ABOUT
Our Team
The center is run by a dedicated team of staff, teaching faculty, board members, donors, and volunteers.
Center Staff
Lydia Collins, BFA
Interim Executive Director
Lydia is an artist, educator, and avid creative based in Westwood, Cincinnati. She received her Bachelor’s of Fine Arts from the Art Academy of Cincinnati in Drawing, with extensive studies in Printmaking and Art History. A creative jack-of-all-trades, her current exploration includes drawing, print media, embroidery, and textiles.
An educator at heart, Lydia’s true passions lie in fostering community, connection, and understanding through creative exchanges. She brings 12 years of experience in nonprofit administration and education, specializing in youth programs; including extensive work with the Art Academy of Cincinnati’s Community Education department, Artworks, Contemporary Arts Center, and the Cincinnati Hamilton County Public Library.
Curious and a natural problem solver, she is an avid reader and hobbyist researcher. In her free time, she enjoys baking, exploring nature, camping, gardening, and archery.
She aims to pursue a Masters degree in arts education with a focus in museum studies, and is training for a wildlife rehabilitation certification!
Star Christine
Registrar & Visual Communicator
Born and raised in Cincinnati, Star's passion for the arts ignited in her youth. Throughout high school, she immersed herself in self-guided learning, mastering programs like Photoshop and Final Cut Studios. Fueled by creativity, she spent the last two years of high school attending the Warren County Career Center for Digital Design. Remarkably, by the age of 17, Star secured a position as a Graphic Web Designer before even graduating high school.
An enthusiast of self-expression, she would describe herself as a dabbler having dipped her hands into various pots like drawing, painting, dancing, flow arts, aerial arts, tactile arts, photography, filming, digital arts, and singing. With every phase of interest Star found herself experiencing different facets of communities all throughout Cincinnati that helped continually shape her artistic journey.
Our board is made up of passionate volunteers committed to supporting the Wyoming Fine Arts Center in its mission.
Board Members
Interested in giving back to your community? We are always seeing active volunteers! Currently we have a critical need for individuals with market research or fundraising expertise.
If you’d like to learn more about joining the board or serving as a volunteer on one of our committees, please submit our volunteering form!
Caroline Hyatt comes from a family that is passionate about music. Her most prized possession is a pair of Klipsch cornerhorn speakers — the best way to listen to music… if you can’t listen live. She is a civil right attorney with Friedman, Gilbert + Gerhardstein, where she represents those whose rights have been violated by the government, and when she isn’t working, she likes to cook (which she does reasonably well) and garden (which she does quite badly). She lives in Wyoming with her husband, Nathan, and their daughter Josephine, who loves to come to art classes at the Center.
Brad King is 67 and a retired attorney, public school administrator, and adjunct professor at UC and Cincinnati State. He has been married for 45 years to his wife, Annie, who retired after 28 years as an elementary art teacher. They have three adult children and six grandchildren. Currently, they provide full time daycare and after-school care for the three local grandchildren (ages 7, 8, and 11) Both of his daughters played strings in high school (viola and bass) and both pursued fine arts in college. One with a BFA and one minored in ceramics. All three local grandkids have gone to art or music camps at WFAC and one takes piano lessons there.
His board experience includes four years on the Board of Crossroads Crisis Center in Lima, Ohio, eight years on the Finneytown Athletic Association board, six years on the Finneytown Board of Education, and currently as Secretary of the Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center (IJPC) in Over the Rhine.
Mary Ellen Reilly is Senior Vice President and Chief Fiduciary Officer at Fifth Third Bank. In 2022, Mary Ellen relocated with her wife and daughters to Wyoming, OH from Buffalo, NY shortly after joining Fifth Third.
Mary Ellen has spent over twenty-five years in financial services and from 2013-2015 she had the opportunity to work for a non-profit called “Buffalo Promise Neighborhood” as Program Director. While in this role, she implemented a six million dollar grant from The Annie E. Casey Foundation. The grant was aimed at improving the lives of children and their families in northeast Buffalo through a two-generation lens and innovative partnerships with other local non-profit agencies.
Mary Ellen believes in the importance of the arts in building a vibrant and healthy community. Since joining the Wyoming community, her daughters have enjoyed classes at WFAC and she has seen first hand the positive outcomes of education for children in the arts.
Mary Ellen earned a Master of Business Administration, with a concentration in Finance, from Canisius College.
Adam Wallace has loved musical theater since the age of 4 when he began with acting and dance lessons. While he end up pursuing a 20 plus year career in IT professional services, music, art and dance have always been close to his heart. Working with global customers at VMware, Adam has a long record of using people and technology to achieve business outcomes that exceed expectations.
Adam volunteers with National Ski Patrol during the colder months. He can also be found serving as a small group leader to the youth and singing in the choir at Kenwood Baptist Church.
Adam lived for many years in New York City, where he could be found enjoying live performances whenever he could. While in New York City, Adam served as both President and Vice President of his Co-Op Board. Returning to Cincinnati with his wife, Mary Kathryn, an Equity Stage Manager, and his three children, he lives in Wyoming and is excited to be working with the Fine Art Center.
A lifelong Wyoming resident, Jason Bartel grew up in a musical family and business. Jason’s father Paul, founder of the Baroque Violin Shop, as well as the Wyoming Fine Arts Center, exposed Jason to his passion for the arts at an early age.
After growing up in the family retail store, the Baroque Violin Shop, he chose this as his career path after graduating from the University Of Cincinnati with a bachelor's degree in Industrial Design. In 2011, Jason took his passion for music, and his experience in the orchestral string retail shop, and combined them into a new business, Maple Leaf Strings.
Maple Leaf Strings is an orchestral string manufacturer and national distributor that offers instruments from the student level to the professional level, as well as complimentary marketing and branding solutions for their customers.
Neith "Evie" Cardenas is a Commercial Leader at Procter & Gamble, where she manages the P&L, brand, and innovation for NA Home Care's Dawn & Gain hand dish businesses. Before joining Home Care, Evie worked on Hair Care, Beauty, Baby and Femcare brands at P&G, leveraging her strengths in strategic business management and marketing to grow those businesses. Prior to P&G, she worked in the non-profit sector. Fours years were dedicated to turning around the infrastructure and progress factors within the Boston Public School system as an Associate Director. Before that, she worked for both the DNCC and on President Clinton’s team to launch the Presidential Library and Grand Opening Ceremony in Arkansas.
Evie holds a Bachelors degree in International Business and Marketing from Northeastern University and an MBA from Babson College. She's originally from Boston, MA (Jamaica Plain). She now lives in Wyoming, Ohio with her husband Chip, their two children - Silas and Luca, and cat Sophie.
Elise Edelman has worked as an Innovation and Human Potential Consultant for the past 8 years. She previously spent 24 years in Product Development at Procter & Gamble, where she uncovered consumer insights to guide technology development and bring products to market. Her experiences developing new product ideas led her to coach teams and leaders on strategy, creative problem solving, and holistic idea development. She specializes in assessing organizational dynamics and leadership coaching. She holds a BS degree in Chemical Engineering from The University of Toledo. She lives in Wyoming with her husband Ken and daughter Fiona, who participates in art and musical theatre classes.
Kim Hennessy is an artist and educator living in Wyoming, Ohio. A native Cincinnatian, Kim has a BFA in studio art from DAAP at the University of Cincinnati and an MFA in painting and installation from the University of Massachusetts. Kim spent ten years in Massachusetts and New York City, balancing her time between making art, working as a freelance graphic designer and teaching. Selected exhibition cities include NYC, Boston, Seattle, Houston, Las Vegas and Portland. Kim is the co-creator of SoftSpot, a digital curatorial space. Kim is AMS Montessori certified, and she loves combining visual arts and the Montessori philosophy. She developed curriculum for and instructed programs at the Essex Art Center in Boston, Massachusetts and West Side Montessori school in NYC, and currently runs the art program at Terry's Montessori School in Wyoming, Ohio. She has two children who love creating art projects on every surface of the house, putting on musical extravaganzas at mealtime, and generally bringing comedy and drama to all moments.
Rachael Hussong is a certified public accountant working with a regional accounting firm. She has experience in audit, managed services and currently, ERP implementations. Rachael’s diverse background has given her insights into different Non-Profits, For-Profits, financials, and business systems. She holds her CPA in Ohio and KY.
Rachael lives in Wyoming with her family. When she is not crunching numbers, Rachael loves to be outdoors or spending time in a good book.
Chelsea Morgan has found a niche in comeback stories. She has spent much of her career in the software industry, helping teams work through challenging problems to find a place of pride and meaning. Her own comeback story from homelessness, a constant reminder of the power of hope.
Fueled by her passion from the arts, having been a classical musician studying piano, harp, cello, clarinet, and vocal performance - she has joined the Wyoming Fine Arts Center to help paint a new vibrant chapter.
Zachary Johnson grew up in Cincinnati playing in his school band and doing lights/sound for school plays. Before moving to Seattle to pursue a career at Microsoft Zach graduated from Northeastern University in Boston, where he majored in accounting and minored in architectural history. He eventually moved back to Cincinnati to start a family, and he lives in Wyoming with his wife and two young sons.
Zach has always loved the arts (especially theater and architecture) and one of the many reasons he chose to reside in Wyoming is its close-knit community, of which the Wyoming Fine Arts Center is an integral piece; he serves on the board to ensure its continued availability to his children and to future generations.
Marissa Stuparyk has been working in technology since she was a teenager building some of the first consumer websites in the late 1990s. With over twenty years of experience working as a product and user experience designer, Marissa thrives in this creative intersection where art and technology meet. She has designed and delivered dozens of websites and software products, from small bespoke agencies to education technology platforms, and she is currently a Staff Product Designer for Tanium, a cybersecurity company.
A lifelong arts enthusiast, Marissa grew up studying piano and ballet. She earned her BA from Cornell University and her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Michigan. Marissa and her family moved to Wyoming in 2019, where the Wyoming Fine Arts Center has been foundational to the family's continued arts education and growing connection with their community. She has been delighted to be able to volunteer her time and professional skills to create a new website experience for the center!