Helen Stoltzfus (Founder, Director)

Helen has been creating, performing, directing and teaching collaborative theatre for over twenty years. She is former co-artistic director of the internationally acclaimed ensemble, A Traveling Jewish Theatre. Her plays have been performed worldwide, from The Los Angeles Theatre Festival to Hamburg’s Sommer Theatre Festival, and from Prague to Appalachia. Her plays incorporate narrative, music, movement and ritual, as well as historical and anthropological research. In 1999, she produced the first National Ensemble Theatre Festival in San Francisco, and, in the same year, received the prestigious Cultural Achievement Award for Performing Arts from the National Foundation for Jewish Culture.

For the past 10 years Ms. Stoltzfus has brought this wealth of experience to educating children and young people in creating their own works of theatre. In 2004 she founded ALICE: Arts and Literacy in Children’s Education.

Ruth Mankin (Education Director)

Ruth Mankin is an Arts & Education Consultant in Sonoma County and the Greater Bay Area. She was the Education Director with Young Audiences of Northern California for 7 years. Ruth worked with the KQED Spark Education Department to develop workshops for artists and teachers. Prior to working in arts education, Ruth worked as a Child Development Specialist with Bright Horizons, the largest provider of work-site childcare in the country. She was the Founding Director of the Paramount Pictures Child Care Center and helped develop childcare centers at Universal Studios, Warner Bros, Sony, IBM, and Xerox. Ruth was also the Assistant Director/ Head Teacher of the Sonoma State University Child Care Center. She holds an M.A. in Education and a California Multiple Subject Teaching Credential w/ a specialist in Early Childhood Education.

Anyka Barber (Program Associate)

Aside from her work with ALICE, Anyka is the New Eyes Artist in Schools Program Manager for the Richmond Arts Center where she is responsible for recruiting and training artists, financial oversight and budget planning, curriculum design, community outreach, site and partner selection, event planning and program evaluation for the Center's after school program. Anyka holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Clark Atlanta University.

Zenón Barrón (Dancer)

Zenón is the director of ENSAMBLES Ballet Folklórico de San Francisco. He is trained in modern dance and classical ballet, as well as Mexican folk dance. He is a researcher of Mexican and Latin American folklore, costume design and scenography. Among the other companies he has performed with are the Ballet Foklórico de Jaime Bernal and Ballet Folklórico de México.

Laura Bustamante (Dancer)

Laura has taught dance with ENSAMBLES Ballet Folklórico de San Francisco and independently. As a Folklórico dancer, she has toured througout California and to Mexico and China. She is also an actor and Emmy-nominated host for the television show, LatinEyes.

Sandor Diabankouezi (Dancer, Drummer)

Sandor is a master Congolese dancer, choreographer and drummer. He was choreographer and lead dancer for 10 years with the Congolese National Dance Company. He now teaches dance classes in Petaluma, San Francisco and Bolinas, CA.

Roger Dillahunty (Dancer)

Roger has been dancing for nearly 30 years--26 as a teacher at Rhythm and Motion. He has danced and taught throughout the world from Europe to Canada to Mexico. Roger is a teaching artist of dance for children and adults alike with the philosophy that everyone, young and old, has the potential to transform to a higher self.

Lua Hadar (Theatre Artist)

Lua has taught student classes in drama, storytelling, puppetry, mask making, acting, diction, public speaking, singing and video production addressing the California Visual and Performing Arts Standards and the core curriculum. A credentialed K-8 bilingual (Spanish and English) teacher who holds a B.A. in Theater and an M.A. in Education, Lua is also a multi-faceted performing artist. She has taught children and teachers in preschools, public schools and private schools, and was a resident performer with an Italian children's theater company.

Michael Katz (Storyteller)

Michael has been a professional storyteller since 1984. He was featured at the openings of the Getty Museum and the Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. His storytelling CD "Far Away and Close to Home" received a Parents' Choice Silver Honor Award. For over 20 years he has been the host of his own storytelling radio program, Katz Pajamas. It can be heard at KCBX.org.>

Ayodele Ankoanda Kinchen (Dancer)

Ayodele has been a member of Fua Dia Congo since 1999 and currently serves as a program advisor for Fua. Known as Sister Ayo to her students, Ms. Kinchen has led African and Hip Hop dance classes throughout the last five years in East Palo Alto and Oakland.

Debra Koppman (Visual Artist)

Debra has extensive experience teaching a wide range of media--including drawing, painting, watercolor, printmaking, bookmaking, and mask and puppetmaking to children and adults. She is particularly adept at creating curriculum connections to literature, writing, performance and social studies.

Muisi-kongo Malonga (Dancer)

Muisi is the most senior member of Fua Dia Congo, the company founded by her father, the late world renowned Congolese Master Artist, Malonga Casquelourd. Muisi also teaches Congolese dance at several community centers throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.

Ellen Sebastian Chang (Theatre Artist)

Ellen is a director, writer and creative consultant. Her most recent collaborations were with Gamelan Sekar Jaya and Indonesian poet, Goenewan Mohammed; youth poets for the Youth Speaks Living Word Festival; Ukrainian composer, Mariana Sadovska with the Eastern European vocal ensemble, KITKA. She is currently a mentor for MJDC CHIMES with dancer, Amara Tabor Smith.

Diane Bessette

Diane is a former staff attorney at two East Bay non-profit law centers, including the East Bay Community Law Center in Berkeley. She is currently a Thornhill Elementary PTA board member and a PTA advisor to Fruitvale Elementary.

Deborah Gilmore

Deborah formerly served on the Arts and Education Task Force of K-12 California Public Schools. She currently serves on the national and state Women's Political Caucus and as Commissioner for Alameda County Commission on the Status of Women.

Jody Knowlton

Jody is co-founder and Principal of Artsource Consulting, with seventeen years national and international experience in art consultation, art program management, curating, marketing, and business development.

Elizabeth McCarthy

Elizabeth is a credentialed teacher with 15 years teaching students with special needs and those learning English as a second language.