Meet Our Staff & Board
We are proud to have an incredible group of passionate and creative staff and board members making our governance decisions and achieving our mission day-to-day at HOBT. If you’d like to join us, consider volunteering, joining the board, applying for a job, or joining us as an artist collaborator.
Our Staff
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Community Partnerships/Site Director
He/Him/His
Steve Ackerman is a playwright and puppet artist who focuses on quick, crude, high-energy art making. He has his BFA in Acting from East Carolina University and MFA in Playwriting from Southern Illinois University.
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Executive Director
She/Her/Hers
Elina joined the HOBT Team in 2017. She has served in a variety of part time roles and has happily joined the team full time this January (2024) as the Director of Education. Elina is an educator, a therapist, a stage manager and an arts collaborator. She can not wait to bring more joyous puppet play and learning to this community. Elina is an immigrant and loves to travel, explore and people watch. Her happy place is the water and the trees and you can often find her kayaking, hiking and digging in the garden. Her cats rule her life.
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Bookkeeper and Office Coordinator
She/ Her/ Hers
I have been working as an Accounting for 26 years, I am also a Job Financial Coach, Accountant and Finance Director for Deaf Equity Organization. I am a Certified Domestic Violence advocate and Certified Community Health worker. During my free time I like to volunteer in my community, read books and spend time with friends. I am an animal lover and I also have 2 little chihuahuas and 1 white Maltese poodle dogs.
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Marketing and Communication Coordinator
They/Them
Lizz is a theater artist who was bit by a puppet bug in 2012 and has never been the same. They have created and performed in puppet shows at Open Eye Figure Theater, Heart of the Beast, Calgary Animated Objects Festival, and many more.
Lizz’s artistic interests include the uncanny, strange, and old, which puppetry is very much known for. Lizz’s original works and directing credits often include puppets, who often end up taking over the directing because they have a mind of their own. Lizz has created multiple full-length shadow puppet accompaniments to musical pieces like The Cradle Will Rock with An Opera Theater (2024) as well as Pierrot Lunaire with Ensemble dal Niente in Chicago (2018). They have designed puppets for various productions including Mixed Precipitations Magic Flute (2022). Their production Pierrot’s Gender Reveal Party appeared at the Calgary Animated Objects Festival in 2019. While living in Calgary Canada, Lizz was fortunate to puppeteer in the Canadian Academy of Mask and Puppetry’s collaboration with the Blackfoot tribe on their lantern puppet show Iniskim.
Lizz currently teaches theater and a yearly summer puppetry intensive at the Down Syndrome Association of Minnesota where they also are the director of adult enrichment programs. Lizz holds an MFA in directing from the Univesity of Calgary, Canada as well as degrees in English and Vocal music from the University of Minnesota. You can find more information at:
https://www.lizzwindnagel.com/puppetry, @lizzardbreath777 on Instagram
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Puppet Librarian & Storyteller/Bookkeeper
she/they
Chelly is a puppeteer and storyteller from the northern metro with over a decade of storytelling experience and a huge love for children's literature. You can normally find Chelly at HOBT's Puppet and Mask Library the first and third Saturday of each month accompanied by her puppet companion Turnip the Dog. Stop by and join her for a storytime or workshop!
Our Board
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She/Her/Hers
Start Date: 2023
Ellen is new to the Twin Cities and is thrilled to be supporting the work of HOBT. She is a Certified Public Accountant who loves to uplift art as an incredible component of social justice and education. She was moved to serve on the Board after visits to the Puppet Library with her child and learning about the values and guiding principles of the organization.
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They/them/she/her
Start Date: 2023
Adrian is a recent transplant from Bloomington Indiana where they worked with various nonprofit arts orgs before coming to Minneapolis after graduating from Earlham College in 2021 with a bachelors in music. Since then they have been teaching and volunteering around the East Phillips neighborhood as well as building and networking intentional communities. Adrian is a performer, visual artist, composer, and organizer. They are passionate about land justice, harm reduction, pipeline resistance, prison abolition, and theater as a vehicle for social and political change. They are looking forward to learning and growing alongside The Heart Of The Beast through our collective metamorphosis.
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She/Her/Hers
Start Date: 2024
Adriana Foreman (YANI) - I'm a Creative Entrepreneur passionate about building spaces where communities can thrive and stories can be shared. My expertise lies in video production and education. At In the Heart of the Beast Theater, I honed my leadership and organizational skills as stage manager for MayDay. I'm currently finishing an MBA with a concentration in Entrepreneurship/Leadership at Augsburg University. I'm committed to using my skills, experience, and love for this community to ensure that HOBT remains a vibrant space for the next generation of artists.
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She/Her/Hers
Start Date: 2025
Anita came to MN for college and didn’t leave. After setting up home and family, she dove into the robust nonprofit realm she sampled while in college. An early experience with MN Citizens for the Arts exposed her to the wide range of arts and culture we are privileged to enjoy across the state as well as the workings of the State Capital. Since then, she’s been a volunteer, an adviser and board leadership in numerous organizations from Clean Water Action to League of Women Voters and Land Stewardship Project to HOBT. As a systems thinker with a background in education and occupational therapy, she brings governance, administration, strategy and organizing skills to HOBT. Passion for the HOBT mission brought her back after serving a previous board term.cription text goes here
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She/Her/Hers
Start Date: 2024
Terri is very excited to be a part of HOBT. She holds an accounting degree and currently works for Armanino, a top 20 accounting firm, in Boise, Idaho. As a proud single parent, she is the mother of an amazing and talented adult son with autism. Terri has eight years of experience serving on the board of directors for the Autism Society Treasure Valley and has been the Chair of the Grants Committee at Armanino for the past four years. Her greatest passions are her love, dedication, and commitment to her family, friends, community, and charitable organizations.