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The diverse team of people who lead and advocate for the organization!
Melissa Anderson, Sprouts
Julia Balafszi*, Wells Fargo
Quianna Brown, Grand Canyon University
Johnny Castro, University of California-Riverside
Ayesha Davenport, LPC
Dawn Demps, University of Arizona
Adrian Garcia, Furious Styles Crew
Violeta Ramos*, Metro Tech High School
Michelle Sambrano*, Southwest Behavioral Health
Jaysa Valdez**, Arizona School for the Arts
Jonathan Valdez, Next Level
*Denotes Officer
**Denotes Youth Member
come meet the board and staff, learn about board responsibilities and upcoming opportunities
Michelle is a mother of three, sister, auntie. She is daughter and granddaughter to women who toiled in fields and understood how to feed their family by gleaning fields, catching rabbits, and canning vegetables and meats. She takes this nurturing spirit into all aspects of her life, looking for ways to empower and uplift those around her. She thrives via creative thinking and open collaborations aimed at building a healing community.
Violeta has been working with Rising Youth Theatre since 2018 and is currently serving as the Secretary of the board. She works as an educator full time and is always looking for ways to continue growing. She is passionate about making higher education accessible to all and has been a lifelong supporter of the arts. As a board member, she hopes that the organization can be recognized nationwide for the work that she believes is truly youth driven.
Julia is a Board Member for Rising Youth Theatre, serving as the Treasurer. Julia has worked in the Financial Services Industry for over twenty years. She learned about Rising Youth Theatre through authentic relationships built since moving to Arizona from the East Coast in 2011. Julia is a multi-racial, cat Mom, that enjoys spending her free time with family and friends and trying new things. Her hope for the future of Rising Youth Theatre, is to continued growth in order to provide opportunities for artistic expression for tomorrow's Leaders.
Quianna Brown has served her community in various ways for more than 2 decades. Including working in Title I schools as an elementary school teacher. After law school, she became a “Legal advocate” at Community Legal Services. There she helped clients who were victims of domestic abuse leave their abusive situations by way of divorce and/or resolving child custody disputes through the Arizona Court system.
Quianna began her academic career in Buffalo New York, obtaining her Bachelor’s in Childhood Education from Buffalo State Collage in 2006. She later graduated from law school 2012 with her Juris Doctorate from Arizona Summit Law School (formally Phoenix School of Law) AZ. Lastly, she completed her Master of Business Administration (MBA) at Grand Canyon University, graduating in 2015.
Today, she is a Traditional Instructor at Grand Canyon University teaching in both the Government and Justice Studies departments. She is also the proud mom of 3 daughters.
Johnny is a 2nd year Ph.D. student in Critical Dance Studies at UCR. He holds a M.A. in Creative Enterprise Cultural Leadership from ASU. He is a member of the Furious Styles Crew & co-founder of Worth The Weight event series. Johnny is a leader in the AZ dance community as a BBOY, practitioner, and event organizer/host. His research is rooted in the lived experiences of street dancers and examines the relationship between social media and feelings of belonging and disbelieving as experienced by street dancers.
I am a new board member for Rising Youth Theater this year. Originally from Philadelphia, PA, Ayesha received her BA in Psychology from Temple University. I moved to Phoenix in 2005 to pursue my graduate education and ultimately earned an MA in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from The American School of Professional Psychology (formerly Argosy University). I currently work in private practice as a Licensed Professional Counselor serving clients age 15+ throughout the state of Arizona. I am bilingual in English/Spanish. I am an aspiring world traveler, an animal lover, and a deeply spiritual being. When I am not working, I can often be found in my car transporting my children to/from various activities or commitments. In my "downtime" I enjoy meditation, impromptu concerts or dance parties, reading or listening to books on Audible, and podcasts.
Dawn Demps (she, her, hers) is a Flint, MI native that has been involved with youth and educational programming, community advocacy and organizing for over 25 years. She utilizes her own lived experiences to connect with students and parents to promote tools for self-advocacy, structural reforms and strives to champion the concerns of these populations. Dawn holds an MA in Social Justice Studies from Marygrove College in Detroit, MI and received her Ph.D. from Arizona State University in Education Policy and Evaluation. Her dissertation was a critical ethnographic oral history study of a grassroots community advocacy group comprised of Black natural and othermothers whom galvanized to challenge and dismantle the educational policies and practices that exclude Black children from educational spaces. She has published articles examining the possibilities of youth inspired school leadership as exhibited through youth voice and participatory action research, unpacking the difficulties and potential of Black and Brown collaborative educational leadership and how art can be used to expose the experiences of Black youth who have experienced school exclusion. She is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Arizona’s College of Education in Education Policy Studies and Practice.
Adrian “AWER” Garcia is a Phoenix, AZ born street artist and curator who specializes in graffiti and large-scale mural painting. His style is influenced by his love for both realism, and abstract art.
Garcia was first introduced to the creative process at the age of nine through a family member who gave him a drawing. Then at the age of 17, he discovered the vast world of street art. He has been motivated to continue his art journey through the love and support of his daughter and is continually inspired by his two young grandsons.
When either working from his studio on a canvas painting or out in the field on a monumental size wall, he prefers spray paint, paint markers, and acrylic as his mediums of choice. His murals can be seen all over the Valley of the Sun, and he has been commissioned by Amazon, Walmart, and the US Military for murals in their facilities. He also spends his time curating a rotation of artists painting live, himself included, at a local Phoenix coffee shop, Tres Leches Café and activates artists at the Almeria Mural Alley in conjunction with the Oak Street Mural Alley in the historic Coronado District in Phoenix.
“As an artist, I see the world differently than most people. I am inspired by
even the simplest daily routine. I feel like I have so many ideas but there is
never enough time to get them down on canvas.”
IG: @adrian_grrcya
Email: Unitedartistsaz@gmail
Jonathan Valdez better known as DJ Akshen is a Veteran, husband, Dad, DJ and champion of all things positive. He is one of Arizona’s premier talents. His creative mixing and crowd-pleasing selection is one of the many reasons why he was crowned Phoenix Regional Red Bull 3Style Champion and Phoenix NewTimes winner best Turntablist in 2015. Akshen went on to represent the South West and compete for the National title. As a member of the International Hip Hop Collective Furious Styles Crew, Akshen has had the pleasure of performing in countries like Spain, the Bahamas, Romania, Mexico and England.
When Akshen is not behind the turntables you can find him hosting a monthly open turntable, scratch event, called Fader Manners that he co-founded in 2014. In addition to that he organizes an annual DJ Networking event for the DJ Community called the AZ DJ Summit. Akshen is also an artist-educator and global Hip Hop Ambassador for the U.S. State department program; Next Level. He has shared his knowledge of DJing overseas in places like Timisoara and Bucharest Romania. As well as organizations like the YMCA, numerous after school programs, Scottsdale Community College, Arizona State University, Mesa Community College and Grand Canyon University’s Hip-Hop Club.
Some of his clients include Red Bull, UnidosUS formerly known as the National Council of La Raza, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Disney and the Mayor of Tempe to name a few.
Rising Youth Theatre is a growing organization in its 9th year of operation. As we seek to grow our board of directors through authentic relationship building, we are looking for leadership that reflects our mission and values and is truly representative of our community. Start the process here!
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