Susan Castro-Cabrera was born and raised on the island of Rota, now residing in Saipan, CNMI. Growing up in a close-knit island community, she learned sustainable living, service, and the value of cultural heritage. She credits her parents for instilling in her the values of family, faith, tradition, hard work, and education.
A cultural practitioner, Castro-Cabrera aspires to promote the Chamorro Healing Arts through storytelling, outreach, and sharing of medicinal samples. She is inspired by her mother, a cultural healer, who taught Susan the traditions and benefits of the Chamorro medicine and coconut oil. Her project honors her mother’s memory, her elders, and ancestors, ensuring this knowledge is preserved, practiced, and passed on to future generations.
Suzanne Pickett is president of the Historic Eastside Community Development Corporation in Jacksonville, Florida, where she champions preservation, revitalization and community development through arts and culture. A multidisciplinary artist and nationally recognized strategist, she unites creativity and community empowerment to strengthen under-resourced communities.
Pickett holds a bachelor’s in fine arts from the University of North Florida and is certified in community real estate development from the University of South Florida. She has served on the National Endowment for the Arts grant panel and as a 2025 board member for the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville.
Her recognitions include the 2025-26 Zora Neale Hurston Fellowship, 2025 Women’s Center of Jacksonville SHERO Award, 2023 NFL Aspire Change Award, a 2022 Jacksonville Business Journal Woman of Influence honor, silver and gold ADDY awards with the Jacksonville Jaguars, and the Eastside Legacy Community Champion Award.
Through her leadership, Pickett helps preserve history, elevate community voices and create sustainable opportunities for future generations by integrating arts, housing and economic development for social change.
As much of their work focuses on reclaiming their identity as a natural being, Syon is largely inspired by biomimicry – they experience plants, animals (including humans), arthropods, & fungi as mirrors and opportunities for reflection. Syon’s oeuvre is made up of artifacts from their decolonization process – an intentional practice of shifting away from anti-black, patriarchal, cis-heteronormative, & human-supremacist ways of being and moving towards behaviors and patterns rooted in pleasure, balance, acceptance, interdependence & reciprocity. Syon is a neurodivergent artist for which sticking with any one medium sounds tedious and impossible. In their current iteration, they are exploring the aforementioned ideas through film, movement, collage, textiles, & the written word and at the intersections of those things. Syon was raised in Pomona, CA and currently resides in Portland, OR.
Tamara Burton is a costuming and mixed media artist with 3+ decades of experience. She has been Lead Costume Designer for Guam’s World Theater Productions since 2018. She designed and produced costumes for Lion King Jr, Beauty and the Beast, Moana Jr, Frozen Jr, Jesus Christ Superstar, Dare to Dream, Mamma Mia, and more. She is honored to be a part of WTP, bringing high quality musical theater to the island and encouraging the development of local performers (many of them children). She is a family historian and writer, when she’s not designing and sewing.
Tamiano Gurr is a poet, community advocate, and cultural storyteller from American Samoa. He is the co-founder of Pacific Roots Open Mic (P.R.O.M.), a youth-led nonprofit that fosters creative expression, cultural pride, and mental wellness through spoken word, music, and storytelling. Raised in the village of Maloata, Gurr draws inspiration from Samoan traditions, the land, and ocean. Guided by community elders and local artists, his work bridges generations and uplifts Pacific voices. Through performances, workshops, and advocacy, he creates safe spaces where young people can share their truths, celebrate identity, and build connections rooted in culture.
Tamiano Gurr serves as territorial chief grants officer for the American Samoa Government, overseeing the Grants Clearinghouse Division. He manages federal and territorial funding across departments, strengthening local capacity and accountability in grants administration.
Gurr has secured and managed multimillion-dollar federal awards for projects spanning public health, agriculture, infrastructure and community development. He also co-founded Pacific Roots Open Mic (P.R.O.M.), a nonprofit promoting youth empowerment and mental wellness through creative arts and cultural storytelling.
Under his leadership, P.R.O.M. has launched federally funded programs focused on cultural expression, community healing and leadership development. Gurr holds a bachelor’s in business marketing and a master’s in management and leadership.
Born and raised in American Samoa, he is dedicated to building sustainable systems, elevating local talent and expanding access to resources that support the territory’s self-sufficiency and growth.
Based in metro Atlanta, Tanesha Ferguson is the development operations and institutional giving manager at the Alliance Theatre, an organization dedicated to expanding hearts and minds on and off stage. She also serves as a creative and administrative consultant for the Black Donors Project, a participatory research initiative examining how underfunding, cultural taxation and extractive labor expectations impact BIPOC-led arts organizations.
A Vassar College graduate with a bachelor’s degree in sociology, Ferguson explored how young Black women construct love narratives through self-definition and self-preservation. A lifelong arts enthusiast, she studied dance throughout college and began her career as an artistic and community programming intern at Dance Place in Washington, D.C., in 2017. She later joined the 2022 League of Regional Theatres EDI Mentorship Program and has worked with organizations including YoungArts and the Art of Hip Hop Fund.
As an arts administrator, Ferguson focuses on using the arts as a tool for social justice and community connection. She also prioritizes data integrity and creating equitable access to philanthropy. Outside of work, she enjoys writing, experimenting in the kitchen and catching up on her favorite films and TV shows.
Tanya Salas is a proud Micronesian and Polynesian, hailing from Nukuoro Atoll, a Polynesian enclave in the outer islands of Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia. Raised in a family that cherishes and upholds their cultural heritage through traditional weaving and carving, she has made the Northern Mariana Islands her home for over two decades.
Salas’ deep passion for her Polynesian and Micronesian roots drives her active engagement in her community, where she practices cultural traditions such as dancing, weaving, and beading to create intricate jewelry. As the owner of a small business, Tahine’s Creations, she produces and sells handmade handicrafts, including fresh and artificial flower crowns, leis, and floral accessories. Committed to preserving and promoting these cultural arts, Salas teaches at local schools, guiding students in crafting and wearing these traditional pieces, thereby fostering cultural pride. She has also shared short videos showcasing the projects that keep her engaged daily.
Tara Keanuenue Gumapac is a Kanaka Maoli artist residing in Heʻeia, Oʻahu. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in 2008 and a Master of Education in Teaching through the Hoʻokulaiwi Program at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in 2010.
Gumapac is an alumna of the HOEA Program and the 2017 Intercultural Leadership Institute. She participated in “Tears of DukwibahL: Gathering of International Indigenous Visual Artists of the Pacific Rim” in 2017, was a 2018 WESTAF Emerging Leaders of Color alumna, and a 2022 First Peoples Fund Fellow for the Artist in Business Leadership.
A dedicated participant in the Maoli Arts Movement with PAʻI Foundation, she also served as a member at large on Creative West’s Equity and Inclusion Committee. She is a mother, artist, Hawaiian cultural advocate, and practitioner, as well as an art teacher at Kalāheo High School.
Her recent projects include completing a traditional hale structure at Kalāheo and creating the first Hawaiian-language Braille children’s book.
Tasveer
Cultural Sustainability
2024
Washington
Tasveer
Tatiana Ticknor
Leaders of Color Fellowship
2021 - 2022
Anchorage, Alaska
Unguwat Program Coordinator, Alaska Native Heritage Center
