As the Development Operations Assistant, Sofia will provide support to the team on a range of projects related to the continued development of AWBW. Prior to joining AWBW, Sofia received her Bachelor’s from the University of Southern California. From a young age, Sofia’s family has instilled in her the importance of standing up for and being of service to others. She is thrilled to work at A Window Between Worlds where she can continue to cultivate these values.

Sofia feels most at home when she is consuming or creating art, and she can often be found watching a movie, crocheting, or at a bookstore buying more books than she will have the time to read.

Rudy works closely with the Executive Director to guide the engagement & development of our nationwide community of Windows Facilitators and program partners of AWBW's trauma-informed arts programming. Before making his way to AWBW, Rudy was a trained AWBW Program Facilitator at Women's and Children's Crisis Shelter, an emergency domestic violence shelter in Los Angeles County. While there, Rudy coordinated workshops and regularly contributed to AWBW's expanding curriculum. Rudy holds a BA in Liberal Studies and an MA in Education Curriculum and Instruction from California State University, Long Beach.

Kate provides a wide range of marketing and communications support for AWBW. Prior to joining AWBW, she worked in the finance and legal industries, while volunteering with various social justice nonprofits in Minnesota. Kate holds a BA with a double major in Psychology and Sociology, with a minor in Art Studies - Ceramics focus. She is an avid long distance hiker, backpacker, and runner. In her free time you can find her running on local trails, cooking a fun new recipe, or planning a new adventure.

As part of the Training and Outreach department, Kat supports the building of our network of program partners. She holds a BFA in Theatre Performance from New World School For the Arts and considers herself a lifelong student and enthusiast of the ‘art of being human’. Her performance training and art studies sparked a specific interest in the useful and unique role that art plays in the development of emotional intelligence. Kat is particularly interested in the exploration of physical and verbal communication, language and storytelling as methods of creating tools that aid in navigating the landscape of emotional health and expression within the context of trauma. Her free time is devoted to reading, photography, hiking, travel, nature, thinking and talking.

As the Program Coordinator, Rachel supports the Department with support within the Community of Practice, documentation and systems implementation for AWBW’s virtual and in-person training offerings. Rachel's journey with Windows started in 2018 when she became a facilitator at YWCA Greater Lafayette of Indiana. Passionate about sharing the healing power of art with others, she has facilitated workshops through A Window Between Worlds, SoulCollage®, and Inside Out Arts. She holds an MFA in Poetry from Purdue University and art therapy certificate coursework from Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, and currently resides in Albuquerque, New Mexico with her husband and their daughter, Ada.

Cathy Salser is a durational artist and Founder of A Window Between Worlds with over 30 years of experience
developing interactive art-based journeys that invite brave space for disrupting and divesting from legacies of trauma.

Recognizing that at the heart of both individual and social change, we are called to crystalize our leadership in the face of challenge, sustain action over time, and replace isolation with community, Cathy has fostered a collective space for 30 years that invites us to innovate art practices that meet these needs.
With Cathy’s guidance, AWBW began as an interactive art journey and to this day, functions as a circle of co-creation, honoring each partner, facilitator and participant as a unique innovator of art-based transformative processes that anchor change on a range of levels, from cellular to systemic.

As Strategic Vision and Partnership Advisor, Cathy currently supports AWBW’s art-based collective visioning practices, nurtures key external relationships and mentors AWBW staff to thoughtfully and sustainably evolve our work. Key priorities include building organizational capacity to field sector-based investments and developing connective technology that can power integrated, systemic community-based initiatives.

Cathy has been nationally recognized for her work using art as a healing tool for domestic violence survivors, and has been honored with the Avon Hello Tomorrow Fund Award, the Bank of America Local Heroes Award, the President’s Award from the Women’s Caucus for Art, the Betty Fisher Award from the LA Domestic Violence Council, and the Karen Cooper Lifetime Achievement Award from the California Partnership to End Domestic Violence.

Zachery joined AWBW as a seasoned nonprofit executive, having spent more than 15 years in leadership positions within social service organizations. Since his time as a Peace Corps Health Volunteer in Mozambique, Zachery has followed his passion towards supporting and advocating for vulnerable populations. He has enjoyed Director and Vice President positions with several Los Angeles nonprofits serving victims of child abuse as well as foster and homeless youth, most recently with The Village Family Services and prior to that, Violence Intervention Program.

An avid lover of nature, he believes in the importance of connecting with your surroundings and taking time to disconnect and listen to that "inner voice" within. Zachery is a graduate of the University of South Carolina and lives in Los Angeles with his husband, Lior, and their dog, Henry.

Sarah brings a love of language and learning to AWBW as the Institutional Giving Manager. With experience in technology and grant writing, her strategy seeks to fundraise as a way to express joy and support for healthy community outcomes. Sarah holds a BA in Communications from Michigan State University, where she specialized in Interpersonal Communications and taught improv and comedy classes for Honor students. As an improv coach, former YMCA camp counselor, and writer, Sarah loves to hear and encourage stories from peers and students. She lives in Janesville, WI with her husband Marty who is also her greatest ping pong teacher/opponent.

Christy leads AWBW's outreach efforts to potential program partners across the country, as well as the promotion, coordination, and facilitation of all Windows training offerings. Christy began her work with AWBW as a trained Program Facilitator with the Windows Program at YWCA-WINGS in West Covina, working with children and adult survivors of domestic violence as part of their Outreach and Shelter Programs. Christy has facilitated groups with incarcerated survivors of domestic violence, as well as with celebrities dealing with substance abuse on VH1 Celebrity Rehab. She holds a BA in Psychology from California State University, Fullerton.

Sherisa is an innovative creator of evidenced informed holistic treatment modalities for PTSD who prioritizes joy, resiliency and playfulness as a way of life. With a Master’s Degree in Clinical Psychology from San Jose State University and licensed as a marriage and family therapist in California, Ms. Dahlgren holds specific expertise in integrating arts and holistic modalities into the healing of primary and secondary trauma. Most recently she co-created with Georgetown University a residential retreat treatment program for chronic post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) found effective in a double blind clinical trial. She has built her professional career with a strong focus on somatic therapies, including yoga, breathing, mindfulness and movement, as well as applying these techniques to strengthen naturally existing, healthy resiliency skills in children and adults.

Through her consulting firm, Inherent Wellbeing, Sherisa provides experiential trainings for organizations on wellness strategies to address vicarious trauma, serves as interim executive capacity for organizations in transition, designs and implements resiliency based clinical approaches to PTSD and creates sustainable work practices in under-resourced environments. Sherisa’s mission is to create change that promotes global service while living life from a place of true joy.

As the Program Consultant, Carla supports the development and design of comprehensive workshops, worksheets, and resources for our AWBW Facilitators and Community of Practice. Carla attended California State University Long Beach for her undergraduate psychology degree and obtained her master's degree in counseling at California State University Fullerton. Carla has prior experience working as an AWBW Facilitator, therapist trainee, outreach and youth client advocate at a domestic violence agency, and an educator. Carla is passionate about working with youth and adolescents and uplifting the voices of BIPOC folxs through art and creativity.

Tiombe Wallace, MS, MFT became an AWBW facilitator over 20 years ago, in the first small cohort of rape crisis counselors to join the organization. Over the decades, Tiombe has used her grounding in anti-oppression, Black, intersectional feminist therapy and survivor centered healing as a collaborator, trainer, and consultant with AWBW. Tiombe has been a collaborator in the adoption of a trauma-informed lens, developing training curriculum and continuing education for clinicians, and providing training and support to hundreds of new facilitators. She was the recipient of the AWBW Compassionate Witness Award in 2018 and engages AWBW partnering organizations in long-term integration of workshops for their participants, staff, and community healing and organizing.

On the Advisory Board, Tiombe expands the AWBW circle by inviting loved ones, healing practitioners, community activists, and campuses across the nation to experience the transformation in a Window of Time. She uses these tools to foster growth and offer tools to support clients' healing journeys, new therapists in the QTBIPOC community, and to assist the multiple IPV/SV organizations and state coalitions where she consults on trauma, oppression, and survivor and community care.

Shelley brings nearly 10 years of collective fundraising and sales experience to her AWBW board service. She currently works as the Senior Philanthropy Advisor at Liberty Hill, a social justice foundation, which funds grassroots organizing in Los Angeles. There, she manages a portfolio of major donors and donor advised fund holders, both fundraising and advising around their social justice giving to and beyond the foundation. Previously, she most recently worked as the Major Gifts Officer at Equality California, where she fundraised for LGBTQ civil rights at the local, statewide and national level. As an Independent Insurance Broker, Shelley worked with families and seniors to provide protection through life, disability, and Medicare products, while creating partnerships with local pharmacies, senior centers, and organizations, to offer educational and advisory services to community members.

Across sectors, Shelley’s career has continuously centered advising and building key relationships and partnerships. She deeply values the human connections that uplift social justice, as we strive together to create a more just future.

Shelley has a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Mills College and is currently a graduate school candidate at California State University, Northridge in their Masters of Public Administration and Non-profit Management program.

"For me, AWBW is Opportunity, Transformation, & Connection."

Yvonne has been involved with AWBW since 2010 as a volunteer, event host, advisory board member, finance committee member and personnel committee member and trained facilitator. As she watched AWBW grow and evolve through the years of her involvement, she is excited to join the Board of Directors to further AWBW's mission. Yvonne has spent the better part of her professional career in banking and consulting for tech companies in Asia and the United States. She earned her BA from Tufts University and MBA from UCLA Anderson School of Management.

"For me, AWBW is Transformation, Impact, & Sharing."

Stacia is a graduate of the Riordan Leadership Institute and joined the board of AWBW in 2017. Proud mother to a transgender daughter, she advocates for LGBTQ rights, particularly at the intersect with Asian American Pacific Islander populations. As a trained facilitator with AWBW, she has witnessed first-hand how much creating art can heal. Professionally, she serves The Capital Group Companies as a Senior Business Analyst.

"For me, AWBW is Personal Transformation, Leading Transformation, & Transforming towards a more sustainable future."

Richard Crowe has over 25 years of experience in the Accounting and Financial arenas. After graduating from Florida A & M University with a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Accounting and Finance and passing the Certified Public Account examination, Richard began working for Chase Bank as a finance specialist evaluating complex loan transactions in overseas markets. After a multi-year stint at Chase, he then earned a Master’s in Finance from the prestigious University of Chicago. After the University of Chicago, Richard moved to Los Angeles and worked several years in finance in the entertainment space at both Twentieth Century Fox and The Post Group. Richard then joined Columbia College Hollywood in 2003 as Chief Financial and Operating Officer when the school’s enrollment was at an all-time low. Richard was instrumental in turning around the college and increasing its enrollment to record levels. Richard is currently VP of Finance/CFO at Advancing Justice Los Angeles, a civic and social services nonprofit in Los Angeles.

"For me, AWBW is Impact, Transformation, Joy, & Acceptance."

La Shonda was trained as an AWBW art workshop facilitator in 2016 and is currently the co-chair of our Advisory Board.

An award winning international speaker and educator, she serves as an administrator within Pepperdine University. In addition to overseeing the University’s response and prevention of sexual violence and sex-based discrimination, La Shonda provides leadership and supervision for the Health, Wellness and Resilience departments and leads the University’s Student Care Team.

She earned her Master of Social Work degree at the University of Southern California with a concentration in Community Organization, Planning and Administration. She advanced in her clinical career to earn her state license as a social worker and established a private practice where she has worked tirelessly to empower communities and individuals to prevent violence and foster healing for those that have been impacted by interpersonal violence and racialized trauma. In her practice, La Shonda has developed an expertise in the areas of somatic based therapeutic healing and interpersonal violence prevention. She is the Founder of Trauma & Healing In Colour (THIC), a program designed to empower people to flourish amidst adversities through education, training and wellness programs.

She cherishes her four beautiful children and loving husband who motivate and inspire her daily.

"For me, AWBW is Impact, Compassion, & Collective Wellness."

Erin Jourdan Berrios received her MFA in fiction writing from San Francisco State University. She has received numerous residencies and has published extensively in fiction and poetry.

Professionally, she serves The Capital Group Companies as a Senior Content Strategist. She has over 15 years of experience working with finance, entertainment, and technology companies utilizing her skills in information architecture, content design, user journey data analysis, and storytelling.

She believes in using humor and creativity as a path to liberation.

Zachery joined AWBW as a seasoned nonprofit executive, having spent more than 15 years in leadership positions within social service organizations. Since his time as a Peace Corps Health Volunteer in Mozambique, Zachery has followed his passion towards supporting and advocating for vulnerable populations. He has enjoyed Director and Vice President positions with several Los Angeles nonprofits serving victims of child abuse as well as foster and homeless youth, most recently with The Village Family Services and prior to that, Violence Intervention Program.

An avid lover of nature, he believes in the importance of connecting with your surroundings and taking time to disconnect and listen to that "inner voice" within. Zachery is a graduate of the University of South Carolina and lives in Los Angeles with his husband, Lior, and their dog, Henry.

"For me, AWBW is Providing Support, Building Community, & Centering Wellness."

Pat Acosta learned of AWBW in 2008 when a co-worker at Jewish Family Services facilitated a workshop. She was so impressed that she begged to attend the very next AWBW training and soon received her Training Certificate. Pat became such a strong AWBW advocate and innovator that she earned an affectionate nickname, “AWBW’s Poster Child,” from staff who noticed her impactful leadership utilizing AWBW with DV offenders, for staff self-care, at team-building retreats and within community coalition meetings.

On the Advisory Board, Pat continues to spread the word, sharing art as a pathway for transforming trauma. She currently facilitates in Las Cruces, NM where she is the Juvenile Diversion Program Supervisor.

My Vision Seed as an Advisory Board member is: Engaging Communities for Equality and Justice

Sunny’s journey with AWBW began in 2004 as a trained facilitator, working with the survivors of domestic violence. Since then, she served in various roles such as volunteer, committee member, and board member. She witnessed how Windows workshops heal, empower, and transform individuals and communities beyond cultural and language barriers. She joined the Advisory Board to strategically amplify AWBW’s positive impact on the world.

Professionally, Sunny is the founder of BEYOND Transformation Catalyst Lab, a consulting firm specializing in large-scale and long-term strategies that drive organizational effectiveness and leadership development. She is known for integrating multidisciplinary and multicultural approaches with people-centered strategies that lead to better business outcomes and improvements across organizations. Sunny earned her MA in Organizational Psychology, specializing in Leading Change from Columbia University and MBA, specializing in Social Impact from UCLA.

An avid home cook, she cooks to connect with her communities over shared meals and cooks alone to disconnect and recharge. She lives with her husband in Los Angeles where they valiantly try to keep their vegetable garden alive.

La Shonda was trained as an AWBW art workshop facilitator in 2016 and is currently the co-chair of our Advisory Board.

An award winning international speaker and educator, she serves as an administrator within Pepperdine University. In addition to overseeing the University’s response and prevention of sexual violence and sex-based discrimination, La Shonda provides leadership and supervision for the Health, Wellness and Resilience departments and leads the University’s Student Care Team.

She earned her Master of Social Work degree at the University of Southern California with a concentration in Community Organization, Planning and Administration. She advanced in her clinical career to earn her state license as a social worker and established a private practice where she has worked tirelessly to empower communities and individuals to prevent violence and foster healing for those that have been impacted by interpersonal violence and racialized trauma. In her practice, La Shonda has developed an expertise in the areas of somatic based therapeutic healing and interpersonal violence prevention. She is the Founder of Trauma & Healing In Colour (THIC), a program designed to empower people to flourish amidst adversities through education, training and wellness programs.

She cherishes her four beautiful children and loving husband who motivate and inspire her daily.

"For me, AWBW is Impact, Compassion, & Collective Wellness."

Sherisa is an innovative creator of evidenced informed holistic treatment modalities for PTSD who prioritizes joy, resiliency and playfulness as a way of life. With a Master’s Degree in Clinical Psychology from San Jose State University and licensed as a marriage and family therapist in California, Ms. Dahlgren holds specific expertise in integrating arts and holistic modalities into the healing of primary and secondary trauma. Most recently she co-created with Georgetown University a residential retreat treatment program for chronic post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) found effective in a double blind clinical trial. She has built her professional career with a strong focus on somatic therapies, including yoga, breathing, mindfulness and movement, as well as applying these techniques to strengthen naturally existing, healthy resiliency skills in children and adults.

Through her consulting firm, Inherent Wellbeing, Sherisa provides experiential trainings for organizations on wellness strategies to address vicarious trauma, serves as interim executive capacity for organizations in transition, designs and implements resiliency based clinical approaches to PTSD and creates sustainable work practices in under-resourced environments. Sherisa’s mission is to create change that promotes global service while living life from a place of true joy.

Elizabeth Eastlund, MSW/LCSW, has been involved with AWBW programs since 2006, including training as a windows facilitator, participating in several socially engaged art exhibits, and ensuring individuals and communities have access to art as a healing tool. With a strong foundation in harm reduction and understanding trauma, Elizabeth is an expert in trauma informed care, building and evaluating survivor centered programs and influencing public policy to center the needs of survivors of gender-based violence. Elizabeth is the former Executive Director of Rainbow Services, a domestic violence organization providing shelter and support services to survivors while advocating for policies and resources that support their healing journey. Elizabeth is a founding member of the Los Angeles Domestic Violence Homeless Services Coalition.
“My Vision Seeds are Love and Hope. I bring my love for art as a healing tool. My love of socially engaged art to send a message of hope to connect people and communities.”

Joining the AWBW team in 2004, Jamie Escoto has worn many hats, including co-chairing events and serving on the board, DEI Committee and Fund Development Committee. Her professional expertise leading strategic technology initiatives in the corporate setting has supported key phases of AWBW’s connective technology evolution.

On the Advisory Board, Jamie invites friends, family and colleagues to support AWBW, and brings the transformative tools of AWBW wherever she goes. She engages extended family, shares projects at her sons’ schools, integrates creative resources into corporate DEI work and team-building, and has adapted AWBW’s offerings to serve the entire state-wide volunteer chapter for the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network.

My Vision Seed, as an Advisory Board member is: Raising an Anti-Racist Generation

Christi is a Southern California native and graduate of UCLA with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Economics and a minor in Accounting. The first decade of her career was spent in business consulting and commercial finance. She has found the transition to the non-profit sector extremely rewarding as she now manages the Helmstetter Family Foundation which was founded by her philanthropic in-laws.

Christi first discovered AWBW in 2019 while volunteering with one of her daughters through the National Charity League. She was impressed by the passion of the staff and the positive effects on both her and her daughter when they worked on art projects. She has since expanded her involvement and values AWBW’s focus on community, gratitude, and well being. Christi and her husband have 2 amazing daughters and appreciate AWBW’s important work improving mental health, particularly among our youth.

My visions seeds are acceptance and mindfully present.

Rudy works closely with the Executive Director to guide the engagement & development of our nationwide community of Windows Facilitators and program partners of AWBW's trauma-informed arts programming. Before making his way to AWBW, Rudy was a trained AWBW Program Facilitator at Women's and Children's Crisis Shelter, an emergency domestic violence shelter in Los Angeles County. While there, Rudy coordinated workshops and regularly contributed to AWBW's expanding curriculum. Rudy holds a BA in Liberal Studies and an MA in Education Curriculum and Instruction from California State University, Long Beach.

Susie Hess, MSW, LCSW-IL, is an associate professor of practicum education at the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work. Hess is a transnational speaker specializing in trauma-informed care and healing-centered engagement. Her commitment to healing and resilience focuses on communities experiencing violence, including those affected by intimate partner violence, incarceration, and war.

Hess is the co-founder of Trauma Informed LA, an organization dedicated to fostering resilient communities that promote healing and well-being through collaboration, education and community engagement. She is the creator and host of Trauma Informed LA’s ""Our Stories Matter"" podcast with a global theme of community healing through storytelling.

In recognition of her dedication, Hess received the distinguished Dr. Marjorie Braude Award from the City of Los Angeles Domestic Violence City Task Force in October 2013 for innovative collaboration in serving victims of domestic violence.
Her published work includes utilizing trauma-informed approaches in virtual settings, guiding graduate-level social work students to address and process mass casualty violence, and advancing trauma-informed strategies in domestic violence shelters.

"As I join the Community Advisory Board, my vision is to collaborate with others to build new connections within communities that differ from those already established."

Yvonne has been involved with AWBW since 2010 as a volunteer, event host, advisory board member, finance committee member and personnel committee member and trained facilitator. As she watched AWBW grow and evolve through the years of her involvement, she is excited to join the Board of Directors to further AWBW's mission. Yvonne has spent the better part of her professional career in banking and consulting for tech companies in Asia and the United States. She earned her BA from Tufts University and MBA from UCLA Anderson School of Management.

I began as an advocate for victims of domestic violence in 1978. In 1979, I founded Alternatives to Violence, one of the first programs in the country to work with men who abuse their intimate partner. In working with those who abuse as well as victims, I support pathways of change.

When I joined AWBW in 1992, I began to invite bridges between AWBW and the Association of Batterer’s Intervention Programs (ABIP), inviting AWBW to present at conferences and share art modalities for batterers as well as victims.

As an Advisory Board member I look forward to continuing this work and sharing AWBW within all my networks and toolkits to support healing and change.

The Vision Seed I carry is: Building Bridges of Compassion

Cathy Salser is a durational artist and Founder of A Window Between Worlds with over 30 years of experience
developing interactive art-based journeys that invite brave space for disrupting and divesting from legacies of trauma.

Recognizing that at the heart of both individual and social change, we are called to crystalize our leadership in the face of challenge, sustain action over time, and replace isolation with community, Cathy has fostered a collective space for 30 years that invites us to innovate art practices that meet these needs.
With Cathy’s guidance, AWBW began as an interactive art journey and to this day, functions as a circle of co-creation, honoring each partner, facilitator and participant as a unique innovator of art-based transformative processes that anchor change on a range of levels, from cellular to systemic.

As Strategic Vision and Partnership Advisor, Cathy currently supports AWBW’s art-based collective visioning practices, nurtures key external relationships and mentors AWBW staff to thoughtfully and sustainably evolve our work. Key priorities include building organizational capacity to field sector-based investments and developing connective technology that can power integrated, systemic community-based initiatives.

Cathy has been nationally recognized for her work using art as a healing tool for domestic violence survivors, and has been honored with the Avon Hello Tomorrow Fund Award, the Bank of America Local Heroes Award, the President’s Award from the Women’s Caucus for Art, the Betty Fisher Award from the LA Domestic Violence Council, and the Karen Cooper Lifetime Achievement Award from the California Partnership to End Domestic Violence.

Zachery joined AWBW as a seasoned nonprofit executive, having spent more than 15 years in leadership positions within social service organizations. Since his time as a Peace Corps Health Volunteer in Mozambique, Zachery has followed his passion towards supporting and advocating for vulnerable populations. He has enjoyed Director and Vice President positions with several Los Angeles nonprofits serving victims of child abuse as well as foster and homeless youth, most recently with The Village Family Services and prior to that, Violence Intervention Program.

An avid lover of nature, he believes in the importance of connecting with your surroundings and taking time to disconnect and listen to that "inner voice" within. Zachery is a graduate of the University of South Carolina and lives in Los Angeles with his husband, Lior, and their dog, Henry.

Teresa Smith became an AWBW facilitator in 2014, and gradually became involved in everything she could, for example designing art workshops to support clients at Black Infant Health, authoring Minimum Daily Stones and co-creating Touchstone Journey. She loves how being a part of AWBW has gives her pathways for continuous selfcare as well as tools to provide a safe space for others to heal and express what they need to be free from what they hold within.
On the Advisory Board, Teresa invites friends, family, and colleagues to support AWBW. She shares her experience as an inspiration and encourages many to become trained facilitators and/or a monthly sustaining donors as she also does both.
My Vision Seed, as an Advisory Board member is Help others heal from trauma.

Namuyaba was first a recipient of AWBW workshops. This was in the year 2000. The workshops were integral to her healing journey and Namuyaba never forgot this. In April 2021 she searched for and reunited with Cathy Salser. She agreed to join the Advisory Board committee so that she can contribute towards the healing of others. Namuyaba understands firsthand how important the work of A Window Between Worlds is and the tremendous benefit recipients gain from participating.

Namuyaba is a trained professional with experience in the social services sector, refugee resettlement sector and conflict resolution field, skilled in wellbeing, restorative justice, community dialogue, human rights advocacy using film, international relations, and leadership in inter-ethnic relations.

My vision seed is healing.

Lucy’s journey with AWBW began when she hosted AWBW’s founder Cathy Salser, during her cross-country journey to domestic violence shelters. The Art Empowerment program at Haven House in Buffalo, NY started shortly thereafter with Lucy leading weekly workshops for the shelter women. Moving into the counseling program, she expanded the use of art to include non-residential domestic violence victims. She’s instrumental in training staff to facilitate the weekly adult art program as well as one for the children. Over the years she has worked with community programs to share the art on a larger scale.
On the Advisory Board, Lucy brings the voices of front-line facilitators and domestic violence victims to the table, sharing 30 years of experience utilizing this program to help victims move to survivors in their journey of healing.
My Vision Seed, as an Advisory Board member is planted in the rich environment of the AWBW projects, reminding all that Art Heals.

Christy leads AWBW's outreach efforts to potential program partners across the country, as well as the promotion, coordination, and facilitation of all Windows training offerings. Christy began her work with AWBW as a trained Program Facilitator with the Windows Program at YWCA-WINGS in West Covina, working with children and adult survivors of domestic violence as part of their Outreach and Shelter Programs. Christy has facilitated groups with incarcerated survivors of domestic violence, as well as with celebrities dealing with substance abuse on VH1 Celebrity Rehab. She holds a BA in Psychology from California State University, Fullerton.

Arzie Umali first connected with AWBW as a healing arts facilitator in 2013. While serving as the Assistant Director of the Women’s Center at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, she developed a healing arts program that served students, staff, and faculty in all corners of campus. Using art as a tool to heal from trauma, address stress and anxiety, and build resilience, Arzie helped shift the campus culture to prioritize self-care and mental health management.
As an AWBW Advisory Board member, Arzie shares her experience as a facilitator and her passion for art to engage friends, family, and colleagues at her current job with the local public radio station. She continues to support the healing arts program on campus and shares the power of art and healing with local artists and arts organizations in Kansas City.
My Vision Seed, as an Advisory board member is: Healing the community through art and love.

Tiombe Wallace, MS, MFT became an AWBW facilitator over 20 years ago, in the first small cohort of rape crisis counselors to join the organization. Over the decades, Tiombe has used her grounding in anti-oppression, Black, intersectional feminist therapy and survivor centered healing as a collaborator, trainer, and consultant with AWBW. Tiombe has been a collaborator in the adoption of a trauma-informed lens, developing training curriculum and continuing education for clinicians, and providing training and support to hundreds of new facilitators. She was the recipient of the AWBW Compassionate Witness Award in 2018 and engages AWBW partnering organizations in long-term integration of workshops for their participants, staff, and community healing and organizing.

On the Advisory Board, Tiombe expands the AWBW circle by inviting loved ones, healing practitioners, community activists, and campuses across the nation to experience the transformation in a Window of Time. She uses these tools to foster growth and offer tools to support clients' healing journeys, new therapists in the QTBIPOC community, and to assist the multiple IPV/SV organizations and state coalitions where she consults on trauma, oppression, and survivor and community care.

My Vision Seed: Freedom from Oppression & Compassionate Community

Andy, a research scientist based in southern California, is actively involved in early drug discovery. Throughout his life, he has cherished the therapeutic value of art, crafts, and creativity. Alongside his wife Shannon, Andy has been a dedicated supporter of AWBW for over a decade. In 2021, he joined the Advisory Board with the aim of spreading the transformative power of healing art workshops to diverse environments. As a trained Facilitator, Andy has focused his efforts on sharing Windows workshops in workplaces, faith communities, with children, as well as with formerly homeless and low-income communities.

His vision seed is: Healthy, help heal the hurting. Promoting health and healing for those in need, recognizing the limitless potential of AWBW's art workshops to create positive transformations.