Ilene brings nearly 20 years of experience in PR and marketing to the Olive Tree Arts Network. She is a forward-thinking project management professional who excels in strategic planning and execution, resource management and staff development. Her strengths include budget oversight, stakeholder/customer relations management, vendor relations, creative problem solving, team building and workstream and marketing/PR management.
Jamie Olah is an educator with more than 12 years of experience empowering young people to tell their own stories. She teaches theatre, visual art, critical literacy and creative writing with schools, fine arts organizations, and summer camps around the Chicagoland area. As a theatre artist, Jamie specializes in writing, directing and devising contemporary, image-based physical theatre.
Michael believes in bringing out the best in people and organizations and is proud to facilitate the work of the amazing staff at Olive Tree Arts Network. He graduated summa cum laude from the University of Wisconsin – Platteville and holds a B.S. in business administration with an emphasis in H.R. and marketing. He specializes in project management, marketing, client engagement and instructional design.
Teaching Artists
Yuri Basho Lane is an actor, vegan chef and teaching artist living in Chicago since 2003.
Iris Jacobson is an interdisciplinary artist/educator who creates paintings, collages and sculptures using an intention/witness writing process. She facilitates this expressive, therapeutic process at Open Studio Project. Iris is also involved in art/dance/theater in the Jewish community and with work at Chicago Jewish Funerals.
Adam Gottlieb is a poet, singer-songwriter, bandleader, and full-time independent teaching artist. He loves hip hop, Bob Marley, and studying world religions.
Ethan T. Parcell is a composer, artist and educator living and working in Chicago. He works in the fields of music composition (especially for young musicians), performance (principally spoken), writing (mostly to sing it later) and visual art (largely handwritten).
David Clauson is a dramaturg, translator, and playwright from Detroit, Michigan. He has worked with the City Theatre of Pittsburgh and Yale Repertory Theatre, has written Biblical plays for the company Arches 'n' Bells, and now lives and works in Chicago.
Thomson Jaffe is a professional child wrangler/pathological storyteller. She has a big imagination and an impressive unicorn collection.
Hera Shakir has been a creative since she can remember. She is a singer-songwriter, poet, and dance instructor from Chicago.
Allison Shackelford is an educator, facilitator, writer, and performance artist who was raised in Birmingham, AL. She received a BA in theatre performance from the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 2014. She has happily called Chicago home since August of 2015.
Sarah Thompson is an actor and dramaturg who has worked internationally from Chicago to Greece. She enjoys traveling (especially nerdy historical tourism), and is fascinated by myth and folklore.
Mojdeh Stoakley is a writer, performer, multi-media artist, and arts & public health educator. She is a board member at Surviving the Mic, founder of Lethal Poetry, Director of the National Poetry Slam, the lead teaching artist for Chicago Poetry Center's Poets with Class, and is passionate about trauma-informed and interfaith education.
Nancy Celia Rose Kujawinski (aka Celia Rose) is a singer, songwriter and educator originally from Alabama. She has toured throughout Africa as a cultural ambassador, taught songwriting to kids in Haiti, Israel, France, Canada and the U.S., and has completed four full-length albums of original music. She has three kids and enjoys springboard diving, rock climbing and traveling with her family.
Nicky Margolis is an alum of the Second City in Chicago where she co-wrote and performed in three original revues. Before that she traveled and performed with the Second City Touring Company. She has taught improv and sketch comedy to people of all ages. She is currently working on her Masters in Conflict Resolution at Dominican University.
Madiha Syeda Hussaini is a Chicago-born Muslim, South-Asian woman who lives with her parents and four sisters in Skokie, IL. She is a creative nonfiction writer and an English professor at Harold Washington College. She loves reading memoirs, writing stories, and talking about space exploration and alternate universes. In her free time, she loves baking cookies with mini M&M's and re-watching The Lord of the Rings.
Ardarius studied at Furman University and is a former actor with Theatre at Monmouth.
Alex Ruiz is a Jack Of All Trades Artist Teacher. He has been an Animator, Illustrator, Voice Over Artist/Actor, Writer, Chef, Teacher and Music, Film/Video Director -Producer. Current projects include utilizing his production company to assist others promote their talents and projects as well as producing his dream project of a cooking show for network television or a streaming site.