Real Team at Real Art Ways

Lisa is a social anthropologist, poet, mother of 3 artists and recent transplant to CT after 25 years living in Europe and Asia. A first-generation college student from New Mexico, she studied at Carleton College, completed an MBA at Washington University and a D.Phil. at Oxford.

Paul is an Associate Director at Manchester Community College with over 30 years in civil service for the State of Connecticut. Paul has a passion for connecting people and helping to enrich the lives of those in our community. Paul serves on the Town of East Hartford Youth Advisory Board, is a member of Kiwanis of Glastonbury and a former Board member of the Manchester Community College Foundation. Paul has volunteered and supported numerous charities and not-for-profit organizations including Interval House of Hartford, Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, Riverfront Recapture and Visiting Nurse Association.

Brenda is Hartford Public Library’s Executive Director, Culture and Communications, and oversees HPL’s museum and archive, its ArtWalk gallery, and its Digital Library Lab, in addition to heading the Library’s Communications team.  She holds a B.A. in History from the University of Connecticut and a M.A. in American Studies – Museums, Communities and Archives from Trinity College, Hartford.

Olu Oguibe is a local artist based in Rockville, Connecticut. He’s been a member of Real Art Ways since 2003, and has exhibited his work at the space on a number of occasions.

Marc is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Ironwood Capital, a private equity firm in Avon. He’s been an enthusiastic member of RAW for over 25 years and a board member the last four.

Gregg has spent his whole professional career at Travelers. Originally hailing from Wisconsin, he has worked in the Minnesota, London, UK and Hartford offices. He and his wife have a deep passion for all forms of art and is prior board member of the Minnesota Museum for American Art.

Yedalis Ruíz was born in Puerto Rico and raised in Hartford. She has been involved with Real Art Ways since she was 13 years old! 

Yedalis is a first-generation, bilingual college graduate. She is a graduate of Hartford High, Mt. Holyoke College, and has a Master’s and Ph.D. from UMass-Amherst. She teaches at UMass, working to increase access and equity in higher education.

Jon is the principal of Jon L Schoenhorn & Associates, a Hartford law firm specializing in criminal defense and plaintiffs’ civil rights cases, including employee discrimination, police misconduct and freedom of speech and expression. He lives in Farmington and has been a an active member of RAW since the early 1990s.

Tara is a partner at Locke Lord LLP, where she represents clients in complex disputes throughout the country with a specific focus on privacy and cybersecurity issues and financial services litigation. Originally from New York City, Tara moved to the Hartford area in 2006 for law school and has never left! Tara has served on the RAW Board of Trustees since 2016 and serves as its Chair since 2019.