| Karen Vaccaro Joins BuildaBridge |
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When asked the question “What is my dream job?” my answer is “a meaningful and fun way to combine my love and interest in art and art-making, my business skills and my deep commitment to community building”. You can then guess that I am delighted and grateful to be working at BuildaBridge where these three areas of my interest and experience come together every day in all that BuildaBridge does and touches. I recently returned to Philadelphia from a 3 year project in Charlotte, NC, where I was involved in a start-up Quaker Friends School. Returning to Philadelphia is coming home to me. I so missed my community of friends, family and colleagues, along with the vast diversity of people, culture, thinking and experiences here in Philadelphia. My background spans more than 25 years of working with nonprofit organizations, community service agencies, schools and Fortune 500 companies. I am an artist, educator, marketer and project manager. Prior to joining BuildaBridge I assisted my husband who started the first Quaker Friends School in Charlotte. At Friends School of Charlotte I taught art, assisted in the classroom and managed and coordinated the daily operations and administration of the start-up school.
Before moving to Charlotte, I lived for many years in Philadelphia where I held the positions of interim director of the Sedgwick Cultural Center, conference coordinator for the Pennsylvania state-wide “Women and Philanthropy Conference”, and co-founder and director of the non-profit Children of Peace Sponsorship Program for 200 HIV/AIDS orphans in eastern Uganda. I have also worked for many years in the commercial art and marketing fields with Fortune 500 companies such as CPC Best Foods, Kraft General Foods, Sodexho Marriott, RCA Electronics and ING Direct. I have a BFA in Art and Art Education from Alfred University and a MS in Education from Marywood University. I am a photographer and have exhibited in both Philadelphia and Charlotte, NC. What I am so intrigued by and love about the work at BuildaBridge is how we bring the creative aspect into the healing and community building work we do. Being an artist, art teacher and working for years in the creative end of business, I deeply believe in the ability of the creative process and artistic expression to connect us at a very deep level to ourselves and to others, touching the humanity that each of us possesses and showing us our interconnectedness with each other and all things. BuildaBridge is right – the union of creative expression and positive mentoring relationships is a powerful way for the healing process to begin and to transform lives. And I so agree with the creative arts being a metaphor for how to live our lives - with integrity, with respect for others and ourselves, and in unbounded joy. Karen Vaccaro, Program and Projects Administrator BuildaBridge |