Project HOPE Art Mission Statement
To inspire, heal and improve the quality of life for children in need through the creative process of art.
Sophie Champagne – Haiti Relations Director
Kathee Claudio – Strategic Planning Director
Caledonia Curry – Board Member-At-Large
Alexandre David – Haiti Relations Director
Jess Hobbs – Philanthropy Director
Alex Mace – Finance Director
Jason Moore – Board Member
Melissa Schilling – Chairwomen of the Board
About our Board
SOPHIE CHAMPAGNE
Sophie Champagne is a Professional Engineer based in Montreal. She initially went to
Haiti in 2008, for two short-term trips. Her work in Les Cayes, Haiti involved the
rehabilitation and expansion of the electrical network. Later in 2011,
she served another 9 months to work in Port-au-Prince with
NRECA International, an American NGO. NRCA helps to bring electricity to poor
rural communities in developing nations. After 5 months, she returned to Les
Cayes to help complete the electrical grid project started in 2008. Within her career, Sophie has also participated in projects in many developing countries in Africa like Guinea,
Côte d’ivoire and Senegal.
In Montreal, Sophie is also a first-aid volunteer for Red Cross Canada
and she volunteers for Le Phare, a non-profit organization that contributes to
the wellbeing of children whose lives are threatened by illnesses that require
complex treatment, and provides respite and support to their families.
Sophie is the co-founder of Skate Haiti, a Canadian NGO whose mandate is to introduce therapeutic outlets in the form of skateboard activities and to build skateparks in Haiti.
Sophie is passionate about learning and exchanging with others’ culture. She
fluently speaks French, English, and Spanish and she is learning Kreyol and
German.
She owns a B.A in electrical engineering and a minor in German Language. Sophie
is currently completing a minor in international relations with the focus on human
rights.
KATHEE CLAUDIO
CALEDONIA CURRY
Working under the artist name Swoon, Callie has spent the last 13 years in an ongoing exploration of the relationship of people to their built environment. She began work as a classically trained visual artist and printmaker, and has an ongoing project of wheat pasting portraits to the walls of cities around the world. This initial impetus to create interventions in the urban landscape has continued to unfold in a variety of ways. From 2006-2009, she constructed and navigated flotillas of rafts made from recycled materials down the Mississippi and Hudson rivers, and across the Adriatic Sea to Venice. Since 2008, Callie has been working independently and in collaboration with the collective Transformazium on community based projects in the town of Braddock, Pennsylvania. In 2010 and 2011 with the group Konbit Shelter, she constructed first a community center and then a home in earthquake devastated Haiti, bringing the creative process into the reconstruction effort. Callie is currently working toward the construction of a musical house, entitled Dithyrambalina in New Orleans with New Orleans Airlift. Alongside her community based practices, she has a studio and installation based practice of drawing, printmaking, and the construction of architectural installations and sculptures.
ALEXANDRE DAVID
Alexandre David is a Professional Electric Manager based in Montreal.
He worked for 9 months in Les Cayes for a project in electricity. His work in Les Cayes, Haiti involved the rehabilitation and expansion of the electrical network. He is now working on a project in Tabarre, Port-au-Prince to build a new electric substation. While in les Cayes, he and his girlfriend Sophie Potvin-Champagne started a little skatepark, called Skate Haiti.
They are now planning to open another one in PAP in 2014-2015.
He fluently speaks French and English and he is learning Kreyol.
SORA EDWARDS-THRO
Maker, Idea Generator, Master of Many Languages, Before joining the Board, Sora helped launch a digital library program at the Rajepre School.
Storytelling has always been important to Sora, from kindergarten when they spent naptime writing stories about fairies to college when they started crafting zines. They are particularly interested in how art can help us create communities, reflect on our pasts and presents, and imagine alternatives for the future. Sora started traveling to Haiti in high school and now spends every summer and winter there. They have launched technology projects at thirteen schools around the country, focusing on stimulating students and promoting literacy by providing access to a variety of digital books and resources. They are studying linguistics and education at William & Mary in Virginia. The best book they read recently is Imagine Me Gone, and the TV show they want everyone to watch is Halt and Catch Fire (especially the third season).
sledwardsthro@email.wm.edu
ALEX MACE
Alex Mace is a people/project/process manager who has spent the last 14 years working for various companies in the Bay Area. He traveled to Haiti in 2012 and saw firsthand both the amazing, inspiring things that were being accomplished, as well as how much opportunity there was to do so much more.
Alex is a musical artist. He has been DJ’ing and otherwise contributing to the Bay Area dance community for many years and plays guitar in a local Rock & Roll band. A devoted father, he wants his son – and all our children – to grow up in a world we can be all proud of.
MELISSA SCHILLING
Melissa Schilling, a published writer and photographer, makes art with special needs children throughout Silicon Valley. She co-founded Project HOPE Art in 2010 after completing work on a garden project in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina.
Melissa speaks in sparkles. Her ideas are known to cause tremors of activity, and her movements cause ripples in those around her. Underneath her skin lies the spirit of Beryl Markham and the tongue of an auctioneer. She learned everything she knows from her mother and she’s proud to admit it.
After earning a B.A. in Communications and an M.S. in Soil Science, she launched her cheese and wine consulting entity, Praise Cheeses. She has been providing delight and education for Microsoft, Ebay, Yahoo, Hewlett Packard and Google, as well as contributing food articles to Edible East Bay Magazine and the Santa Cruz Sentinel newspaper. When she’s not teaching, roller skating or knee deep in her garden, you can find Melissa Schilling capturing the fluidity of life through her photography site, MelissaSchilling.com