Staff

Sherwood Chen, Associate Director and Apprenticeship Program Manager, has worked in festival production, youth arts programming, arts grantmaking, and community arts working for organizations including the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, the San Francisco Foundation and the Los Angeles Music Center Education Division.  As a performer, Sherwood has worked with artists including Min Tanaka/Maijuku, Anna Halprin, Oguri, Grisha Coleman/echo::systems, Sara Shelton Mann, Ko Murobushi, Amara Tabor-Smith and Shinichi Iova-Koga/inkBoat. He serves as board member of Intersection for the Arts (San Francisco) and Khmer Arts Academy (Long Beach/Phnom Penh).  Sherwood was hired as the Associate Director in November 2006.

Lily Kharrazi, Living Cultures Grants Program Manager, earned an M.A. in Dance Ethnology, studying at UCLA with Allegra Fuller Snyder, a pioneer in the field of dance and culture.  Kharrazi served as the Program Director of World Arts West, the producers of the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival for 9 seasons, during which time through extensive outreach efforts, new and little known cultural dance had the opportunity to be presented.  Prior to joining ACTA, Lily worked in the refugee resettlement field as well as arts education.  She continues to write freelance on issues of dance and culture.  Lily was hired as the Living Cultures Grants Program Manager in May 2005.

Amy Kitchener, Executive Director, is a folklorist who has worked in the public sector since 1991 including coordinating the LA Public Library’s “Shades of L.A.” community photo history collecting project, consulting with the California State Library’s project “Shades of California,” and serving as folklorist in residence with the Arizona Commission on the Arts.  She started the first programs of the Fresno Arts Council’s Folk Arts Program in 1993 and served as the program director for 9 years.  Amy co-founded ACTA in 1997 and spearheaded its development as a private nonprofit organization.  She was hired as the Founding Executive Director in March 2002.  She holds an M.A. in Folklore & Mythology from UCLA and is a published author.

Amy Lawrence, Operations Coordinator, has worked in the nonprofit sector since 1999.  She served as the Education and Tour Coordinator for the Fresno Historical Society and managed the Society’s museum store.  Amy earned a multiple subject teaching credential from CSU, Fresno, and has taught second, third, and fourth grade elementary school students. She holds an M.A. in History and her master’s thesis, Minnie Eshleman Sherman: Agricultural Pioneer, Social Activist, City Mother, was published in Fresno-Past and Present and won a research merit award from CSU, Fresno.  Amy joined ACTA in June 2009.