Staff
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Jessica Robinson Love
Executive & Artistic Director
Jessica Robinson Love has served CounterPULSE for ten years. During that time, she has ushered CounterPULSE through a merger and relocation, expanding the organization’s budget ten-fold during her tenure as director. She designed and implemented CounterPULSE’s successful Artist in Residence program, and has curated dozens of performances and workshops. She has also served as guest curator for organizations such as Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and the San Francisco International Arts Festival.
Jessica is a writer, performer and political activist and her dance writing has been published in In Dance and on CriticalDance.com. She has worked in administration, production, and publicity for artists and arts organizations including Jess Curtis, Keith Hennessy / Circo Zero, Dance Through Time, and the Erika Shuch Performance (ESP) Project.
Jessica served as adjunct faculty member at the New College of California where she has designed and implemented courses including “Activist Arts Synthesis”, “Arts Administration and Cultural Organizing” and “20th Century US History through the Arts.” During her tenure on the Isadora Duncan Dance Awards Committee she was responsible for curating and co-producing the annual Bay Area Dance Awards. She has served on the steering committee for San Francisco Arts Forum, the Theatre Bay Area Theatre Services Committee, the Dance/USA Emerging Leader Task Force, and the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of Alternate ROOTS, a service and granting organization for community-based artists in the Southeastern United States. She has been the recipient of awards and scholarships from Dance/USA and the Bill T. Shannon Leadership Institute, and was the inaugural recipient of the Bay Area Dancers’ Choice Award for her service to the dance community.
Julie E. PhelpsProgram Manager: Artist Residencies and Gallery
Julie joined the CounterPULSE staff in July of 2008. She was born in a small town with the Mississippi River running through. She is steeped in the magic and mystery of that river. As a child she was absorbed by the world stage, theatre and character creation became an obsession. Time has brought Julie through studying dance and art history, receiving a BA in psychology from Macalester College (MN) and landing her in San Francisco in 2007. She has has studied with Sara Shelton Mann and Keith Hennessy. She also works as a performer, curator, and producer. Recent works include: performing in Jesse Hewit’s Total Facts Known (2009) and Tell Them That you Saw Me (debut in August 2010 at CounterPULSE); co-curates/produces Too Much! a queer marathon with Keith Hennessy; co-curates CounterPULSE’s May Day Festival (2010) and Artists in Residence program. She imagines art-making as a curative force that pours through space and time collecting the silt of people and places, arriving at a cloudy release that is merely another beginning.
Darl Andrew PackardTheater Manager
Darl Andrew Packard is a Baltimore, Maryland native who graduated with a double major in Communications and Theater from Goucher College. Prior to moving to the West Coast Andrew worked for a local television news outlet in Baltimore where he was the Entertainment News Producer and the Morning News Editor. He found San Francisco in 2006 by way of David Dower and Josh Kornbluth both of whom he met at the Sundance Theater Lab; he still works as Josh Kornbluth’s Stage Manager and Traveling Technical Director. Andrew also frequently works with The Z Space Studio and Word for Word Performing Arts in various capacities. Andrew is excited to serve as CounterPULSE’s Theater Manager and learn all he can about the interesting people and projects that come through our wonderful space.
Ryan CrowderCommunications Manager
Ryan Crowder joined CounterPULSE in August, 2008, and during his tenure as Communications Manager he has overseen the redesign and strategic structuring of CounterPULSE’s website, blog, and social web presence leading the organization to its standing as a thought leader in online communications and engagement in the San Francisco bay area arts community. Previously Ryan organized Out & Equal Workplace Advocate’s annual Workplace Summit for over 2000 LGBT individuals and allies in America’s workplaces to organize and learn about LGBT workplace equality, empowerment and non-discrimination. Ryan holds a BA in American Studies from Syracuse University and a Masters degree in Human Sexuality Studies from San Francisco State University where his research focused on homophobia and heterosexism. Ryan has been published in American Sexuality magazine, In Dance, and blogs at overshar.es. Ryan is also a graphic designer specializing in print promotions and WordPress website design. He has held internships at Frameline and an editorial position at Sexuality Research and Social Policy: Journal of the NSRC. He was Executive Director of Syracuse University’s chapter of Habitat for Humanity; is a member of the International Association for the Study of Sexuality, Culture and Society; and served on the Equality Scholarship Collaborative and Frameline’s annual film screening committees. ryancrowder.com
He has lived in San Francisco for the past 5 years and resides with his partner, Ed and cat, Chammee in the Mission. He enjoys crocheting, sewing, graphic novels, quirky media and surprising and awe-inspiring film and performance.
Hae-Jin KimProgram Manager: Community Art
Hae-Jin Kim is thrilled to serve as Program Manager for CounterPULSE. She brings to CounterPULSE a thoughtful enthusiasm for the diverse and extensive arts programming made possible by its dedicated staff and passionate audience. Hae-Jin holds a Masters degree from Stanford University where her studies specialized in Art Education. Her most recent experience includes acting as a director for a New York American art gallery, and prior to that she worked at SFMOMA and a New York auction house. Hae-Jin has a background in curating, marketing, events, budgeting and research and loves working with artists, students and all members of the public art community alike. She lists Florence, Italy among her favorite places to sojourn. Hae-Jin is no stranger to bungee jumping nor sampling exotic cuisine such as fried caterpillars and enjoys sipping a steaming mug of a delicately brewed citron tea while watching The Bicycle Thief.
Rozelle PolidoAdministrative Coordinator
Rozelle Polido is a dancer, choreographer, and educator who is passionate about making art accessible for all people in every corner of the world. Rozelle hails from Waipahu, Hawaii and holds a B.A. in Creative Writing and English Composition from Pepperdine University. In Los Angeles, she danced and choreographed with Dance in Flight and apprenticed with Meh-Tropolis Dance Theatre. Since moving to San Francisco, she has come to love its diverse community, and looks forward to reaching deeper into the city and inspiring greater horizons with our rich art scene. Rozelle currently dances and choreographs with Denia Dance Company, as well as other independent dance projects in the city, and is an artist in residence at the Garage ArtSpace. When not working at CounterPULSE, Rozelle enjoys eating everything: ducks, stars, dryer lint, noodles, the ocean, piano keys, cats, vics vapor rub, and more.
Kathryn Cole
Development & Executive Assistant
Kathryn Cole enjoys the written word, acting, the body in motion, and the narratives that weave these forms together. She recently completed her B.A. in English writing at the University of San Francisco. Having just recently added dance to her list of passions, she has had the pleasure of performing pieces by Amie Dowling, Katie Faulkner, and Kelly Kemp, as well as directing and choreographing her own work. Additionally, she has performed with the Dance Generators—an inter-generational dance group with dancers from 18 to 80, and acted in several theater productions, including The Laramie Project, Metamorphoses, and Agnes of God.
Margarita GalindoProgram Intern
Margarita Galindo is a dance educator who relocated to the Bay Area seven years ago, originally from Southern California. She has since earned her B.A. in Performing Arts & Social Justice from the University of San Francisco, and has had the great pleasure of working with a varied and talented number of artists from the worlds of both movement and text-based theatre.
Margarita has engaged in collaborative exchange with classroom instructors in Tacna, Peru and performed locally with The Dance Generators, a San Francisco based intergenerational dance company. Most recently she appeared at San Francisco City Hall in the Erika Chong Shuch Performance Project’s production of Love Everywhere and at Off-Market Theaters in the Generation Theatre production of Moliere’s Tartuffe.
Margarita is genuinely grateful to be chosen for this internship opportunity with CounterPulse and hopes she will do you all proud.
Estacia HuddlestonOutreach Intern
Estacia Huddleston moved to San Francisco to be a part of optimism in action. Her experience in Art and desert sustainability taught her to look at the world in a way that bridges extremes. A holistic collaborator, she brings a sophisticated aesthetic and systemic thinking to all of her projects. In her spare time she enjoys developing her comic book, eating local food and traveling.
Meleta BuckstaffTechnical Intern
Meleta grew up in the ski town of Jackson, Wyoming, where she began dancing and working on performances at a young age. In 2009 she graduated from Smith College with degrees in American Studies and Dance Performance and Technique. After leaving Smith she returned to Jackson to perform with Wyoming’s only modern dance company, Contemporary Dance Wyoming, before making her way to the bay area and eventually to CounterPULSE. When not dancing or working on productions she does a variety of other art and craft projects, cooks for her roommates, and tries to make her apartment cozy.
