Cat Willis

Tannery World Dance & Cultural Center

Cat Willis is the founder and director of the Tannery World Dance & Cultural Center. She has lived in Santa Cruz for over 13 years. She is originally from Rochester, N.Y., where she was encouraged from a small age to express herself through the arts. She began her formal dance education with Garth Fagan Dance, with whom she studied extensively for six years. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Dance from SUNY Brockport. Her passion for cross cultural understanding, dance arts research, study, and performance has led her to Central America, the Caribbean, and West Africa. She has taught dance throughout Santa Cruz, including two years with Mountain Elementary School as resident choreographer. Cat has served on the Cultural Council of Santa Cruz Grants Advisory Committee, the Cultural Council of Santa Cruz grants panel, SC Fringe Festival Advisory Board, and was the 418 Project’s 2009 Artist in Residence and the Theatre Bay Area’s CA$H grant recipient in Dance. Her work through her dance company, DIASPORA, has been shown throughout Santa Cruz and the San Francisco Bay Area.

http://www.tanneryworlddance.com/

Micha Scott

Dancer and Choreographer

A 13-year senior member with Garth Fagan Dance, Micha Scott has performed and taught master classes worldwide. She has been a soloist with Tandy Beal & Company, and a featured dancer in the PBS special “Griot New York” with famed composer and trumpeter Wynton Marsalis. Micha has taught dance at SUNY Brockport, Rochester School of the Arts, SCU, UCSC, Cabrillo College, public schools, and private studios. Her choreography has been commissioned by Santa Clara University, Cabrillo College, and Monterey High School. Micha is co-artistic director of Diaspora Dance Company, resident choreographer at Mountain School, dance instructor at Mount Madonna School and Dancenter, and artistic director of children’s programming at Tannery World Dance and Cultural Center.

Aliza Weller, MES

Co-Founder of a play-based learning institute

Aliza Weller is a global training Instructional Designer for a well-known tech company in Silicon Valley and Co-Founder of a play-based learning institute. Her central work is to help others develop courage, authenticity, and to aspire toward inner greatness and depth. She taught Zen meditation and yoga in maximum security men’s prisons. She created play-based urban programs that catalyzed policy change and galvanized 30,000 students to walk and bike to school to improve their health and that of the environment. She lived for three years in the high Canadian Arctic Circle, doing cross-cultural resource management work, where playfulness is a survival skill because winters have 24-hour darkness and -70 temperatures, and where she learned to play with the wind, kite boarding on the frozen ocean. With a background in Education, Communications, Biology, Law, and a Masters degree in Environmental Studies, Aliza advises on the Board of Directors of the North American Association for Environmental Education and the Canadian Network for Environmental Education and Communication. Her Arctic writing has been nominated for national literary awards.

http://www.intelligentplay.org/

Sophia VanKlootwyk-Forde

2011 fellow with the Jack Kent Cooke Association

Sophia VanKlootwyk-Forde sees bicycles as more than transportation: she sees them as vehicles for human connection. Equipped with a camp stove and a tent, she has biked thousands of miles across a dozen countries. Sophia is also fervently involved in bicycle advocacy: she co-founded the Cabrillo Bike Co-op as a community college student, taught bike safety and maintenance classes to fellow students at UCLA, and worked at a DIY Bike co-op in a low-income neighborhood in Los Angeles. Sophia earned her Associates Degree while still in high school and obtained a BA in Geography from UCLA and the University of Copenhagen. She is a 2009 fellow with Young People For, a progressive student leadership program, and a 2011 fellow with the Jack Kent Cooke Association, a private scholarship fund that awards outstanding academic achievement.

Marco Vangelisti

Founder of EK4T

Marco came to the US from Italy as a Fulbright scholar in mathematics and economics at the University of California in Berkeley. After a stint in the financial industry, Marco worked as visual artist on a full-time basis for 5 years and obtained a MFA focusing on the intersection between public art and ecology. He later worked for 6 years managing investment equity portfolios primarily on behalf of large foundations and endowments. In April 2009 Marco left the finance industry and has since been instrumental in the formation and development of the Slow Money Northern California chapter where he currently leads the investor working group. Marco is currently developing Essential Knowledge for Transition, a curriculum for engaged citizens to understand the money and banking system, the economic system and the financial system and how we need to transform them.

http://ek4t.com/

Derick Sebastian

Ukelele Artist

Through faith and hard work, Maui born local Derick Sebastian continues to live his dream as an accomplished international ‘ukulele virtuoso. Derick’s critically-acclaimed instrumental album, From His Heart, earned a Na Hoku Hanohano 2010 nomination, has shared the stage with fellow ukulele ace Jake Shimabukuro and opened for R&B sensation Brian McKnight, with notable performances at PIXAR Animation, Grey’s Anatomy, and professional sports industry’s MLB, PGA, ESPN and EA SPORTS. Derick recently broke into the film industry composing movie theme songs to Germany’s Behind The Rainbow and Hollywood’s Life’s An Itch. While garnering these many accomplishments, Derick is humbled and stays true to himself, and continues his dedication to inspire lives through his music and impact the world through the pure sounds he evokes through the ukulele.

http://www.dericksebastian.com/

Me and Mr. Cassidy

Musicians

The folk-pop duo Me and Mr. Cassidy formed in 2010 and hails from Los Angeles. Consisting of singer-songwriters Hope Leigh Rollins and Scott Cassidy, this rapidly rising twosome is known for gentle and uplifting tunes skillfully held together by simple guitar rhythms, charming lyrics and beautiful vocals. Their latest album I Would Love You So… was awarded the coveted “Pop Album of the Year” at the 2013 Los Angeles Music Awards.

http://www.meandmrcassidy.com/

Jackie Lopez

Yoni Hernandez

John Anthony Murillo

Nahara Villalobos