Meet the NCECA Staff

Meet the NCECA Staff

Meet the Staff

  • helen@nceca.net


  • Helen Anderson has been with NCECA since 2005. She graduated in 1994 from Saint Michael's College in Vermont with her master’s degree in business administration with a concentration in Finance. Helen has spent her professional life working in Finance and Accounting beginning in the early 90’s in the banking industry. Helen’s personal passions include being outdoors hiking and biking as well as spending time with her boys, her friends and two dogs in Colorado.

  • social@nceca.net

  • Gerald A. Brown is a practicing artist, curator, and art education leader. A Chicago Southside native, currently based in Philadelphia, PA, she received her BFA from Syracuse University, with a dual emphasis on Sculpture and Ceramics. She is a current member of Vox Populi, on the Board of Directors at Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts, and co-founder of the Clay Siblings’ Project, a non-profit initiative providing free ceramic workshops around the country. She has had the pleasure of working in the past with institutions such as Haystack Mountain School of Craft, The Clay Studio, and Continental Clay.
    Instagram: @geraldbrownart
    Clay Siblings Project
    Website: www.claysiblingsproject.org Instagram: @claysiblings

  • jenn@nceca.net


  • Jenn Chrisman recently joined the NCECA staff as the Resource Hall Coordinator after serving as a seasonal employee for the NCECA conference in 2023. As the Resource Hall Coordinator, she assists organizations and institutions planning to exhibit at the annual NCECA conference. Jenn graduated with a Master of Criminal Justice degree in 1996 from the University of Colorado. She spent 25 years in local, federal government in Colorado, Washington D.C. and the State of Washington until she returned home to Colorado and retired from service. After her son ventured off to college in 2020, Jenn took her first pottery lesson and has been creating with clay since. Jenn continues to participate in the Colorado pottery community; taking classes and workshops to improve her craft. Jenn lives in Todd Creek, Colorado with her husband, Jim, and Kitsi, her dog. Jenn enjoys traveling, gardening, skiing, and working in her home studio.

  • communications@nceca.net

  • Edith Garcia oversees the strategic long-term planning and implementation of communications at NCECA. Collaborating across NCECA and working directly with the Board of Directors and its creative team to develop marketing and branding campaigns that highlight and promote NCECA's organizational mission and vision.

    Garcia received her BFA from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MN), MFA from the California College of the Arts, and MPhil at the Royal College of Art in London. She has authored numerous articles for publication on visual and design culture, including VJ: Audio-Visual Art and VJ Culture with D-Fuse, Ceramics and the Human Figure, A&C Black and has been featured in publications including Confrontational Ceramics, Ceramic Review Magazine, American Craft Magazine, Ceramics: Art and Perception, Ceramics Monthly, and Breaking the Mould: New Approaches to Ceramics.

    Garcia continues to be actively engaged in critical research on the convergence of contemporary art, technologies, and our contemporary visual art and design culture with curatorial projects, publishing, and the realization of creative productions.

  • josh@nceca.net

  • Josh Green has served as NCECA’s executive director since late 2010. From 1989 until just prior to taking on his present role, his work with Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania was filled with transformative professional experiences and relationships. Curiously and perhaps disturbingly, as a toddler he is said to have been discovered walking into a party in a family friend’s home carrying a portion of what had been a small pet turtle. Thankfully, this curiosity turned toward creative pursuits through clay when during his teens, his older brother, Bob who would become a studio potter, conspired with their dad to bring a potters wheel into the family home as a birthday gift. During this time, his awareness of the art-form expanded through summer instruction at Hinckley Haystack in Maine where he encountered Michael and Magdalena Frimkess, a glaze chemistry course at Greenwich House Pottery, and a kiln building workshop. He went on to earn his BA at Bennington College in Vermont where he studied writing and visual art while continuing to focus in ceramics with Jane Ford Aebersold and Stanley Rosen, before earning his MFA at the Cranbrook Academy of Art where he studied with Jun Kaneko and met his wife, artist and educator Denise Suska Green. Over time, Green has continued to write about ceramics, community arts, and other topics. Over time he has also taught at Central Piedmont Community College (Charlotte, NC), Carnegie Mellon University and Chatham University (Pittsburgh, PA). Green has exhibited work nationally and received grants from Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, The Japan Fulbright Teachers’ Fund, and other sources. His writing has been published by NCECA, Ceramics: Art and Perception, Ceramics Technical, American Craft, The Journal of the National Art Education Association, Arts HANSA-UNESCO, and others.

  • jacqueline@nceca.net

  • Jacqueline Hardy studied painting and found a love of pottery at Colby-Sawyer College in New London, NH. She received a BS in Art Management with a minor in business in 1996. Before joining NCECA, Jacqueline owned her own paint-your-own-pottery studio and espresso bar. Outside of NCECA Jacqueline is an avid soulful hip hop fitness dancer who also enjoys mountain biking and hiking in Boulder, Colorado.

    Jacqueline has been handling the operations in office and as a virtual office for over 10 years. She manages the MemberSuite AMS, membership and registration support, accounts receivables, onsite conference registration and the online user portal. She looks forward to each new city NCECA embarks upon to connect with new clay friends and reconnect with returning conference attendees.

  • allyson@nceca.net

  • Allyson Hoffelmeyer earned a BFA with an emphasis in ceramics from the University of Missouri, Columbia, in 2015, and continued her studies as a post-baccalaureate student in ceramics at the University of Colorado, Boulder, from 2016-2018. Allyson lives in Louisville, Colorado, with her husband, Daniel, and their Australian Shepherd, Talli. She enjoys gardening, crosswords, and spending time in her studio working with various materials.

    Allyson first volunteered with NCECA registration in 2017, returned as a seasonal employee, and then joined the staff full-time in the fall of 2021. As the Programs, Fellowships, & Awards Manager, she oversees conference programming, presenters, fellowships, nominations, and awards. Allyson works closely with both the communications and publications teams and sits on the Collaboration and Engagement Committee and the Green Task Force.

  • support@nceca.net

  • As a passionate artist and educator, I have had the opportunity to instruct students of all levels in courses centered around ceramics and other creative endeavors. My main goal as an instructor is to enable students to realize their personal and professional aspirations by cultivating their talents and honing their skills. I firmly believe that anything is possible with patient training and guidance.


  • resourcehall@nceca.net

  • Amy Joy Hosterman has been researching, collecting, and using wild clays for pottery and sculpture since earning her BFA in Ceramics from the University of Minnesota in 2010. Amy moved out West for the sunshine and mountains, but remains connected to her Midwest roots. She maintains a studio in Colorado, making work under the name Stinky Cheese Ceramics, and teaches wild clay workshops while traveling across the country and hunting for clays on an annual expedition to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, where she leads a wild clay artist residency at the Visitor Center Artist Camp.

    Amy has been a frequent NCECA Conference volunteer since 2013, eventually becoming a seasonal employee on the Onsite Registration team. In 2024 Amy joined the NCECA Staff as a Resource Hall Associate, assisting organizations and institutions planning to share their products and programs at the annual NCECA conference. Amy has considerable experience in artist representation, exhibition curation, and event coordination, and she enthusiastically brings her organizational and customer service skills to the Resource Hall; taking pride in helping artists, educators, and creative business owners share their talents with the broader ceramics community.

  • tammy@nceca.net

  • After studying Psychology at the University of Wisconsin and then working for years as a professional baker while taking clay classes on the side, Tammy L Lynn changed courses and pursued a career in clay. She received a BFA at the Metropolitan State University of Denver, Colorado, with a concentration in Ceramics. Tammy then worked as a facility supervisor and instructor at the Boulder Pottery Lab, a community ceramic studio founded by Betty Woodman in the 1950s. During this time, Tammy joined the Boulder Potters Guild, where she has been an instructor and active member to this day.

    Tammy came to work for NCECA in 2005 first as a volunteer, then a seasonal employee, and eventually full-time staff. As the Conference Specialist, Tammy’s tasks include managing exhibitions and volunteers, collaborating on the conference program, and overseeing sponsorship and advertising sales. Tammy also sits on the Green Task Force and the Development Committees. Tammy has a deep love for travel, is a voracious reader, dabbles in silversmithing, and continues to maintain her studio practice in clay. She lives in Boulder, Colorado, with her husband Patrick, their dog Ella, and cat Esme.

  • mzackery@nceca.net

  • MeLisa Zackery attended Howard University, graduating with her B.A. in Legal Communications, and a minor in Public Relations. Initially, she envisioned herself being a corporate attorney, but decided to pursue her heart’s desire, which was to work in events. However, her experience with contracts has been a great asset to her career.

    In 2007, MeLisa founded Unlimited Possibilities Co., a comprehensive corporate and social event management company. MeLisa prides herself on being a solution-oriented, strategic, budget conscious event and logistics coordinator with over a decade of experience in the event and hospitality industry.

    MeLisa hails from Kalamazoo, Michigan by way of the nation’s capital. In her personal time, she enjoys gardening, cooking, traveling, and spending time with her family and friends.