Our Team
Cheryll Leo-Gwin, Principle
Cheryll Leo-Gwin is an award winning visual artist and “maker of things’. She earned her MFA in metal design at the University of Washington in 1977, and since has created work in a variety of materials from jewelry scaled 2 and 3-D work to large scale public art. Her work has been shown and collected in public and private collections across the US, China, and Great Britian.
Exploring new materials and processes, she currently uses images from her past decades of sculpture, painting, and photographic images which she isolates, recombines, then translates into large digital prints. As an emeritus arts administrator at Bellevue College and as a commissioner on state, county and local arts commissions her work reflects a sensitivity to public consciousness and social justice.
Barbara Jirsa has over 30 years of experience in the cultural arts. As a consultant, she provides expertise to arts organizations in public affairs and with individual artists to increase visibility and marketability.
As member of the City of Sammamish Arts Commission, Barbara has served as the curator of the City's Commons Gallery for the past 15 years mounting over 50 exhibits and numerous related programs. Barbara is a partner in Storyboards, a 501(C)(3) organization, developing exhibits and podcast episodes related to the Misty Poets of China.
She is also the coordinator of the educational program.
Barbara Jirsa, Principle
Gavin Reub, Director
Gavin Reub is a multidisciplinary director, producer, and dramaturg. He is the Artistic Director of The Seagull Project, and has directed at ACT Theatre, Hugo House, Lewis and Clark College, and the Ilkhom Theatre in Tashkent Uzbekistan. He won the Gregory Award for Outstanding Production in 2015 for their The Three Sisters.
Gavin is a founding member of interdisciplinary group Cheat Day, which premiered their full-length concert/immersive event at Nii Modo in 2018, and have performed in venues across Seattle, NYC, and Lima-Peru. He is the Director of Creative Development for Umbrella Project, a new play accelerator; teaches at Coyote Central and with Path with Art; is a resident artist at Jack Straw Cultural Center, and member of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab.
Arlene is a writer and teacher, currently with Seattle Arts and Lectures Writers in the Schools, Hugo House Scribes, and Pongo Teen Writing. Her publications include three chapbooks and poetry in such literary journals as Waxwing, Washington 129, La Piccioletta Barca, The Inflectionist Review, all the sins, The Telephone Project, Crab Orchard Review, The Seattle Review of Books.
She received literary grants from Seattle Office of Arts and Culture and Artist Trust in 2020.
Arlene Naganawa, Editor
Hummie Mann, Composer
Two-time Emmy-award winning Canadian composer/arranger Hummie Mann has collaborated with some of Hollywood's most celebrated directors in both theatrical and television films.
His motion pictures projects have ranged from Mel Brooks' “Robin Hood: Men in Tights” to Peter Yates' “Year of the Comet”, the children’s film“Thomas and the Magic Railroad” to “Wooly Boys” directed by Leszek Burzynski, starring Peter Fonda, Kris Kristofferson, Keith Carradine and Joe Mazzello.
Leslie Jirsa, Educational Consultant
Leslie Jirsa is a former journalist and film documentarian, currently serving as a New York City public school instructional Coach and Master Teacher.
For each of the different parts of her professional life, Leslie has collected the stories and experience of adults and children to explore both the painful destruction and powerful beauty of personal pasts--all for the illumination of our collective future.
It's her honor to be a part of the BackStory project.
Advisory Board
Cathy Lee
Cathy was raised in Seattle, having immigrated at age 1 from Taiwan. She graduated from the University of Washington in Computer Science and also earned an MBA. After college, Cathy lived in California, Singapore, and Tianjin before returning to the Pacific Northwest 15 years later and currently works at Boeing.
Cathy serves as the National Vice President of Communications for the Chinese American Citizens Alliance, president of the Chinese American Citizens Alliance Seattle chapter, board member of the Chinese Information & Services Center, and volunteer host for foreign students through the Foundation of International Understanding Through Students (FIUTS).
Robert Fahrer
Robert Fahrer, Ph.D., currently an executive coach/consultant, has worked in several public and private-sector leadership positions, including University V.P - Student Affairs, Washington State Higher Education Compensation Director, Morgan Stanley S.V.P. Financial Advisor, and has served on the Stanley Ann Dunham (mother of former President Barak Obama) Scholarship Fund Board.
He has produced “Beowulf in the Round,” a study of the epic poem Beowulf and its meaning for our time, currently an event proposal submitted to the National Nordic Museum.