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Board of Directors

Kathryn Ervin
Board Chair

Kathryn Ervin

Kathryn Ervin is a Professor in the Department of Theatre Arts at California State University San Bernardino and is serving as Department Chair. She served on the faculty at Michigan State University. She is a graduate of Wayne State University and Illinois State University. She teaches courses in Directing, Acting, Creative Drama and African American Theatre and Film and Culture.

She is a director and has directed drama’s comedies and musicals. She is currently at work devising INVISIBLE a play based on The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison and HG Wells. Past productions include NO CHILD, THE WIZ, NOVIO BOY, HAMLET:the artist formerly known as PRINCE of Denmark. She guest directed INTIMATE APPAREL and HOW I LEARNED TO DRIVE at UCR and MA RAINEY”S BLACK BOTTOM at Illinois State. Her original production of the hip hop opera KEEP HEDZ RINGIN’ by Rickerby Hinds was a finalist at the American College Theatre Festival in Utah and presented as part of the NYC Hip Hop Theatre Festival in 2002.

She is active in numerous professional organizations including the California Educational Theatre Association, the Association for Theatre in Higher Education and she is a fellow of the California Arts Project. She is a recipient of the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival Outstanding Educator Award and an NAACP Pioneer Award.  

She is a consultant and past president for the Black Theatre Network, the national organization for artists, scholars and individuals with an interest in celebrating the beauty and complexity of black life onstage. In 2010 she received the Black Theatre Network Lifetime Membership Award recognizing her service to the organization. (Lives in San Bernardino)

Anne Viricel
Treasurer

Dr. Anne Viricel

In addition to her position as Treasurer of Arts Connection, Dr. Anne L. Viricel is Executive Director of the San Bernardino Symphony, spending her days creating opportunities for visibility for the region’s longest running and most prestigious professional orchestra. In the evenings, she serves as a professor at the University of Redlands School of Business specializing in quantitative operations and strategy coursework. She is also a public servant in her locally elected role as Vice President of the San Bernardino Community College Board of Trustees.

Dr. Viricel is also an author, having published dozens of academic and industry articles and, most recently, collaborated on the autobiography of educator and activist Dr. Margaret Hill. In addition to being a board member of Arts Connection, she serves on the boards of the San Bernardino County Museum Association (Treasurer), the San Bernardino Valley Concert Association (Member), The Unforgettables Foundation (Member), and the Highland Woman’s Club (Treasurer). She is also an active member of the American Association of University Women, the Bonnes Meres Auxiliary of the Children’s Fund, and the San Bernardino Symphony Guild. Her recent awards include Assembly District 40 City of Highland Woman of the Year, League of Women Voters Citizen of Achievement, the Black Culture Foundation’s Black Rose Award, and two University of Redlands Excellence in Teaching Awards.
Secretary

Sandra Espadas

Sandra Espadas is the Community Development Manager with National Community Renaissance. She has extensive knowledge in community organizing, data and policy analysis, building police-community relationships and placed based strategies. Ms. Espadas has worked with various stakeholders in communities throughout the County of San Bernardino to improve their quality of life.
Most recently, Ms. Espadas is helping revitalize Central San Bernardino as part of the redevelopment of Arrowhead Grove, formerly known as Waterman Gardens – a public housing complex. This focuses on implementing a comprehensive, holistic placed based strategy to create neighborhood of choice and involves multiple partners working together to leverage existing resources and seek new funding.  She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science and Spanish Literature from the University of California, San Diego.
Marcia Geiger
Board Member

Marcia Geiger

Marcia Geiger began her career as an oil painter after moving to Joshua Tree, California, in 1989. Primarily self taught, she had formerly received an associate’s degree in commercial art in her home state of Nebraska before spending several years traveling abroad.

In Joshua Tree, she took lessons in oil painting at the community center, while volunteering at the Hi Desert Nature Museum in nearby Yucca Valley and working as a bookkeeper. Since then, she has gradually transitioned from full time bookkeeping to full time artist. A volunteer for the Morongo Basin Cultural Arts Council since 2010,  Geiger has aided and participated in  the increasingly attended  Hwy 62 Open Studio Art Tour, a high-desert arts event now in its 18th year. 

Geiger went from  treasurer to  vice president of the Morongo Basin Cultural Arts Council, and is currently president of the organization, having seen it grow from just over 100 members in 2010 to nearly 350 in 2019. She applied for and was awarded three grants from the California Arts Council on their behalf. She was instrumental in acquiring the acclaimed Joshua Tree Art Gallery this year for the Council, adding it to the aforementioned Art Tours, the members’ run Gallery 62, and the Art In Public Places program. She is also active in the Palm Springs Artists Council and the 29 Palms Artist’s Guild in Twentynine Palms, CA.

Marcia Geiger’s artistic focus is on oil painting. Her subjects range from abandoned buildings in desert ghost towns and old homestead cabins, to local landscapes and desert fauna. When not fulfilling duties as president, she enjoys the camaraderie and friendships that come from living in the thriving artists’ community of Joshua Tree and surrounding areas. Her remote private studio north of Joshua Tree provides the open space, peace, and solitude necessary for her creative inspirations to grow and flourish.

Steve Thomas
Board Member

Steve Thomas

Steve Thomas has a 30-plus year history of teaching, curating and exhibiting within Southern California. Shortly after earning a Masters in Fine Arts in photography at Mills College (1989), Steve was hired as a part-time teacher of photography at Chaffey College, CSU Los Angeles, CSU San Bernardino and UC Extension.
Steve worked as the Curator of Collections at the UCR/California Museum of Photography at the University of California Riverside (1995-2006). In 2006 after retirement from UCR, Steve accepted the position of Curator of Education at the Riverside Art Museum and in 2007 he jumped at the opportunity to become a hometown Museum Curator at the Ontario Museum of History and Art. He continues to represent Chaffey Community Museum of Art on the steering committee for the City of Ontario Community Life and Culture Agency. Steve is one of the many organizers for the inaugural 2018 Ontario Arts Festival. He co-leads the effort to re-establish art exhibitions at Ontario International Airport, displaying artwork by artists who live and work within the region that is served by airport.
Board Member

Victor Suarez

Victor Suárez is the creative mind behind “Your Silent Outburst”. He has been designing since the age of 17 and has made his passion into a thriving small business. He graduated in 2006 from California State University, San Bernardino obtaining a Bachelors in Art with a concentration in Graphic Design.

As a passionate community leader and volunteer, Victor enjoys utilizing his creative skills and talents to give back to his community. He received the Citizen of Achievement Award from the League of Women Voters and was recognized as a 30 Under 30 Leader by the state assembly for the community impact he created as one of the youngest Executive Directors in one of San Bernardino’s oldest non-profit organizations.

With almost two decades of experience in graphic design Victor recently decided to embark on a new career as a CTE Graphic Design high school teacher to share his love and passion for design with youth. He enjoys seeing students embrace their creative energies and  discovering how design and art play a vital role in our society.  

 
Victor currently resides in San Bernardino, California with his wife and two daughters