Our Leadership Team
Amana Harris is a leader in the field of community arts and a well-respected advocate for the arts in K-12 education. As an artist and a teacher she has devoted her career to making the arts accessible to the voiceless, the marginalized and the forgotten. A visionary activist, artist and educator, she founded and oversees multiple arts education and community arts projects for AHC, including ArtEsteem, the Super Heroes Mural Project, and the Oakland Legacy and Leadership Project. Drawing on 27 years of teaching art to children, youth and adults, Amana wrote Self as Super Hero: Handbook on the Creation of the Life-Size Self Portrait, an arts integrated curriculum guide. She also teaches Art in the Public Interest at California College of the Arts.
Amana Harris
Executive Director
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Jim comes to AHC from the small business sector. He graduated from Boston University with a BS in Aerospace and Aeronautical Engineering in 1990, quickly became a bicycle messenger, and never looked back. That 25-year career included co-founding the first and longest-lasting worker-owned messenger company in San Francisco, the Cupid Courier Collective. It was there that Jim learned the basis of his bookkeeping and finance knowledge. Upon 'retirement' in 2015, he began freelance work as a bookkeeper and eventually gained AHC as a client. In 2022, he was hired as an employee. The lessons learned and talents honed as a small business owner work extremely well at a great non-profit: attend to the details, be a good representative, be versatile, be a good teammate, and love what you do.
James Kaiser
Finance & Operations Director
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Athena Sabaria has been part of the AHC team since 2021 as Office Associate, Workforce Development Coordinator, and now as Oakland Legacy Project Coordinator. They continue to support data systems, community engagement, and program operations.
Prior to their work in nonprofits, Athena was involved in animal behavior and environmental laboratories, building skills in data analysis and research development of the natural sciences. Majoring in Gender & Women’s Studies and Conservation & Resource Studies at UC Berkeley, Athena developed their framework of environmental justice through an interspecies and intersectional lens. After the pandemic hit, they decided to refocus their efforts towards community empowerment and education with Bay Area BIPOC youth, providing compassionate and culturally relevant leadership.
Athena Sabaria
Legacy Project Coordinator & Office Associate
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Phyllis Hall
Associate Director
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Etty Alberto
ArtEsteem Artistic Development Manager
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Jamie Sanitate is the manager and lead operator of the ArtEsteem ArtMobile. He oversees logistics, recruitment, vehicle maintenance and extended programming. Jamie also facilitates all outreach and partnership efforts. Previously, he did retail management and supervised warehouse operations and personnel for 12 Rasputin Music locations in Northern California. Sanitate is a skilled driver, operating 26-foot long Class C moving trucks and is well-versed in painting, construction and installation projects. Coming from a creative background, he has extensive experience as a musician through performance, touring, teaching and booking.
Jamie Sanitate
ArtMobile & Art Kit Manager
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Munirah Harris is a West Oakland native and graduate of UC Berkeley’s College of Natural Resources. Munirah connected with AHC as an ArtEsteem student, and is now the organization’s communications lead and operations and development associate. They also co-taught the 2020-21 and 2021-22 cohorts of the Oakland Legacy Project, bringing environmental and creative experience. Harris finds joy in small creeks, bark beetles, and watercolors. During Munirah’s undergraduate studies, they majored in Conservation and Resource Studies, focusing on forestry, geographic information systems, and data science. Through their work with AHC, Munirah hopes to contribute to a sustainable world which eliminates capitalism and detrimental resource extraction as drivers for humanity’s progress.
Munirah Harris
Operations Associate