Meet Our Staff

You won’t find any facilitator or staff anywhere else that’s better. They LISTEN. They’re helpful. If you need to talk they’re there for you. There’s nothing that a NIAD staff artist is not capable of or willing to do to help any artist here. I do mean ALL the NIAD staff.

A close-up portrait photograph of a person in an art studio. The person has brown skin, short black hair, and a short black and grey beard. They are wearing a black mask, pulled down on their chin, and a black teeshirt with a white tiger head printed on the front. They look directly into the camera. A patterned banner hangs above their head. Behind them is a blurry space filled with work tables and shelves.
Shawn Sanders, NIAD artist

Administration

  • Ember Avalos

    Community Programs Director
    Email Ember
  • A colorful watercolor painting on white paper. The image is of a rectangular face with large brown circle eyes and straight brown eyebrows. The head is painted with large areas of pink, yellow, and green.

    Ingrid Alonso-Rodriguez

    Administrative Director
    Email Ingrid

  • Marienela (Maru) Canale

    Bookkeeper
    Email Maru

  • Matt Dostal

    Facilities and Studio Manager
    Email Matt
  • A plastic barbie doll wearing a unique handmade outfit, photographed against a white background. The barbie wears a miniature hand-knit blue fair isle sweater with a white snowflake motif in the center. The doll is also wearing hand sewn blue pants. The doll is barefoot and has blond hair and orange skin.

    Caitlin Gleason

    Development Director
    Email Caitlin
  • Assistant Registrar & Preparator - now hiring!

  • Jam

    Communications Manager
    Email Jam

  • Tara Neuffer

    Volunteer Coordinator & Administrative Assistant
    Email Tara

  • Liliana Torpey

    Development Associate
    Email Lili
  • A textured painting with the word 'forum' painted in the right top corner of the piece. In the left bottom corner, there is a yellow box containing an organic shape against a beige background.

    Lucy Zimmerman

    Interim Executive Director
    Email Lucy

Studio

  • Printmaking Facilitator - now hiring!

  • Studio Coordinator - hiring soon!

  • Tiara Amar

    Studio Facilitator
    Email Tiara

  • Andrés Cisneros-Galindo

    Studio Facilitator
    Email Andrés

  • Kieren Dutcher*

    Studio Facilitator
    Email Kieren

  • Ocean Escalanti

    Studio Facilitator & Community Programs Associate
    Email Ocean

  • Ofra Fisher

    Studio Facilitator
    Email Ofra

  • Liam Golden

    Lead Facilitator
    Email Liam

  • Leticia Javier

    Studio Facilitator & Community Programs Assistant
    Email Leticia
  • A drawing of a round smiling face floating in the center of a white piece of paper. The face is colored with ochre yellow marker and has round blue eyes, white eyebrows, and a small white smiling mouth.

    Steen Kjorlie

    Studio Facilitator
    Email Steen
  • A mixed-media portrait collage on paper. In the foreground, there is the head and shoulders of a figure. Their black hair and blue and black shirt are made of little pieces of ripped paper. The skin of the figure is covered with brown beads and sequins. The figure is drawn with long black eyelashes and rests their chin on their hand. The background is covered with printed black italicized text which repeats the pledge of allegiance.

    Terri Moore

    Studio Support Specialist
    Email Terri
  • A pencil and crayon drawing on a square canvas. The drawing depicts a black-haired figure in a red outfit surrounded by floating pink flowers. A yellow sun on the upper left corner smiles down on the scene.

    Dawline-Jane Oni-Eseleh

    Virtual Studio & Individualized Programs Director
    Email Dawline
  • A hanging mobile sculpture in the shape of a realistic hummingbird drinking nectar from a flower. The object is made using various materials, including wire, foil, tape, beads, and other recyclable media. In this image, the hummingbird is positioned on the right side. It has a green and white body and a red spot under its chin. Its wings are flung wide as if it's hovering in mid-flight. Its beak is inserted into a silver foil flower. The flower has a copper spiral stem growing from a diamond bead.

    Joshua Solis

    Virtual Studio Facilitator
    Email Joshua

  • Shantanice Swain

    Studio Director
    Email Shantanice

  • Jovi Vidal

    Studio Facilitator
    Email Jovi
  • A detail of a portrait drawing on pale yellow paper. The portrait depicts the head and shoulders of a person wearing a baseball cap and a blue shirt. They have a yellow face with big round eyes and a handlebar mustache. They are drawn with their two yellow hands in the air.

    Bill Zindel

    Studio Facilitator
    Email Bill

Board of Directors

  • A linoleum block print on white paper. The shape is a navy blue rectangle with the abstracted silhouettes of 4 figures cut out and left white in the center. The figures stand close together such that their outlines merge into one lumpy shape. The reference image was a photo of members of the rock band KISS.

    Ben Choi

    Chair
  • An abstract acrylic painting on a tall rectangular canvas. The paint is applied thickly with a large brush. The image features multiple oblong shapes, colored orange, yellow, or white and outlined in blue, red, or purple. The background is mostly shaded blue and black. There is a bright orange star shape peeking in from the top edge of the painting.
    Lauren Vassell
    Vice-Chair
  • A scanned image of a colorful abstract crayon drawing on paper. A field of oblong wiggly shapes fills the page. The shapes are mostly colored orange, light green, yellow, red, and pink. There are small yellow and green spots peppered throughout. The background is dark blue and the artist has written their name very small in the bottom right corner.

    Pam Martin

    Secretary
  • a serigraph print on white paper. Stacks of numbers drawn in red or orange curl around and intersect to form a branching cluster that fills most of the page. The cluster looks like 2 hands overlapping as they reach in from the top and bottom of the paper.

    Dave Moore

    Treasurer
  • a square painting with a light blue sky and a light brown and green ground. The majority of the surface is covered with multicolored birds and thin trees below them.

    Jay Youngdahl

    Legal Advisor

  • Lisa Rybovich Crallé

  • A scanned image of a screen-print on tan paper. The image is an ink drawing of two figures, both frowning and wearing "A's" baseball caps and jerseys. Their outlines are painted in green and yellow ink. The artist painted their signature on the bottom right, writing: "Ann Meade"

    Joey Enos

  • A drawing made with colored pencils and watercolor on white paper. Filling the page are rings of concentric circles, growing from the smallest in the center to the largest which touches the paper's edges. Each ring is intricately patterned with dots and lines in every color of the rainbow.

    Nicole Ferdinando

  • A ceramic sculpture photographed in a white space. The hand-built sculpture is tall and cylindrical, and glazed with red, white, and black stripes. The form represents a seated cat. The cat has a large head with thick orange whiskers, round purple eyes, and a big red nose. Its little red tongue protrudes from its round mouth.

    Devin Malone

  • Margot Norton

  • Lisa Núñez-Hancock

  • A work on paper featuring symbols floating on a multicolored background. The symbols include a tree, grapes, flowers, the whole world, the sun, a heart, and a cloud. The background is dividing into different shapes, like an abstract stained glass surface, where multiple colors intersect with each objects.

    Maria Naula

Substitute Studio Facilitators

  • Jake Ellis

  • A drawing made with colored pencils on black toned paper. The drawing features a grid where each square contains an X or an oblong shape. Some squares are totally colored in with bright yellow, blue, or pink. The grid is outlined with light blue and green pencils, and the shapes are drawn in every color of the rainbow. The artist has written their name in a square on the top left corner of the grid, "Karen May"

    Lena Gustafson

  • Cora Lautze

  • A digital collage album cover. On the top of the image, the title is typed in white letters backed by a rainbow colored bar. The title reads "Shades of Me (EP)" Below these words is a vintage pink telephone with a long pink coil and a grey number pad. Collaged beneath the number pad are the words "Hi, (ring ring ring) are typed in orange. The background is a smooth rainbow gradient. The artist's name is typed in white text on a rainbow bar in the bottom right corner, "Xiomara Rosales"

    Maggie Preston

  • A collaborative colorful pencil and ink drawing on paper made by two artists. The drawing shows two turtles drawn in black ink with gridded shells and legs. They are colored in every color of the rainbow, mostly bright red, pink, and yellow. The words "May Karen" are written in red pencil on the top left corner.

    Courtney Knight

  • A green heart drawn in marker on pink paper. Around the green heart center is a red marker outline. Around the red outline is an orange marker outline that extend to the edge of the sides. In the lower right corner the artist's name, Christopher Jimenez.

    Ava Shannon

  • A ceramic vessel photographed in a white space. The vessel is a tall pink vase with a clown face painted on the front. The face has large blue circle eyes, a yellow circle nose, and a wide green mouth. The interior of the vase is glazed dark brown.

    Chinzalée Sonami