Eliza Tudor
Executive Director
Eliza's experience as an arts leader spans three continents. From producing film and theatre in Australia, to opera, Ancient Greek theatre and ballet in the Sierra, Eliza then moved to the UK to complete her masters in Cultural Policy. Working as Senior Commissioner for the UK's National Health Service in one of London's most majority non-White high poverty areas, she then worked as Senior Development Executive—Arts & Humanities at the University of Oxford, while also serving on the Board of Trustees of Magdalen Road Studios and Rosetta Life – working nationally through the arts with people suffering life limiting illnesses. Eliza served the boards of California Arts Advocates and Californians for the Arts between 2017 and 2024. She currently serves the Advisory Cohort for a national research study to understand the role, impacts and ongoing evolution of arts service, intermediary, and regranting organizations in a post-pandemic world. She serves the Capitol Region Leadership Council for California Jobs First, and the Regional Tourism Advisory Committee for Gold Country under Visit California.
Sofia Vivanco Airaghi
Grants Manager
Sofia (she/her/ella) is a quadrilingual geographer, dancer, educator, and arts administrator from San Francisco. Sofia holds a B.A. in Geography from UC Berkeley with an emphasis in Latin American Studies, and throughout her time there worked on cross-cultural programming at UC Berkeley’s Multicultural Community Center. Sofia joined us as Grants Manager for Upstate California Creative Corps, serving 19 counties across rural Northern California. Prior to this, she was the Program Manager of Youth Art Exchange (YAX), a multidisciplinary arts education organization working with San Francisco public high school students using the arts and design as a tool for civic engagement and youth development. She has worked as a cartographer with the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project’s (Dis)location initiative; as a dancer has performed at ODC Theater, Cuba Caribe Festival, San Francisco Carnaval, Berkeley Dance Project, and in Salvador, Brazil; and she has exhibited work at IDEO, Latinos in Architecture’s Perspectivas exhibit and Book and Wheel’s Moving Art House.
Kellie Cuttler
Truckee Cultural District Program Manager
Kellie Cutler is the current Program Manager for the Truckee Cultural District administered by Nevada County Arts Council in partnership with Truckee Arts Alliance, the Town of Truckee, Truckee Chamber, and Truckee Downtown Merchants Association; she is the first person to take on this new position. Cutler has lived in Truckee for 18 years and worked in the Reno/Tahoe region non-profit sector for 23 years. Non-profit administration is her passion with a focus in strategic planning, community collaboration and creative fundraising. Kellie has helped achieve benchmark goals for Nevada Arts Council, Parasol Tahoe Community Foundation, KidZone Museum, North Tahoe Arts and Contractors Association of Truckee Tahoe. She feels most professionally aligned when she is utilizing her Master of Arts in arts administration from Golden Gate University, San Francisco. She is committed to a high level of community leadership and engagement through her work serving on the board of the Truckee Chamber of Commerce and on committees for Tahoe Truckee Community Foundation and Tahoe Truckee Unified School District.
Diana Arbex
GVNC Cultural District Program Manager
Originally from Brazil, Diana Arbex is a seasoned arts administrator and community mobilizer. She joins Nevada County Arts Council from the Wild & Scenic Film Festival, where she served as Operations Manager, strengthening connections between artists and audiences. With a BA in Graphic Design from Rochester Institute of Technology, Diana blends creative expertise with strategic leadership. She has championed artists as a gallery manager in rural Brazil, curated cultural programs in Rio de Janeiro, and supported Nevada County’s arts ecosystem as an executive assistant and program coordinator at the Council. In 2023, she was awarded the Individual Artists Fellowship from the California Arts Council through Youth Speaks, recognizing her commitment to cultural advocacy and community-driven arts.
Hannah Mosby
Programs & Membership Coordinator
Hannah Mosby is Programs & Membership Coordinator and program lead for Art in Public Spaces. With roots in both Northern California and Arkansas—Hannah has called Nevada County home for the last decade. She received her B.A. in art history from the University of Central Arkansas with a special interest in museum and gallery studies. During this time, she helped to run both the student-led gallery and on-campus museum which sparked an interest in curation, arts administration, and event production. Hannah’s own personal multimedia art practice has helped to inform her work as an arts administrator. Show works in a variety of media, including: painting, drawing, fiber arts, metalsmithing, beadweaving, and film photography. Apart from her own artistic endeavors, Hannah has years of experience as a fine art framer and a decade of experience curating, coordinating and installing gallery exhibitions. Prior to joining Nevada County Arts Council—Hannah managed The Granucci Gallery at The Center for the Arts and western Nevada County’s Open Studios Tour program; and coordinated vendors, buskers, and workshop facilitators with California WorldFest. As an artist herself, Hannah truly enjoys working with and uplifting Nevada County’s creative community.
Michaelyn Logue
Social Media & Communications
Michaelyn Logue is a musician, visual artist and published poet. She graduated from SFSU Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing focusing on poetry, gender studies and world religions. Michaelyn has an Early Childhood Education credential as Site Supervisor and Master Teacher, receiving certificates in Peace and Anti-bias curriculum, Diverse Families, and Administration. She has taught at the Cabrillo Children’s Center and Lab School, and volunteered at the Children’s Peace Library with a focus on developing emergent curriculum in scientific exploration and creative expression. Her experience and passion now manifest through her position as Nevada County Arts Council’s much sought-after Social Media & Community Engagement Coordinator.
Our Artists in Schools
Back left to right: Shannon Martinez, Lani Hermosillo, Nancy Schaefer, Jill Poole; and front left to right: Cheri Guerette, Kimberly (Kim) Ewing, and Rachel Johnson.
Kim is our Artists in Schools Program Lead. She earned her Multiple Subject Credential through Chapman University and University of San Diego, subsequently teaching elementary and middle school students at Nevada City School District until 2021. She has been recognized by Stanford University’s Instructional Leadership Corp via her work leading the Instructional Coaching Team at Nevada County Superintendent of Schools. From 2018-2022 Kim was the County’s Arts Education Coordinator. Kim is also a theatre and film actor, she dances with Samba Lua, an Afro-Brazilian dance troupe, she hosts a talk show and podcast on KVMR 89.5 FM radio station, and she performs with an award-winning, all-female Comedy Improv Troupe called Meno Posse.
Shelly Covert
Nisenan Tribe Liaison
Shelly Covert is Executive Director of Nevada City Rancheria Nisenan Tribe and the California Heritage: Indigenous Research Project (CHIRP), whose mission is to preserve, protect and perpetuate Nisenan Culture. Nisenan Tribal homelands lay within the Bear and Yuba River watersheds. The Nisenan are the indigenous people who were here before the Gold Rush and they remain in their ancestral homelands today. Shelly is a singer / song writer, artist and tradition keeper within her Tribal group. She works with environmental and social justice causes and advocates for the Nisenan people and the restoration of their Federal recognition and Tribal sovereignty. Having Shelly among us is a reminder. She brings empathy, knowledge, wisdom and meaning to our role as State-Local Partner with the California Arts Council and, in turn, we try to shine a light on the extraordinary work of the Nisenan in restoring recognition for the wealth of truths and traditions that their culture and history offer our California Cultural Districts within Nevada County.
Karen Terrey
Nevada County Poet Laureate
Karen Terrey is a writer, editor, and writing coach, offering marketing and business writing, copy editing, publishing guidance, and creative writing workshops in Truckee through her business Tangled Roots Writing. She has taught at Lake Tahoe Community College, Sierra Nevada College, and Sierra College, and has served as a poetry editor for the literary journals Pitkin Review and Quay. She is a recipient of a Sierra Arts Endowment Grant, the John Woods Scholarship to Prague Summer Program, the Steve Turner Scholarship to Surprise Valley Writer's Conference, and a scholarship to the Vermont Studio Center. Her poems have appeared in Rhino, Edge, Meadow, WordRiot, Puerto Del Sol, Wicked Alice, Canary, and Gray Sparrow Journal, among others. Her poetry chapbook Bite and Blood is now available from Finishing Line Press and local bookstores, including Sundance Books in Reno, NV, and Word After Word in Truckee, CA.
Rooja Mohassessy
Poetry Out Loud
Rooja Mohassessy is an Iranian-born poet and educator living in Northern California. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Narrative Magazine, Poet Lore, RHINO Poetry, California Fire and Water: An Anthology of Poems, Southern Humanities Review, CALYX Journal, Ninth Letter, Bare Life Review, Potomac Review, The Florida Review, New Letters, and elsewhere. Rooja is a 2021 recipient of the MacDowell Fellowship and a student at the MFA program of Pacific University, Oregon. She reads for the journal Prairie Schooner.