Meet the Team
Board, Staff & Faculty
Staff
Cybele Gerachis
Cybele has been an arts administrator, educator, and artist in the Bay Area for over 20 years. She is an Oakland based mixed media artist whose work blends abstraction and storytelling.
Elisa Oceguera
Elisa is a researcher and educator focused on generating spaces for community self-determination through the Zapatista practice of “preguntando caminamos” — “walking we ask questions.”
Michelle Iki
Michelle is a long-time creative who grew up in the Bay Area. She graduated from California State University Northridge with a B.A. in a Special Major: Visual and Creative Communication.
Charlena Howard
Charlena (Charli) Howard is a young adult pursuing her creativity in her own way. She has been a self taught artist since a young age.
Faculty
William Bocheff
Bill is a builder and currently a teacher at Town School for Boys in San Francisco. Bill also teaches at the Junior Center.
Denise Doyle
Denise Doyle is a Teaching Artist and visual storyteller who was born and raised in the Bay Area. She lived in San Francisco for 15 years, before moving to Oakland in 2011.
Leyla Dualeh
Leyla is an interdisciplinary artist, climate activist, and facilitator based in the Bay Area.
Marco Garcia
Marco Garcia is an Oakland-based visual artist with a multidisciplinary practice that consists of performance, garment construction, illustration, soft sculpture, and installation.
Yolanda Jimenez
In hopes of reconnecting to my roots and sharing it with those around me. I create and practice art that honors my indigenous Mayan culture, traditions, and family history.
Yael Levy
Yael is a mixed media artist, storyteller, printmaker and art teacher based in Berkeley, CA. She believes the creative process to be its own reward and the act of making an incredible tool for healing and growing.
Tammy Mercer
Since 2013, Tammy has been a vital member of our staff, working in various positions including Assistant Teacher, Long-Term Substitute Teacher, and Extended Day Program Enrichment Coordinator.
Judit Navratil
Judit Navratil is a transdisciplinary artist working with social VR and extended reality in balance with her embodied practices like somersaulting and tent flying.
Zoe Oliver-Grey
Zoe is an Oakland-based visual artist, with a focus on painting and digital arts. Growing up in Oakland, she draws much of her inspiration from the Bay Area’s unique relationship with nature.
Joseph Rose
Pulling inspiration from queer navigation, transformation, and community as a collective; Joseph Rose is a Mexican American artist stationed in the San Francisco Bay Area that has curated a catalogue of work immortalizing personal narrative and familial histories.
Nette Scott
Hardcore California native living most of the time between San Francisco, Los Angeles and LakeTahoe. Spent my early adult life managing an art gallery in Hollywood that dealt with the low brow art scene.
Zachary Sweet
I’m Zachary Sweet, a versatile artist recognized for my work as an animator, illustrator, and dedicated educator, particularly in the vibrant community of Oakland.
Ariel Ward
Ariel Ward is a professional daydreamer and scholar in the metaphor of the mundane. She writes in the wonder of what happens when our lives move beyond the velvet curtains of taboo and silence to make place together on the main stage of our realities.
Board of Trustees
Sha Coleman
A long time resident of Oakland, Sha moved here in the 1980s. She attended Oakland public schools and went to undergrad in San Diego.
Darbi Howard
Darbi is a resident of West Oakland, with decades of experience in senior leadership in the SF Bay Area nonprofit sector, including work at Rubicon and Bay Area Community Services.
Rachel Gonzales-Levine
Rachel has wide-ranging professional experience in mission-driven settings including youth development, civic leadership, affordable housing, and currently in public health.
Altaf Kassam
Altaf holds dual degrees in Molecular Biology and Anthropology from UC Berkeley, and currently serves as Senior Bioinformatics Software Engineer at Genentech, Inc.
Shawn Granberry
Mr. Granberry is founder and CEO of HipHopTV, LLC and has worked in the entertainment industry for over 25 years.
Michel Taddei
Michel Taddei is an active performer as double bassist, singer, and conductor in the Bay Area and beyond, and is a highly sought-after teacher and coach at Crowden and elsewhere.
Board of Trustees Emeriti
Joel Hart
Joel is a Bay Area native. Joel studied Philosophy at the University of California.
Susan Spiller Acquistapace
Susan was born in New Orleans, LA, but was raised in the Bay Area. Although Susan’s undergraduate program at University of California, Berkeley, included a Pi Beta Phi and an English major, her career pathway led elsewhere.
Caroline Purves
Caroline was born in Canada but has lived in Berkeley for over 20 years. She received a Ph.D. in Psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology.
Advisory Council
Heidi Quan
Lawyer
Jacco Kroon
Research Director ERM Sustainability Institute
Kalyani McCullough
Public Health Professional
Ana-Marie Jones
Chief Resilency Officer
Kelly DeFayette
Artist
Marika Hughes
Musician, Performer, Educator
Roland Burgmann
Professor, Department of Earth and Planetary Science, UC Berkeley
Jessica Login
Public School Science Teacher, Artist