Jan Reyes is a meditation facilitator and early childhood administrator from Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands. Through a spiritual awakening in 2019, she learned breathwork, meditation, and grounding practices that honor and acknowledge the Marianas’ deep ancestral presence through offerings and developing profound relationships with the surrounding nature and ocean.
Reyes shares her gifts with the local spiritual community, the children in her care, schools, and anyone who feels called to her path. Her unique integration of modern and ancestral traditions helps pave the way for others to pursue their own unique paths to healing and cultural connections.
Jan Reyes is a meditation facilitator and early childhood administrator from Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands. Through a spiritual awakening in 2019, she learned breathwork, meditation and grounding practices that honor the Marianas’ deep ancestral presence. She does this through offerings and by developing profound relationships with the surrounding nature and ocean.
Reyes shares her gifts with the local spiritual community, the children in her care, schools and anyone who feels called to her path. Her unique integration of modern and ancestral traditions helps pave the way for others to pursue their own paths to healing and cultural connections.
Janae Dela Virgen
Leaders of Color Professional Development Fund
2023
Los Angeles, California
Janissa Martinez
Leaders of Color Fellowship
2021 - 2022
Laramie, Wyoming
Graduate Teaching Assistant, The University of Wyoming
I am a Baltimore native who is passionate about writing, youth work, and community service. My writing focuses mainly on equity, community service, and community organizations, and I have several published pieces, including work in Baltimore City Paper and BMoreArt. I also have worked as a mentor & writing coach for youth in Baltimore through the Bloomberg Arts Internship, and have committed much of my time to community service. During my time at UMBC, I co-founded a student organization called The Charm City Connection that focuses on connecting people from UMBC’s campus to the people of Baltimore City through service and community engagement. Currently, I work as a Gift Officer at Baltimore Center Stage, which is a role that allows me to use my writing and community engagement skills to engage with funders, donors, and other community members.
Jeanika Browne-Springer (she/her) is first generation Caribbean-American, a resident of East Hartford CT, and local creative. She has a BA from Trinity College in Theater & Dance with minors in Studio Arts and Urban Studies and holds an M.Ed from the University of Saint Joseph in Multiple Intelligences. She was a Hartford elementary teacher for several years then transitioned into arts administration as a grant writer and programmer at an arts education non profit. She is now the Director of LifeLong Learning at HartBeat Ensemble, a non profit professional theater company that helps audiences interrogate civic issues and develop empathy through theatre. She is an artistic collaborator and Board Vice President for Night Fall, local performer with Vintage Soul Productions and SageSeeker Productions, and emerging director for youth performances. She is a member of the Artists of Color Unite! advisory group for Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, academic teacher of arts & culture at the Legacy Foundation of Hartford, and is currently part of the Hartford Heritage curriculum writing team around 19th Century Black community formations in Hartford.
Arts Education Director + Co-Interim Director, Juneau Arts & Humanities Council
I am an adoptee. Raised Tlingit-Filipino & Norwegian-German, of Athabascan, Inupiaq, and Japanese descent. I’m Luxnax.adi, Raven-Coho, and Shungukeidi yadi (child of the Eagle Thunderbirds). My birth-mother’s clan is the Bedzeyh Ti Xwt’ana, Caribou Tail Clan. My life has always been involved in the arts since I was a teenager and I have pursued it as a way of healing trauma to pass on to others through the arts, and community advocacy. Trauma impacts my Native communities, and adoptees especially. Through my pursuit of decolonizing, I have been navigating a way to lend to the prevention of, and healing of trauma.
Jenny Snyder Kozoroz is an active performer and enthusiastic educator who is committed to positively impacting the lives of the next generation of artists and musicians from across the country. As Program Director at the Brevard Music Center, Jenny is deeply committed to providing the intensive training and mentoring crucial to the success of young artists pursuing careers in classical music. Jenny previously served as Director of the Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra’s award-winning Progressions program – an intense string training program designed to increase participation by students from populations that face barriers of access and equity in music study.
Jenny has served as Assistant Principal violist with the Virginia Symphony, performed with the Milwaukee Symphony, the Columbus Symphony, the Harrington String Quartet, and the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra. An advocate for education at every level, she has been on the viola faculty at Old Dominion University, Denison University, Christopher Newport University, West Texas A&M, The Sewanee Music Festival, The New England Music Camp, and for more than a decade at the Brevard Music Center. She also continues to be a strong advocate and advisor for the Sphinx Organization.
Jenny received her BM at the Ohio State University, and her MM at the Juilliard School. She currently serves on the faculty of Brevard College.
I am pleased to submit for consideration an application for the National Leaders of Color Fellowship. I am an equitable fundraising practitioner and cultural worker with 20+ years in nonprofit management. My work is designed to shape organizational equity in nonprofit sectors with a focus on implementing new frameworks that optimize collective and inherent strengths.
From 2002 to 2016, I served as the executive director for Rennie Harris Puremovement, the world’s first and longest-running Hip Hop dance company to perform on national and international concert stages. I have watched the symbiotic relationship between Hip Hop culture and Black philanthropy grow, and it has shaped my work to include discourse regarding the art of Hip Hop, its impact on Black philanthropy, and its contributions to the arts ecosystem.
In late 2022, I created The Black Donors Project (www.theblackdonorsproject.org). The initiative is a participatory action research project that employs disciplined inquiry utilizing surveys, focus groups, and individual interviews to examine and highlight the relationship between the community, Black donors, Black artists, and Black-led arts organizations. My goal is to fill a void within the fundraising field that fails to investigate the capacity and willingness of communities of color to support the arts and dispel the mythology that drives racial disparities in and across the universe of giving and philanthropy.
Jessica Harned has been fortunate to begin her career in Boise, Idaho. She first became a member of the Boise Philharmonic in 2016, and since, has performed with most local professional ensembles, including Mariachi Sol de Acapulco, who won the Governor’s Award for Musical Excellence in 2018.
To Jessica, education is of the utmost importance. In 2020, Jessica received her Masters degree from Boise State, after having won the Boise Philharmonic Graduate Quartet Fellowship. This experience emboldened her to speak up about the life and experiences of the BIPOC community within classical music. Since then, she has spent her time fostering conversation about representation in classical music, on the radio, in the classroom, and within her own work, all while participating in music in inventive and diverse spaces.
Understanding that her career is multi-faceted, and being very proud of that, Jessica believes that this diverse path has helped her become the musician and person she is today.
Jessyca Valdez is an aspiring photographer from Toluca, Mexico. She began pursuing photography 5 years ago when she moved to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and her passion is to shed light on the untold stories of the immigrant experience. She has completed advanced photography coursework through UNAVID: Escuela de Fotografía in Toluca, Mexico. Jessyca is a Community Mobilizer for Voices JH, and also works as a housekeeper.
H. Larry Raigetal is from Lamotrek atoll in Yap state. He is a Pairourou (Pwo) traditional navigator of Weiyeng school and from the lineage of Haboilol in Polowat. His teachers include Petrus Pakamai, Serphin Ochaitir, Baskas Mark and Edward Rainam. Raigetal teaches at the University of Guam as an assistant professor for MARC.
Hello, my name is John HorseChief. I am from the Osage, Pawnee, Blackfeet, Potawatomi and Irish people. I live in Oklahoma and work at the Osage Nation Museum.I am a father and a grandfather. I am the Program Assistant at the museum, my main focus is digital archives and the digitization of cultural material. I am also a beadworker, moccasin maker, and a lodge builder within my community on the Osage reservation. I enjoy doing both technological work and traditional crafts. Preserving and sharing my plains culture and specifically my Osage culture gives me a sense of well being. Before working at the Osage Nation Museum I was employed with the Wahzhazhe (Osage) Cultural Center. During my time there I was part of a team that developed the Wahzhazhe Digital Preservation Project. The project aims to digitize and archive all media related to Osage language, culture and history. We currently have over 10 terabytes of data in our project. This exposure to media has made me aware of Indigenous and Osage people’s representation and the importance of telling our own stories through the media. Whenever you google Image search “”Osage people”” you mostly see black and white photos. I want our search to show us as we are today; vibrant and alive. Indigenous people have had a long struggle with other people telling their stories. I would like to learn to be a better storyteller and museum worker. Thank you for your consideration.
Johnny Sablan is a proud son of Agat, Guam and singer of Guam’s greeting song, “Hafa Adai, Todo Mauleg How Are You”. He released the first Chamorro recording album in 1968, named Dalai Nene, and subsequently released 15 original Chamorro music albums. With the goal of keeping culture alive through music, he opened a recording studio and helped local artists throughout the Marianas record their music.
He spent decades perpetuating Chamorro culture, and served in various cultural roles in the Government of Guam, notably leading the department that opened the Guam Museum in 2016. Johnny Sablan looks to continue to keep the Chamorro culture alive, and nurture the next generation of Chamorro artists.
Jonathan Rai Sablan is a filmmaker from the island of Guam. His passion lies in capturing authentic Chamorro cultural stories and preserving them through film, with hope that it can be shared with future generations. Having worked in the film industry, he learned that Guam has just as much talent and great stories to tell the world. He is excited to continue his filmmaking journey through cultural documentaries that inspire and connect us all.
Jordan Tate, born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico, is a multi-talented individual with a passion for both basketball and art. Growing up as a hooper and an artist, he discovered his love for creative expression early on. Recognizing the potential of merging his artistic talent with a professional career, Jordan pursued a degree in graphic design at Colorado State University.
After graduating, Jordan embarked on a career journey that led him to the vibrant world of media. He found a home at iHeart Media in Northern Colorado, where he honed his skills and made significant contributions. It was during this time that he met his future wife, prompting a move back to his hometown of Albuquerque.
In Albuquerque, Jordan seized the opportunity to establish his own creative agency, aptly named Creative Duke. Here, he channels his artistic prowess into helping businesses and individuals bring their visions to life through innovative design and branding solutions. Jordan Tate’s story is a testament to the power of passion, skill, and the pursuit of one’s creative dreams.
Jordia Benjamin is a community engagement specialist, art educator and curator with a passion for creating compelling programs, cultivating and curating creative environments for artists and communities to thrive using art as the mechanism for change. With over a decade in the art sector, and a background in museum education, she embodies a commitment to equity, inclusion, empowerment and advocacy for communities of color. Benjamin has worked for national and international museums; overseeing their education departments ie. the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas as the Education Officer and again oversaw Colby College Museum of Art in Waterville, Maine public and community engagement programs along with being on the ground floor of the launch of the Lunder Institute for American Art.
In her role as Deputy Director at Indigo Arts Alliance, Jordia co-leads with the Executive Director/Co-Founder the organization’s day-to-day operations along with ensuring that the quality and impact of Indigo Arts Alliance’s activities and programs directly support its’ mission. A highly effective collaborator, manager, relationship builder, and communicator, she guides and refines the artist residency program, developing related programming that connects our local, national and international communities. She currently serves as a board member to the Museum Education Roundtable and MassAction Anti-Racism Think Tank committee. Jordia is also a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated.
Managing Director, Wirtz Center for the Performing Arts, Northwestern University
Prior to joining Northwestern University as the Managing Director for The Virginia Wadsworth Wirtz Center for the Performing Arts, Jorge Silva was the Managing Director for the renowned experimental collective, The Neo-Futurists, leading the organization through the COVID-19 pandemic utilizing revitalized infrastructure. Before The Neos, he was the Producing Coordinator for the Goodman Theatre serving as the producing liaison for community engagement projects and the curator for artistic programming
While based in Washington, DC, Silva was a performer and administrator for the Smithsonian Institution’s Discovery Theater and a founding teaching artist for their DCPS in-school arts education program, ‘Tools of Discovery.’ Much of Silva’s work, however, is identified with The Neo-Futurists beginning as a 2016 recipient of the Artists of Color Scholarship; he is also an artistic affiliate with Teatro Travieso (Wooster, OH).
Outside of theatre, Silva has worked with the Daniel Murphy Scholarship Fund and The Posse Foundation: Chicago in their respective student mentoring programs. He was also a Lecturer and graduate projects advisor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Writing Program. Notably, Silva was a featured speaker at Latinos Progresando’s flagship community event, MEX talks, and remains a member of the event’s Host Committee.
Josh Taira is an illustrator and graphic designer based in Missoula, Montana. His work is inspired by both classic and contemporary manga and anime. Themes in his art often include his experiences as a first-generation Asian American growing up in a rural part of the United States, Japanese folklore, and modern trends in American and Japanese media.
Taira currently serves as the art director at the Roxy Theater in Missoula and takes on occasional freelance illustration and design projects.
Joyce Torres (Guåhan) is a Chamorro and Filipino actor, director, playwright and filmmaker whose work explores art as a pathway to healing, activism and belonging. As artistic director and board member of Breaking Wave Theatre Company, she develops original work rooted in community, identity and justice.
Her credits include directing “Comfort,” based on Filipina “comfort woman” Maria Rosa Henson, which premiered in Los Angeles and Guam, and co-creating “Unspoken: A Mental Health Anthology,” a workshop series using performance to open dialogue around mental health and substance abuse. Recently, she directed “We Will Not Go Silent,” an award-winning performance exploring Guam’s climate crisis through ancestral knowledge and poetry.
Torres holds a bachelor’s degree in fine arts with a concentration in theater and a minor in political science from the University of Guam, and trained at the Stella Adler Art of Acting Studio in Los Angeles.
