Meet Our Dedicated Team of Volunteers
Our Team
Founder & Symposium Chair
Zachary D. Van Den Berg (he/they), MA, ATR-P, LPC-Associate, is an author, artist, and art therapist at CommunityArts, LLC, Austin, TX. He is the founder and administrator of the online forum Coalition for Queer Creative Arts Therapies and it’s annual symposium Expressing Pride.
Programming Chair
Gette Levy (they/them) is an established artist living in Wisconsin. Their work as an art therapist is inherently connected to their work as an artist. Themes of embodied joy, generational trauma, chosen family, culture shock, and disability can be found in Gette’s work no matter where it arises or in what capacity.
gettelevy@gmail.com
Outreach
Co-Chair
Co-Chair
Sara Blevins-Ranes (she/they), MA, ATR-P, LPC-Associate, is a queer art therapist based in San Antonio, TX. She is a graduate of Converse University and The George Washington University and works with children and adolescents in an in-patient setting. She is currently working on sand tray certification and play therapy licensure.
Instagram: @sara_bee_123_sketch
Outreach
Co-Chair
Co-Chair
Marie Julie Deschamps (she/her) is a cis, white, able-bodied artist/art psychotherapist, PhD candidate (Lesley, MA), researcher at the SexTech lab with the New School (NY), and art therapy professor (IMPA, Mexico). She is also a mother, determined to make tomorrow's world more inclusive, just and tender.
Marketing
Co-Chair
Co-Chair
Lyrah Wallace, (he/they) LCAT-LP, is working towards licensure for creative arts therapy in New York State. Lyrah has two MS degrees from Emporia State University in art therapy and clinical counseling. They have been practicing art-based psychotherapy since 2018, specializing in working with queer and neurodivergent clients of all ages.
Marketing
Co-CHAIR
Co-CHAIR
Sharon Arbtin (she/her) is a Registered Art Therapist and founder of Evergreen Envisioning: A Holistic Approach to Mental Health. In her practice, she partners with individuals through accessible arts-based processes to help them unlock embodied connections to themselves and their feelings, expanding their self-knowledge, tools, resilience, and opportunities to authentically engage in their relationships. She's invested in disability advocacy and intergenerational, community-based work.
Logistics/it
Chair
Chair
Monica Phinney (she/her) is a Registered Drama Therapist in Kansas City, Missouri, and is best known for her work on Netflix's Procession. She runs Heartwork Studio, where she provides arts-based wellness workshops and relationship coaching for queer nonmonogamous folx.
Special ThankS to our collaborators who
helped make Expressing Pride 2023 possible!
helped make Expressing Pride 2023 possible!
Mary Andrus
(she/her) able bodied, cis, white woman, a mother, artist, musician, introvert, art therapist, filmmaker and teacher. She specializes in treating people with trauma, works as an educator at Lewis and Clark training students to become art therapists, where she co-founded Art for Social Change, a group that uses meaningful art making, community building and activism to impact people in her community. She has a passion for learning, hiking, creativity and connecting with other humans.
Bailey Carter
(she/they) is a creative arts therapist located in the greater Montreal area working in private and community practice. She loves working with teenagers who have experienced trauma, adults with anxiety or big life transitions, and creative folks that want some more playfulness in their lives. As a therapist and activist, Bailey continues to fight stigma surrounding mental health and the unfair treatment of the LGBTQ2IA+ community.
Kasi Misseldine (they/them) is an Art Therapist who currently works with teens, adults, and older adults in a psychiatric in-patient hospital setting. They use visual art, music, movement, and writing in their approach and are constantly honored to share and witness the healing and connecting power of creativity and art making for the folks they work with. Kasi lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota with their partner, dog, and cat.
Rachel Mims
(she/her) is a U.S. Army veteran, Licensed Professional Counselor and Board Certified Art Therapist. She enjoys working with women and LGTBQ+ folks, and military veterans whose mental health has been impacted by systemic inequalities and/or trauma. Her favorite art forms are mixed media work, making and sending postcards, and art journaling.
Dana Sayre
(they/them) is a Registered Drama Therapist in Central Texas. They specialize in working with LGBTQIA+ issues, Disability/ Neurodivergence, and complex trauma. Dana also engages in community organizing and contract DEI work.
Leslie Woodris
(she/her) is a compassionate, person-centered Art Therapist and Mental Health Therapist practicing in the greater Des Moines area for the past 4 years. Leslie strives to support those in her community and those she works with through open and honest exploration. Leslie believes that creative expression can bring freedom and healing.