College in New York, where she was the recipient of the 2016 Margaret Paulding Award for outstanding performance, choreography, and research in critical dance studies. Emma also works with text, film, sound design, and fine arts. She has been teaching intermittently for six years and joined the Workshop in February, 2019.
Photo credit: Anastasiia Sapon
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Hien Huynh was born in Da Nang, Vietnam. Through embodied practice, Hien aspires to seek understanding, and honor the recognition of the vibrations of life, deepen awarenesses, and open heart for human compassion. Hien graduated from UC Davis with double majors in Communication and Dance. He is honored to have performed in the works of Lenora Lee Dance, Kim Epifano, Robert Moses’ Kin, Kinetech Arts, PUSH, Deborah Slater Dance Theater, Christy Funsch & Nol Simonse, and punkkiCo. In 2018 Hien was awarded with the Isadora Duncan Award for Outstanding Individual Performance. Hien believes in the arts as a means of processing experiences, emotions, inspirations and circulating stories through movement in flow with sharing, witnessing, and reflection - a constance to engage our awareness of the space we collectively inhabit, share, enter, and emotionally emit. www.hien-huynh.com
Pronouns: He/Him/His
Hiroyo Kaneko is a photographer based in Oakland, CA. She was born in Aomori, Japan. When she was 18 years old, she started to borrow an old manual Pentax from her father. Since then she has been enthusiastic about visual expression in photography. She received her MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and a BA in French Literature from Meiji Gakuin University, Tokyo.
Her work has been exhibited in the United States and Japan at spaces including the San
Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Photographic Center Northwest, San Francisco Camera
Work, Nikon Gallery and the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo. Kaneko is a recipient of the Santa Fe Prize for Photography 2009 and a winner of Philadelphia Museum of Art Photography Portfolio Competition 2012. In 2017, she won the 1st place in the 21st Annual Exhibition at the Photographic Center Northwest.
Hiroyo has taught at University of California, Davis and Rayko Photo Center, and is currently a lecturer in Photography at De Anza College. She joined the Performing Arts Workshop in
September 2018.
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Born and raised in San Diego, California, Imani Cezanne is a highly acclaimed writer, performer, and poetry slam coach. Imani joined the Performing Arts Workshop team as a Teaching Artist in August of 2018 and has been teaching both creative writing and spoken word for 5 years. As a nationally touring spoken word artist, Cezanne has been invited to travel all over the country to share her work with poetry venues, colleges, universities, conferences, festivals and more. She is a six time National Poetry Slam finalist and was featured on Seasons 3 and 5 of TV One’s Verses and Flow, a cable television show dedicated to showcasing the best performance poetry in the country. In 2014 Cezanne placed 2nd at the Women of the World Poetry Slam and in 2016 returned from Brooklyn as the 2016 Women of the World Poetry Slam Champion. She has a bachelor’s degree in Africana Studies and a minor in Communication from San Francisco State University.
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Jocelyn Reyes is a contemporary choreographer, performer and teaching artist based in San Francisco. Reyes earned a B.A. in Dance and a B.S. in Cognitive Science, and is the artistic director of REYES Dance. She has produced full evening length dance productions and presented choreography in several festivals including PUSHFest, West Wave Dance Festival, ODC Pilot, LevySalon, Festival of Latin American Contemporary Choreographers and SAFEHouse RAW. Reyes joined SF Performing Arts Workshop in September 2019 and is also a teaching artist with Alonzo King LINES Community Programs, SF Arts Education, City Dance Annex and Linda Bulgo Musical Theater Productions.
Pronouns: She/Her/Hers
Kristiana Chan is a first generation Malaysian-Chinese artist, writer, and educator whose work explores the intersection of ancestry, healing, and mythology. She has been teaching for the last 5-6 years, including art classes at a school in San Francisco, thematic study abroad trips, and surf lessons for girls and women of color in the Bay Area. She combines traditional storytelling and art making techniques of embroidery, paper cut, and shadow puppetry with projections, alternative photo processes, and other new media. She helped curate this year’s visual arts showcase at Kearny Street Workshop's APAture festival and is a 2019 resident at the Growlery in San Francisco. This year, she was selected to be an artist mentee in the NYFA Immigrant Artist Mentoring Program. Her writing and photography has been published by Art Practical, Surfer Magazine, Patagonia, The Bold Italic, and Misadventures Magazine.
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Lara D’Emilio is a proud newcomer to the Workshop team starting as a creative dance teaching artist in January 2017. Lara is graduating from the University of San Francisco with a Bachelor in Arts in Performing Arts and Social Justice: Dance concentration and a minor in Child and Youth Studies. She loves all the various dance forms in which she is trained including ballet, contemporary, jazz, and musical theatre. She has had the opportunity to perform for several Bay Area artists including Andrew Ward and Melecio Estrella, Brenton Cheng, Lauren Simpson and Jenny Stulberg, and Jennifer Polyocan. Lara is passionate about integrating academic curriculum and students’ personal experiences in her teaching to encourage an engaging space for youth. She encourages her students to use their imaginations and is dedicated to individual expression and storytelling to foster critical thinking and a positive self-image within her students.
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Lisa Saunders is a multicultural arts integration specialist, member of UNESCO's International Dance Council and founding executive director of the Ethnic Arts Institute International. Her career spans more than 30 years as a teaching artist and principal performer with two premier Bay Area dance companies. She has been with the Workshop since January 2016. Lisa is the recipient of awards and recognitions for innovations in K-12 enrichment programming, dance-without-borders exchanges and pioneering methods that bring authentic global dance curriculum to young learners. Beyond the classroom, Lisa contributes to the professional development of K-12 music educators by presenting nationally to members of the American Orff-Schulwerk Association.
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Mission District native, Manolo Davila, is an arts educator, performer, and organizer who has been working on his craft and career for over 16 years. He has trained and worked with Bay Area Music and Dance groups such as Soltron, Loco Bloco, Sambaxe, Rara Tou Limen, Tradicion Peruana and continues to teach and spread his talent and love for art throughout San Francisco and the Bay Area with organizations such as Leap Arts in Education, Young Audiences of California, The SF Symphony’s Sound Minds Program and SF Ballet’s DISC Program. A multi-instrumentalist by nature he plays a wealth of styles and instruments and seeks to synthesize his influences into a unique and fresh sound. Manolo believes in the power of music, dance, and art to aid people in living harmoniously with themselves, their community, and their environment.
Pronouns: He/Him/His
natalya shoaf uses contemporary dance to bridge the gap between dance and our humanity, so that dance becomes an interpretation of our everyday lives, offering a fresh perspective of our world. natalya graduated from Alonzo King LINES BFA program at Dominican University of California in 2018. Since then, she has been a freelance California-based movement specialist/director, choreographer, dancer, and teacher. natalya joined forces with Performing Arts Workshop January 14th, 2019! she has presented work in Black Choreographers Festival (San Francisco and Oakland) and has recently been asked to return as a sponsored artist. her work has also been presented in LEVYsalon and CHOPSHOP. she has recently choreographed for the San Francisco native band CON BRIO’s latest music video, “Body Language.” natalya holds reviews given by the Bay Area Stringer as well as the SF Chronicle. she hopes to travel the world sharing her love and passion for what she does.
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Natasha Huey is a poet, teaching artist, and project manager. She has been teaching spoken word poetry with the Workshop since October 2013. Natasha has performed on stages across the nation and beyond including the Oracle Arena in Oakland, the Warfield Theater in San Francisco, the Saban Theatre in Los Angeles, and Atlantis, the Palm in Dubai. Natasha is a graduate from UC Berkeley with a degree in Language, Power, and Identity and a Creative Writing minor. Natasha teaches poetry to give young people tools to best dig to the truth of their experiences. She believes in the power of embodying our stories, especially those that have been silenced or marginalized, and bringing them to life in our own voices. In addition to being a teaching artist at the Workshop, Natasha is currently the Brave New Voices Manager for Youth Speaks, the co-founder of The Root Slam, and the co-founder of the Write Home Project.
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Nicole Jost is a playwright and educator with nearly 10 years of experience teaching her craft to young people. Her plays have been staged and read at San Francisco Playhouse, Custom Made Theatre Co., Z Space, PlayGround, and the SF Olympians Festival in San Francisco; at 20% Theatre Company and Gadfly Theatre Productions in Minneapolis; and at Rorschach Theatre, The Inkwell, and the Capital Fringe Festival in her hometown of Washington, DC. Nicole is a two-time winner of the James Milton Highsmith Playwriting Award for queer theater, a runner up for the Jane Chambers Student Playwriting Award, and a third place winner of the National Partners of the American Theatre Playwriting Award. She holds an M.F.A. in Playwriting and an M.A. in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University. Nicole joined Performing Arts Workshop as a Teaching Artist in September 2016 and became the Core Artist Mentor in August 2018.
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Paul S. Flores’ deep dive into themes of transnationality and citizenship comes at a
crucial time in contemporary history. Flores creates plays and oral narratives that spur
and support societal movements that lead to change. Flores last play “On The Hill: I
Am Alex Nieto” brought San Francisco communities together divided by
gentrification and police violence. Flores’ ability to paint a vivid picture of bi-cultural
Latino experience is shaped by his personal background and experience growing up
near the Mexican border. He began presenting spoken word as a founding member of
Youth Speaks and Los Delicados in 1996. He performed for the first time in Cuba in
2001 while working at La Peña Cultural Center, and has since presented multiple
times in Havana, Mexico and El Salvador. His comprehensive body of work touches
on the immigrant story in all its complexities: from the violent—forced migration,
gang life, war, incarceration and separated families—to zooming in on
intergenerational relationships and the struggle of preserving important cultural
values. Paul’s newest play “We Have Iré” highlights the true stories of Afro-Cuban
immigrant artists in the United States and was commissioned by Yerba Buena Center
for the Arts. He is an adjunct professor of theater at the University of San Francisco.
Paul joined the Workshop August 2019.
Rotimi Agbabiaka is thrilled to join Performing Arts Workshop. He is an actor, writer, director, and teaching artist who uses humor, glamor, and drama to challenge the status quo. He has over eleven years experience teaching Acting, Movement, and Play Creation at the middle school, high school, and college level. Most recently he’s taught with Word for Word, the San Francisco Mime Troupe Youth Theater Project, and Southern Illinois University. As a performer he has worked with theatre companies like Playwrights Horizons, Yale Rep, American Conservatory Theatre, Shotgun Players, Magic Theatre, California Shakespeare Theatre, on street corners, and in parks—most frequently with the San Francisco Mime Troupe, where he is a company member. As a writer he’s penned the award winning solo plays, Type/Caste and Homeless and co-written a musical called Seeing Red, with Joan Holden and Ira Marlowe, which was nominated for a Theatre Bay Area Award. He studied at Moscow Art Theatre and earned his MFA in Acting from Northern Illinois University. www.rotimionline.com
Pronouns: he/him/his
Sabina started teaching at Performing Arts Workshop in May, 2019. She is an illustrator, animator, writer, and graduate from Rhode Island School of Design. She strives to use illustration as a tool to educate, communicate, bridge cultural barriers, and make complex ideas accessible. She has worked toward this goal in collaboration with local activists and researchers in Ghana, U.K., India, Rhode Island, and California. In the past, Sabina has created education materials for nonprofits and simplified complex research and activist ideas into accessible animated videos. She has also managed a Brown University fellowship project in collaboration with an activist group in Ranchi, India, to prototype methods of co-creation, and ways nonfiction illustration can be used as a tool for communication and empowerment of marginalized communities.
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Dedicated Capoeirista teaching artist, educator, and fluent speaker of Portuguese, Spanish and English, Salê Ramos has been a capoeira practitioner for over 25 years. He came to the Bay Area in 2001. Today, Salê teaches basic body movement, history, philosophy, rituals and music from Capoeira to inspire and direct young students in reaching high and respectable social skills. Salê has been teaching capoeira and working with Performing Arts Workshop since 2009 and has taught in many schools all over the Bay Area. He adapts his teaching methodology to individual student needs in order to create a safe and comfortable environment for all levels of learning.
Pronouns: he/him/his
I joined Performing Arts Workshop in June 2019. I’ve taught Pre - K for three years, in addition to tutoring ESL students aged 3-12 years. I am a poet, painter and photographer floating in the South Asian diaspora. I incorporate my experiences of being a Queer woman of color into my art, using my words and images to evoke emotions in the minds of others. My poetry has been published in the South Asian Diaspora Artist Collective (SADAC) Zine in New York, NY, and in Slanted House Zine in Berlin, Germany. In addition to frequently photographing families and special events, I have been a featured visual artist for my fine art photography and painting in the following shows: “Ehsaas (Feeling)” 2018 exhibition in New York, NY; “Pancakes and Booze” 2018 exhibition in New York, NY; “Pancakes and Booze” 2018 Exhibition in Oakland, CA; “Subcontinental Drift” 2019 Exhibition in Oakland, CA.
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Administrative Staff
Adriana Lucas
Adriana is a Southern California native who grew up in Los Angeles California. Her love and appreciation for the arts were fostered at home by her father who taught her how to draw. Through her educational journey, she discovered a love for working with students, especially those with limited access to resources. She earned her triple B.A. in Criminology, Political Science, and Education from the University of California, Irvine. As a first-generation student, she actively worked to bridge the opportunity gap for students on campus as well as those in the greater Orange County area. Adriana then joined Teach for America's Las Vegas corps where she taught fifth grade, all subjects, and later coached new teachers. During this time, she also earned an M.Ed. in Curriculum & Instruction from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She is excited to start the new decade in her new role with the Performing Arts Workshop. In her free time, she enjoys exploring new places and starting new projects.
Allison Thompson
Allison is a Southern Wisconsin/Northern Illinois native who grew up playing piano and flute, and has always been passionate about the performing arts. She received a B.S. in Journalism from Northern Illinois University, then moved to Nashville where she worked in Artist Relations for Guitar Center and at the Humanities Center at Vanderbilt University.
Leaving behind a comfy life in Nashville in 2014, Allison moved to London to chase a dream of being a leader in the performing arts. She received an M.A. in Arts Policy & Management from Birkbeck, University of London, where she also worked for the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. She returned to the States after graduation for a Major Gift Officer position with the San Francisco Symphony, and is just as excited to be with the Performing Arts Workshop as she was when the Chicago Cubs won the World Series.
E-mail: allison@PerformingArtsWorkshop.org
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Ankoor Patel
Ankoor Patel is a Bay Area native and nerd with a deep love for building and supporting safe spaces for students to tell their stories. Prior to the Workshop, Ankoor was a nonprofit educator, developing interdisciplinary history and arts curricula for high school students of color. He holds a B.A. in Sociology and Film with a correlate in Art History from Vassar College. As a son of im/migrants, Ankoor is interested in how education can upend systemic injustice through student empowerment. Outside of work, Ankoor loves cooking with family, making extravagant playlists, playing Bananagrams, and powerlifting. E-mail: ankoor@PerformingArtsWorkshop.org
Pronouns: he/him/his
Caira Ortiz
Caira grew up in New Mexico and Southern California, where she discovered her love for the outdoors, community enrichment, and diversity. She followed her interests into college where she completed the Business Leadership Program and received a double B.A. in Business Administration and Japanese from the University of Puget Sound. After graduating, she pursued a career path in the nonprofit sector and joined the internship team at the human rights organization, Liberty in North Korea. She then worked in arts education nonprofits and, prior to joining the Workshop, worked three years as Programs Coordinator with the local San Francisco organization, Streetside Stories. She's a strong believer in making space for people to find and share their personal stories, and when she's not in the office, she's usually hiking, cooking a new recipe, or (dreaming about) traveling. Email: caira@performingartsworkshop.org
Pronouns: she/her/they/them
Elaine Nguyen
Elaine T. Nguyen joined Performing Arts Workshop in November 2018. She is a painter, sculptor, and installation artist. Her work centers on memory and abstraction. She has been teaching art to youth for two years and is excited to help students explore art as a means of expression. Elaine has been a part of several different creative communities: Baltimore Asian American Pacific Islander Creatives, Women of Color Luncheon, and is a current Artist in Residence at a collective in San Francisco. Her recent projects have included creating an artist residency in Algodones, New Mexico and creating a collective for Asian American Pacific Islanders based in the SF Bay Area. She is a graduate of Maryland Institute College of Art where she earned a dual degree in Painting and Humanities. www.elainetnguyen.com
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Lorena Landeros
Lorena Landeros joined Performing Arts Workshop after teaching Middle School English and Special Education in the South Bronx. She earned a B.A. in English and Philosophy from San Francisco State University, an Ed.M from Hunter College, and is a Teach for America alumnus. Lorena is committed to racial justice and community centered approaches to arts education that affirm students' creative capacity and voice. When the sun goes down, she is a fiction writer and photographer. She lives in San Francisco with her husband and young daughter.
Email: lorena@
Molly Krost
Molly comes to Performing Arts Workshop with a professional background in arts administration. She has worked at SF Community Music Center, Cal Performances, Theater J in Washington D.C., and Rough Magic Theatre in Ireland. Molly is also an emerging playwright. She is a Resident Playwright at PlayGround and her plays have been read or performed at Z Space, San Francisco Playhouse, PlayGround, SOMArts Cultural Center, and SFSU Fringe, among others. She was awarded the Gita Specker First Place Award for Best Dramatic Monologue by the San Francisco Browning Society. As an artist, she is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion and believes it is crucial to the future of performing arts. Molly is currently pursuing her MFA in Creative Writing at San Francisco State University. She holds a BA in Theatre and Performance studies and a BA in Classical Civilizations from UC Berkeley. In her free time, she enjoys baking, crafting, and weight lifting.
Neela Gentile
Neela Gentile joins the workshop for a short time as Interim Executive Director. Having been the Interim Executive Director at Streetside Stories, she is thrilled to be back with familiar staff and board members and supporting vital programs that support our youth. Born and raised in Southern California, Neela ventured north and earned her BA in English from UC Berkeley. In her free time, Neela enjoys photography, cooking and time with her teens. Email: neela@PerformingArtsWorkshop.org Pronouns: she/her/hers
Van Nguyen-Stone
Van Nguyen-Stone is passionate about documenting and celebrating stories where people and spirit combine in sacred communication. With her two film degrees, a Bachelor of Arts from University of California, Santa Cruz, and a Master of Fine Arts degree from San Francisco State University, Van uses the tools she’s learned to support communities in telling their stories. In 2008, Van founded Jomi Jomi Photography, Film, and Community because she wanted to take the lead in her creative career to produce projects she believed in. Through her business, she has produced a range of multimedia projects, from diverse spiritual practices, ethnic dances and traditions to spotlighting Bay Area non-profits and artists. Over her nine years in the business, she has produced work for acclaimed performer Rhodessa Jones, photographed Master Cuban dance teacher Juan De Dios and his company Raices Profundas, and many other artists. Van is a seasoned teaching artist with over a decade of experience leading media arts workshops for young people and teachers in school and community-based settings, both locally and nationally. She specializes in technology and media arts integration, curriculum development, project management, and leading professional development workshops. Van joined the Workshop in 2018. Email: van@performingartsworkshop.org
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Board of Directors
Angela Brown
Angela Brown is an SFUSD educator with a strong pedagogy of emphasizing the arts across all academic disciplines. She currently teaches Language Arts at Aptos Middle School and serves as the Arts Coordinator there as well. This year, with her guidance, Aptos received 10+ arts residencies, initiated by the Jerry Rosenstein Partnership (JRAP) facilitated by the San Francisco Opera. In addition to this, Angela is also the Ambassador for ArtSmart, a program that partners professional singers with students who have a talent to sing, but may not have the opportunity due to financial or family constraints. In 2010, she was designated as the San Francisco Foundation’s “Art & Cultural Teaching Fellow.” Angela holds a BA & teaching credential from Sonoma State University in Liberal Studies with a minor in Theatre and an MFA in New Genres from the San Francisco Art Institute. Angela believes that art has the ability to change lives and that is why she is thrilled to join the Performing Arts Workshop in ensuring that San Francisco’s youth have access to rich and vibrant arts programming. Pronouns: she/her/hers
Carla Llewelyn-Vasquez
Carla Llewelyn-Vasquez joined the Performing Arts Workshop Board of Directors in December 2018. Carla has been an educator in SFUSD for 24 years and has served as a Spanish bilingual and English Language Development classroom teacher, Teacher on Special Assignment in the Multilingual Pathways Department and as a Program Administrator in the Office of Access and Equity where she lead a team to design and facilitate educator workshops on Racial Equity and Culturally Responsive Teaching.
Carla is now the principal of Mission Education Center, an elementary school for Spanish speaking newcomer students in San Francisco Unified School District. As an immigrant from Panama, Carla encourages and advocates for the integration of the Arts into the curriculum as a form of self expression for all students but especially so for newcomer students as they develop their language skills.
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Eric Lamothe
Eric Lamothe joined the Performing Arts Workshop's Board of Directors in 2018. He is proud to be the Director of Finance for Future State, a management consulting firm in Oakland, which is purpose-driven, women-led, employee-owned, and a certified B-Corporation. At Future State, Eric spends his days supporting strategy and direction; synthesizing complex financial and operational issues; and building processes that support every individual at the firm. Prior to Future State Eric spent 10 years with Gensler, a global design firm, helping to build out a global finance and accounting infrastructure. Eric is a California CPA (inactive) with a Bachelor’s in Finance from Northeastern University. He is a singer and an improviser and currently performs musical improv with Flash Mob Musical in San Francisco. Eric has a lifelong love and appreciation of the performing arts and is excited to support young people through the Performing Arts Workshop’s mission.
Pronouns: he/him/his
Hannah Yang
Hannah is an intellectual property attorney in San Francisco with the law firm Kilpatrick Townsend. She advises on a wide-range of IP matters, serving electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, software, and other technology-based clients. She also handles trademark and copyright issues. In addition to her work as an attorney, Hannah is passionate about the arts and supporting arts education. Her passion began at an early age through performance in musicals and choir. Exploration and discovery through the arts taught her invaluable lifelong skills that she believes every child should have the opportunity to learn. She is honored to serve on the Board of Performing Arts Workshop in support of youth arts education.
Jennifer Chen
Jennifer joined the Performing Arts Workshop’s Board of Directors in 2017. She is a director at Saban Capital Group, where she focuses on growth equity and private equity investments in the media, entertainment, and consumer Internet sectors. Prior to joining Saban Capital, Jennifer worked in investment banking at Morgan Stanley. In addition to serving the Performing Arts Workshop, Jennifer also served as a board member of the Los Angeles Music and Art School’s YP Advisory Board. She is dedicated to furthering youth education in the arts and is a strong believer of its power in helping students develop critical thinking skills, ignite creativity, and foster a lifelong appreciation of the arts.
Kyle Polite
Kyle joined the Performing Arts Workshop’s Board of Directors in 2019. A passionate arts leader originally from Galesburg, Illinois, Kyle currently serves as the Director of Principal Giving at San Francisco Opera. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Music and Ancient Languages at Dartmouth College, studied Music History and Bassoon Performance at the Royal College of Music in London and held a Graduate Fellowship in Advanced Arts Leadership at the University of North Texas. Kyle has called the Bay Area home since 2013 and is excited to support PAW’s mission of helping young people learn and grow through the arts.
Pronouns: he/him/his
Michelle Dong
Michelle Dong currently works as Director of Operations at SecureVideo, a HIPAA-compliant videoconferencing company. Michelle volunteered first as an AmeriCorps intern for another nonprofit, Streetside Stories, before joining as a Board member; experiences which shaped a personal love of the written word to a personal investment in equitable access to arts education. When Streetside Stories merged with Performing Arts Workshop in 2018, Michelle happily followed and looks forward to continue work with an organization she admires.
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Nate Cormier
Nate Cormier is an editor for Lucasfilm currently working on Star Wars: The Clone Wars. He holds a bachelor's degree in film and tv post production from Emerson College in Boston, MA. He's been playing bass for 15 years and has spent much of that time in bands playing all over the US and still gets severe stage fright. When he's not holed up in his studio he can usually be found on his bike or kicking a soccer ball around some field in San Francisco.
Patrick Christopher Kangrga
Patrick joined the Performing Arts Workshop's Board of Directors in 2018. He is the Associate for Youth Ministries at Trinity Episcopal Church in Menlo Park, California. In his current and past positions, he has worked with all ages of young people with a particular emphasis on those in middle and high school. Prior to San Francisco, he lived in New York City where he served on the Amplifiers, a young professional group for Girl Be Heard whose mission is to develop, amplify, and celebrate the voices of young women through socially conscious theatre-making. He also served as a buddy for Only Make Believe where he supported acting troupes as they visited children in hospitals performing interactive theater. He is excited to continue his work with the arts and young people alongside the Performing Arts Workshop.
Pronouns: he/him/his
Peter Squeri
Peter joined the Performing Arts Workshop’s Board of Directors in 2018. He is an attorney at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, an international law firm, where he focuses on complex commercial litigation. Prior to attending law school, Peter was an associate at Cambridge Associates LLC, an investment consulting firm, where he advised a variety of nonprofit organizations. A lifelong resident of San Francisco, Peter is excited to support the Workshop’s important mission to help young people in the City engage with and develop skills through the arts.
Pronouns: he/him/his
Rebecca Rogers
Rebecca joined the Performing Arts Workshop in 2016. She currently works as an Information Security Compliance Specialist at Cloudflare, an internet security and performance company. Rebecca graduated from California Polytechnic State University with a degree in business administration and a minor in dance. There, she studied various aspects of dance including ballet, ballroom, modern dance, creative movement, and teaching methods of dance. Rebecca developed a passion for the arts at a young age and has been studying ballet for more than 15 years. She is passionate about arts education and its ability to teach valuable skills such as critical thinking and creativity. Rebecca hopes to help spread the accessibility of the arts through her involvement with Performing Arts Workshop.
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Rick Oculto
Rick is the Education Manager at Our Family Coalition (ourfamily.org), a non-profit organization dedicated to serving LGBTQ+ families with children. In his role he has provided professional and personal development workshops for thousands of education professionals and families nationwide covering topics of diversity and inclusion with a focus on gender and LGBTQ+ issues. A non-profit professional with over 15 years of experience, Rick started the first transgender youth group in the Bay Area, was a lead organizer in the FAIR Education Act Implementation Coalition (ensuring schools in California teach LGBTQ+ history), and has provided consultation for foreign ambassadors wanting to learn promising practices for improving the lives of LGBTQ+ peoples in their home countries. Rick holds a dual B.A. degree in Psychology and Spanish from Seattle University in Washington and a Master of Arts Degree in Social Welfare at UC Berkeley specializing in Management and Planning. Rick is also an avid gamer and co-administrates the SF Gaymers social group which celebrates the diversity within gaming communities and creates inclusive gaming spaces for LGBTQ+ individuals.
Advisory Council
- Aliza Arenson
- Beatrice Krivetsky
- Carlene Laughlin
- Carol Kocivar
- Charles & Jean Wood
- Dana Smith
- Diane David
- Diane Downing
- Donald Ohlen
- Francine Prophet
- Geoff Hoyle
- James Levy
- Jeanne Milligan
- Joanna Haigood
- Linda Belden
- Margaret Jenkins
- Marilynne Solloway
- Michelle Angier
- Nancy Wang
- Nina Kwan
- Peter Rothblatt
- Robert Kikuchi-Yngojo
- Sheila Pressley
- Sonia Wong
- Tom DeCaigny
- Vivian Redsar