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 a resident, 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.

Jacqueline first encountered Awakenings as a programming intern, and later joined the Art Committee before becoming Programming Coordinator. She is 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. Jacqueline holds a BA from the University of Illinois at Chicago in Art History with a focus in Latin American Colonial and Contemporary Art. She has completed a 40hr Crisis Intervention Training.

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.

Annalise is a visual artist working in painting, ceramics, fibers, and mixed media to explore expressive modalities of storytelling. She creates text-based artwork, vessels, and assemblages that explore themes of memory, lived experience, disclosure, gaze, protection, caretaking, holding, and containment.

Annalise is passionate about the creative process, mental health and wellness, regulatory art practices, and advocacy. She currently works as an Art and Trauma Therapist in Chicago, IL. Annalise has experience from a variety of art-based, advocacy, and clinical sites including community-based art groups, group art therapy, individual counseling, and art-based curriculum development. In addition to art and counseling services, Annalise is also passionate about community event planning to promote awareness on social issues and is involved with training other professionals and the public on issues pertaining to sexual violence, suicidality, harm reduction, and art-based intervention. Her current art practice explores the complexities of interpersonal change with drama, humor, and self-disclosure. Her text-based paintings allow for discussion surrounding the themes of bodily autonomy, catharsis, place-making, identity, and inquiry of the past. Annalise is self-represented and takes commissions on a limited basis. Inquiries for Annalise Castro may be directed to her personal website.

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!br>

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.