Meet the team behind Awakenings
Discover the passionate artists, educators, and advocates who drive Awakenings’ mission to support survivors through trauma-informed, inclusive art-making experiences.
Our Crew
Executive Director
Laura Kinter serves as the Executive Director of Awakenings. She holds a B.A. in Film and English from Vassar College and moved to Chicago from Philadelphia. Her passion for education through storytelling, grassroots community building, and the arts has helped Laura guide Awakenings through exponential growth over the last several years.
Laura is active in the Ravenswood community as both a business leader, and currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Greater Ravenswood Chamber of Commerce. Laura has gone through 40 hour sexual assault crisis intervention training.
Programming Director
Jackie has been a part of the Awakenings community since 2019. She has a background as a visual artist who engages with repetitive block printing and paper-making practices in order to meditate on familial memory and connect with her Mexican heritage. Jackie holds a BA from the University of Illinois at Chicago in Art History with a focus in Latin American Colonial Art. In her spare time, you can catch Jacqueline attending a local art exhibit, riding her bike, and attempting to garden. She is certified in the 40hr Sexual Assault Crisis Intervention Training.
Marketing and Development Manager
Jules is a lifelong musician and artist who began her career pursuing professional creative work before discovering a passion for the business side of things, and transitioning into strategic planning and branding. She initially honed her skills through supporting artists, small businesses, and larger organizations, and along the way discovered the powerful impact of using those skills to advance causes addressing critical social issues. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Liberal Arts from the University of New Mexico and brings a creative, mission-driven lens to every project she leads.
Studio Manager
Wes is a textile artist and printmaker with a professional background in community-based art spaces and an interest in mutual aid organizing. Originally from the Pacific Northwest, Wes earned his BA in interdisciplinary art from the Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA before coming to Chicago in 2020. When not working or making art, Wes likes cooking for his friends and riding his bike around the city. Wes has completed a 40-hour Crisis Intervention Training.
Our Teaching Artists
Teaching Artist
Bryana Bibbs is a Chicago-based artist who works at the intersection of textiles, painting, and community-based practices. Bibbs earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts with an emphasis in Fiber and Material Studies at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is the founder of “The We Were Never Alone Project – A Weaving Workshop for Victims and Survivors of Domestic Violence” and serves on the Surface Design Association’s Education Committee. Bibbs has exhibited at galleries such as Chicago Artists Coalition, Praxis Fiber Workshop, Purple Window Gallery, and Tiger Strikes Asteroid. Recent awards and residencies include The Lunder Institute for American Art Summer Residential Fellowship, Surf Point Foundation Artist Residency, and Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts.
Teaching Artist
Gillian is a queer sculptor, jewelry designer and overall multidisciplinary artist. Their work focuses around sex work, trauma and queerness which they bring to light through their sculptures. As a survivor, nothing brings them more joy and fulfillment than teaching healing art workshops with the hopes of making a difference. They grew up internationally and call Scotland their home. When they’re not teaching, they’re running their jewelry business, metal smithing, dancing burlesque or hanging out with their two kitties and making art at home.
Teaching Artist
Leah is a multi-disciplinary artist with a background in performing arts. She has served on Awakenings’ Art Committee and Volunteer Committee, and has twice been a resident in Awakenings’ artist cohort program. She is excited to lead her first visual art workshop as a Teaching Artist at Awakenings!
Teaching Artist
Saori is a lesbian multidisciplinary artist, educator, and care worker. With a professional background in creative writing and youth work – such as teaching and academic counseling – their facilitation practices are grounded in building trust, respect, and care. Saori is passionate about creating art that reflects her ancestral heritage, lived experiences, and identity as a queer survivor. They believe everyone can make art and deserves a space to process through a creative practice. When Saori is not teaching or making art, they are supporting Chicagoland families as a postpartum doula or hanging out with their spouse and dog.
Teaching Artist
Raeleen Kao’s work uses garmentry to carry the weight of her own medical history, a rejection of antiquated gender ideals centered around female reproductive health, and the reclamation of her Taiwanese heritage through the lens of anti-colonization and gender-based intergenerational violence. She is a recipient of the Luminarts Cultural Foundation Fellowship, Illinois Arts Council Agency Grant, and DCASE Individual Artist Program Grant. Her work is in permanent collections of the Kohler Art Museum, Smith College Museum of Art, University of Richmond Rare Books & Special Collections, and the North Carolina State University Libraries Special Collections.
Teaching Artist
Leah Zeiger is a choreographer, dancer, and activist based in Los Angeles. As a survivor of a teenage abusive relationship, Leah’s work is largely derived from her lived experience as well as embodied research in the survivor community. Leah’s methodology – Body Memory – invokes somatic principles, improvisational scores, and body-based research to explore the ways in which our bodies hold memory and how those memories shape our life experience. She has been commissioned to choreograph and present her work by entities such as the National Domestic Violence Hotline, the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, the Los Angeles Contemporary Dance Company Choreographer’s Lab, and more. Her latest evening-length work, “You Live In My Spine”, enjoyed a three night sold out premiere in Los Angeles in early 2023. Leah is the founder of The Sunflower Project – a nonprofit organization that educates young people on sexual violence and relationship abuse and empowers survivors to tell their story through artmaking.
Board of Directors
Board President
Christina Bourné is an accomplished arts administrator, educator, and performing artist based in Chicago, IL. She began her career as a public speaker and guest soloist for women’s and youth enrichment conferences across the Midwest before becoming a teaching artist and arts administrator.
During her career she has helped to create in-school and after school programs, facilitated workshops and lectures and even a concert series to discuss social and cultural issues such as race, gender equality, and collective non-violence through the lens of the arts.
Her past leadership roles in arts administration have been Director of Creative Engagement at the Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University where she grew the department’s program reach to 20,000+ participants per year, Interim Executive Director of Muntu Dance Theatre of Chicago, and founding member and Program Manager for Enrich Chicago—an arts led movement aimed at undoing racism and building racial equity within the sector.
When not enhancing lives through arts advocacy or arts and enrichment program development, she can be found performing with her family of nine—comprised of her seven siblings and her mother—The Bournés. Christina is an independent non-profit consultant working with individuals and organizations throughout Chicago and nationally with a focus on fundraising, board development, strategic planning, and organizational leadership.
Board Secretary
Sarah graduated from Purdue University with a BS in Management and a BA in Foreign Language and Literature in 1996. She obtained her MBA (with focus on Strategy and Organizational Development) in 2011 from the University of Chicago. Sarah has spent the bulk of her career in the Corporate Real Estate Services industry holding a wide variety of roles from Human Resources to Business Development.
She currently holds a Global Leadership role and is responsible for a team of 400+ professionals across the world. Sarah grew up in a household where Art of all types but most particularly visual arts, were held in high esteem. She brings to the board a passion for art and artists, strong business acumen and a love for managing and collaborating with teams.
Darci Flynn is a dynamic leader with a passion for addressing complex social issues through collaborative partnerships in both the private and public sectors. Darci is currently the Founder and Principal Consultant of Brave Path Strategies, LLC, a consulting firm that seeks to tackle gender-based violence by addressing racial and gender inequities in systems, organizations, policies, and practice. With over 15 years of experience in policy and advocacy, program development and design, strategic planning, and government relations, Darci brings a deep commitment to creating a more just and inclusive world through systems change work. In 2021, after serving as a senior policy advisor to the Mayor of Chicago for two years, Darci became the City’s first Director of Gender-based Violence Strategy and Policy. In this role, she co-created – with advocates, survivors, researchers, and City officials — a citywide strategic plan to address gender-based violence and human trafficking. Darci joined the Mayor’s Office after just under eight years at Heartland Human Care Services (HHCS) where she helped to lead a program serving immigrant survivors of human trafficking.
Deya is a second-year MBA candidate at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. She is a computer science engineer with a professional background in digital consulting. She has worked with a range of stakeholders across the healthcare ecosystem – from biopharma to payers, providers, and care coordinators – and is also pursuing an interdisciplinary health policy program at the University of Chicago Crown Family School of Social Work. At Booth, she is a Net Impact Board Fellow, Booth Scholar, and Admissions Fellow. As a first generation immigrant and a woman in STEM, Deya is passionate about mentorship, having founded several programming communities for women and mentored international deferred MBA candidates as part of EarlyAdmit. Her passion for the arts started at an early age performing local theater in India, leading to many nonprofit collaborations on arts-infused social justice – she was previously an Associate Board Member at Reading in Motion, and is currently working with Special Gifts Theatre on a Booth Net Impact project. Outside of work, she is mostly planning her next trip or exploring the storefront theater scene in Chicago.
Gene Wagendorf III is a community builder, problem solver, storyteller, and advocate for Chicago’s small business and local manufacturing communities. In 2024, he was hired as the Executive Director of the Greater Ravenswood Chamber of Commerce, where he’s worked in a variety of roles for 10+ years. Over his time with GRCC, Gene has developed and implemented its business support programs; introduced Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion training to its annual workplan; coordinated its pandemic relief efforts; and led its participation in Chicago’s Local Industrial Retention Initiative. His creative efforts to drive regional tourism to Ravenswood include developing the Malt Row branding initiative (which won a 2024 Illinois Excellence in Tourism Award) and establishing the Ravenswood Sculpture Garden (which now features nearly 20 pieces). Most recently, Gene’s work includes participation in Manufacturing Renaissance’s Early Warning Network; and completing a gateway mural project at the Ravenswood Metra Station in partnership with 47th Ward Alderman Matt Martin that included hands-on learning opportunities for student artists from Amundsen High School.
My commitment to Awakenings began during my involvement as a student consultant on a BSI project last winter. I helped source strategic healthcare partnerships, including with my former employer, Howard Brown Health. Inspired by Awakenings’ mission, I would be honored to contribute to its impact as a board member. I graduated with a B.A. in Comparative Literature and HUMANgles, a self-created liberal arts major, from Boston University in 2019. Since then, my career has intersected healthcare, wellness, and social impact. I served as a Commission Member for the Massachusetts Commission on LGBTQ Youth, where I led multidisciplinary strategies to enhance support services for LGBTQIA+ youth statewide. At Howard Brown Health, I managed caseloads for 75 transgender patients and improved access to gender-affirming surgery by creating, implementing and directing a new workflow that reduced patient wait times by 80%. More recently, as a Project Manager for Natal Care Technologies, an AI-driven startup focused on reducing preeclampsia, I gained direct experience in collaborative leadership, business strategy, partnership formation, and resource optimization. Currently, as an MBA Candidate at Chicago Booth (expected June 2025) and Founder and CEO of FitKind, a digital platform promoting inclusivity in fitness, I lead efforts to empower underserved communities through accessible wellness solutions.
I was first introduced to Awakenings back in 2021 and since then, I have been deeply inspired by not only the grassroots nature of its mission, but also in the direction in which it continues to evolve. Witnessing that level of nimbleness as Awakenings responds to the needs of the communities it serves sends an incredible message of resilience to survivors in my opinion, and is a true testament to the kind hearts behind this organization. Having just graduated with my MBA from The University of Chicago, I am constantly looking for ways to apply the lessons learned in business management and marketing to the nonprofit sector. I am very humbled at the prospect of being a part of Awakenings’ mission because I believe it is our shared responsibility to not only recognize and address collective trauma, but also facilitate the conditions for healing. As a Lebanese American who has been living in Chicago for three years, I have fallen in love with this beautifully diverse city and I am honored to be in a space where I can use my skill set to give back to the very community that has been instrumental in my personal growth. Lastly, I have always maintained that creative expression is our superpower and when we choose to allow our experiences to inform our creations, we are channeling the divine. I hope to be able to leverage the skills learned from my career in copywriting and digital campaigns management to help Awakenings serve even more people in a sustainable manner. After all, there has never been a more urgent time for us to use our creativity, dream big, and form enduring support networks.
In the last 18 years of my career, I have supported some of our most vulnerable children, families, adolescents, young adults and geriatric populations. This has included, but is not limited to; separation, divorce, grief & loss, PTSD, physical, emotional, sexual and substance abuses. As well as domestic violence, irritability, impulsivity, anxiety, depression and suicidal ideation. I truly find fulfillment in providing healing, hope, therapies and resources to those in need. In the last decade I have built my leadership skills by developing and supporting our clinicians in the Chicago hospitals and now public school sector. Partnering alongside stakeholders with a common goal will be my life’s work. I look forward to creating experiences that ignite young people, validate our adults and geriatric populations and restore our givers in the counseling and helping professions.
Our Founder
Jean Cozier
Jean W. Cozier is a writer, musician, sexual abuse survivor, and author of “Dear Judith,” the story of her relationship with Judith Dawn Hickey, and “Heavy Metal: A Song of Healing,” an illustrated cycle of poetry about her growth in healing her relationship with her mother. She has also worked in corporate communications as an independent scriptwriter and filmmaker. She holds a B.S. in Radio/TV/Film Production from Northwestern University. In 2015, Jean received the Community Impact Award from the Zacharias Sexual Abuse Center for her years of work supporting survivors of sexual violence. She currently lives in Chicago with her husband and two cats.
In 1998, Jean lost her cousin, artist, and sexual abuse survivor Judith Dawn Hickey, to cancer. Before Judith died, Jean made a promise to her that she would work to help other survivors find healing and empowerment through the arts. Jean founded the Judith Dawn Memorial Fund for the Arts in 1998 and administered it in partnership with the Zacharias Sexual Abuse Center in Gurnee, Illinois, until 2012.
Clinical Advisory Committee
Awakenings’ Clinical Advisory Committee (CAC) is a volunteer group of therapists, social workers, trauma-specialists, and other professionals that review and evaluate Awakenings’ trauma-informed practices and healing arts curriculum, as well as advise Awakenings’ staff on individual survivor cases that require advanced care.
Survivor Advisory Committee
Awakenings’ Survivor Advisory Committee (SAC) is a volunteer group of self-identified survivors that provide Awakenings’ staff with feedback and ideas on programs, communications, and strategy. This committee will further Awakenings’ commitment to being a survivor-led organization that values, includes, and celebrates survivor participation in collaborative decision-making processes.
Create, connect, & heal
Find your place in our circle of creators, where every artistic choice is valid and every emotion is welcome. Healing isn’t linear, nor a path you have to walk alone.