The team at Creative Generation is pleased to welcome new members to the Collective and celebrate other members of the Collective in new roles!
Creative Generation is a values-forward, global collective that believes youth create change. As artists, educators, administrators, researchers, storytellers, and activists, we collaborate with young creatives and those who cultivate their creativity to take local actions towards global change.
In alignment with our organizational values, we co-create projects that build capacity within individuals and organizations and support field-wide learning in pursuit of a more just world. As a collective, we each bring unique skills and perspectives, integrating them to maximize impact. Learn more about our process to form and operate as a Collective here.
In the recent weeks, several people have joined our Collective in various capacities.
Camea L. Davis will be our new Director of Knowledge, co-leading the Knowledge team and overseeing a portfolio of research, evaluation, and documentation projects, including serving as the Editor of the Creative Generation Journal. Davis is a poet, educator, and educational researcher with a heart for urban youth and communities. Her research focuses on youth activism, racial justice in teacher education, critical collaborative ethnography, and critical poetic inquiry. Davis earned her Doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction, Multicultural Education, and Educational Technology from Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, a Masters in Arts of Teaching from Marian University in Indianapolis, Indiana, and a Bachelor’s of Arts Degree in English Literature from the University of Wisconsin Madison.
Erica Joos will be our new Manager of Educational Experiences, contributing to the Learning & Leadership team and managing a portfolio of projects aimed at individual development. Erica is a passionate and mission-driven practitioner with over 10 years’ experience building human agency through education. Motivated by collective healing, justice, joy, and social transformation, she leverages her background in human development, experiential and global education, and the expressive arts to facilitate interdisciplinary programs that connect people with the systems in and around them. Previously, Erica served as the Arts Director for an arts integration elementary school, Arts Commissioner for the City of Boulder where she collaborated with and advocated for artists and arts organizations to improve cultural inclusivity in the community, and apprenticed in embodied leadership and the somatic arts. She recently graduated from the Harvard Graduate School of Education where she worked hands-on with professionals from all over the world and focused on international education policy and analysis, cognitive neuroscience, learning design, and organizational leadership
Thomas Kurtz will be our new Manager of Research & Documentation, contributing to the Research & Knowledge team and managing a portfolio of projects aimed at conducting original research and translating data; he will be the managing editor of the Creative Generation Journal. Thomas is a passion-driven individual who enjoys a multi-hyphenate career as an educator, performing artist, researcher, arts administrator, and musician's health specialist. As an educator and mentor, Thomas fosters an atmosphere within which his students know they are receiving equitable opportunities, giving them the means to reach their full potential, both in academia and in their career-oriented professional lives. Thomas is currently completing his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Saxophone Performance with the Portfolio in Cultural Management and Entrepreneurship while serving as Teaching Assistant at The University of Texas at Austin, as well as on faculty at San Antonio College.
Ali Pavlich will be our new Manager of Operations, co-leading the Operations team and contributing to the development and sustainability of organizational infrastructure, including the cultivation of new projects, and the operations of communications, learning, and research activities. Ali was raised in Shawnee, Kansas where she fell in love with dance at a young age. After completing her Bachelor's Degree in Dance Management from Oklahoma City University and Master's Degree in Business Ethics and Leadership, Ali pursued her dance performance and teaching career in Kansas City. She is currently an apprentice for the RACE Dance Collective in Oklahoma City.
Katie Rainey will be our new Director of Communications, co-leading the Communications & Engagement team and guiding a portfolio of projects which develop a trust with the organization’s constituents through communications & storytelling and engaging the passionate stakeholders across the organization’s many projects and platforms. Katie is a writer, teacher, and editor from Little Rock, Arkansas. She is the winner of the 2017 Bechtel Prize at Teachers & Writers Magazine, the 2017 Lazuli Literary Group Writing Contest and the 2018 Montana Award for Fiction from Whitefish Review. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Lit Hub, Writer’s Digest, The Collagist, 3AM Magazine, and more. She currently serves as a Co-Executive Director of the Teaching Artists Guild (TAG) and Project Manager of the International Teaching Artist Collaborative’s EDEN Project. Previously she served as the Director of Community-Word Project’s Teaching Artist Project (TAP) and has been a teaching artist for over 10 years. Katie also works as a freelance media artist and has worked on numerous commercials, book trailers, podcasts, sizzle reels, and more.
Some members of our Collective are expanding their roles within the Collective!
Caryn Cooper - previously our Specialist for Leadership Development - will begin serving as the Manager for Leadership Programs. In this expanded synchronous role, Caryn will join the Project Management team and be responsible for a portfolio of projects supporting leadership pathways, specifically building networks, cohorts, and co-creating learning experiences and communities.
Heleya de Barros - previously one of our Campaign Correspondents and co-host of the Disrupt podcast - will begin serving as the Director of Learning. In this expanded synchronous role, Heleya will join the Project Management team, co-lead the Learning & Leadership team, and oversee a portfolio of projects developing and implementing unique learning experiences by creating curricula and knowledge products across the organization’s many projects and programs.
Maddie Pivonka - previously our Resident for Communications & Community Building - will begin serving as the Associate for Communications & Engagement. In this expanded asynchronous role, Maddie will be responsible for contributing to a portfolio of projects through content generation, developing a strong brand awareness for the organization, and engaging the passionate constituents across the organization’s many projects and platforms.
Please join us in welcoming and congratulating our team!