odyssey team members

Art Cisneros - Ritual and Storytelling

The Chumash People are the original native peoples of the central California Coast. Art holds the sacred space for their annual Tomol crossing to Limu on the Channel Islands. His spiritual name means “Earth Man with a Good Heart” and he truly embodies these virtues. Art also speaks throughout the US for the indigenous voice and for those who have no voice. He offers fire ceremonies at his home for the Santa Barbara community and also offers healing and cleansing ceremonies. Art connects the participants to traditional storytelling that informs their personal, contemporary narratives, further linking past to present culture from a non-Eurocentric perspective.   As a Native American elder, he offers an opportunity to the collaborators to negotiate their identities in terms of indigenous Californian heritage.  Please see his web site: http://www.sacredearthfound.org/art.shtml.

Clifford Cohen founded AnimAction, a media-arts project based learning program that integrates with K-12 education curriculum so that students can create their own educational animated content in April 1989. It has been recognized by the Solicitor General of Canada, the California Department of Education, UNICEF (http://bit.ly/UNICEF-DreamWorks-AnimAction) and the World Health Organization as being a valuable resource and tool for education.  AnimAction has been adopted by many school districts including the Los Angeles Unified School District, Glendale Unified School District and New York School Board. Also major institutions such as The Los Angeles County Museum of Arts, USC and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.  It is the mission of AnimAction - Awareness Through Animation, to help children of all ages develop effective communication skills and address critical social issues through the creation and production of short animated films. Since its start in 1989 AnimAction has conducted hundreds of Awareness Through Animation programs throughout the world, reaching thousands of Youth. AnimAction - Awareness Through Animation is the most widely accepted program of its kind in the world.Clifford is also the founder and Executive Producer of Collaborate Pictures a full production support service primarily working with UK-based creative agencies filming in Los Angeles.

Aileen Fullchange is a PhD candidate in the Department of Counseling, Clinical, and School Psychology. She is part of the evaluation team for the Odyssey Project. She is most interested in building upon and cultivating youths' strengths in order for them to learn how to thrive and to inspire others to do so as well. She is thrilled to be involved with the Odyssey Project. 

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