Board Members

Edward grew up in Davis and its siren song lured him back after the birth of his second daughter. He believes in the importance of visualization to provide new ways for individuals and communities to interact with the information around them. Edward completed degrees across multiple institutions, but is content to cross-pollinate interests in food, disease, and agriculture with sound ecology as a composer and sound designer in AR and VR environments. He works with Green Science Games, AlterLearning, the Davis Makerspace, and numerous anonymous online projects seeking to simultaneously create and encourage arts outreach in Davis schools, and across our digital lived lives. He enjoys archery, bikes, chickens, hiking, gardening, statistics, and synthesizers. 

A longtime Davis resident, Shelly joined DSAF after serving for four years as the Programs Officer of the California Arts Council where she was responsible for grant programs to support arts, culture, and creativity across the state. Shelly oversaw the programs at the Arts Council during a period of tremendous growth, initiating and implementing new programs that extended the agency’s reach to support cultural communities, artists and grassroots organizations. She will bring her commitment to supporting and uplifting all cultures to her work at DSAF.

Shelly has over 20 years of experience in nonprofit management and cultural policy as well as a Ph.D. in Performance Studies from UC Davis. She spent the first 10 years of her career in nonprofit management working for performing arts organizations, first in her hometown of Philadelphia and then in New York City. Looking for a change of scenery from NYC, she and her husband Sangho Byun moved to Davis in 2004 so she could pursue her graduate work. At UC Davis, she studied sustainability and community engagement models for dance organizations. After graduating from UC Davis, she and Sangho decided to stay in Davis to raise their two children. Shelly’s deep knowledge of non-profit management, her interest in community engagement and her commitment to cultural exchange and inclusion will coalesce in her role at DSAF.

With the help of the president of DSAF David Visher raised two children in the Davis School system. He joined board in 2021. On the side he has been helping small farmers succeed for 30 years. Visher built a produce distribution company, farmed 60 acres of specialty crops, and spent nine years with the University of California Cooperative Extension Small Farm Program where he worked directly with farmers and institutions to help small producers in business and marketing. Leaving academia he founded a successful firm that created educational opportunities for farmers and ranchers about business and marketing, strategic planning, and agritourism. Returning to the UC Sustainable Agriculture Program he was a Values Based Supply Chain Analyst for five years. Along the way he has directed seven NGO’s, and since 2002 served as a consultant for the USAID Farmer to Farmer (F2F) program 19 times in 15 countries.

Rijin Sahakian is a writer and arts organiser. She founded Sada, a virtual and physically convened arts education project for Baghdad-based art students, which she directed until its closure in 2015. She has lectured and developed programs in the US and abroad, including at the Montalvo Art Center where she curated Iraq:Reframe, Darat al Funun, Rhode Island School of Design, Home Works, Documenta, and the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, where she guest curated the exhibition Shangri La: Imagined Cities and served as visiting professor at the California Institute of the Arts. Sahakian has contributed writing to a range of publications including Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here, Hyperallergic, Warscapes, e-flux journal, and n+1.

Lacey Boatman received a Bachelor of Arts from San Diego State University in Studio Art, with an emphasis in Graphic Design. She also received a Multiple Subject teaching credential from UC Davis and taught Digital Design at New Tech High School in Napa, creating a 4-year program while she was there. Students in the advanced course ran and managed their own graphic design company. She is now working as an educational administrator at the Napa County Office of Education in addition to lecturing at UC Davis as part of the Teacher Education program she found so much value in. Lacey teaches Integrating Movement and the Arts in the Elementary Curriculum for Multiple Subject preservice teachers in and around the Davis area and is a fierce advocate for arts education. Her personal art is ever-evolving. Inspired by nature, experiences, and her own emotional state of being, she enjoys painting with mixed mediums in an abstract expressionism style.