Board of Directors

Nettie Hoge, President

Nettie Hoge is an East Bay resident who is deeply grateful to the staff and faculty at Richmond Art Center for her cultivation of self-expression and personal growth in and as a result of Richmond Art Center’s painting and drawing classes. Nettie brings a wealth of nonprofit experience to Richmond Art Center’s board. She has served on three nonprofit boards, including a stint as the chair of the Heyday Press board. She is a retired lawyer who has worked in many governmental and nonprofit organizations including as an executive director and a senior staff member. She served as Chief Deputy Commissioner at the California Department of Insurance during the term of Dave Jones. She provided legal assistance to victims of domestic violence as a Legal Services lawyer. While working for Consumers Union, she served on the advisory board for Health Access and litigated to establish funds for community health efforts as nonprofits like Blue Cross converted to for profit institutions. She was Executive Director for six years at TURN, a nonprofit, legal organization advocating at the Public Utilities Commission for utility consumer rights, and fare rates.

John Boychuk, Vice President

John Boychuk is a professional artist and art professor who works with a wide variety of materials and processes, both traditional and digital. Over the course of 20+ years of art making, John has shown and taught internationally as well as in the Bay Area. He is a new teaching artist at Richmond Art Center. John grew up in the Detroit metropolitan area and now lives with his family in Richmond. John has taught at Berkeley City College, SAE Expression College in Emeryville, and the University of Silicon Valley in San Jose. His greatest accomplishments as an educator are in supporting multicultural, gender-diverse, and economically challenged students to achieve their academic and personal goals. He is excited to work with Richmond Art Center to increase the creative opportunities for the communities of Richmond.

Amy Zheng, Treasurer

“As a Chinese immigrant and art studio business owner, I have strong connections with the Chinese community in the East Bay and can contribute to the Richmond Art Center in a variety of ways. I can use my connections to engage the Chinese community and raise funds for the Center. I have valuable media contacts that I will use to promote RAC’s events and news. I will advocate for diversity and inclusion in Board and organizational initiatives. I will promote and help to organize exhibitions, talks, and events that will prominently feature Asian artists. I also have a strong accounting background that will help the board interpret financial reports and forecasts. In addition, my experience teaching classes and workshops in art will inform the organization’s mission.”

Lina Velasco, Secretary

Lina Velasco is the Community Development Director for the City of Richmond. She has worked for the City of Richmond since 2005. During her tenure at the City, Lina has led various community-driven planning efforts, including mobility plans, specific plans, streetscape plans, and the comprehensive Zoning Update. Her work includes obtaining grants for planning activities, as well as built-environment improvements, such as parks rehabilitations and streetscape projects. Lina believes that the arts are an important component of celebrating culture, diversity, and an integral part of community revitalization efforts. She has a B.A. in History and Chicana/o Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles and Masters in Regional Planning Candidate from Cornell University. Lina lives in Pinole with her husband and two children (ages 7 and 11).

Paul Collins, Treasurer

Paul Collins is an East Bay Area native and former Richmond resident. He lives with his partner and children (aged 10 and 13) in Lafayette, CA. Paul has a B.A. in business management from San Diego State University and works with Homeowners’ Associations in and around Richmond, as CEO of Collins Management (recently of Richmond, now in Hercules) and founder and CFO of Unlimited Property Services, Inc. in Richmond. He also founded and is CEO of Collins Management Foundation, a nonprofit that benefits communities served by Collins Management and especially workers in the HOA services sector. He believes in community and, as a businessman, he feels one of the most important things he does is invest in communities. He believes that Richmond Art Center enhances community life in Richmond and contiguous communities with art and art-making opportunities and he is honored to support that work as a board member.

Jane Diokas

With her Master’s in printmaking from Illinois State University and background in teaching art at schools in underserved communities, as well as starting and running two successful design-based businesses, Jane Diokas’ qualifications provide real world solutions that bridge the gap between idealism and financial necessity. She believes that art can be first and foremost a joyful pursuit that naturally expresses a higher truth. She hopes to help carry on the mission of the founder of Richmond Art Center – who believed there was an artist in everyone and that art was as vital as breathing – while aligning it with both contemporary values and needs.

Amy Feitelberg

For twenty years, Amy Feitelberg has been on-set art directing and producing photography and creative content. She has collaborated with photographers and crews all over the world making distinctive award-winning work for both commercial and editorial worlds. Most recently she has been a Photo Creative Lead at Airbnb partnering on seasonal launch campaigns. Before that she ran Photo Creative at Square for 6 years overseeing the evolution from documentary storytelling to global campaigns. She also she founded and curated an award winning, in-house brand magazine called The Reader. Previous to entering the tech world she was the Photo Director at Los Angeles and Outside magazines. She has won numerous awards from American Photography, Society of Publication Designers and Communication Arts. She has curated several shows in Los Angeles and she has been a mentor at Art Center in Pasadena and a guest lecturer there as well.

Tia Foss

Tia Foss began working for non-profits in 1994 when she moved to San Francisco and joined the staff of the newly established Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Since then, she’s held development positions at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, Planned Parenthood: Shasta-Diablo, and the Lawrence Hall of Science. Currently, she serves as Director of Philanthropy for the UC Berkeley School of Information. Tia credits frequent childhood visits to the Art Institute of Chicago for her life-long appreciation of the arts. She received her degree in Art History from the University of Minnesota and enjoys taking classes at the Richmond Art Center.

Susan Kuramoto Moffat

Susan Kuramoto Moffat melds the arts and the humanities and environmental design disciplines to study urban life. She is Executive Director of Global Urban Humanities Initiative and Creative Director of Future Histories Lab, two grant-funded interdisciplinary programs at UC Berkeley. She has worked in organizations ranging from small advocacy organizations (Greenbelt Alliance) to large bureaucracies (UC Berkeley) and has served on Albany’s City Council-appointed Waterfront Committee and Arts Committee in Albany. She founded a small non-profit community arts organization called Love the Bulb that brings outdoor music, dance, and theater performances and public art to non-traditional audiences. She brings an anti-racist and equity lens to all her work. Susan earned her undergraduate degree at Harvard University and master’s degrees at UC Berkeley (City Planning) and Columbia (Journalism). She has lived in Albany since 1997. 

Cristina Saavedra

Cristina Saavedra brings a wealth of experience to the Board, most notably her background as a business operations leader including her current position at Apple and years of experience with Square Trade. In these roles she has developed deep expertise in relationship management and in growth strategy. She is experienced and interested in harvesting data to facilitate customer experience. She knows business intelligence and system design, and has managed and led diverse teams. Christina committed to contributing her skills and experience to help RAC grow its donation pipeline and expand its operational footprint within the greater Bay Area.

Rachel Sommovilla

Rachel Sommovilla was born and raised in the Philadelphia area, and received her B.A. degree in biological anthropology from Harvard University. She earned her law degree from UC Berkeley School of Law, practiced law in San Francisco and clerked for numerous Federal District Court judges before joining the Richmond City Attorney’s Office in 2012. As a Senior Assistant City Attorney and Interim City Attorney, her duties included the handling of complex litigation and land use matters for the City, and advising the City Council, City Departments, and various boards and commissions. Rachel currently serves as Assistant County Counsel for Alameda County. While in the Richmond City Attorney’s office, Rachel and her two sons participated in various Richmond Art Center classes and summer programs. Rachel lives in El Cerrito with her two sons, husband and dog.