Willa Johnson is the daughter of a retired middle school teacher and coal truck driver, Willa Johnson grew up and has returned to her home community in Letcher County. She has served as an Appalachian Transition Fellow, is a co-founder of the Stay Together Appalachian Youth Project (STAY), and is a licensed foster parent. Willa recently worked for the Kentucky Valley Educational Cooperative (KVEC) Community Engagement team where she created FIREshare, a program designed in collaboration with The Holler to train teachers and students to use multimedia tools to tell their own stories about their schools and communities.
Archive for Profile Category: jw
Darrel Swan
After getting his BA at Boston College, Darrel studied screenwriting at New York Film Academy. If memory serves, his screenplays included a lot of music from The Cure and Radiohead. Darrel’s perfect movie would be a musical coming-of-age story where a con artist forms a band and if he ever had to air guitar for his life, he would perform The Eagles’ One of These Nights (though he otherwise doesn’t love The Eagles.) He enjoys the links and the slopes but can always just curl up with a good audiobook.
Tara Malik
Since 2001, Tara Malik has worked with community-based arts organizations that center racial justice and youth power in Rochester, New Orleans, Chicago, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and Richmond, CA. She is passionate about supporting young people in exploring their identities and roots, constructing and sharing their own narratives, and advocating for the issues that matter to them most. In 2006, she co-founded One Bird, a nonprofit organization that collaborates with local communities to build media arts programs for children. One Bird projects have developed in partnership with community-based organizations in New Orleans, LA; Dharamsala, India; and Carrefour, Haiti.
Noah Martin
Noah Martin is a teaching artist, director, and theatre maker based in Austin, Texas. His work with youth and adults is focused on collaborative theatre-making processes and arts experiences that build community and foster meaningful social dialogue. He is Director of Teen Programs at Creative Action and the Artistic Director of Changing Lives Youth Theatre Ensemble, a creative youth development program that brings together teens from around Austin to create and tour original shows about violence prevention and healthy relationships.
Myah Overstreet
Myah was a co-producer of The Alliance Youth Media Initiative and the Editor-inChief of The Issue. She currently works for the California Sunday Magazine.
Triana Patel
Triana Patel is an arts and museum educator with 10 years of experience focusing on informal arts education for youth and families in museums. She is a passionate advocate for youth development and opportunity within the arts, museums and alternative learning environments. In 2016, Triana received her MA in Museum Studies and MBA with a focus on Education and Interpretation from John F. Kennedy University. She wrote her master’s thesis on engaging teens in social justice through art and programming in museums. She is currently the Educator for Youth and Family Public Programs at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco where she manages the museum's paid teen internship, Art Speak.
Matt Rios
Matt Rios began interning with the Austin Film Society in May of 2018 and as of September became involved in the education department as a part of its after school Film Club. Still with the Film Club Program, Matt has worked at 5 different schools in AISD teaching film to students from 8-12 years old. He also leads Summer @ Austin Public camps and teen workshops. In addition to his work with youth and education at AFS, he is a studio tech at the Austin Public location. Prior to his involvement with AFS, Matt attended St. Edward's University, where he studied psychology.
Liz Schulte
Liz began her artistic career in the tangible arts; oil painting, metal sculpture, prosthetic makeup for zombies. Her love of art evolved to the digital media arts. Liz attended Salt Lake Community College (Associate of Applied Science, Visual Arts and Design Emphasis, Associate of Applied Arts, Animation Specialist, Certificate of Proficiency, Web Graphic Design and Certificate of Proficiency, Motion Graphics) and Utah Valley University (Bachelor of Applied Science, Digital Media Emphasis). Liz continues to combine traditional art and digital media art.
Aylee Shomali
Aylee Shomali is a teen digital artist and filmmaker and a member of the advisory group for The Issue. She was a content contributor and a Youth Engagement Specialist for The Issue #2. Based in Portland, Oregon, Aylee was a teaching assistant, intern, content creator, and a participant of the Echo AiR program at Open Signal PDX. While being an intern at Open Signal, Aylee helped to prepare submissions for The Issue #2.
Carly Short
Carly Short is a filmmaker and artist. Her work meshes personal and collective histories through the exploration of portraiture and cultural landscape. In addition to teaching at Venice Arts, Carly has taught at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston and at the Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles.