Global Explorers Kids' Board Members

Kenji Juravic – President

Kenji Juravic is an IT professional, having worked on computers and networks for over 16 years. Kenji has a 30 year history in the arts, as a musician, photographer, and dancer, and has performed in Chicago and throughout the United States.

Radhika Sharma – Secretary

Radhika Sharma comes from a far-flung diaspora: her grandparents left India to settle in Kenya and she and her parents left Kenya for Kalamazoo, MI. She has worked in a variety of non-profits in Chicago over the past 21 years. Currently, she directs community health partnerships at the Albany Park Community Center.

Ben Hutto – Treasurer

Ben Hutto is a former real estate and insurance professional. Now retired, he was a licensed real estate broker, insurance agent, property manager, and mortgage broker.

Nicole Bussard – Board member

Nicole Bussard is the Community Manager and Enterprise Social Business Strategist at Sapient Corporation. She is also the volunteer webmaster at Chicago Books to Women in Prison.

Jami Becka – Board member

Jami Becka is the Director of Program Development at The Black Star Project. Having received her Master's of Arts in Divinity from the University of Chicago in South Asian Religions, she traveled in India to study Hindi, Sanskrit, bharatanatyam, kalaripayattu, and woodcarving.

Jennifer Kirts Hernandez – Board member

Jennifer Hernandez, MSW, LCSW, is a school social worker at Taft High School. She has worked as a social worker in the Chicago Public Schools for 19 years.

Holly Hutto – Director; instructor

Holly Hutto is interested in the community-building capacity of art and has taught art to children for 20 years through a variety of organizations in the greater Chicagoland area. She has a BFA in art education and MA in arts management. For the past 18 years, Holly has worked in arts management, primarily at community organizations with an arts-in-education focus, such as Hyde Park Art Center, Park Forest Art Center, and Lill Street Learning Center. A painter, Holly has curated exhibitions at a variety of locations including HotHouse, Global Pi Gallery, DuPage College, and Cranbrook Academy for the Arts.

Pamela Chermansky – instructor

Pamela Chermansky is an actor, clown and classically trained mime artist. She was a student of the world renowned mime, Marcel Marceau, and assisted him in numerous seminars and workshops. Pamela has created original work, performed and taught throughout the United States for over twenty years, and performed in Hong Kong and China. In Chicago, Pamela has taught for The Actor’s Gymnasium, Gallery 37, CircEsteem and Global Explorers Kids. She is the Director of the annual summer theatre camp for Packard Music Hall in Warren, Ohio and is currently a clown for The Big Apple Circus Clown Care Program.

Sandy Devura – instructor

Sandy Devura has her BA in Theatre and MAT in education and has worked as a Director and Stage Manager for various productions in Chicago. She has taught theatre and art to children through various community organizations, including Hyde Park Art Center, Very Special Arts Indiana, Thornton Recreational Center, and Global Explorers Kids. She worked with a committee to develop and implement workshops in collaboration with Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigaberta Menchu. A certified teacher, Sandy has worked with special needs students and other students in the CPS system.