Amy Cooley

Amy Cooley is a Community Health Educator, Health Consultant, and a
Certified Childbirth Educator at Kaiser Permanente. She attended school
at UC Davis and Portland State University, graduating with a degree in
Community Health Education. She works primarily with under-served
communities focusing on healthy eating and active living. She also talks
to Kaiser members about making healthy lifestyle changes and teaches
childbirth and breastfeeding classes. She also taught elementary school
Physical Education. In her spare time, Amy loves being with her family,
being outdoors, and considers herself a gym-junkie.

Anya Hankin

Anya is an educator, creative facilitator, published journalist, and theatre artist. She has developed and facilitated innovative curricula for middle school, high school, and college programs across Oregon and Washington and currently works with the Illumination Project, a Portland Community College peer education program utilizing interactive theatre to explore communal and social issues. In 2002, her piece “In Our Own Words” exploring the lives of Israeli and Palestinian youth was incorporated into middle and high school curricula throughout the state of Washington. Committed to experiential learning and critical pedagogy, Anya is currently completing dual graduate degrees in Conflict Resolution at Portland State University and Drama Therapy at the National Association of Drama Therapy.

In Portland, Anya has performed with Hand2Mouth, Fever Theater, The Portland Playwrights Group, Sojourn Theatre and Theatre for a Change. Anya is a founding member of The Bluestockings Theatre Company, and serves as Creative Director of the Portland-based Playback Theatre, engaging in an original form of improvisational theatre in which audience members tell stories from their lives and watch them enacted on the spot.

When she’s not writing papers or designing lesson plans, Anya relieves stress by attending kick-boxing classes, creating mixed-media collage, and cooking scrumptious meals.

Molly Haynes

Molly Haynes is the Community Project Coordinator for Kaiser Permanente in the Northwest Region. In this role, she collaborates with other agencies to create healthy communities through policy and environmental change. Molly is a registered dietitian and earned her Master’s degree in Public Health from Portland State University’s School of Community Health. Molly is a native Oregonian who enjoys spending time outdoors and loves eating fresh Oregon berries.

Jo Lane

Theatre Arts Teacher: Arts, Communication, & Technology School
Jo Lane, BFA in theatre education from Univ. of AZ and MA in Theatre Production from Central WA Univ., teaches and directs Theatre Arts at the Arts, Communication, & Technology School on the Roosevelt HS Campus. Formerly the Artistic Director for Fourteenth Avenue Players at Winterhaven School, Lane also previously taught in Tucson, AZ where she co-founded Opening Act Theatre Company. Opening Act Theatre Company is a summer theatre training program for young adults (7th-12th grade). This summer, Lane is expanding the program to include Green Show Theatre Company (1st-6th grade). Lane has worked in several community theatres across AZ in acting, directing, and technical theatre. Lane toured the U.S. and Canada as an actor and stagehand. She has taught Theatre Arts grades K-college. Lane is also published nationally in theatre education journals and has conducted theatre workshops for Oregon Theatre Arts Alliance, where she is president-elect, Educational Theatre Association, and International Thespian Society.

John San Nicolas

John San Nicolas has been a professional actor since 1997, and a member of the Portland theatre community since the fall of 2005 when he made his local debut in “Elliot: A Soldier’s Fugue” at Miracle Theatre. Since then he has worked with Integrity Productions (”The Odd Couple: Female Version” and “Miss Witherspoon”), Brundog Productions (”One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”), La Famiglia Productions (”Who Stole My Dead Husband?”), Salem Rep. (”It’s a Wonderful Life”), Artists Repertory Theatre (”Ghosts of Celillo”), and Oregon Children’s Theatre (”The Red Badge of Courage”). He has also worked with the Educational Theatre Program previously as the Host of “The Pressure Point!”. Most recently seen in Action/Adventure Theatre’s improvised serial comedy “Fall of the House”, John can be seen in the upcoming films “Crackin’ the Code” and “Management”, as well as in Broadway Rose Theatre’s April/May production of “Getting to Know You” and in the fifth season of “Fall of the House” in June.

Grace Shapiro

Grace Shapiro has performed all over the United States before recently making her home in Portland, OR. She received her Bachelor’s Degree in English and Theatre Arts at Cornell University, and also completed studies at the British American Drama Academy in London. She is a proud member of Actor’s Equity and the Screen Actor’s Guild, and an alumnus of John Houseman’s The Acting Company. She has performed extensively throughout the country, and developed new plays at New York Theatre Workshop, Sundance Theatre, with notable directors John Rando, JoAnne Akalaitis, and Leigh Silverman. Prior work includes guest-starring roles opposite Richard Dreyfuss and Vincent D’Onofrio. She currently splits her time between teaching in What Do You See? and coaching local high school students through PlayWrite.

Wade Willis

Wade received his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Oregon in Music Composition and Vocal Performance and a Masters of Arts in Teaching from Pacific University with certifications in Theatre Arts and Vocal Music.

His acting credits include many regional commercials and industrial films. His favorite stage roles include Jerry in the hit musical The Full Monty (Pixie Dust Productions), Enjolras in Les Miserables and Sparky in Forever Plaid (Broadway Rose Theatre Company) Officer Lockstock in Urinetown (Stumptown Stages), Tony (US) in West Side Story (Portland Center Stage), Henrik in A Little Night Music (Mainstage Theatre Productions), Petruchio in Taming of the Shrew and Oberon in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Tylan Associates), George in Same Time Next Year and Mark in Mass Appeal. Wade can be seen this summer as Freddie in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (Broadway Rose Theatre Company).

His career has taken him off stage and out to sea where he entertained on the Columbia Queen, The Queen of the West, and The Empress of the North cruise lines. He has sung with both the Eugene and Colorado Symphony Orchestras. Mr Willis has also written and produced two musicals, Mad Avenue and Illyria, the latter based on his experiences in 1994 when he volunteered to work at a refugee camp in Bosnia for four months.

Wade recently resigned from his eight year position as the Theatre Arts Director of the two-time, state award winning theatre arts department at Southridge High School.

He has been honored in Who’s Who of American Teachers for six years and the City of Beaverton bestowed Wade with two awards: the 2002 Outstanding Educator in the Arts Award and the 2006 Human Rights Advisory Commission’s Individual Diversity Award.
Wade continues to coach students privately and teach classes for local theatre companies. Many of his students have been accepted to some of the most prestigious Theatre Arts Schools in the country.