Arts Internship Program (for Students) - Peer Groups

Students will have the opportunity to participate in monthly activities lead by different Peer Group Leaders. These spaces are meant to complement students’ experiences within their host organizations by allowing them to explore other facets of finding (or securing) a job, creating and maintaining an artistic practice, and more. Each event, led by a local arts professional, supports students in meeting other interns, building their network, and learning more about the arts ecology of the region.  As part of the Arts Internship Program, students are required to attend at least one of these Peer Group events during their internship.

Please note, the below information is from the 2023 cycle and will be updated no later than April 30th, 2024.

Brian Elerding

A headshot of Brian Elerding.

Brian Elerding has worked as an actor, director, and writer for tv, film and theater for years, appearing in guest starring or recurring roles in Mad Men, NCIS, Castle, and more. He is also an arts administrator, as both the Executive Director of the Lineage Performing Arts Center, and the Artistic Director of the Ensemble Shakespeare Theater. He sees the arts as a way to leave the world better than he found it.

Charles Jensen

Charles Jensen is the author of three collections of poetry and a forthcoming memoir, Splice of Life, that hybridizes film criticism and autobiography. He directs the Writers' Program at UCLA Extension, one of the largest and most prestigious creative writing and screenwriting programs in continuing education.

Felicia Vann

Felicia

Felicia Vann has over 30 years of experience teaching and training inspiring dancers in jazz, lyrical, hip hop contemporary and liturgical praise dance techniques. A competitive dancer since the age of 6 Felicia has an extensive career in dance working with professional choreographers in the industry, coaching and choreographing for numerous dance and cheer teams, teaching master classes for performing arts programs and schools, and choreographing for dance productions and conventions. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in both Dance and Psychology from Loyola Marymount University in 1998 and works regularly as a dance competition adjudicator for organizations such as Miss Dance Drill Team USA, L.A.’s Best and the Los Angeles Unified School District. Felicia is currently the Spirit Coordinator and Head Coach for the Bishop Montgomery High School Spirit Squad and the Founding Executive Director and Lead Choreographer for the Precision Dance Company in Lomita, CA, a 501c3 non-profit dance company that she founded at the age of 15. Felicia’s life work has been training and inspiring dancers of all ages. She remains committed to the development of young people and continues to positively impact the lives of her students.

Larry Laboe

Larry Laboe

Larry Laboe is Co-Founder and Executive Director of NewFilmmakers Los Angeles (NFMLA), an organization championing filmmakers and storytellers worldwide. Larry is a member of the Producers Guild of America and has been a Faculty Member at the San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) and L Art University. He is a Board Member of the BRIC Foundation and Film Festival Alliance (FFA) and a Committee Member of SAGindie. Larry has produced content directed by talent such as Joseph Gordon Levitt, for some of the world’s leading brands, networks and studios, including Disney, NBC, VEVO, Dailymotion, MTV, DEFY Media, Comedy Central, Verizon, Amazon, Complex Media, Mountain Dew, Samsung, Coca-Cola, Verizon and Smuckers. These productions have been official selections at top festivals including South by Southwest (SXSW) and have won major awards including a BANFF World Media Festival Rockie Award.

Debra Pasquerette

D Pasquerette

Debra Pasquerette is the Director of Creative Aging Programs at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts. She has been with The Wallis since 2014 and was previously Manager of Community Engagement. Debra has worked in theater and arts management for over 30 years, including serving as the Director of Education at The Geffen Playhouse. Debra is a writer, director and mixed media artist. She studied Performance Studies at Arizona State University and New York University. 

 

Monica Fernandez

Monica Fernandez

Monica Fernandez graduated from the University of California, Irvine cum laude with a BA in English with an emphasis on Creative Writing, and from City University London with a MA in Creative Writing and Publishing. She has had several short fiction and creative nonfiction pieces published in The Chaffey Review, Rind Literary Magazine, Scribendi, The Left Coast Review, Creepy Gnome, and Pure Slush Magazine’s Envy anthology. She is Filipino-American, a proud Hufflepuff, and a film and theatre enthusiast.

Monica manages the media and publicity of all Red Hen’s books. She pioneers the Red Hen Reading Series in Pasadena, CA, arranges our participation in literary events across the country, promotes book news, reviews, and press publicity across our social media networks and contacts, connects authors with media and interview opportunities, and liaises with Foreign Rights and Film Rights agents for prospective sale of language and film rights.

Christie Rios

Christie Rios

Christie is a graduate of Cal State LA with a BA in English and a minor in Anthropology. She has danced for Danza Floricanto/USA since 1980 and has toured as a soloist with the Mexican folk dance company throughout the American Southwest and Mexico. Christie also serves as the coordinator and master of ceremonies for Floricanto's student assemblies and as such, has overseen over 550 student performances, sharing her love, humor and knowledge of Mexican lore with over 50,000 students. She is also the coordinator of the

Floricanto Institute, the teaching arm of the company, now on its 19th year. In this capacity, Christie has taught and inspired LA’s most vulnerable youth to dance and risk, in a safe space without judgement. In 2015 she spearheaded ‘Floricanto's Annual Dia del Niño', a day celebrating the talents of young musicians and dancers had over 100 participants from throughout the greater Los Angeles area. This event grew each year through 2019, until Covid-19 restrictions forced Floricanto to cancel this beloved event. In 2023 the event was reinstated with several of LA's renowned dance companies sending their youth dance troupes.

In her spare time, she is the Assistant Director of Danza Floricanto/USA and brings her unique perspective as a 3rd generation Chicana to all of her choreographies. To date, she has created dances on the universal topics of immigration, love, mental illness, motherhood and loss, using her traditional folklorico background of percussion based foot-work  to contemporary music.

Elisa Bocanegra

Elisa Bocanegra

Elisa Bocanegra is a Puerto Rican producer-director-actor. She is the founder and artistic director of HERO Theatre, a social and environmental justice community-based theatre company in Los Angeles. She is a Fulbright scholar and mentor. Elisa is currently in residence at Instituto Humboldt, a biodiversity research center, in Bogota, Colombia where she was commissioned to write and direct a play about environmental justice issues in Colombia.

Raissa Reis

Raissa Reis

Raissa Reis (Hi-ee-sa Heys) is the Manager of Emerging Careers at Women in Film, overseeing member programs for underrepresented filmmakers at the start of their career, as well as programs for the general WIF membership. She identifies as a queer Brazilian-American and hails from Framingham, MA. Raissa earned her B.A. in English and Media Studies from the University of San Francisco, as well as a certificate from the UCLA Writing for Television professional program. Prior to WIF, she worked at an experiential marketing firm and freelanced for live events such as the Teen Vogue Summit, MTV VMAs, MTV Movie & TV Awards, the Grammys, and the Emmys. She is also a filmmaker and most recently wrote and directed her first short film, which went on to win several awards at film festivals across the country.

Jennifer Fukutomi-Jones

Jennifer

Jennifer Fukutomi-Jones currently serves as Principal Arts & Culture Administrator with the City of Glendale’s Library, Arts and Culture department, and works directly with the Arts and Culture Commission to oversee public art initiatives of the Urban Art Program. Prior to working with the City of Glendale, Jennifer held previous roles with Arts for LA, Ford Theatre Foundation, The Unusual Suspects Theatre Company and LA Opera. Jennifer received her B.A. in American Literature and Culture with a minor in Theatre from UCLA.