Consult with CEI
Team
Damaris Calderon
Damaris “Mars” Calderon (she/her) is the Space & Partnership Steward of Arts Connect International (the CEI’s administrative steward). Since 2025, she has supported partnership engagement, event support, and maintenance of CEI administrative spaces. Her background includes project management and curatorial support for museums, universities, community organizations, and independent artists.
CEI Space & Partner Relations Steward
J Cottle
J.Cottle B.A, M.Ed, (He, Him, His) is the Founder/Executive Director of Dunamis, The Chief Alchemist of Akeem’s Alchemy, and the Writer/Director of the company’s award-winning audio drama “My Blood the Ink.” He serves as the Music Director of the band Petrichor and as Co-Host of the Playblack podcast. J is a 2019 National Arts Strategies Creative Community Fellow, a 2024 Studios at MASS MoCA Artist-in-Residence, a 2026 mentee in the Penguin Random House Audio Narrator Mentorship Program and received the 2022 Vanguard Award from the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts.
As an educator, artist, producer, and consultant, J's work centers people of color and explores the intersections of social justice, transformative growth, healing, joy and queer fantasy.
Founder/Executive Director, DunamisConsulting Specialties:
Goal Setting and Execution/ Strategic Planning For Artists and Organizations | Honing Artistic Voice and Mission | Project Planning and Management | Finding Resources For Your Artistry | Curriculum Development/Program Design | Developing Partnerships | Board Development/Management | Business Planning | Grant-Writing
Andrea Gordillo
Andrea Gordillo (they/them) is co-Director of Arts Connect International (the umbrella organization where the CEI is held). Since 2021, they have contributed to leading the administrative and programmatic duties of the CEI, strategically dreaming and enacting ACI administration and programming, and experimenting with collective leadership models. They have worked as a consultant for more than 5 years on cultural strategy, justice trainings, programming, facilitation, and organizational and sector supports.
Co-Director, Arts Connect InternationalConsulting Specialties:
Intersectional Justice Trainings | Equity Audits | Goal Setting and Execution/ Strategic Planning For Artists, Organizations, and Cities | Project Planning & Management | Curriculum Development/Program Design | Intro to Budgeting & Bookkeeping | Grant Writing
Lennon Hernandez Wolcott
Development, Programs, and Operations Manager, Arts & Business CouncilLennon Michelle Hernandez Wolcott (she/her) is an artist, curator, educator, and arts administrator creating space for community, facilitating opportunities for critical thinking, and promoting equitable decision-making. Lennon completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts with a focus in Printmaking and Sculpture at Michigan State University in 2010. She left the Midwest to attend the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University for the Post Baccalaureate Certificate program (2015) and Master of Fine Arts (2017), where she studied Identity, Craft, and Decolonization through Book Arts, Installation, Printmaking, Sculpture, Papermaking, and Performance. Lennon’s previous Arts administration experience includes Exhibitions at the New Art Center, Assistant Director of Graduate Admissions for the MFA and Post Bac program at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, and Program Coordination at Teen Summer Arts programs across Boston.
Consulting Specialties:
Portfolio Reviews | Artist Statements | Considering Graduate Art Education Guidance and Support | Honing your Artist Voice Across Your Work, Statement, and Website
Marissa Molinar
Marissa Molinar (she/her) is a contemporary dancer, arts administrative activist, and Founder/Director of MIDDAY Movement Series, a grassroots initiative cultivating a new generation of dance leaders. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Environmental Science from Brown University, a certificate in Contemporary Dance from the Professional Training Program at Gibney Dance in New York, NY, and a business certificate from Uptima Entrepreneurship Cooperative, where she was also a 2020 Impact Fellow.
Marissa has worked as a consultant with Urbanity Dance, Global Arts Live, and more. She currently performs for Laila Franklin, Grisha Coleman, and Mira Goksel. Marissa was a 2022 MASSCreative Create The Vote Fellow, was named a 2025 Maker by WBUR, and she is currently the Culture Creates Cambridge Fellow with Cambridge Community Foundation.
Founder/Director, Midday Movement SeriesConsulting Specialties:
Project Planning and Management | Operations (with a focus on operationalizing equity) | Emergent Strategy | Honing Artistic Voice and Mission | Time Management and Sustainable Entrepreneurial Practices | Intro to Budgeting and Bookkeeping | Grant Writing | Community Building | Creative Fundraising and Organizational Sustainability | Intro to Arts Advocacy
Mar Parrilla
Mar Parrilla (she/her) is an award-winning Puerto Rican choreographer, producer, educator, and community organizer. She is the founder and Artistic Director of Danza Orgánica, a dance theater company based in Boston and Puerto Rico, rooted in liberation and decolonial practices. A proud mother and interdisciplinary artist, Mar founded the Dance for Social Justice™ program and the annual We Create! Festival. Her work has been recognized by the BARR Foundation, the New England Foundation for the Arts, and the Boston Foundation, among others. Mar has led multi-year collaborations with the Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribe and with Puerto Rico–based artists through Proyecto Melaza. She has taught since 1998 in K–12 education, universities, and community centers, integrating decolonial approaches into her pedagogy.
Founder/Executive Director, Danza Orgánica,Consulting Specialties:
Arts & Culture City Planning | Arts Programming and Production | Facilitation | Justice and Equity Trainings | Arts Practice (visual and audiovisual arts, performing arts, dance, ceramics, crafts)
Consulting Specialties:
Youth Job/Fellowship Design | Breath & Movement / Wellness Facilitation | Program Design | Event Planning | Intersectional Justice Trainings | Work Retreat & Professional Development Design | Gallery/Exhibition Curation | Packing & Moving in Greater Boston | Office Design | Altarmaking | Story Circles
mica rose
mica rose (they/them) is Co-Director of Arts Connect International (the CEI’s backbone organization). Since 2021, they lead & support CEI’s in-person networks and programs—including curation and install of over a dozen CEI Gallery Shows, each paired with events from receptions to film screening and concerts. As a consultant and facilitator: they collaborate with theatre companies, museums, colleges & universities, and community centers.
As an artist: they play North American taiko; write & perform spoken word poetry and full-length solo theatre shows; dance; and guide workshops rooted in Tagalog American culture & community. mica holds a BFA in Theatre Arts from Boston University.
Co-Director, Arts Connect International
Romy St. Hilaire
Romy St. Hilaire (she/her) is a Curator, Designer, Arts and Culture Organizer, and City Planner. Previously at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, Romy has served as a Curatorial Assistant and Researcher on numerous projects with the MFA, ICA, Boston Public Art Triennial, and beyond. Her experiences are in museums, public programming, and community engagement as well as curatorial work. She has co-curated, programmed, and collaborated with local and international artists on several exhibitions. She is also an artist and arts educator with a practice in 2D art and ceramics. She is currently a consulting advisor to the Mayors office of Arts in Cultures Artist in Residence Program.
Romy is the founder of Art in the Antilles, which supports Afro-Caribbean communities to equitably navigate the creative economy. Romy has a Master’s in City Planning from MIT and a BA in Art History and French from UMass Boston.
Founding Executive Director, Art in the AntillesConsulting Specialties:
Arts and Culture | Strategic Planning | Design | Urbanism | Community Engagement
Zakiyyah Sutton
Zakiyyah is a Boston-based artist whose activism pulses through both her music and civic footprint. With a central focus on marginalized communities, her work persistently pushes the bounds of creativity, culture, and conversation. A classically trained singer and actress, well-versed in the worlds of Opera, Hip-Hop, Jazz, and R&B, she is known for her distinct fusion of genres and her signature "Hip-Hopera" sound. Her performances have carried her from the House of Blues to the United Nations, bridging stages as seamlessly as she bridges styles. With the warm reception of her debut album, African Import, released in February 2026, Zakiyyah continues to build powerful momentum.
Beyond the stage, her advocacy is equally formidable: she founded programs like D.A.S.H.a women's self-defense initiative that travels throughout Suffolk County. She coaches artists of all disciplines through programs such as the Harvard Ed Portal, the Arts Action Consortium, and previously Music to Life, and she facilitates Creative Disruption workshops for organizations and schools throughout the city, further cementing her commitment to civic engagement and community empowerment.
Artist & Consultant Consulting Specialties:
Strategic Planning | Goal setting and Execution | Project Management | Creative Marketing | Artist Professional Development | Artist Identity Formation | Cultural Equity | Program Design | Building a Sustainable Business or Artistic Practice
Mel is a Cambodian-American community artist, photography and educator based in Boston. Mel was formerly the Arts Engagement Lead for the Chinatown Cultural Plan where she designed and created arts-based community engagements to develop policies to protect Chinatown's present and future. Mel also specializes in arts professional development; she co-facilitates the Harvard Ed Portal Artist Pipeline Program supporting Allston-Brighton emerging artists and formerly taught an artist professional development course at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. When not teaching or engaging in cultural organizing, Mel photographs exhibition documentation at arts institutions and creates creative portraiture for artists and makers of all kinds.
Artist & ConsultantMel Taing
Consulting Specialties:
Artist Professional Development | Arts and Culture Community Organizing | Project Planning and Management | Curriculum Development/Program Design