Creative Collisions

Mary Carroll-Hackett is the author of four collections of poetry, most recently The Night I Heard Everything from FutureCycle Press. She holds an MFA fom Bennington College, and teaches Creative Writing at Longwood University, as well as workshops in Writing Through the Chakras, Writing the Mother, and Writing the Spiritual Life. 

Alexis Chaet is a third year at the University of Virginia studying Human Biology from Loudoun County, Virginia. She takes a special interest in health literacy within the Latino community, and is interested in combining a career in medicine and public health research. Alexis is one of seven siblings and enjoys spending my time practicing endurance sports, hiking, and relaxing with my family!

Alexis and Bijan were recently selected as winners of the Voto Latino Innovator’s Challenge, nation-wide tech competition is open to millennials ages 18-35 with projects addressing a need within the Latino community. The team is one of seven winners across the US who will share $500,000 in funds supported by the MacArthur Foundation.  Their project involves installation of a tablet-based video-library and clinic connectivity device in migrant camps to bridge barriers of communication with local clinics and to empower farmworkers through health knowledge. 

Bernard Hankins, musician, filmmaker, spoken word poet, and creative catalyst, teaches workshops for adults and children on Hip Hop, poetry, and creative identity. He is co-founder of Cypher, an idea generation and branding consulting venture that uses the power of Hip Hop and word play.

www.bernardhankins.com
www.cypherideas.com 

Sigrid is mixed media artist including works in oil painting, murals, collage, mask making, and textiles.  She has earned a BA in Fine Arts from College of Charleston (1993) and a Master’s Degree in Art Therapy from Marylhurst College (1998).  She has 8 years experience working on as an art therapist on an inpatient psychiatric unit with both adolescents and adults.  Sigrid incorporates her personal growth experiences along with spirituality and multicultural elements into her art.  Vibrant use of color is a key unifying element in Sigrid’s work.  She also teaches classes at FIREFISH Gallery as well as leading art therapy groups.

SigridEilertson.com 

Cassandra Fraser is a scientist, educator and interdisciplinary investigator. She is a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Virginia with appointments in Biomedical Engineering and the School of Architecture. Observations of material structures and processes, and encounters with people, plants and animals are ongoing fascinations, whether by chance or design. Her scientific research is concerned with responsive materials for imaging and sensing. She has run interdisciplinary programs on color, biomaterials, designing matter, metals in medicine and the environment, plastic/ity, and transduction, and has enjoyed numerous collaborations with artists, designers, poets and composers. New research focuses on Real World Chemistry, investigating material pathways and global systems chemistry with an emphasis on environmental, health and societal impacts. Reimagining workspaces–office “interspace” and the  “synthesis lab”–and experimenting with new ways of working that integrate research, teaching, creative work and public engagement are ongoing projects.  In 2014 she founded Doctors without Disciplinary Borders, which she codirects with Natalie Jeremijenko. She is a partner with the xClinic at NYU. Along with various research, teaching and service accolades, Cassandra’s interdisciplinary projects have been recognized and fostered by a Radcliffe Fellowship (2006-7) and a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio residency (2013) 

Lindsey Hepler is an educator, interdisciplinary thinker, and dancer. As Associate DIrector for OpenGrounds at the University of Virginia, Lindsey coordinates and leads boundary-crossing collaborations in the OpenGrounds Corner Studio and with program partners external to the University (corporate, nonprofit, and government). Lindsey’s interdisciplinary work at UVA also involves her role as a co-teacher and informal advisor to Arts Administration. She has co-taught various “Arts in Context” courses, including “Arts and Education”, “Arts and Public Policy”, and “Arts and Spirituality”. For the past five years, Lindsey has also served as the Curriculum and Training Specialist for Move This World, a New York-based nonprofit. With Move This World, Lindsey has collaboratively developed a creative-movement-based social and emotional learning program for K-12 students and educators that aligns with research-identified best practices and the Common Core Standards. Lindsey studied Arts Administration and Dance at the University of Virginia, and went on to receive her MA from NYU’s Gallatin School for Individualized Study with a focus on Transforming Education through Arts-Based Learning. 

Tim Miano is the co-founder and Chief Executive Invention Officer of SP@CE.  A Virginia native, Tim attended the University of Virginia, obtaining degrees in Physics and Mathematics.  Over the next ten years, he went on to complete two law degrees, work as an attorney at a top law firm in DC, travel extensively, and move to New York City to work as a Manager and Tax Litigation Specialist at a Big 4 accounting firm. With an interest in the creation of technology-based startups, he began working with Matthew Slaats and Adalie Pierce-McManamon in 2014 toward developing a Technology & Arts Flexspace, Incubator, & Accelerator, and soon after, they created a formal proposal for a major “Innovation District” custom built for Charlottesville.  In June 2014, SP@CE was officially added to UVa’s iLab.  The team is currently finalizing a complete development proposal for the project and continues to strengthen relationships between the City government, UVa, and the local creative, technology, and entrepreneurial communities. 

Bijan Morshedi is a third year undergraduate student at the University of Virginia majoring in Biochemistry. He plans to attend medical school after college, and hopes to continue exploring the intersections of culture and health care. Growing up in Virginia Beach has made soccer and the beach two big parts my life. Luckily, Charlottesville has a vibrant soccer community, which offers plenty of opportunities to play year round to even out not having beaches in Charlottesville.

Alexis and Bijan were recently selected as winners of the Voto Latino Innovator’s Challenge, nation-wide tech competition is open to millennials ages 18-35 with projects addressing a need within the Latino community. The team is one of seven winners across the US who will share $500,000 in funds supported by the MacArthur Foundation.  Their project involves installation of a tablet-based video-library and clinic connectivity device in migrant camps to bridge barriers of communication with local clinics and to empower farmworkers through health knowledge. 

Adarsh Ramakrishnan is a cofounder of the Charlottesville-based product development firm, Elegant Solutions (ES). Within ES, his primary responsibilities are technical development, project management, and client management. He also oversees the technical development and sales of ES’s internal visual project management tool, insEYEte. Adarsh graduated from the University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Sciences where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering with minors in Aerospace Engineering and Material Science. He has been involved with mentorship through UVA and Albemarle High School, as well as the UVA Innovation Lab (iLab). 

Rob Richmond is a musician, songwriter, storyteller, game designer, and all around entertainer. He graduated from University of Virginia in 2002, and founded Bay 1 Studios, the only purpose-built music rehearsal facility of its kind in central Virginia, in 2010. Whether onstage performing as a member of any number of local and regionally touring musical acts, spinning tunes as an event DJ, turning nobs and a live sound technician, or just paling around the studio with his dog, Luna, it is rare to see Rob without a spirited attitude and a desire to get others to join in the moment. He believes strongly in the words of Confucius: “Choose a job that you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” 

Katie Baer Schetlick is a dance artist/choreographer/researcher and current Lecturer in Dance at the University of Virginia. Her choreographic work focuses on developing deeper kinesthetic conversations between seen bodies, seeing bodies and their shared environment. Together with Zena Bibler, Katie is the co-founder and co-director of the Movement Party and the Fleet Moves Dance Festival. She holds a MA in Performance Studies from New York University with a focus on dance and the politics of space and BFA in Dance with a minor in Anthropology from the Alvin Ailey/Fordham University program. 

As Executive Director of the Bridge PAI, Matthew Slaats places are at the forefront of community conversations to energize and engage local residents.  This centers on a series of programs that creates new, public modes of cultural production meant to directly impact the city.  Whether through Public Artists, a mobile, neighborhood residency program, or PAUSElab, an artist lead civic education program, The Bridge supports and positions artists to lead efforts in developing a creative city.

As an artist, Matthew engages in hybrid roles, as an artist, designer, teacher, organizer, and activist, focusing on a unique exploration of the complexities of the contemporary landscape. Situated in the public realm, Matthew’s work initiates ways of understanding the complexity of place, using culture, media, and technology as form for community engagement. His work has been exhibited internationally at the Bagabas Beach International Eco Arts Festival, Open Engagement, Conflux, Eyebeam, LA Contemporary Exhibitions, and the DC Arts Commissions 5×5 project. He has taught in the Urban and Environmental Studies program at Bard College and the Communications Department at Marymount Manhattan College. Matthew holds an MFA and MA from the University of Wisconsin – Madison in Art and a BA in Archaeology from the University of Evansville. 

Miller Murray Susen is a writer-director-actor-storyteller-teacher currently serving as the Associate Education Director at Live Arts. Her essays have appeared in publications including Full Grown People and C-VILLE Weekly, and her plays have been produced by Four County Players, Live Arts, and the 24/7 Playwriting Festival. She dabbles in the wrangling of not-so-small-anymore children. If singing a cappella covers of popular songs is wrong, she doesn’t wanna be right. 

Matthew Trowbridge is a physician, public health researcher, and associate professor at the University of Virginia School of Medicine.  Dr. Trowbridge’s academic research focuses on the impact of architecture, urban design, and transportation planning on public health issues including childhood obesity, traffic injury, and pre-hospital emergency care. 

Dr. Trowbridge currently serves as a Senior Research Fellow at the U.S Green Building Council leading a partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation focused on improving consideration of public health outcomes within the real estate industry. He is board certified in both general pediatrics and preventive medicine and obtained his medical and public health training at Emory University. 

Claude Wampler,  is a New York–based artist, who “makes you reassess the whole nature and purpose of performance“, as she investigates the boundaries of spectatorship in the visual and performing arts.

Over the past few years Wampler has completed a commissioned installation and video project for the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh and a new work for the theater, Present Absence, which premiered at the Kunstenfestival des Arts in Brussels at Kaaistudios. A solo show of her visual work was exhibited in Los Angeles at Richard Telles Fine Art, and in New York she staged a window installation, Bad Job/Cruel World: Stupidity 2001, Part II, US$700 Stunt with Wedgy, for the New Museum for Contemporary Art, as well as a performance/lecture, Richard Wampler, for The Whitney Museum of American Art. In 2002 Wampler created an installation/performance piece, Ambulance, at Diverse Works in Houston and a commissioned large-scale project, Infiltration, for the Museumsquartier in Vienna. She participated in media city seoul 2002 in Museum of Art in Seoul, Korea.

Most recently Claude Wampler mounted three new exhibitions: denislavant in Paris at Menagerie de Verre, Song and Dance (and a good movie) in Lisbon at the Gulbenkian Foundation Center of Modern Art, and Strategies for Stagefright at the Vooruit Arts Center in Gent, Belgium. Song and Dance (and a good movie) was later re-configured for the Rotterdam Film Festival and presented at T.E.N.T./Witte de Witt. This January she finished a new work, Stable (Stupidity Project Part 10), produced by the Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts which premiered at Performance Space 122 in New York. 

Mark White is an Associate Professor at the University of Virginia’s McIntire School of Commerce with academic expertise in the areas of corporate finance and sustainable business practices. He teaches financial management in the School’s ICE program and serves as Director of the McIntire Business Institute, a certificate program providing non-business students instruction and practice in fundamental business concepts and skills.  He is very active in the University’s sustainability community and is engaged in a number of collaborative research projects, including efforts to model the environmental and financial implications of manufacturing biodiesel fuel from microalgae and The Bay Game, an interactive simulation of the Chesapeake Bay watershed.