2013 Staff

BolderLife Staff

We have a big vision here at BolderLife, created and supported by diverse team of individuals from all over the world. Find out from where we come and what we are about as the individuals bringing you the BolderLife Festival.

Artistic Director/Founding Partner – Erin Kelly

The Artistic Director of the BolderLife Festival, Erin Kelly is a visionary with the unique ability to connect with the human condition and to develop programming which defines the meaning of this unique experience. Erin’s extensive knowledge in and of the film and production industry started in 2003 when she became a founding member of The Ruskin Group Theatre in Santa Monica, CA. While there, Erin co-created and produced the critically acclaimed LA Cafe Plays. Also in 2003, Erin began work as an actress in commercials and short films. Her first feature film, Loving Annabelle, has become a top-selling cult film that explores the complexity and controversy of love and struggle between two women. Since then, she has served as a producer and actor for a variety of independent films, network TV shows and web series. In January 2009, Erin launched her own production company, Rock Rose Entertainment LLC, through which she produced a successful monthly theatre project called Hitching Post Theatre, a handful of short films and launched the Indie Colorado Cinema Experience (ICCE), showcasing Colorado films. She currently has several films in various phases of production under Rock Rose Entertainment. Erin’s latest endeavor, iLEAP. is a coaching/consulting organization that aims to inspire leadership, empowerment, authenticity and passion into the lives of individuals and groups around the world.

Founding Partner – Diane Feliciano

With over 30 years of experience in marketing and business management with global corporations such as Siemens, Diane Feliciano now combines business drive and market savvy with her long held interest in film, theatre and the arts. Feliciano holds an MBA and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Biochemistry and devoted her career to building profitable and socially conscious Life Science businesses within a framework of corporate and social responsibility. During her tenure with Siemens, she also established and lead the Diversity and Inclusion efforts for the U.S. Industry sector and served on the Executive Steering Committee for the U.S. Women’s Affinity Network. Today, one of Feliciano’s many goals is to convey messages of substance and social relevance through artistic mediums, bridging the arts with education. Feliciano now utilizes her extensive communications background to facilitate creative concepts which not only enhance the message of the BolderLife Festival, but draws together interest and support from local, national and international audiences.

Full Time Staff

Filmmaker Liaison – Jobi Berger

Jobi describes herself as passionately curious. She grew up in Carmel, Indiana but decided to move out west where she attended the University of Colorado at Boulder. Having studied Communications and Peace and Conflict Studies, she has a strong passion for community, human rights, and social awareness. With experience varying from working with those in poverty, to putting on events on behalf of the visually impaired, Jobi is excited to use her compassion to promote social justice and equality in as many places as possible.

Theater Program and Student Outreach Program Director – Dawn Bower

Dawn Bower has been performing on the stages of the Denver Metro Area for the last 11 years. She holds a degree in Education from Creighton University and has been teaching and tutoring students in 1st through 12th grade at Denver Academy since 2002. Dawn has studied the acting, monologue/script writing, film-making, and improv through DS Studioworks, Big Fish Talent Agency, and the Bovine Metropolis Theater. Recently, she has choreographed two musicals for the Lafayette Theater Company: Way Out West in a Dress and A…My Name Will Always Be Alice. Two films she’s co-starred in, Lilith and You’re Not Getting Out Alive, have been accepted for screening at festivals. This fall Dawn will be in Night of the Living Dead at the Bug Theater in Denver, CO and Dancing at Lughnasa at the Arvada Festival Playhouse in Arvada. She is excited about bringing in 1500 students for the successful second year of the Student Outreach Program which will be 5 days this year!

IT – Ian Kelly

Ian Ian Kelly has over twelve years of experience working in the IT industry and is currently working with southboundsolutions.com, providing IT solutions to to business clients clients. Ian has also done educational summer camps for children and teens, worked as a financial analyst for an investment company and once, long ago, interned at a traveling high school, which is the one adventure he’d most like to repeat. Ian is a father of a four year old son, a guitar player and loves long backpacking trips at the Grand Canyon. His other interests include table top role playing games, science fiction and the Burning Man art festival.

Communications Manager/Web Consultant – Chris Schenk

Chris is an actor, model, musician, and Computer Scientist by training. He has worked in the technical field as the programmer and in the planning and development field as a business visioning coach at the University of Colorado, Boulder and as a consultant with Catalpa Labs, LLC. Chris brings capacity for creating and maintaining a clear vision to the BolderLife Festival and helps with aligning all of the activities of the festival with the vision created by Artistic Director Erin Kelly. His own struggles with psychological and physical health have led him down a path that falls directly in-line with the vision of the BolderLife festival, as he believes that healing comes through giving space to the whole human experience without judgment in order to work in the truth and create effective change that supports creativity and joy.

Production Manager/Sponsorship Coordinator – Shaima Shabaz

Shaima-077 A native of the Denver area, Shaima has a background in international development. In 2008 she volunteered as a project manager for the nonprofit Afghans4Tomorrow in Afghanistan and was inspired to continue her studies at the U.N. University for Peace in San Jose, Costa Rica. With an M.A. in Responsible Management she then worked with the nonprofit BeadforLife doing research and project management in rural Uganda. Most recently she has been working out of her hometown for INTERLINK Language Centers, an international ESL school. Shaima’s extensive travels have exposed her to the many social and political challenges experienced by underserved communities, as well as creative solutions utilized to counter adversity. Now, as Production Manager for BolderLife Festival, she is proud to be part of a local event that uses the arts to explore and cultivate dialogue on a variety of pressing individual, social, and political issues.

Blogmaster – Verena Toth

Verena got enthusiastic about BolderLife-Festival immediately since she found it on Erin’s internet page. It changed her life and attitude towards many things. That is why she wanted to find the source of this amazing energy. Living and working in Saxony (Germany) a as a free-lance journalist, couldn’t prevent her from the strong wish be a part of this wonderful idea. As a curious person, she is open for new things and new experiences. Because of growing up with a mentally challenged sister Verena is committed to community and social awareness especially for handicapped people. She graduated in journalism and science of theatre at the University of Leipzig. Verena works for a german newspaper (writer and photographer) and this year for an International Film Festival for Children and Young Audience in Germany as well.

Part Time Staff

Programming Assistant – Linda Garneau

Linda Garneau is a certified professional coach and accomplished writer, educator, motivational speaker, business analyst, and visionary entrepreneur. Linda founded Wings to Freedom Coaching in June 2011. Her specialty includes engagement, the human condition, and diversity. She has helped many break through internal roadblocks and discover positive solutions to achieve desired, sustainable results. She says, “It’s time to break through unspoken rules and traditions, and cultivate a more engaged home, school, and workforce by inspiring and empowering the lives of others, one person at a time.” Linda is from New Providence, New Jersey, and spent the past 29 years working and raising two children in the D.C./Northern Virginia metro area. Her favorite pastimes are hip-hop dance, travel, health and fitness, and food journalism. Check out her new travel and cooking blog, where she journals her adventures and shares favorite recipes.

Programming Assistant – Renata Heberton

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Renata holds a Masters Degree in Social Work. She has had multiple opportunities to develop my therapeutic and case management capabilities including both one-on-one and group therapeutic processes. Renata has done volunteer work in the men’s correctional facility where she planned and facilitated group discussions and dialogue on the often delicate topics found in sociology. Her work in programmatic implementation in Boston Public Schools, her graduate school internships and past two years at The Denver Waldorf School have helped her develop skills to grow and strengthen programs, work with teams of co-workers and constituents to adjust to presenting needs and challenges. Renata work has allowed her the great opportunity to open to new ever-developing perspectives and to examine areas of blindness inevitably packaged in with my privileges while also giving her the tools to positively meet the challenges of my own marginalized identities. With this she has developed the capacity to work and sensitively communicate within diverse populations and constructively face challenges as they arise.

LGBTQ Student Program Coordinator – Jessica Lawless

by-kate-russell Jessica Lawless is an educator, mentor, writer, artist. Jessica co-founded and co-created a grassroots self-defense organization as a community response to the awful experience of losing a friend to rape and murder in Seattle Washington in 1993. Jessica has developed programs and led groups for women and girls experiencing domestic violence, for partners and families of transgender folks, for first generation college students, for homeless youth, and for artists, writers, educators, community organizers, and folks interested in both social justice issues and personal growth. She has mentored LGBTQ youth and adults in building healthy relationships, feeling at ease with one’s sexual orientation and gender identity, and decisions about higher education pursuits. I have led workshops on diversity and inclusion in social justice movements and worked as a coach with individual artists. Originally from Chicago, Jessica spent the 90’s in Seattle, the early ‘00’s in Los Angeles and now lives in Santa Fe, NM where she teaches Gender and Media Studies at the Santa Fe Community College.

Board Member – Donna Terwillinger

155265_607498485932971_1555615075_n Donna has worked as a physical therapist for the last 18 years. She graduated from the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown with a BS in Biology and achieved her Master’s in Physical Therapy from Slippery Rock University. Her career has afforded her the opportunity to travel extensively throughout the United States and also overseas to Scotland and the Soviet Union. She became involved with the BolderLife Festival last year through a donation via Kickstarter. After expressing an interest to become more involved, she accepted the invitation initially to be the Grant Writer for the festival and has recently taken on social media management support and community outreach. She is honored and privileged to be a crew member of the BolderLife Festival and thrilled to share its mission and vision.

Programming Assistant – Patrycja Humienik

Patrycja is a Polish-American artivist from Chicago, completing her BA in Creative Writing with an interdisciplinary certificate in Peace & Conflict studies at the University of Colorado. Dance coursework and performance, studies in Spanish language and culture, independent research projects, multimedia collaborative work, vocal training and songwriting, and overall engagement in community building and conflict transformation through the arts, have made her writing & peace education all the juicier. She shares this collection of hats with youth K-12 through teaching and curriculum development work with Boulder Writing Studio, Upward Bound Federal Trio Program, and the Elementary Spanish Program. Her current research and writing is focused on the arts as a tool for conflict transformation.

Director of Video Production – Tom Parkin

Tom has been producing films and videos since the age of 13. Upon graduating from the Art Institute of Colorado in 1994 with a degree in Video & Music Business, Tom worked as a production manager at AV Services in Denver, Colorado for 5 years. In 1999, Tom founded Tom Parkin Films which produces independent films, television shows and creative video content for marketing and entertainment. Since 2003, Tom has been the Director, Producer, Cinematographer and Editor of the American Health Front television series which airs across the country. Tom has been Director of Photography on four feature films: Headhunter (2002), Broken Fences (2008) and Olivia Rox! (2009) and Serotonin Rising (2009).

Production Assistant – Anthony Pritchard

Anthony learned that the power of the internet is the most effective means to send any message and that it’s FREE to everyone, you just have to know how to use it. Anthony now works for one of the world’s largest foundation repair companies but, volunteers at the BolderLifefestival to facilitate a medium sized team of ‘buzz builders’. Anthony believes in the goals of the BolderLife Foundation and is committed to building the legacy of the BoulderLife Festival.

Founding Partner – Pat Vaisvil

Pat Vaisvil has carried an early love of music, theatre and film through a computer programming/consulting career and now back to the arts. Since returning to school to pursue a Master’s degree in Recording Arts, Pat has taken on many creative technical tasks: He has recorded and mixed several full-length music CD projects, worked as on-set sound and camera crew for several film/video projects, and has done post-production audio for projects including the full-length feature We Are the Sea (a selection of the 2010 Starz Denver Film Festival as well as several other festivals). Recently, Pat has come on board with Rock Rose Entertainment, serving as Technical Director for the first Life and Death Matters Festival, Hitching Post Theatre, and now the BolderLife Festival.

Tara Topper

Tara is an actor, writer, director, licensed massage therapist, licensed psychotherapist and social justice advocate. She brings these passions together through a fundamental belief in the body as the source of experience, wisdom and liberation. Tara graduated from UCLA with a bachelor of arts in both psychology and sociology, from Institute for Psycho-Structural Balance with a massage certificate, and Naropa with a master of arts in Somatic Counseling Psychology. Her areas of expertise are chronic pain and health crises, relationships, eating disorders, and trauma. She is thrilled to reconnect with her acting buddy from 2000, Erin Kelly, and contribute to the mission of Bolder Life.