Emilie Amrein, DMA, is a scholar, artist, educator, and activist whose professional activities resist and unsettle the boundaries of academic disciplines. Widely regarded as one of the nation’s most progressive thinkers in community arts, Amrein’s professional life traverses a number of disciplines, epistemologies, and fields. They position themselves in the confluence and trans spaces of arts education, community arts, community development, activism, and public practice in the arts. Amrein's professional work has taken them to diverse settings, from concerts with professional arts ensembles to social practice with refugees and asylum-seekers and the incarcerated. They have given numerous talks for national and international audiences and creative workshops with community groups. Their co-authored book, Empowering Song, is considered a ground-breaking pedagogical and epistemological frame

Kim Bishop is a nationally exhibited artist who has been working from her San Antonio, Texas, based studio for the past 20 years. Bishop holds a Master of Fine Art in Contemporary Drawing and Painting from the University of Texas at San Antonio, a Master of Arts in Education and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Communication Arts from Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas. Her work is part of many private collections as well as the collections of the University of Texas San Antonio, Texas A&M Kingsville, the San Antonio Public Library, the Oxbow Tower and the Pearl Brewery. Her work can also be seen on the streets of San Antonio at several bus stops, as mural installations in the neighborhoods and across Texas in the 2020 U.S. Census Bureau billboards. Her latest public art piece is Poet’s Pointe, a pocket park in San Antonio that she designed with her partner Luis Valderas, opened to the community in June of 2023. Bishop is a co-founder of A3, a pop-up industrial street press, 3rd Space Art Gallery and is a mentor for the New York Foundation for the Arts Immigrant Artist program. She is working as a co-writer for the first Chican@ Art Curriculum book sponsored by the Department of Education and Centro Cultural Aztlan set to launch in 2024. Her mission is to socially engage audiences in the process of art making to create a healthier world. With over thirty six years of art education experience she is currently the Teen Programs Coordinator for the UTSA Professional and Continuing Education Department at the UTSA Southwest Campus, and is an adjunct professor of Drawing and Visual Culture at the UTSA.

Anel I. Flores is a lesbian, queer, woman story-maker. Her work manifests itself as drawings, chapters, and poems, as a continuation and evolution of the conversations started by the Xicana movement in art and literature, now infused by latinx, transfeminism, intersectionality, queer politics and resistance. As a cultural producer, Flores is driven by a sense of urgency to record and create queer visual and literary work as a continuous reflection and questioning of self-representation, aiming at discovering and recovering the history, dynamics, and complexities of relationships with others, self, memory, future the present. Flores is co-editor of forthcoming Jota Anthology with Korima Press and author of Lambda literary award nominated book Empanada: A Lesbiana Story en Probaditas. Among various anthologies and magazines, Flores’ work can be found in Camino Real , the Fifth Wednesday Journal, RiverSedge Literary Journal, Entre Guadalupe y Malinche: Tejanas in Literature and Art, Queer Spiritualities, Rooted: A Queer Women of Color Anthology and more. Her artwork and theater productions have been featured in galleries, homes, libraries, and streets throughout the world. Although her awards are many, one of her proudest moments was being honored with the award of “Best Author,” by her beloved city, San Antonio.

Mari Hernandez has over twenty-five years of artistic practice and arts administration experience. She joined the organization in 2022 as the NALAC Program Manager of Leadership Institutes & Convenings, overseeing the planning and production of NALAC’s professional development programs, including the NALAC Leadership Institute (NLI), NALAC Advocacy Institute (ALI), and facilitating NALAC’s participation in the Intercultural Leadership Institute (ILI). Prior to joining NALAC, Hernandez served as the Education Manager for the Contemporary at Blue Star, where she developed and provided strategic oversight for the education department. As the Program Manager at San Anto Cultural Arts, she directed programs to promote human and community growth through the arts. As a practicing artist, Hernandez was a finalist in the 2022 National Portrait Gallery’s Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition and has shown her work locally, nationally, and internationally. She is an alum of NALAC’s Leadership Institute (NLI) and Advocacy Leadership Institute (ALI) programs.

Krystal is passionate about the transformative power of the arts and is committed to making art accessible to all. As Director of the City of San Antonio’s Department of Arts & Culture since 2022, she leads the City’s investment in its creative community – expanding opportunities for residents and visitors while elevating awareness of the arts’ impact and value. She oversees all department initiatives including seven grant programs for nonprofits and individual artists, a robust public art program, the San Antonio Film Commission, two City-owned galleries and their affiliated programs, and the City’s Poet Laureate Program. Under her guidance, San Antonio has increased investment in public art from 1% to 1.5% of all City capital improvement projects, implemented the most competitive municipal film incentive in Texas of up to 14%, expanded funding for local artists, and secured historic funding for public art maintenance. Krystal began her career with the City in 2011, serving in multiple roles within the Department of Arts & Culture, including Film & Music Commissioner, and previously worked in marketing and communications at Visit San Antonio. Before entering public service, she directed award-winning marketing strategies for technology companies. Krystal serves as a board member of Texans for the Arts and Visit San Antonio and as a steering committee member for the national Urban Arts Coalition. She holds a Master of Science in Public Relations from Syracuse University and a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Studies and Psychology from Heidelberg University. In her free time, Krystal enjoys traveling, exploring arts spaces, and riding motorcycles with her husband, Josh, and serving as personal assistant to her dog and cat.

Stephanie LaFroscia was the Director of Grants and Community Engagement at the San Antonio Area Foundation, a community foundation serving San Antonio’s urban center and rural areas in seven surrounding counties. In her role at the Area Foundation, she advocates for the centrality of the cultural organizations, artists and culture bearers in equitable community development. LaFroscia has been instrumental in developing the 2021 Recovery Fund for the Arts and the Youth Development Artist Fellowship program, supporting artists working to advance youth leadership and mental health. LaFroscia previously served as a program officer at the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. Prior to that, she led education and public programs at at El Museo del Barrio, NY, where she developed a performing arts residency and interdisciplinary programming in the visual, performing, and literary arts, including Action Actual: Performance Art at El Museo and El Barrio’s Freshest, an annual b-boy/b-girl competition. LaFroscia received a MA in Visual Arts Administration from New York University and a BA in Art History, Summa Cum Laude, from Trinity University in San Antonio, TX. She lives in San Antonio, TX with her wife and children.

Ashley Lillian is a San Antonio and Austin based interdisciplinary artist whose practice centers on photography as a tool for examining memory, belief, and personal transformation. Her fine artwork explores the emotional and psychological spaces people inhabit, often focusing on themes of identity, trauma, and healing. Through staged imagery, documentary approaches, and mixed media processes, she creates photographs that feel both intimate and confrontational, inviting viewers to reflect on their own experiences and internal narratives. Lillian frequently incorporates additional materials such as paint, fibers, text, and installation elements to expand the photograph beyond its traditional boundaries, emphasizing the physical and emotional weight images can carry. Her work is driven by an interest in how environments, particularly liminal and domestic spaces, shape individual identity, and collective memory. By combining personal symbolism with universal themes, she creates images that exist between documentation and reconstruction. Alongside her fine art practice, Lillian works as a graphic designer and commercial photographer, where she applies her visual sensibilities to client-based projects. This design experience informs her attention to composition, clarity, and visual storytelling, while her fine art practice remains rooted in personal narrative and conceptual exploration.

Cassandra Parker-Nowicki is the Director of the Carver Community Cultural Center in San Antonio, Texas, a position she has held since 2019, before that she was Cultural Center Supervisor for the Carver since 2008. As the leader of this historic cultural institution, she is responsible for overseeing its mission to present and preserve the artistic, cultural, and educational contributions of African Americans and other cultures, primarily through the performing and visual arts. Prior to her role at the Carver, Cassandra Parker-Nowicki was Director of Theater Services at the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center in Baltimore and has brought a wealth of experience in arts administration, community engagement, and cultural programming to San Antonio. She is a graduate of Southwestern University. Her work is characterized by a dedication to fostering dialogue, championing diverse artistic voices, and ensuring the Carver remains a vital hub for community connection and artistic excellence.

Libby Rowe is an artist working in photography, sculpture, interactive installation, and performance. Her artwork explores ideas of identity and belonging through self-definitions as informed by social and domestic constructs. Rowe explores the sociological, physiological and psychological aspects of femininity using image, object and installations. Rowe is interested in breaking from traditional presentation strategies for photographs to engage viewers in a more interactive experience as well as the role of the photographic image in relation to other media. Examples of her work and her professional activities can be found at www.libbyrowe.com. Rowe received her BFA from the University of Northern Iowa and her MFA from Syracuse University. She resides in San Antonio and is the Founding Director of the School of Art, Professor of Art, the Area Head for photography at the University of Texas at San Antonio.

Andrea “Vocab” Sanderson is a poet, singer, and hip hop artist. A San Antonio native, she is the author of the collection She Lives In Music (Flower Song Press, 2020). Sanderson was a slam poet from 2004-2008, and a member of four teams that competed at the National Poetry Slam. In 2015 she traveled internationally to Abu Dhabi performing and teaching at Al Dhafra Airbase, for the troops stationed and serving active duty. In December of 2016, she was a guest teacher for Black Women, Beyonce & Popular Culture, at University of Texas at San Antonio, a course which gained international attention and is featured in various publications worldwide. She was also a featured teaching artist on the KLRN show Arts which aired in February of 2017. More recently her song, “What Will It Take” commissioned by the City of San Antonio helped to launch a COVID-19 safety campaign that can be seen and heard on radio and television. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including Dream Voice, People’s Choice Award, Best Live Entertainment/Band Musician of the Year by the 17th Annual SEA Awards, and The Arts and Letters Award by Friends of San Antonio Public Library in 2020. Sanderson currently serves as a Teaching Artist for Gemini Ink since 2009 and is an artist in residence with The Carver Community Cultural Center for the 2020-2021 season. She is the Poet Laureate of San Antonio, Texas. In 2021, she received an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowship.

Luis Valderas received a BFA in Art Education from the University of Texas-Pan American in 1995. In 2005, Valderas co-founded and produced Project: MASA I, II,III, IV, V and 5.5—a national group exhibit series that continues to feature Latinx artists and focuses on Chican@ identities. He co-founded The A3 Press and Bishop & Valderas, LLC. a large-scale printmaking community engagement collaborative and production house. Valderas is a mentor and board member of the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA). He has exhibited at the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia(MOA), the Medellin Museum of Art, Colombia, the Queens Museum, NYC and the UCR-Arts Block, Riverside, CA. His work is featured in books such as Altermundos-Latin@ Speculative Literature, Film and Popular Culture-2017, Mundos Alternos-Art, Science Fiction in the Americas-2017, Chicano Art for Our Millennium-2004, and Triumph in Our Communities: Four Decades of Mexican American Art-2005. His work is in the permanent collections of the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), Arizona State University, the Art Museum of South Texas, and the San Antonio Museum of Art.