Board

Lisa Dellagiarino Feriend – President

Lisa helped run Arts For All when it was the Community Connections Club at NYU and was involved in its transition from university club to nonprofit organization. Over the years, she has had the unique opportunity to be both an Arts For All teaching artist as well as a teacher whose classroom was enriched by Arts For All workshops. Lisa is a playwright currently living in Singapore. She has a BFA in Film and TV from NYU and is a member of the Dramatists Guild.

 

Robin Cannon Colwell – Secretary

Robin is pleased to continue her work with Arts For All as a board member after working for AFA as a teaching artist for over 9 years teaching drama, music, and creative dance. She designed curriculum and taught for AFA’s Literacy Through the Arts program and was also a program manager and member of the fundraising committee. She also worked as a teaching artist with PlayOn! Studios and Long Island City Kids. Robin served as Director of Education for Infinity Theatre Company from 2010 – 2016, where she ran the high school and college internship programs, taught workshops, and produced Theatre for Young Audiences. She had the opportunity to work with Harlem Children’s Theatre Festival from 2014 – 2016, where she directed and co-wrote original TYA works.  Graduate research led her to co-write #BRAVESPACE, an Ethnodrama examining the impact of theatre on youth with social or emotional disabilities, youth questioning gender identity, and LGBTQ youth. The piece was chosen to perform in the 2017 NYU Forum on Ethnodrama and her research team won the 2016 Bertram Epstein Memorial Award. Robin is also an actress and children’s musician, performing at live events as Captain Robin (with her hot pink guitar, Pinkerton). She worked full time as a theatre teacher for Chester Park School in Queens before leaving NYC.  Ms. Colwell then worked in Tucson, Arizona, where she was an Arts Integration Specialist in Performing Arts with Opening Minds Through the Arts (OMA) for Tucson Unified School District.  She recently relocated with her family to Atlanta, Georgia where she is now the Theatre Teacher for the STEAM program at Baggett Elementary School.  She holds a BFA in Musical Theatre from The University of Mississippi, a M.S. ED Educational Theatre from The City College of New York, and is a certified theatre teacher K – 12.

Kerri D’Ambrosio – Treasurer

Kerri is a 2003 graduate of New York University, where she received a Bachelor of Science degree in Communications and Cultural Studies, with a concentration in Mass Media. While at NYU, Kerri served as a volunteer for Community Connections, which ultimately transitioned into Arts For All, and she received the President’s Service Award for Volunteerism and Community Service for other volunteer work performed at the university.  In 2008, Kerri graduated, cum laude, from Hofstra University School of Law, where she served as Senior Research Editor for Volume 36 of the Hofstra Law Review and received the Hofstra Law Review’s 2008 Kenneth S. Horton Award of Excellence for her service and dedication.  Kerri was an associate with Chalos & Co, P.C. – International Law Firm for several years, and is currently admitted to practice in multiple state and federal courts throughout New York, Connecticut, and Texas. Kerri is now an Executive Claims Specialist at Markel Service, Inc.  She is the current Committee Chair of Arts For All’s Operations Committee.

Anna Roberts Ostroff – Executive Director

Anna holds a BFA in Drama from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, where she studied Musical Theater and minored in Applied Theater and Psychology. While in college, Anna did multiple arts outreach programs through her club, Community Connections. Community Connections, which later transitioned into Arts For All, also won the President’s Service Award at NYU two years in a row. Anna has many professional theatrical credits from all over the country and has also served as a producer on multiple theatrical productions both inside and outside of New York City. In the past, Anna worked as a teaching artist for many organizations: the Children’s Theatre of Annapolis in Maryland, where she taught musical theatre audition workshops; D.A.R.E. America, through their D.A.R.E. P.L.U.S after school program; and for Camp Broadway (now known as Curtain Up) at the Renaissance Charter School in Queens. In addition, Anna currently serves as Co-Producing Artistic Director of Infinity Theatre Company, a Tony Award-winning theatre company Co-Produced the Broadway revival of Pippin and was the lead producer on the Broadway revival of Dames at Sea.  Infinity Theatre also provides professional New York City theatre to Annapolis, Maryland each summer. As Executive Director of Arts For All, Anna looks forward to continually spreading Arts For All’s mission to in-need youth communities so that deserving children all over NYC have the opportunity to explore the arts!

Jasmine Edwards – Director

Jasmine Edwards received her Masters of Arts in Therapeutic Recreation and Recreation Administration Services from New York University. Since 1999, she has been a Certified Therapeutic Recreation Specialist (CTRS).

From 2012 to 2021, Jasmine was the Director of Therapeutic Recreation and Volunteer Services at Incarnation Children’s Center. Incarnation Children’s Center was a pediatric Skilled Nursing Facility that serviced children, teens, and young adults living with HIV and AIDS.

Her passion for working with clients to maintain their quality of life has led to her desire to become a CUNY educator who instructs courses in the Health Sciences majors.

Currently, Jasmine is all-but-dissertation as a doctoral candidate at Fairleigh Dickenson University, where she will earn her Doctorate in Higher Education. Her research interest lies in Universal Design for Learning for all and students with disabilities.

Alan Ostroff – Director

Alan spent years as a Teaching Artist with Arts For All, leading theater games, math improvisation, and Shakespeare workshops for many grade levels in all five boroughs. He now serves on the Board of Directors and had tenures as AFA Treasurer and Secretary.  Alan was also the first head of the Programming Committee for AFA.  This committee has formed an assessment and evaluation methodology for all of its Teaching Artists to use, to further their practice, as well as for AFA administration to gauge program quality.  Alan is the author of three past touring productions for Arts For All, STORIES – LIVE AND IN PERSON, THE TALL TALES OF ENOCH, and the musical JACK VS. RAPUNZEL with music by Clayton Colwell.  Alan is currently Co-Producing Artistic Director of Infinity Theatre Company in Annapolis, MD.  In 2015, Infinity transferred one of its shows to Broadway, the tap-dance comedy DAMES AT SEA.  Infinity is the recipient of a Tony Award, for Co-Producing PIPPIN in 2013.  Alan has a BFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts where he studied musical theater, experimental theater, and classical theater, and also has a Master’s in Arts Management and Entrepreneurship from The New School.