Officers:
Angela Tripi-Weiss, Executive Director, is an award winning artist, teacher, curriculum/program developer and administrator. She has always focussed on the development of children’s voices through the arts. Her Arts in Action program teaches students an age appropriate visual arts language that is sequentially skilled. Children are exposed to the arts through various media form and are led to discover, explore, enjoy and express their individual visions. This is all accomplished in a highly supportive setting that fosters creative thinking. In addition to her work with children, she has also developed and implemented a creative process known as "Abstract Visualization". This mental health process was recently incorporated into the treatment of rescue workers and survivors of 9/11. Mental health professionals at Saint Vincent’s Hospital in downtown Manhattan were trained to utilize this technique.
Ms. Tripi-Weiss was the artist in residence and art program coordinator for P.S. 87 and the Special Music School in NYC. She created the "Healing Arts" exhibit, a body of 40 works created by the rescuers and survivors of 9/11, shown in 2004 and 2005 at the West Park Presbyterian and Jan Hus Churches in New York City. She was the program director and art educator at Day Camp in the Park in Bear Mountain, NY. She is a per diem workshop developer and classroom art teacher at the American Museum of Natural History. She has exhibited at the West Side Artists Coalition juried exhibit at the Ansonia and Cork Galleries.
Rie Schmidt, Treasurer, Flutist, member of American Symphony Orchestra, Westchester Philharmonic and Flute Force, teacher at Bloomingdale School of Music and Suzuki Music School of Westport, CT.
Ann Miller, Secretary, Assistant Director at the Steven Gaynor School of Learning Disabilities in Manhattan
Board Members:
Kathryn Amira, Esq., Attorney
Iona Lutey, Earth Day New York
Anne Murney, Parent Coordinator at PS 87 in Manhattan
Eric Proshansky, Esq., Attorney
Noreen Storch, Juried fine artist and secretary/treasurer Counterfeit Identification Analysis Systems, Inc.
Advisory Board:
Bill Bartlett, Director of The Imagine Project. A dynamic theatre arts program that has been empowering children throughout NYC for the past 20 years. For more info, go to http://www.imagineproject.org/
Adam Berkowitz, LCSW, DCSW: Psychotherapist for Brooklyn Center for Psychotherapy’s On-Site School Mental Health Program and Out-Patient Mental Health Clinic, Private Practitioner with Children, Adolescents and Adults in New York City, Psychoanalytic Candidate at the Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research (IPTAR).
Marie A. Lin, Ed.M., board member, B.S. from N.Y.U., Art Education; MA and M.E. from Teachers College, Columbia University, counseling and psychology, 18 years N.Y.C Dept. Of Education elementary school counselor, Crisis Counselor.
Jay Neugeboren is the author of 14 books, including two prize-winning novels (The Stolen Jew and Before My Life Began). Has served on Boards of National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) and Pathways to Housing, Pioneer Valley School for the Performing Arts (Hadley, Mass), and Genesis Clubhouse in Worcester, Mass. Has taught at Columbia University, Stanford, SUNY-Old Westbury, Umass and University of Freiburg, Germany.
Kersten Ostwald, Teacher at The School for the Deaf in NY
Toni Tunney, Ph.D., licensed psychologist at Rockland Psychiatric Center
