|
| |
       
About Us
VAC MANAGEMENT
E-mail me |
Tanya Aynessazian, VAC's Chief Executive Officer, joined the organization in May 2010. She comes to VAC with diverse educational, work, and life experience. Her early years were spent in Chicago, but her fondest memories are of visiting O'ahu, where her father was born and raised, and the rural hillsides outside of Pittsburgh, where her maternal grandparents planted their roots upon immigrating in the early 1900s. Tanya graduated with a degree in Communications from the University of Iowa, where she studied linguistics, cultural anthropology, and interpersonal, group, and mass communication. Her work experience ranges from marketing and market research, and information and telecommunications technology, to business development and pharmaceutical consulting. In 2003, Tanya a took a class in improv and stand up comedy in Chicago, which led her to Los Angeles where she took Judy Carter’s Comedy Workshop in 2004, and eventually to additional training and experience in voice work, songwriting and recording, and stage performance. Around this same time, Tanya embarked on a conscious spiritual path, one that led her (and her young family) from "Chicagoland and Corporate America" to the Nine Gates Mystery School and soon thereafter to Pahoa, Hawai'i. She is currently writing her first book, a guide to modern-day spiritual transformation and conscious human evolution aimed at young adults and everyone else experiencing or desiring deeply personal transformation. Tanya was the board chair of the Bay Clinic, Inc. from 2007-2010. She currently sits on the boards of the Arts & Science Center in Pahoa and the Pahoa Arts and Library Association.
|
| |
E-mail me |
Marta Birchard is VAC's Development Director. She came to Hawai'i from New York City in 1984, resided on O'ahu for 4 years, and then on Kaua'i for 17 years--before moving to Hilo in 2005. In 2008, Marta joined VAC's staff as Development Director. Her experience with grant writing and fundraising began at Kula High & Intermediate Schools, and later at Na Kamalei School, both on the North Shore of Kaua'i. She worked as Program Manager and Grant Facilitator for the Hanalei Heritage River Federal Initiative, and as the Development Director of the Kaua'i Museum from 2000-2005. Marta has written grants for Hilo's Palace Theater and initiated the First Annual May Day/Lei Day Festival, which has grown significantly over the last 5 years and is now a signature event for the theater. She has a deep appreciation for the arts and culture of the Hawaiian people. Being of Ukrainian descent, and having immigrated to the United States with her family in 1949, Marta is fully aware of the challenges that native Hawaiians are facing in their struggle for independence and sovereignty. Her current role at VAC finds her utilizing all the business, marketing, and inter-personal skills acquired in the non-profit sector. She enjoys working with the staff and board of VAC to promote its mission.
|
| |
E-mail me |
Jane Buchholz is VAC's Office Manager. She was born and raised in a small, rural, farm town in Iowa and moved in 1981 to the Big Island, where she raised her family and worked at a strawberry farm. She took numerous night classes for accounting and business at Universtiy of Hawai'i at Hilo. In 1988, she began working for the Volcano Art Center, first as a secretary, then as an administrative assistant, and later as the bookkeeper. Today, she holds the dual role of Office Manager/Bookkeeper. Jane lives in Fern Forest with her husband and next door to her daughter's family, and is the proud grandmother of two. The owner of J&J Nursery, she is an avid gardener who sells her herbs, vegetables, and plants at Volcano area stores.
|
E-mail me |
Emily Catey is VAC's Program Director. New to the Volcano community in 2009, she comes with years of experience coordinating groups, art programs, and exhibits. From 2004 to 2009, Emily resided on O'ahu where her involvement with various civic, business, and state organizations helped revitalize Chinatown as Honolulu's Arts District. She served as both president (2008) and vice-president (2007 and 2009) of the Hale'iwa Arts Festival, enhancing public awareness, education, and appreciation for the arts. With a B.F.A. from Ohio State University, Emily's formal education in fine art paved the way for Emily Catey Photography, LLC, which she ran successfully in Hale'iwa until moving to Hawai'i Island in 2009. Emily's educational programming is rooted in the philosophy that cultivating, sustaining, and celebrating the arts is essential to a vibrant community.
|
| |
| |
|
