Collaborators
The creatives and organizers who lead the project.
Kiara J.T. Cole
Oral Histories Co-Producer/Co-Director
Born in Kolkata, India, Kiara Cole (she/her) is a transracial adoptee that grew up in Morrisville, VT. She specializes in post production with an affinity for documentary, most recently working as Post Production Supervisor for 1895 Films in Calabasas, CA. There, she oversaw editing on docs such as National Geographic's The Real Right Stuff, Being The Queen, and APOLLO Missions To The Moon as well as the latest TRVL documentary series Shock Docs. She holds a certificate from Burlington College and a B.A. from Emerson College in Film Production. In pursuit of filmmaking, she has worked with SMUGGLER, SCOUT Film Festival, Spruce Peak Performing Arts Center, SeeThink Films, and DOCdance Productions. She is also an avid hip hop dancer and is working on instructor certification for GROOV3.
Caitlin Duffy
Oral Histories Co-Organizer/Co-Director
Caitlin is an actor and creator originally from Morrisville, Vermont. Caitlin received her BA in Theater from Middlebury College and her MFA in Acting from Brown/Trinity Rep. She is committed to making compassionate, collaborative, antiracist and anti-oppressive art.
Juniper Creative Arts
Lead Mural Artists
Juniper Creative Arts consists of creative director and concept designer Jennifer Herrera Condry, mural artist and illustrator Will Kasso Condry, and visual artist and photographer Alexa Herrera Condry.
Born and raised in Harlem, New York, Jennifer is the daughter of Dominican immigrants. She worked for 22 years as a student affairs professional with a focus on multicultural student success before leaving to focus on building Juniper Creative Arts. During her 18 year tenure at Middlebury College, Jennifer led efforts for the retention and care of college students from marginalized identities and developed co-curricular programs to support student success, identity development and sense of belonging. She is a 200-hour certified Hatha Yoga practitioner, an energy worker with Level 3 certification in Healing Touch and Level 2 certification in the Usui System of Reiki Healing, and a spiritual herbalist. She holds an M.A. in Spanish linguistics from the Middlebury Language Schools and a B.F.A in art history and business from Hunter College. Jennifer is a creative director, concept designer, and visionary who facilitates creative place-making to foster community-building, personal expression, sense of belonging, and healing.
Born and raised in Trenton, New Jersey, Will Kasso is a renowned visual artist, graffiti scholar, and educator. Kasso studied fine art and illustration at The College of New Jersey as a first-generation college student. He furthered his education in the art of aerosol painting with the mentorship of legendary graffiti artist Daniel “POSE 2” Hopkins. Kasso refined his artistry in large-scale mural production under the tutelage of Dave McShane at Mural Arts Philadelphia. He has taught courses on the origins and politics of Graffiti and Street Art and the elements of Hip-Hop at Middlebury College. For over 20 years, Will’s public art initiatives and civic engagement have helped vulnerable and fractured communities come together to creatively solve issues that affect their neighborhoods and everyday lives. Kasso is a visionary and Afro-futuristic artist well-known for his use of bold color and layers. Additionally, his life’s work centers on using mural arts as a vehicle for community-building, activism, beautification, and healing.
Alexa is a recent graduate of the University of Vermont, where she received a B.A. in studio art and computer science. She is an illustrator, photographer, and web designer; and is currently apprenticing under Will Kasso in aerosol painting and mural arts. Alexa is an energy worker trained in meridian healing. She has a Level 3 certification in Healing Touch, and is a spiritual herbalist. Alexa is the lead art-making facilitator for K-5 community mural projects.
Saudia LaMont
Co-Facilitator of Readings and Discussions
Bio coming soon.
Hannah Miller
Co-Facilitator of Readings and Discussions
Dr. Hannah K. Miller [she/her] is a professor of education at Northern Vermont University. Hannah is the advisor of the NVUnity club for LGBTQ+ students, co-chair of the NVU Diversity and Inclusion Task Force, and a co-facilitator of the Racial Equity Alliance of Lamoille Schools subgroup with co-conspirator Saudia Lamont. Hannah’s scholarship interrogates the process of social change in educational systems, with a focus on privilege, power, justice, and oppression. She draws on critical theories and methodologies to inform her research, and has used the agency/structure dialectic, critical race theory, and critical participatory action research to guide her work. Hannah’s current research project, “TeachOut Vermont,” aims to build support networks and conduct action research with and for LGBTQ+, queer, nonbinary, and transgender teachers in Vermont.
Rachel Moore
Project Organizer/Curator
Rachel Moore currently lives and works in Vermont as an interdisciplinary artist, organizer, curator, and director of Helen Day Art Center. Her work balances a studio, curatorial, and social practice with a focus on socially and environmentally responsible projects. Moore responds by listening deeply. Through the lens of storytelling, history, and the importance of conversation, her practice aims to create understanding. She sees art as a catalyst for change, whether through the poetic awareness her studio work brings to environmental or social injustice through research and narrative, or through the socially engaged work that serves to create the necessary action to provoke change. Moore is a co-founder of Spoke, an exhibition and event space in Chicago (2008-2011), and was a Fulbright Fellow in Greece (2009-2010). She has received grants from Seattle Art Museum (PONCHO Award), Artist Trust in Seattle, Vermont Arts Council; and has been an artist-in-residence twice at both Vermont Studio Center and Pilchuck Glass School. She was featured on Art21’s “Inside the Artist’s Studio.” Her curatorial and artistic projects have been exhibited nationally and internationally including: Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art in Thessaloniki, Greece; The Garfield Park Conservatory, Chicago, IL; DYNAMO Project Space, Thessaloniki, Greece; Figge Art Museum in Iowa; Muskegon Museum in Michigan; Bellevue Arts Museum in Washington; Grand Rapids Art Museum in Michigan; among others.
Ayodeji Shokeye
Co-Producer of Podcast; Co-Facilitator of Readings
In my last year of college, I was blessed and fortunate enough to gain an educational experience I will never forget. The best knowledge is the knowledge that you go out of your way to try and gain. It means the most because you set time aside to learn to better yourself, without it being a school requirement. I had beautiful and insightful dialogue with wonderful people on different topics such as racism, athletics, diversity. The purpose of my show “On Second Thought”, is to bring solutions, and find common grounds on social injustice. My guests were all so enthusiastic about being on the show and all so glad that they were able to help bring peace, justice, and unity.
Miles Smith
Co-Producer of Podcast; Co-Facilitator of Readings
Miles Smith has ended up right back where he started: on the basketball court at Johnson. But this time he's not playing; he's coaching. He returned to NVU-Johnson in summer 2015 as head men's basketball coach and assistant athletics director. That's six years after graduating from Johnson, where he was a starter on the men's basketball team and, in his senior year, was named team captain and president of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. He played in all 51 games during his two seasons with Johnson as a senior point guard, leading the Badgers to the North Atlantic Conference playoffs. A native of Philadelphia, Miles transferred to Johnson in 2007 with an associate's degree in liberal arts from Mercer County Community College. After graduating from Johnson, Miles worked for the Office of Admissions. He then spent three seasons as an assistant basketball coach at Mercer County Community College, where in 2010 he helped coach the Vikings to the Region 19 National Junior College Athletic Association championship and an appearance in the NJACC National Tournament. His other positions have included assistant basketball coach at The College of New Jersey in suburban Trenton, where he was responsible for player development, scouting, game-day management and recruitment; and admissions recruiter and the first head men's basketball coach at the newly co-ed Wilson College in Pennsylvania.
Devyn J. Thompson
Co-Facilitator of Readings
( she/her) is a sophomore English major with secondary education licensure at Northern Vermont University. Devyn Thompson is the vice president of the Coalition of Minority Student Athletes following behind President Ayodeji Shokeye. Thompson’s book facilitations challenges the essential question we all have, “Will Systemic Racism be instilled into the culture of the United States forever?” Thompson challenges the structural foundations the country is built on and advocates a new base. Thompson’s goals as a future educator and person of color is to challenge the youth to embrace new unity rather than passed down hate, and to keep the memory alive of rising Sophomore NVU student Mamadou N’Diaye who tragically passed July 2020.
Madeleine Ziminsky
Student Mentee and Artist
Maddy is a high school student with the dream of a future career based around art and the incorporation of equitable values and multi-demographic representation into the pieces she creates. Her passion for traditional art has guided her to a variety of platforms, such as the New York Times and multiple art competitions nationwide.