Executive Team

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Amana is a leader in the field of community arts and a well-respected advocate for the arts in K-12 education. As an artist and a teacher she has devoted her career to making the arts accessible to the voiceless, the marginalized and the forgotten. A visionary activist, artist and educator, she founded and oversees arts education and community arts for ArtEsteem. Drawing on 27 years of teaching art to children, youth and adults, Amana wrote Self as Super Hero: Handbook on the Creation of the Life-Size Self Portrait, an arts integrated curriculum guide. She also teaches Art in the Public Interest at California College of the Arts.
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Phyllis has an extensive background in educational administration. Formerly, she was an instructor at Bay Area Community Resources, teaching general wellness and nutrition. From 2013-2016 she was the family and community site coordinator at Westlake Middle School. Phyllis coordinates the increasingly large number of individuals and organizations connected to ArtEsteem. As Associate Director, she is the lead organizer for all sites, and the primary liaison between school staff and our teaching artists, providing key partnership building with our school sites and support to youth and families.

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Jim comes to ArtEsteem from the small business sector. He graduated from Boston University with a BS in Aerospace and Aeronautical Engineering in 1990, quickly became a bicycle messenger, and never looked back. That 25-year career included co-founding the first and longest-lasting worker-owned messenger company in San Francisco, the Cupid Courier Collective. It was there that Jim learned the basis of his bookkeeping and finance knowledge. Upon 'retirement' in 2015, he began freelance work as a bookkeeper and eventually gained ArtEsteem as a client. In 2022, he was hired as an employee. The lessons learned and talents honed as a small business owner work extremely well at a great non-profit: attend to the details, be a good representative, be versatile, be a good teammate, and love what you do.
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Adam is a design strategist, artist, educator, and program director whose projects focus on catalyzing learning and building community. During his 12 years working at Autodesk, he created and led global programs in sustainable design, education, and community for Autodesk’s customer base of engineers and architects. Prior to that he was a design strategy consultant at Jump Associates. He is also a co-founder and president of the board of Greenermind, a community-led non-profit that focuses on personal and collective growth, healing, and transformation. He has a mechanical engineering degree and an MBA from Vanderbilt University. He loves photography and is at home in the redwoods.

Managerial & Associate Teams

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Etty is a visual artist and educator who brings a deep commitment to the power of art in uplifting and educating youth. She leads ArtEsteem’s teaching artist cohort as a safe, supporting gathering space for sharing and learning while training teachers in creative ways to develop skills in integrating art with Attitudinal Healing, environmental issues, and core academic subjects.
Etty has extensive experience teaching art both online and in person, and leads ArtEsteem’s site-based arts and environmental awareness programming for youth. Etty has taught art at several schools in San Francisco, Oakland, and Berkeley, and aims to inspire youth to explore mindfulness, activism, and sustainable multidisciplinary art practices.
A transnational artist of color and a graduate of the 2019 New York Foundation of Arts Immigrant mentorship program in Oakland, she creates artwork that is influenced by the immigrant experience across various countries. She is the founder of Más Arte, a free summer camp that provided art kits, lesson plans and free classes to families in San Antonio, Chicago, Saint Paul, and Minneapolis.
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Jamie is the manager and lead operator of the ArtEsteem ArtMobile. He oversees logistics, recruitment, vehicle maintenance and mobile event programming. Jamie supports and works collaboratively in facilitating outreach and engagement for creative and innovative ArtEsteem ArtMobile partnerships.
Previously, he did retail management and supervised warehouse operations and personnel for 12 Rasputin Music locations in Northern California. Sanitate is a skilled driver, operating 26-foot long Class C moving trucks and is well-versed in painting, construction and installation projects. Coming from a creative background, he has extensive experience as a musician through performance, touring, teaching, and booking.

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Munirah is a West Oakland native and graduate of UC Berkeley’s College of Natural Resources. Munirah connected with ArtEsteem as a student, and is now the organization’s Operations and Development Associate, leading communications and administrative support.
They also co-taught the 2020-21 and 2021-22 cohorts of the Oakland Legacy Project, bringing environmental and creative experience. Harris finds joy in small creeks, bark beetles, and watercolors. During Munirah’s undergraduate studies, they majored in Conservation and Resource Studies, focusing on forestry, geographic information systems, and data science.
Through their work with ArtEsteem, Munirah hopes to contribute to a sustainable world which eliminates capitalism and detrimental resource extraction as drivers for humanity’s progress.
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Athena Sabaria has been a part of the ArtEsteem team since 2021 as Workforce Development Coordinator, Office Associate, and now as the Oakland Legacy Project Coordinator integrating environmental concepts into arts curriculum. They continue to support data systems, community engagement, and program operations.
Prior to working in education, Athena was involved in environmental labs, building skills in data analysis and research development of the natural sciences. After the pandemic hit, they decided to refocus their efforts towards community empowerment and education with Bay Area BIPOC youth, providing compassionate and culturally relevant leadership. Through professional and personal growth, their approach to environmental justice has been centered around interspecies ecologies, indigenous knowledge, and intersectional solidarity.
Although they have been doing visual arts since they were a kid, only recently have they been sharing their animist art publicly. Their art has been featured at SOMArts, Bindlestiff Studios, and other queer Filipino gallery exhibitions across the US.
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COMING SOON

Teaching Artist & Program Support Teams

Ái Lien Le (they/them) | Ái is a queer non-binary artist currently teaching Visual Arts at Community School for Creative Education and Elmhurst United Middle School. They practice illustration and calligraphy as their main art forms but also enjoys exploring all types of art mediums. Their teaching approach is deeply influenced by their family’s Việt heritage and refugee experience. Hoping to break down any hesitations students may have around making art, Ái encourages them to take risks when exploring their imagination and creativity. They believe that art is a tool for ongoing opportunities of connection and care, bringing us closer to our communities.