Our Staff

Michele A. Parchment is the Executive Director of Brandywine Workshop and Archive. She joined Brandywine in 2023 following the retirement of the Founder, Allan L. Edmunds. Michele has more than 30 years’ experience working in nonprofit and for-profit art and museum organizations including the Sarasota Art Museum, Harvey B. Gantt Center for African American Arts + Culture, Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, and the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture. She began her career in the arts at the Studio Museum. She has a BA from Excelsior University, and an MA degree in history from American Public University, and a certificate in nonprofit leadership from Duke University.

Rohan McDonald is a graduate of Tyler School of Art and Architecture at Temple University with a BFA in Printmaking and a certificate in Entrepreneurial Studies. Rohan works closely with the Master Printer and the artists in the print workshop assisting the master printer and artists in the production of their artwork. He also the day-to-day operations and maintenance of the print workshop and other campus facilities.

Justine K. Ditto is a master printer, artist, and educator. A graduate of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (BFA ’17, Certificate in Studio Art with a focus on Printmaking), she further honed her expertise through the prestigious Tamarind Institute for Lithography, earning recognition as a Tamarind Trained Printer in collaborative lithography (2019-2020). Her previous roles include Print Shop Manager and Collaborative Printer with The Brodsky Center at Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Studio Assistant at Durham Press, Production Manager at BigPlanetApparel, and Artist in Residence at Millersville University, cultivating a practice that blends technical mastery with innovative experimentation across printmaking, sculpture, and textile-based work.

Marta Sanchez is a Philadelphia-based artist, educator, and cultural organizer whose work bridges creative practice and social impact. As Community Engagement Manager she designs programming that amplifies voices in printmaking and public art. With over three decades of experience as an instructor at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Saint Joseph’s University and other art institutions. Sanchez is the co-founder of Cascarones Por La Vida a visionary initiative transforming the Mexican folk tradition of confetti eggs into a vehicle for HIV/AIDS awareness and community healing.

Blue Koenig is a recent graduate of Drexel University’s Westphal College of Art and Design and the University’s Pennoni Honors College. A Graphic Design major, Blue started at Brandywine as a Drexel Co-op student. He has a passion for printed design and printmaking—screen printing in particular.

Jeshima DeVine is a Program Coordinator responsible for public outreach, and community engagement in support of Brandywine’s mission. She has worked at the Brodsky Center at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in the areas of archival documentation, print edition management, and artist residency support, and as an Assistant Artist with Mural Arts Philadelphia. Earlier roles included Operations Specialist at Flagger Force and Recreation Assistant for the City of Los Angeles.

John Cardone serves as Artura’s Digital Strategy Consultant where he leads the team in crafting vision and implementation strategy for the growing online database.

John is the Principal at Being Design Inc, a branding consultancy that helps business leaders build values-driven brands. Through his leadership in branding, design, and business model innovation, John is relentlessly focused on creating positive impact for his clients and his community.

Before founding Being Design, John spent 5 years working in the public art world, both as an artist himself, and also through building programs within institutions. When not on the job, you’ll most likely find John at a local coffee shop, or taking long walks through the city with his wife and two children.

Laurie Elder, as a representative of Being Design, joined BWA-Artura in October 2021 as a Design and Technology Coordinator. Enthusiastic about design and the opportunity to highlight brilliant artists of diverse backgrounds, she applies her 15+ years of design experience to elevate Artura’s web presence. Laurie was a co-designer for Artura’s website redesign (Artura 2.0) and currently oversees the web development process as well as implements new features and technology.

Laurie is most at home working with mission-driven or non-profit organizations related to healing or the arts. As a mother of 2 children and 3 cats, Laurie is passionate about always working to leave the world a little brighter than she found it.

As Content Development intern at BWA, Ashia Roberts works with the Manager of Content Development to assist in data entry and formatting changes on BWA’s public research database Artura.Org. Ashia studies fine arts at Moore College of Art and Design.

As an artist, Ashia experiments with high chromatic colors and floral backgrounds, combining painting techniques and 3D materials such as wood and metal so as to add interest and dimensionality to her works. Centering the experiences of Black women, Ashia strives to create art in which pain and beauty coexist, offering both the viewer and artist a harmonious experience.

As Content and Engagement Specialist, Julia Yun assists with communications outreach, program development, and documentation of the archives and print collection.

Julia is a Global Studies major at Drexel University, with a concentration in Culture, Arts, and Media, a minor in Asian Studies, and is set to pursue a second minor in Art History. Within Global Studies, she hopes to hone her knowledge within Korean culture and history in relation to the longstanding traditions of Korean art and intersectionality of the Korean American experience.

As Video and Digital Media Coordinator, Ben produces video documentation and editing for special projects with BWA. He is responsible for production on BWA’s bimonthly Conversations video series (formerly ArtistsNConversation), and he documents artist residencies, curator highlights, events, and other special projects.

Ben studies film production and English writing at Drexel University. He is motivated by a love of visual storytelling and a passion for both community-driven and accessibility-driven initiatives in the arts. In his free time, Ben enjoys writing poetry, producing freelance videography, and watching narrative films.

Gustavo Garcia is the Associate Director for Artist Residencies & Media Projects. In this capacity he is involved in the planning and execution of the internationally recognized artist-in-residency program, and the digitization of the archive at the organization. He joined BWA as an intern in 2012 while pursuing his BFA in printmaking and art education at Tyler School of Art and Architecture. His most recent initiative was to facilitate the transition of the residency program from an exclusive offset-lithography production to a collaborative program that partners with workshops across Philadelphia specializing on production techniques allowing artists to explore technologies inline with the 21st century.

Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Illustration

As a Collection, Content, and Engagement Specialist, Julia Yun assists with communications outreach and documentation of the archives and print collection.

Attending Drexel University, Julia is a Global Studies major with a concentration in Culture, Arts, and Media, a minor in Asian Studies and soon set to pursue a second minor in Graphic Design. Within Global Studies, she hopes to hone her knowledge within Korean culture and history in relation to the longstanding traditions of Korean art and intersectionality of the Korean American experience.

Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Illustration

As a Collection, Content, and Engagement Specialist, Julia Yun assists with communications outreach and documentation of the archives and print collection.

Allan L. Edmunds is recognized as an award-winning artist-printmaker, educator and arts manager. As founder of Brandywine Workshop and Archives, arts management consultant and lecturer, he has built a strong following nationally and internationally among artists, art historians and curators. Over a five-decade career, Edmunds has been driven to create wider access for artists of color and their art in institutions, and document, broadly, their contributions to global culture. He has a BFA and MFA degrees in fine art from Temple University, Tyler School of Art & Architecture, served as a Senior Research Associate in computer graphics at Cardiff Art School in Wales (UK), and was a Fellow of the Getty Museum Management program.

Collections and Social Media Coordinator Liz Ramos works closely with the Curatorial Assistant – Collections Manager, assisting with inventorying the collection, researching and updating artist records on the Artura.org research database, designing and writing social media posts for featured events, and assisting with curatorial tasks. She recently took up the role as BWA’s Social Media Coordinator.

Prior to moving to Philadelphia three years ago, Liz had minimal exposure to the art world. Having relocated to attend the University of Arts, Liz is now a full-time Fine Arts student (Painting emphasis); a part-time intern at BWA (through the Studio Institute’s Art Intern partnership); and a practiced muralist, currently working with Hagopian Arts in Philadelphia and, previously, with Promise Neighborhoods in creating a large-scale mural in Allentown, PA.

Taswir Davis is BWA’s Archives Intern through the Studio Institute Arts Intern program. She is a Philadelphia-based artist majoring in Illustration at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Her expertise lies within graphic design, illustration, and fine arts painting. As Archives Intern, Taswir’s work includes organizing and cataloging analog media and contributing to digital-design and printing projects.

Taswir pursues illustration due to her unending curiosity for combining traditional and digital mediums to create something unique, particularly related to book illustration and storytelling.

As Art Education Intern through the Studio Institute Arts Intern program, Lana works with the Curatorial Assistant-Collections Manager, Editor-in-Chief, and branding consultant team to audit BWA’s visual-art and education resource, Artura.org, and create lesson plans and other educational materials. Lana also assists in strategizing community and school-district outreach, resource promotion, and testing accessibility and user interface experiences.

Lana is a non-traditional student at Temple University’s Tyler School of Art and Architecture pursuing a BS in Art Education. They are passionate about creating dynamic, inclusive art lessons and hope to teach students that every single person is welcome to enjoy a relationship to the arts.

Deja-Nicole Stokes graduated with a Bachelor of Science in graphic design from Philadelphia University (now Jefferson at East Falls) in 2014 and immediately began an internship at BWA. She was hired that fall as the graphic designer and has worked on all documentation and promotional projects (printed and digital) since that time. While working at Brandywine she also received her Master of Arts degree in graphic design from Academy of Art University in 2017. Since 2018, she has been the lead designer for Artura related projects and works collaboratively with all staff on the digital image library and archival photography collection.

Content and Collections Management Assistant Elena Pippilo aids with the preservation of the collection. From large-scale tasks such as rehousing to the meticulous work of condition reporting, she assists with assessing the needs of the collection, providing archival standards of care and documentation, and researches and records data within the institution’s DAMS.

Elena is an art history student at Drexel University, recently relocated to Philadelphia from Houston, TX. In studying art history, she hopes to explore the relationships between culture and art, and examine art through the lens of their historical context. Elena joined BWA as part of the Drexel co-op program in March 2022.

As Content and Digital Engagement Specialist, Sophia Aitcadi contributes to advancing Brandywine Workshop and Archives’ social-media-based marketing and promotion. Sophia applies her learned skills to BWA’s online platforms, building public relationships through the integration of digital and analog means. Sophia introduces new ways to share BWA’s artistic and educational offerings in both physical and digital spaces. She hopes to promote BWA’s programs and resources while raising public awareness and appreciation of its mission and history.

In her final year as a communications student at Drexel University, Sophia hopes to explore career opportunities in public relations with a particular focus on spatial curation and design. Sophia is a Philadelphia native who joined the BWA team as part of the Drexel co-op program; she chose BWA, specifically, to work with and assist a local institution that she finds integral to the city’s culture.

David E. Moore, III, with his team at MooreTech.Guru, supports Brandywine Workshop and Archives with IT service for its staff, networks, company owned devices, cloud resources and various tech related projects onsite and remote.

David is the CEO of MooreTech.Guru, an IT solutions service provider in the Philadelphia tri-state area that has over 30+ years of IT experience with managed systems, networking, cloud, security and Internet, and more.

As Content and Digital Media Specialist, Jacqueline Blizzard contributes to advancing Brandywine Workshop and Archives initiatives in photography, videography, digital media, and design. She produces producing BWA’s ArtistsNConversation series of livestreamed and video-on-demand lectures. In addition, Jacqueline works on the digitization of historic visual resources including photographic slides and other analog media with the intention of documenting BWA’s programs and institutional growth since its founding in 1972.

Jacqueline is a photography major at Drexel University and is interested in a career as a photojournalist with an emphasis in street photography. Among her photographic influences are Evelyn Hofer, Vivian Maier, and Hellen Levitt. Jacqueline joined the BWA team in September 2022.

Taswir pursues illustration due to her unending curiosity for combining traditional and digital mediums to create something unique, particularly related to book illustration and storytelling.

As Collections Intern through the Studio Institute Arts Intern program, Kahmara works with the Curatorial Assistant-Collections Manager to update object and entity records within BWA’s Collective Access collections-management database. Kahmara is an interdisciplinary artist pursuing a BA in Art Therapy at Temple University’s Tyler School of Art and Architecture. She hopes to encourage the use of art for therapeutic expression and to bring light to art therapy and its many benefits. While studying to become a licensed art therapist, her aspiration is to work with underserved communities and individuals who are in need of mental support. When she is not at work, she enjoys trying out new restaurants, painting, and spending time with her family and friends.

Our Staff

Michele A. Parchment

Rohan McDonald

Justine Ditto

Marta Sanchez

Blue Koenig

Jeshima DeVine

John Cardone

Laurie Elder

Ashia Roberts

Julia Yun

Benjamin Roe

Gustavo Garcia

Taswir Davis

Taswir Davis

Allan Edmunds

Liz Ramos

Taswir Davis

Lana Hanulec

Deja-Nicole Stokes

Allan Edmunds

Liz Ramos

Elena Pippilo

Sophia Aitcadi

David E. Moore, III

Siona Pearson

Jacqueline Blizzard

Taswir Davis

Kahmara Beckford

Lana Hanulec

Brandywine Workshop and Archives, Inc TM

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