Marisa Catalina Casey, Executive Director

Founder/Executive Director of Starting Artists, Marisa Catalina Casey is an artist, administrator, and advocate who has worked almost exclusively in the nonprofit sector supporting a variety of constituents and causes from arts advocacy to child welfare to international development work. Marisa obtained her BA in Latin American Studies from Brown University and her MA in Arts Administration from Columbia University Teachers College. Utilizing her artistic and entrepreneurial skills, Marisa has worked as a photojournalist for CARE-Peru, the Alliance for Children, and The Providence Journal.  Ms. Casey has held positions at the William Randolph Hearst Foundations, Metropolitan Opera, Teen Ink Magazine, New York State Arts, and APERTURE Foundation. Additionally, she co-authored Born in Our Hearts: Stories of Adoption (HCI: 2004), selling over 11,000 copies with proceeds benefiting international orphanages. Her memoir and photo-illustration is included in NOT QUITE WHAT I WAS PLANNING: Six-Word Memoirs By Writers Famous and Obscure (Harper Perennial: 2008). Ms. Casey has received fellowships and scholarships from such organizations as the National Endowment for the Arts, Americans for the Arts, Columbia University, and Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute. She is a Council Member of the Americans for the Arts Emerging Leader Council. She has received grants from the Newton Cultural Council, Production Workshop, and Creative Arts Council. Marisa has been a two-time semi-finalist for the Echoing Green Social Entrepreneurship Fellowships and is a 2009 YouthActionNet Global Fellow.

Rachel Ephraim, Program Coordinator at Starting Artists, obtained her BA in Film Production, Screenwriting, and Creative Writing from Boston University. She learned the mechanics of editing at Peter Lang Publishing as a Production Editor and now regularly contributes articles and short fiction to online and in print publications. Additionally, Rachel also founded and directs FreeBird Workshops, an adult writing workshop run out of Cobble Hill’s community bookstore, FreeBird Books and Goods. Furthermore, she teaches creative writing to young adults 9-19 through Writopia Lab, a non-profit partner of Starting Artists. Rachel spearheads Writopia Lab’s Brooklyn branch, and contributed to expanding the Westchester branch as well. Concurrently, Rachel is the Managing Editor of the Park Slope Reader, a Brooklyn-based magazine that features content on local people, events, and issues of importance.

Rachel Ephraim,

Program Coordinator