Staff Bios

Stephanie Balzer – Executive Director
Stephanie Balzer came to VOICES in 2008 from the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona, where she spent more than three years as Communications Officer. Prior to moving to Tucson, she reported for The Business Journal in Phoenix. She holds a master’s degree in creative writing from The University of Arizona and is a member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals. Stephanie was selected as the 2008 Mary Ann Campau fellow from The University of Arizona and has two chapbooks of poetry forthcoming from Kore Press (Revenant) and CUE Editions (faster, faster.) As Executive Director, Stephanie oversees VOICES strategic and programmatic direction.

Kathryn Johnson Gindlesparger, PhD – Writing Director
Katie received her bachelor’s in English from the University of Illinois and a PhD in Rhetoric, Composition, and the Teaching of English from The University of Arizona. Her dissertation, “The Ethics of Giving: Teaching Rhetoric in One Community Literacy Program” examines community activism and literacy and how the two intersect in the mission of VOICES. Katie has worked with numerous out-of-school and non-profit literacy programs to teach language as a means of social change.

Krista Joy Niles – Photography Director
Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Krista Niles joined the staff of VOICES after 14 years in daily photojournalism. She has traveled the country extensively, working for The New York Times, The Associated Press, The Lincoln Journal-Star, The San Antonio Express-News and several other media organizations. Her documentary project work focuses primarily on youth-related issues and women’s health issues. She studied photojournalism at San Francisco State University and also attended the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where she studied Art History.

Alisa Z. Shorr – Development Assistant
Alisa Shorr is delighted to share her decade plus of professional experiences in community arts development to support the critical and creative work of VOICES. She has worked as an administrator, grant writer, and publicist with stints at The University of Arizona Museum of Art, Young Audiences of Southern Arizona, and Arts Genesis. Alisa holds a degree in Art History from The University of Arizona.

Stephanie Dickson – Executive Administrative Assistant
Stephanie came to VOICES in 2006 as an AmeriCorps writing mentor following a year of youth development work with the Youth Volunteer Corps, another AmeriCorps program. She earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota, also minoring in anthropology and women’s studies. Stephanie comes from a strong background in the dramatic arts and is a freelance writer and award-winning songwriter and performer.

Devin Horn – Americorps Mentor, 2009
Made available to the Voices community by government Americorps grant, Devin now serves as head snack artisan, lead Radioactivism engineer, and multi-purpose tech.head. He holds a half-bachelors in electives, trains for travels, & stays eager with 110º’s writing process. Beyond Voices Devin studies tantra and sound. He is a Libra.

Donny Tran – Americorp Mentor, 2009
Donny Tran is a filmmaker and illustrator who has filmed TV pilots and music videos that aired on WB and Telemundo. Donny has a BS in Marketing and Management Information Systems from the University of Arizona. He is also a former counselor for the University of Arizona’s NEWSTART program, Student Enrichment Program and YMCA Camp Marson in Julian, California. He is currently assisting youth in creating digital stories through video and photography.

Benjamin Webster Truman – Americorp Mentor, 2009

New to Tucson, Ben was a starving artist before finding Voices.
Now he’s just working on the “artist” part by writing comic books and video games, hoping one day the masses won’t consider the art forms unsophisticated. He enjoys working with teenagers who are much cooler than he was at their age, confident they will continue to use their voice on and off the page.

Ashley Samuela Raasch – Americorp Mentor, 2009

Ashley received her bachelors in Visual Communications from the University of California at Davis, where she was a student athlete on the women’s crew team.  She worked as a graphic artist for Ink Monkey Graphics and then for the San Luis Obispo based Tribune newspaper. After completing her Peace Corps Service in Paraguay, where she helped build a country wide sustainable photography program designed to give Paraguayan youth in rural areas the opportunity to learn digital photography skills while developing their self-esteem and creative thinking skills, she moved to Guatemala to continue her passions for development work in the arts. She excitedly came to VOICES in 2009 through the AmeriCorps program and is currently a Peace Corps Fellows pursuing her MFA of photography at the University of Arizona.

Lisa Bartkowski – Social Work Intern
Lisa Bartkowski is a first year Master’s student at Arizona State University’s School of Social Work in Tucson, Arizona. Lisa is new to VOICES and works with VOICES’ youth as a social work intern. Lisa’s passion for social work developed as she earned a Bachelor’s degree in Family Studies and Human Development at the University of Arizona in 2006. Lisa hopes to work with individuals and families to assist them in achieving their goals and improving their quality of life.

Josh Schachter – Guest Artist
Josh Schachter is a photographer and educator who has worked with organizations across the country to document community issues such as urban revitalization, HIV/AIDS and food security. His images have been published internationally in books, magazines, newspapers, and other formats in publications ranging from the Navajo Times to the The New York Times. Josh earned a master’s degree in environment management/social ecology at the Yale School of Forestry and Environment Studies, where he taught inner-city youth to explore their environment through photography. Since then, he has trained hundreds of children, community groups and teachers to explore and photograph issues in their community.

Kimi Eisele – Guest Artist
Kimi Eisele is a writer, editor, dancer, and educator. She is a founding member of Voices, Inc. and served for five years as the organization’s writing director, mentoring teenagers in writing, research, and interviewing for 110 Degrees. Her essays and articles have been published in Fourth Genre, OnEarth, Orion, Orion Afield, various anthologies, and other places. She has taught geography and language arts in Ecuador and coordinated many writing and geography projects to children and adults in the U.S. and Mexico. As a dancer, Kimi performs locally with two modern dance companies and teaches community classes in “words and movement.” Currently she serves Voices as a guest artist teaching interviewing and writing to teenagers of the San Xavier District of the Tohono O’odham Nation through the pilot program, Looking Forward/Looking Back.

Therese Perrault – Guest Artist
Therese Perreault worked as guest photographer for VOICES on the WW2 History Project with City High School and the South Park Project, an intergenerational community project in which youth and senior citizens teamed up to photograph and write about their neighborhood. Therese has managed to find a path in which she has one foot in the creative world and one foot in the business world, often making her the a conduit between the two. She has a BFA, Photography, from the University of Maine and an MBA from Simmons College, Boston. She continues to pursue her photography and has exhibited her photographic work in the U.S. and Great Britain. Currently Therese is in the process of creating a photographic essay on descansos and their significance in modern cultural and religious traditions.