Consultants (Copy) — Unlock Creative Foundation

Consultants

First Welcome. We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your interest in selecting our services. Below are the consultants that we are partnering with for 2023 to provide excellent service to our clients. New consultants coming soon.

Zenobia is a strong advocate for justice and uses her legal experience to serve on Boards of arts organizations, support with compliance and artist contract preparation and review.
Zenobia has used her legal experience to serve on the boards of arts organizations and to support compliance. She holds a BS in Political Science from Carnegie Mellon and an MA in African American studies and JD from the University of California Los Angeles. At UCLA, she served as a Submissions Editor, Managing Editor, Staff of the Entertainment Law Review-Journal, Co-President of the Juvenile Hall Clinic, and Co-President of BLSA (Black Law Students Association).
Zenobia has worked with the National Center for Youth Law in Oakland, CA primarily working on a literature review on Implicit Bias in the Juvenile Justice System and at East Bay Children’s Law Office.
Zenobia is on the Board of the National Black Women’s Creative Cooperative and Hi Arts. Zenobia has been an active member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. since 2007. She has served in a variety of leadership roles in multiple chapters including President, Vice President, Secretary, and Committee Chairmen.
Services Offered: Artist Contract, Organizational HR Contract Review, By-Law Review, Consulting, Public Speaking, Coaching, Law and/or Policy Reform and Advocacy.
Available: Booking 2023 & 2024

Eric Warren Jr. (EJ) is a Licensed Psychotherapist, Marriage and Family Therapist, Motivational Facilitator and Wellness Advisor.
Currently, Eric fosters mental wellness among professionals in sports and entertainment industries. He helps high achievers in competitive environments acclimate to success, develop a mindset to cultivate talent, overcome adversity, and craft meaningful and sustainable lifestyles and families. EJ is the CEO of Eric Warren Enterprises, Co-founder/Owner of Pride Rock Wellness, and an emerging therapeutic expert in the field of co-parenting.
EJ has connected deeply with many segments of the mental health service community. His professional career has included serving in nonprofit, government, and private sectors. Prior to becoming a licensed marriage and family therapist, Eric provided direct care to intellectually disabled adults and now currently serves as consultant and family advocate for individuals that receive services through various Los Angeles County Regional Centers. Through Pride Rock Wellness, he facilitated court-ordered anger management and batter’s intervention services. He has served as a clinician with the Department of Mental Health in South Los Angeles. While there, EJ worked with various programs, including Wraparound, Therapy Behavior Services, and Full-Service Partnership.
Services Offered: Corporate Coaching for individuals and teams, Group Facilitation, Performance Anxiety, Emotional Intelligence & Co-Parenting
Available: Booking for 2023

Varsey Laurelle is a Professional Development Facilitator and Leadership Coach. She is the principal of Varsey Laurelle LLC consulting firm, where she is extremely passionate about partnering with leaders to create spaces where everyone is seen, valued, and heard. She does this with empathy, awareness, and intentionality.
She has 10+ years of experience as a Leadership Coach and Professional Development Facilitator. This work has allowed her to harness her craft and further cultivate her passion for creating spaces where people feel empowered to be their best authentic selves and thrive! She is a graduate of Wright State University where she obtained her BA in Mass
Communications with a focus on Public Speaking and a Marketing minor. She also received her MBA from Ashland University. Varsey enjoys having meaningful conversations, preferable over a nice glass of wine (off the clock), spending time in nature with friends and family, and solo traveling.
Services Offered: Professional Development Facilitation and Leadership Coaching

Mark Travis Rivera is an award-winning creative entrepreneur and professional storyteller. He aims to empower the next generation of creatives to become tomorrow's inclusive and equitable leaders by providing support through communications management, public speaking coaching, writing, choreography, and podcasting.
Telling stories is at the core of Mark’s purpose in life. A graduate of William Paterson University of New Jersey, Rivera earned a bachelor’s in women’s & gender studies with a minor in public relations. In 2013, Rivera received the Student Government Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award for his commitment to the William Paterson community. In the same year, he was honored with the Campus Pride Voice & Action Award for his work with the LGBTQ community. In addition, Rivera received the Audre Lorde Award for Social Justice from John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY. Rivera is the youngest person to found an integrated dance company in the United States; marked dance project, a contemporary company for dancers with and without disabilities, established in March 2009 made its debut at Rutgers University. Through MDP, Rivera worked with choreographers Caitlin Trainor, Stacey Tookey, Todrick Hall, Tyce Diorio, and Marinda Davis.
After ten years of remarkable dancing, Rivera decided to dissolve the marked dance project and continue working as an independent disabled choreographer. As a marketing and program manager, Rivera has extensive experience working in higher education, arts non-profits, and the private sector. His TEDxTalk, “Embracing Yourself, Embracing Your Potential,” shares his journey as a Latinx queer disabled femme person and the importance of media representation. Rivera’s writing has appeared in The Bergen Record, Herald News, The Star-Ledger, Fox News Latino, and The Huffington Post. His debut collection, Drafts: An Imperfect Collection of Writing, was published in August 2017 through Amazon. In addition, Rivera has spoken in front of audiences at Harvard University and MIT as a speaker. More recently, he spoke virtually for Facebook Latin America in collaboration with We Create Space. a UK-based wellness organization for LGBTQ+ leaders. He was also a featured speaker for the global DEI summit, Amplify DEI, based in Amsterdam. In 2020, Rivera launched his wellness podcast, Marking The Path, available on Apple Podcast and Spotify.
Services Offered: Speaking, Storytelling Coaching, Facilitation, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Training.
Available: Booking for 2023 & 2024

Alessandra Brown is a Strategic Thinker and has experience in Corporate Social Responsibility, Community Engagement, and Outreach initiatives.
Alessandra Brown is the founder and CEO of A Brown Consulting Group and partner consultant of Unlock Creative. Prior to forming ABC Group, she spent over 15 years focused on Corporate Social Responsibility, Community Engagement, and Outreach initiatives.
During her tenure at Athena Global Advisors, she led the company’s Business Development efforts including expanding its sports vertical to include esports and digital gaming initiatives. Alessandra served as the first Director of the Roxbury Innovation Center, where she implemented programming aimed at creating a diverse and connected Innovation ecosystem in Boston and eliminating the digital divide for entrepreneurs and students in Boston’s under-served communities.
She received her M.F.A in Production and Management from California Institute of the Arts and her B.A. in Theater Arts and English from Boston College.
Services Offered: Facilitation, Organizational Development, Strategic Planning, Program Design
Available: Booking for 2023 & 2024

Currently, Deonté serves as the inaugural Managing Director of External Affairs at Artist Communities Alliance. Previously he served as Director of Programs and Services at New Jersey Theatre Alliance. In this role, he oversaw the core programs of the Alliance such as annual combined auditions, the Cultural Access Network, New Jersey Stage Exchange, and curates the Stages Festival which is the state’s largest theatre festival. In an effort to connect, empower, and cultivate other arts and cultural leaders of color, in 2019 Deonté developed and spearheaded the New Jersey Arts and Culture Administrators of Color Network.
In 2020, Deonté joined the team of Unlock Creative, a social enterprise whose mission is to nurture, grow, and sustain Black creative leadership in the arts and culture nonprofit and entertainment industry. He also serves on the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion committee of ArtPride NJ.
Deonté has served on grant review panels for the National Endowment for the Arts, Alternate ROOTS, Mississippi Center for Cultural Production, The City of San Diego Commision for Arts and Culture, local arts agencies and has participated on the Nomination Advisory Committee for the Mid Atlantic Arts Regional Resilience Fund.
He is a recipient of the inaugural Individual Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Award from the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies and the Outstanding Achievement in the Arts Award from the Union County Urban League of Young Professionals. Deonté holds a BA in Theatre with a Communications minor from Kean University and a Masters in Arts Administration at Drexel University.
When not working as an administrator, Deonté is actively seeking opportunities to showcase his skills as an actor.
Services Offered: Coaching for Emerging Artists and Administrators, Workshop Facilitation, Creative Program Development, Management and Planning
Booking: 2023 & 2024

Tramaine Chelang’at is a global Social Impact Strategist and Management with 15 plus years of senior management and communications experience in Public Health, Media, Arts, Education, Policy, Advocacy, Community Engagement, Social Justice, Leadership Development, and Innovation. Additionally, she has lived and worked in Kenya, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Rwanda, Nigeria, England, and the U.S.
Tramaine is a Kenyan-American - born and raised in the American South - who has been based in New York City since 2004. She received her B.A. in English-Creative Writing and Media Studies and M.A. in Intercultural Management and International Development. She is an award-winning writer, an Innovative Cultural Advocacy Fellow at the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute, and a member of the Association for Managers of Innovation.
Tramaine has focused on Africa by serving various organizations including God’s House International, Africa Action, and Global Health Action. Her successful 2010 graduate thesis focused on the Emergence of the Creative Economy in Africa and the Role of Entrepreneurs.
Services Offered: Coaching for Emerging Artists and Administrators, Workshop Facilitation, Creative Program Development, Management and Planning
Available: Booking 2023 & 2024

Shay Wafer, has demonstrated a stalwart dedication to the arts and community development through many years of service to the field. Her passionate vision is balanced with pragmatic experience, as she has held senior-level positions at a number of non-profit arts organizations with a focus on African Diasporic programming and community engagement. Currently the Executive Director of WACO Theater Center in Los Angeles, she was the Executive Director of 651 ARTS in Brooklyn and the founding VP of Programs for the August Wilson Center for African American Culture, a multi-disciplinary center and museum in downtown Pittsburgh. Prior to that, she served as the managing director of Cornerstone Theater Company, LA Theatreworks, and the St. Louis Black Repertory Company. She also was a founding partner of Marla Gibb’s Crossroads Arts Academy and Theatre. Ms. Wafer has engaged in the additional community and volunteer activities throughout her career including serving on the Board of Directors of National Performance Network (currently the Board Chair), Theatre Communications Group, and as a NEFA National Theatre Project and National Dance Project Advisor. She has served on grant panels for The NEA, MAP Fund, Doris Duke, Mellon, Kresge, and Bush Foundations. She is a graduate of Howard University and Yale School of Drama.
Services Offered: Coaching and Managing Director on Demand
Coaching Available: Monday , Wednesday & Friday 9am- 3pm PST, Booking 2023 & 2024

Serica Weaver is an author, designer, facilitator, and visual artist.
She is a Creative Flowers Professional Sistah Circle Alum and a 2022 Shay Wafer Executive Management Fellow.
Her passion for mental wellness, mindfulness, and love for all things creative led to her publishing her first book, "Love, Serica: A free spirit’s journey to living, breathing, and existing authentically."
She began her creative journey at Spelman College studying Studio Art and later received her B.F.A in Interior Design from Savannah College of Art and Design.
Services Offered: Social Media Management, Graphic Design, Writing, Editing, Creative Flowers Facilitator
Booking: 2023 & 2024