People: Staff

Renée Heider, Executive Director

Hired as Destiny’s first Development Director in 2001, Renée took over leadership of the organization in August of 2007. She was previously the Executive Director of Oakland Ballet and draws on over fifteen years of experience in local and international arts organizations. After a successful career as an international event planner, she first became an arts administrator in 1992, when she joined the staff of the Bay Area Dance Series as Business Manager. Since then she has been the Director of Special Projects at La Peña Cultural Center in Berkeley and Production/Grants Manager at the Reichhold Center for the Arts at the University of the Virgin Islands, St. Thomas, prior to her hire at the Oakland Ballet in 1999. She holds an AA in Language Arts from Laney College, a BA in Bilingual Arts Administration from Mills College and an MA in Humanities from CSU, Dominguez Hills.

Annemarie Brown, Deputy Director

Annemarie Brown has been working in the event planning industry since 2003. After working with Destiny Arts Center as Operations Manager, Annemarie transitioned to Paula LeDuc Fine Catering and began her growth into the Director of Event Production position. In this job, Annemarie managed a $3 million budget, a staff of 7 employees and was responsible for small events for Oprah to events for over 6,000 people.  Annemarie chaired Destiny Art’s Center’s successful 20th Anniversary gala. She has also been an active volunteer since 2005 with La Cocina, a business incubator program in San Francisco’s Mission District.  She has provided event planning workshops and individual consultations with business participates helping them plan and manage catering events.  Most recently, Annemarie was Event Director of San Francisco’s First Street Food Festival sponsored by La Cocina. Annemarie has her undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia.

Sarah Crowell, Artistic Director

Sarah Crowell has been at Destiny Arts Center since 1990 as a dance teacher, artistic director, workshop facilitator and program development director, and served as the organization’s executive director from 2002-2007.
 
Sarah has been a dancer and an arts educator for over 20 years.She has taught dance, theater and violence prevention to youth all over the Bay Area, in schools and community centers since 1990. She directed the dance program at Lick-Wilmerding High School in San Francisco, CA for 3 years, and directed an award-winning hip-hop dance ensemble at the East Bay Center for the Performing Arts in Richmond, CA for 5 years. At Destiny Sarah co-founded the Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company in 1993, a troupe for teens to co-create original movement/theater productions based on their own experiences. The company now performs for over 20,000 audience members a year at conferences, festivals and other community events.  Sarah received 9 California Arts Council Artist in Residency grants for her work at Destiny and a National Endowment for the Arts grant to author a curriculum guide for artists working with teens called Youth on the Move: a teacher’s guidebook to co-creating original movement/theater performances with teens.  Sarah is the recipient of the 2007 KPFA peace award and the 2006 Purple Moon DreamSpeakers award.  

Sarah performed and toured nationally with modern, jazz and dance/theater companies in Boston and the Bay Area, including Impulse Jazz Dance Company and the Dance Brigade, between 1984 and 2000.  She also directed and performed with the dance/theater company i am! Productions between 1994 and 2002, which featured a two-woman show called Portrait of a Girl from Nowhere... an urban fairy tale.  The piece explored issues of bi-racial identity through modern and hip-hop dance, theater, poetry and song.  

Ellen D. Hamilton, Finance/Human Resource Manager

Ellen began serving as Destiny’s Operations Manager and Volunteer Coordinator in October 2003 and was promoted to Finance/Human Resource Manager in July 2008. Ellen has many years of administrative experience and a background in the arts. Not only the “office diva”, but an aspiring soul singer from East Oakland, Ellen has worked with Bay Area hip-hop group The Attik and toured with bay area dance band Afro-Mystik. While pushing her own dreams into reality, Ellen wishes to help and encourage youth to do the same. Ellen also holds a red/black belt in Tae Kwon Do (Chang-Hon style) and a purple belt in Tae Kwon Do (Taeguek style).

Damaliah (Damie) Nazapas, Operations Manager

Damie is a Bay Area dance teacher who not only educates students in hip-hop technique, but also in the history & music of the genre. Damie has been dancing & performing for over 20 years and teaching since the age of 13. She also has a strong athletic background in basketball and track & field. Her dance experience includes old/new school hip-hop, jazz, house, Caribbean, Polynesian & West African technique. Damie has taught in various studios & recreation centers in the Bay Area.and is the founder & director of the Berkeley-based performance company “BodiRock”. She has performed at various events in the Bay Area including Oakland’s Art & Soul Festival, SF’s Hip-Hop DanceFest and many independent dance productions in Oakland.

Denise Pate , Development Coordinator

Denise Pate has spent over 20 years working in the arts community as a dancer, choreographer, teacher, arts administrator, and grantwriter. She is the former Associate Director, Operations for California College of the Arts' Center for Art and Public Life (2005-2007). She has performed with Dimensions Dance Theater (1982-86), and directed Oakland Parks and Recreation's City-Wide Dance program 1988-93. Her past affiliations include Young Audiences of the Bay Area, Wolftrap Institute for Early Learning through the Arts, Youth In Arts, and World Arts West. As former Executive Director of CitiCentre Dance Theatre, she led a multi-cultural arts center that offered dance and music classes for all ages. She received her B.A. from Dominican University, where she studied modern dance with Bay Area luminaries June Watanabe and former Martha Graham Company member Lar Roberson. She also holds an M.B.A. from the University of Phoenix. Some of her current and past board and advisory committee memberships include Dancers' Group, Luna Kids Dance, City of Oakland Funding Advisory Committee, and the Isadora Duncan Awards Committee.

Ethan Zatko, On-Site Program Manager

Ethan Zatko joins the Destiny team as a seasoned nonprofit and youth development professional whose most recent work has been focused on training young people to organize their communities around environmental justice issues at Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice in the Bronx River section of the South Bronx. He has also facilitated young people in organizing their communities around the issues of education reform, police reform, immigrants rights, and has provided them with mentorship, academic advocacy and a dedicated concern for their holistic well-being. An Oakland native, Ethan has always held firm his commitment to anti-racism, social justice and to emphasizing and supporting the prophetic voices of young people. Ethan is also a Destiny Arts Center alum, having attained the rank of blue belt under the direction of Sifu Anthony and other Destiny instructors some 15 years ago. He maintains that his experiences at Destiny were among the most formative of his life and considers his current position at Destiny a “true full-circle return.”

Salim Rollins , Outreach Programs Director

Salim Rollins has worked in the field of youth development for the past ten years. Originally from New York, Salim traveled west for his undergraduate studies, receiving a B.A., Magna Cum Laude from the University of California, Santa Cruz in African and Diaspora Cultural Studies. Upon returning home to New York, Salim pursued a career in film/video production. When a friend invited him to co-teach an after-school martial arts class with the Henry Street Settlement (a NY based NGO), his passion for youth work was rekindled. Salim stayed with Henry Street for two years and went on to work for other NGO’s and CBO’s in the New York area including The Leadership Program, LEAP, The Caribbean Cultural Center and PASE. He taught Capoeira Angola (an Afro-Brazilian martial art), yoga, violence prevention/conflict management and video production to youth throughout New York City public schools. In the last couple of years, Salim has worked as a consultant developing violence prevention curriculum (NGO Sports4Kids) and facilitating trainings, workshops and professional development classes on yoga and practical relaxation locally and abroad (Daystar University, Nairobi, Kenya). As a certified Yoga and Martial Arts Instructor, Salim seeks to bring a holistic health ideology to his work with youth. In 2009, Salim moved back to California and is excited to bring his skills and passions to his current position as the Outreach Programs Director at Destiny Arts Center.