Director & Lecturer
kkane@arts.ucla.edu

Kevin M. Kane (he/him/his) received his Ph.D. In Cultural Studies, with an emphasis in Arts Education, from Claremont Graduate University and his MFA in Dance Choreography from the UCLA Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance (WACD). Throughout his career, Kevin has focused his research, practice, and activism on designing and implementing inclusive multidisciplinary performing arts programs for youth in his community. He is a long time instructor in UCLA WACD where he designed and directed the award winning summer High School Dance Theatre Intensive program from 2006-2013. A former credentialed language arts teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District, Kevin taught theatre arts and dance for eight years at John Marshall High School, where he created numerous original dance theatre productions in collaboration with his many students. Along with his childhood friend Monica Horan Rosenthal, Kevin co-founded and served as Executive Director of The Flourish Foundation from 2005-2014, before joining the UCLA VAPAE Program as Associate Director and Lecturer. Kevin is committed to using performing arts and arts education as a tool for individual and social transformation, creating student pipeline programs that allow youth of all backgrounds to feel connected and inspired through the arts, empowered to imagine and realize bright futures for themselves.

Program Coordinator
amzamora@arts.ucla.edu

Research & Evaluation Specialist
ltkunisaki@arts.ucla.edu

Lindsey Kunisaki (she/her/hers) is an emerging researcher, evaluator, and VAPAE alumna. She earned her Ed.M (Master of Education) in Arts in Education at Harvard University, and her B.A. (Bachelor of Arts) in an individual major in the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture with a VAPAE minor. She is currently pursuing her Ph.D (Doctor of Philosophy) in education at Claremont Graduate University. Her research focuses on cultural equity in lifelong creativity development in out-of-school learning communities. Aside from her academic work, since 2010 Lindsey has been teaching, designing curricula, and producing arts and academic programs in collaboration with schools, communities and other local and international entities (including UNESCO, the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, Sustainable Little Tokyo, and local governments, among others). For her academic and artistic work, she has been awarded the Gates Millennium Scholarship, Gilman International Scholarship, UCLA Travel Scholarship, Gluck Fellowship, Emma B. Keller Award, and Tae Han Kim Award.

Dr. Desi Cameron is the Director of Visual and Performing Arts at Westside Neighborhood School, where she received an Eddy Award for being one of Los Angeles' outstanding teachers. As an educator for the past twenty years, she’s focused on arts integration, arts education, classroom management, and social and emotional learning. She earned a B.F.A. in theatre from the University of Miami, an M.A. in elementary education from the University of South Florida, an Ed.M. in arts in education from Harvard University, and a Ph.D. in educational theatre from New York University. For three years, Desi was an instructor, student teaching supervisor, and academic advisor for the program in Educational Theatre at New York University and was honored to receive the prestigious NYU Teaching Excellence Award. Before NYU, she taught 3rd-6th grades, worked as a K-12 teaching artist, and taught theatre to all ages in various community organizations. See more at www.drdesicameron.com

Jantré Christian is a multi-disciplinary artist, educator, organizer and administrator. She brings two decades of professional experience to VAPAE, beginning in the classroom where she taught Theater and English to grades K-12. As an instructional coach she assisted fellow educators to create engaging instructional learning experiences for high school Math, English, History, and Special Education classes. Her experience also extends to being an instructional leader in middle and high schools as an Assistant Principal, and at the district level as an Arts Education instructional leader supporting entertainment industry partnerships and professional learning experiences for Arts teachers citywide. She received her Master's in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies from CSUN, studied advanced Meisner technique in a conservatory setting at Playhouse West, and earned her Bachelor's in Theater Arts with a minor concentration in African and African-American studies from Earlham College.

www.essyhart.com

Essayan “Essy” Hart (they/she) walks with a Master’s in Divinity (MDiv) and Master’s in Social Change (MASC) from Starr King School for the Ministry, and a Master’s in Marriage and Family Therapy with Specialized Training in Art Therapy (MFT-AT) from Loyola Marymount University. Essy is an arts-centered clinician, songwriter, painter, storyteller and educator with a passion for defending generative practices in educational and collective spaces.

Christina Korn is a teaching artist with over ten years of experience facilitating meaningful arts experiences for diverse learners in public school classrooms, museums and private home settings. While maintaining a studio practice in painting, Christina has been dedicated to serving LAUSD students through her work with the Hammer Museum, LACMA, Urban Arts Partnership, Angels Gate Cultural Center and L.A. Promise Fund. She specializes in collaborating with classroom teachers to develop arts integrated lessons that expand student learning while affirming identity and supporting social emotional development. As a media arts teaching artist and curriculum designer for LAPF’s ArtsMatter program, Christina creates technology based art lessons for in-person and remote learning that establish career pathways for students form South L.A. to work in Los Angeles’ creative industries. Christina received a BFA in Art Education from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in affiliation with Tufts University where she got her start as a teaching artist at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Joannza is a Chinese Canadian wearing the hats of a multidisciplinary visual artist, educator, mentor, mother, and tea fanatic from Toronto. She is a credentialed multiple-subject teacher in California with over a decade of experience working with K-12 students across the Los Angeles Unified School District. She received her BFA in Film/Animation/Video from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2005 and gained her MA in Education at USC in 2008. For 20 years, Joannza has worked as an art educator in a wide range of educational spaces and cities including Toronto, Providence, New York, and Los Angeles. Through these experiences, she contributed to the development of arts programming that strived to cultivate a positive impact in the social, emotional, physical, and creative development of her students. One of her goals is to challenge the perception of what it means to be a teaching artist in the context of public education. Given the proper support, a progressive art educator can have the opportunity to heal individuals, empower the disenfranchised and redesign a new way of living together.

Twenty years ago, Karen Mack founded LA Commons, a South LA based nonprofit that implements artistic and cultural programs reflecting the unique character of diverse neighborhoods, with the goal of fostering interaction, dialogue and collective action towards a better Los Angeles. Through grassroots art projects, festivals and tours, LA Commons plays a unique role as a facilitator of local engagement in arts and culture, and other issues, giving residents and particularly young people, a voice and an onramp to making positive change. Prior to this work, she served as a public service fellow at the JFK School of Government at Harvard University researching the role of culture in community building. She is an appointed member of the LA City Planning Commission and of the LA County Cultural Equity and Inclusion Initiative.

Marissa Magdalena Sykes is a cross genre conceptual artist with two decades of professional experience in creative education. She has worked across Los Angeles County in classroom, museum, nonprofit, and alternative education contexts with child, adolescent, and life-long learners. Marissa has partnered with community, gallery, and classroom educators at Otis College of Art and Design, Urban Arts Partnership, Artworx LA, The Getty Museums, and others to develop and enact arts based curricula for diverse populations. She is currently the Director of Arts Education at Angels Gate Cultural Center. Marissa's teaching practice is fueled by an active studio practice that she exhibits regionally and internationally. She is a recent recipient of a MRH Fund for Artists grant for her installation artwork. Marissa is a graduate of the Arts Community Teaching Program at Otis College of Art and Design where she also studied Sculpture and New Genres.

Davida Persaud received her Ph.D. in Culture and Performance from the World Arts and Cultures/Dance Department at UCLA and her B.A. in English and Comparative Literary Studies with a minor in Critical Theory and Social Justice from Occidental College. Her professional and academic careers have focused on community-based methodologies in the arts, with particular attention to public art and K-12 arts education in Los Angeles. Davida previously held positions at the Skirball Cultural Center and the Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC). She most recently served as Programs Manager at SPARC where she managed school district contracts for arts integration and led the expansion of the arts education program, which delivered a multidisciplinary arts curriculum focused on culture, identity, and social justice to K-12 LAUSD students. Her doctoral dissertation examines the impact of COVID-19 on K-12 arts education programs in Los Angeles public schools, and provides insight on how school districts can strengthen their infrastructures for arts education. Davida is the Co-Founder of MuralColors, a company whose mission is to provide artists and communities with access to high-performance mural products that have a low impact on the environment.

Felix Quintana received a BA from Humboldt State University and is an MFA Photography Candidate at San Jose State University. His solo exhibitions include SOMArts Cultural Center, San Francisco, CA; Espacio 1839, Boyle Heights, CA; Avenue 50 Studio, Los Angeles, CA; and Residency Art, Inglewood, CA (forthcoming). Quintana has taught numerous workshops and classes as a teaching artist, including the Hammer Museum, ArtworxLA, Slanguage Studio, Plaza de La Raza, Self Help Graphics & Art, Southern Exposure, and Southeast Los Angeles Youth Art Academy. He was awarded a commendation for teaching from Hilda Solis in 2017.

Christine Suárez is a choreographer, performer, educator and community activist based in Los Angeles. Born in Caracas, Venezuela and raised in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, she founded Suarez Dance Theater in 2003. They create at the intersection of collaborative dance-making and community outreach. She holds an MFA in choreography from UCLA's World Arts and Cultures Department and a BA in Theater and English Literature from Emory University. She is a co-creator of a Dance for Veterans - a program that builds creative expression, social cohesion and bodily authority at Greater Los Angeles VA Hospitals. She has been a guest lecturer at UCLA, Santa Ana College, Emory University, Indiana University, Southeastern University of Louisiana, Louisiana State University California State University San Marcos, Loyola Marymount University, DePauw University and California State University Los Angeles.

Jimmy Wu is the Executive Director of InsideOUT Writers (IOW), a Los Angeles based nonprofit organization that provides creative writing classes to youth incarcerated in Los Angeles County juvenile halls along with re-entry services and programs for formerly-incarcerated youth and young adults. Separate from his work at IOW, Jimmy was one of the Reentry Coordinators as part of Stanford Law School's Ride Home Program team in direct support of President Barack Obama's Clemency Initiative. In March 2019, Jimmy was appointed a Commissioner to the Alternatives to Incarceration Work Group (ATIWG) formed by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. The mission of the ATIWG is, “To provide the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors a Roadmap, with an action-oriented framework and implementation plan, to scale alternatives to incarceration and diversion so care and services are provided first and jail is a last resort.” Currently, Jimmy remains a Commissioner for Los Angeles County serving on a workgroup focusing on Structure and Oversight on behalf of a newly formed Department of Youth Development that is reimagining Los Angeles County's juvenile justice system.