Staff :: Teachers & Art Therapists :: Volunteers & Interns

Staff

	Heena Genti, Executive Director Heena is the Executive Director of CREATE Arts Center, where she also serves as a Board Member, teacher, and art therapist. Heena worked as CREATE’s Managing Director for five years prior to becoming the Director. A graduate of Skidmore, Heena received her master’s degree in art therapy from George Washington University. She has taught many classes at CREATE and currently leads the very popular Beyond Creativity Class for middle school girls.
	Jessica Lewis, Program Manager Jessica has been involved in all forms of performing and visual arts since a young age. She received her MS in Arts Administration from Drexel University, where she also worked as the Marketing Manager for the Department of Performing Arts. Currently, she is the Program Manager at CREATE, where she also teaches art classes and she works as a rock climbing instructor at Sportrock Climbing Gym in Alexandria. Jessica lives in Virginia with her husband and Boston Terrier – Jobin. In her free time she does photography & mixed media collage, as well as yoga & rock climbing.
	Jamillah Abdullah, Office Coordinator Jamillah began as a volunteer for CREATE in 2005 and returned five years later after earning her BFA in Arts Management from Marymount University. She has an Associate’s degree in Interior Design from Montgomery College and enjoys sketching, writing children’s stories and photography. Jamillah is dedicated to making volunteering at CREATE a rewarding experience. She teaches Bookmaking and Paper Crafts. She is also the Volunteer Coordinator and a teacher at CREATE.
	Sally Brucker, Director, Studio Downstairs Sally is a veteran artist, art therapist and expressive arts therapist with over 30 years’ experience teaching and leading art groups both nationally and internationally. She is a licensed psychotherapist and consultant.

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Teachers & Art Therapists

Teachers

	Heather Levy: “Art has been my whole life. I like to work with found materials; natural and (wo) man made. Mistakes don?t even exist in art. They are opportunities for creativity. For me, art is a release meditation and self expression. I?ve always loved working with children because we understand each other. I like to guide them into a love for learning, love of art and appreciation of their own abilities.”
	Shelley Sarrin has 30 years of teaching experience in MD public schools as a Special Educator (BS/ MEd in Elem. and Sp. Ed.). Being both a teacher and an artist, Shelley is eager for the opportunity to combine the two. When teaching art to home-school students and in the after-school smARTkids program, her goal is to nurture and encourage creative minds and develop self-confidence through personal expression. Being a clay artist herself, Shelley especially enjoys teaching the Family Pottery classes. When not teaching or tutoring students with special needs, Shelley expresses herself through poetry, drawing, and pottery. She lives in Silver Spring with her husband and two dogs.
	Joan Flannery has been teaching art and facilitating young people and adults in expressing their inherent creativity for 30 years. She has taught in public and private schools, community arts programs and arts institutions both in Philadelphia and the D.C. area. She’s a graduate of Tyler School of Art at Temple University.

	Nene Gioulamirian
	Curt Cunningham
	Nora Dankner received her BA in Art History from Washington University in St. Louis, where she also developed a strong interest in ceramics. She got her first experience teaching art at Brant Lake Camp in upstate New York. Currently, Nora is working toward a degree in Art Therapy.

	Elis Franzen is an artist and teacher practicing throughout the DMV area. She specializes in printmaking, fabric design, and stone carving, and also enjoys teaching ceramics, drawing & painting, and mixed media. Elis is passionate about food access, arts education, and youth development and advocacy. Her students range from 4 years old to young adult, and her wide-reaching clientele includes private & public school students as well as adjudicated youth. She has worked in the past as an organic vegetable farm hand and continues her passion for growing in the form of an urban garden. Elis can be found spending her “free” time biking, foraging for wild herbs, cooking, and sewing. Her current artistic projects include the development of a screenprinting job-training program for adjudicated young adults.
	Vincent Patrick is a husband, a father of four, a self-taught artist, who creates in a number of mediums to include cartooning, illustration, photography and video. Kuroji has been a youth advocate and arts educator for more than ten (10) years and he has taught in D.C. Public Schools, Charter Schools, and Home School Co-ops. Mr. Patrick has run after school programs, to include founding and facilitating his own arts based nonprofit in 2002. As a stay-at-home-father, he’s often found behind his camera photographing people, places and things or authoring and illustrating his soon to be published children’s book series.

Art Therapists

Tamar Hendel, MA, ATR-BC, LPC is a teacher, artist, and art therapist and the Founder and former Executive Director for CREATE Arts Center. She founded CREATE Arts Center in 1986 to offer a full spectrum of arts activities to the residents of the greater DC area, including arts education, recreation and therapy. With over 25 years of experience, and as a Holocaust survivor herself, Tamar provides vivid and expressive techniques to teach children and adults art skills that enhance cognitive, behavioral, and emotional expression. Tamar is a recipient of the Montgomery County Lifetime Achievement in the Arts award, the most prestigious honor that can be conferred by the County on individual artists, organizations and patrons of the arts and humanities. Tamar retired as executive director on September 30th, 2010. She lives in Washington DC and has 4 grown children.

Merry Urbia

Brooke Baker has a MA in art therapy from George Washington University. She works full-time at a day treatment program for adults with severe and persistent mental illness in Washington DC as an art therapist. She has taught a few of the Sunday studio classes, which she greatly enjoyed. She is amazed at how creative and smart CREATE’s younger students are. Although Brooke primarily works in a group format with both teaching and therapy sessions, she also enjoys working individually with adults and children in a therapeutic capacity.