Pathways

“My personal vision is to create opportunities for Indigenous Peoples that support their traditional values through art, culture and identity.”

Ron is a traditional pueblo potter from Isleta and Taos Pueblo in New Mexico. He is a graduate of the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) and is an international award-winning artist. He also has a bachelor’s degree in Indigenous Liberal Studies from IAIA. His expertise includes 20 years of community and leadership development, specializing in the area of building sustainable economic and leadership development in Indigenous global communities.

Ihanktonwan Dakota & Oglala Lakota

Cecily Engelhart (she/her) is a Master Certified Life Coach, known by clients as “Your Dream Life’s Hype Chick.” She helps clients who are feeling burnt out, trapped, and drained of enthusiasm to decolonize, dismantle systems of oppression, and cultivate more joy. When Cecily isn’t coaching, she hosts events in the 1904 Victorian home her family bought and is restoring on her reservation. She can also be found spending time with her family playing games, cooking, baking, and dancing in the kitchen. She also continues her creative expression as the owner of Rosie Matȟó, her jewelry and home decor business.

Woman, daughter, wife, mother, godmother, athlete, friend.

Alyssa is passionate about affordable housing, the arts, and community and economic development (and the link among them all), especially in cities blighted by post-industrial economic decline. Growing up in Northeast Pennsylvania, Alyssa lived among some of the country’s most formidable and abandoned coal breakers, iron furnaces, and textile mills – all of which, she believes, hold their own beauty and potential for revitalization and repurposing. She is thrilled to be sharing her enthusiasm for functional, meaningful, and beautiful spaces with people who are looking to enhance their physical spaces as well.



Before joining the Pathways team, Alyssa worked for Artspace as a project manager in the property development department. She worked on historic preservation and new construction projects in Memphis, Chicago, Hastings (Minnesota), and Silver Spring (Maryland).



She has a Masters in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs and also has both a M.S. in Employment Relations and a B.S. in Spanish from Penn State University.

Kathleen Kvern is the Chief Operations Officer at Artspace. In this role, she oversees the National Advancement and Consulting departments and works with the President on the strategic direction and funding of the organization. Kathleen joined Artspace in 2013.

Prior to joining Artspace, Kathleen was the Development Director for Northwoods NiiJii (NiiJii means “friends” in Ojibwe), a nonprofit economic development organization located in rural northern Wisconsin that assists Native American communities. While there, she developed and implemented a regional Woodland Indian Arts Initiative and opened the Woodland Indian Art Center, located on the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa reservation. Prior to Northwoods NiiJii, Kathleen worked at the Walker Art Center as Project Director of mnartists.org, providing her with in-depth knowledge of working with individual artists, community building in the arts, and internet technologies and social networking.

Kathleen has a strong entrepreneurial background and was the co-founder and owner of The Fine Line in Chicago. She also assisted in opening Studium in Manhattan. She was a founding member of the Twin Cities Fine Arts Organization and has done independent consulting and development work for diverse organizations, including the Minnesota Museum of American Art, All My Relations Gallery, the Loring Park Art Festival, and the Madeline Island School of the Arts.

Kathleen is a mom to her daughter, Emma, and is an encaustic artist and instructor.

Get in touch with Pablo here.

Pablo Lituma is a first-generation Ecuadorian-American with roots in New York. Mr. Lituma is Indigenous from Azuay, Ecuador, and advocates for the cultural preservation of diaspora communities in the U.S.A. His experiences of living in distinct cultural communities have shaped a path to advocate for equity and diversity in communities. Mr. Lituma's early aspirations to create equity through community and real estate development led him to obtain his  Bachelor of Science of Architecture degree from the University at Buffalo, in New York, and later his dual Master's degrees in Architecture and Community and Regional Planning from the University of New Mexico. Mr. Lituma was part of the second cohort Rafala Green Fellowship at Artspace and now supports Artspace in a Project Manager role in the Property Development department.