Executive Director and Founder
Diana Hartel is an exhibiting artist, multi-arts curator/director of Inner Geography, and founder of Bronx Community Works in NY. She directed Community Works for close to 10 years. In addition, she spent 3 years organizing workshops and events for Zen Mountain Monastery in the Catskills for notables such as Meredith Monk, Anne Waldman, Robert Een, Kaz Tanahashi, Tom Wessels, Natalie Goldberg, Hannah Hinchman, Stephanie Kaza, and many others. She is a research scientist with over 25 years experience in environmental and health sciences. As an educator with a doctorate in public health, she has taught at Southern Oregon University, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Columbia University, and New York University.
Artistic director
Phyllis Trowbridge is a painter, educator and workshop/retreat leader with a lifelong interest in arts and environmental issues. She has taught at Sitka Center for Art and Ecology as well as a number of colleges in Oregon. She exhibits her work both regionally and nationally and is represented in Portland by Mark Woolley Gallery. She also chairs the Education Committee of the Friends of the Schneider Museum Advisory Board.
Education Director
With over 30 years of teaching experience, Sarah Biles has wide experience with school children of all ages including those with disabilities. She was the supervising teacher for graduate students at San Francisco State and was named among the top 20 teachers in the Bay area in 1993 and Teacher of the Year in 2001. She is a writer of plays and musicals for young people. She was the first to bring Earth Day to her school district. Her leadership enabled students to purchase and save rainforest acreage, to eliminate styrofoam in the cafeteria, and start a school-based recycling program.