Our People

Anna Walker
Executive Director
awalker@lawndaleartcenter.org
Anna Walker has dedicated her professional life to art and artists. She comes to Lawndale from the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), where she served as Assistant Curator of Decorative Arts, Craft, and Design and the Windgate Foundation Curatorial Fellow for Contemporary Craft. Prior to joining the MFAH, Anna was the Curator at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft (HCCC), a kunsthalle-style space where she oversaw up to 12 exhibitions a year. She holds a BA in Art from Otterbein University with a focus on ceramics and printmaking and an MA in Arts Administration from Indiana University.

Emily Fens
Deputy Director
efens@lawndaleartcenter.org
Emily Fens has worked in cultural institutions for over a decade, beginning with the Houston Museum of Natural Science in 2012 and then Lawndale in 2016. She is a current artist member and Secretary of BOX 13 ArtSpace, an artist-run studio and exhibition space in Houston’s East End. Select artist collaborations include Music on the Plaza ft. Wild Moccasins with the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and LiveWire: an evening of modern music in conversation with dance and neuroscience with Musiqa. She holds a BS in Neuroscience from UCLA.

Jeremy Johnson
Exhibitions Director
jjohnson@lawndaleartcenter.org
A native Houstonian, Jeremy works with the Lawndale team to develop exhibitions and projects that center artists of the Gulf Coast region. Jeremy has worked in the arts at various types of institutions across Houston, always maintaining a writing practice that was recently recognized with an honorable mention in the 2022 Alexandra L. Rowan Memorial Writing Competition in Nonfiction at the University of Houston.

Ariana Brown
Programs Assistant
ariana@lawndaleartcenter.org
Ariana Brown is a poet, writer, and teacher based in Houston. She is the author of Sana Sana (Game Over Books, 2020) and We Are Owed. (Grieveland, 2021), a national collegiate poetry slam champion, winner of two Academy of American Poets Prizes, and a recipient of a National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures Grant. She holds a BA in African Diaspora Studies and Mexican American Studies from UT Austin, an MFA in Poetry from the University of Pittsburgh, and an MS in Library and Information Science from UNT. She currently develops ethnic studies and ELA curriculum for high schools and colleges, teaches creative writing to teens in Houston, and is working on her first young adult novel. Ariana has been writing, performing, teaching, and working in community literary, library, and arts spaces for over a decade.

Corey De’Juan Sherrard, Jr.
Designer and Communications Assistant
csherrard@lawndaleartcenter.org

Lisa Gregory
Controller
accounting@lawndaleartcenter.org

Mary Catherine Jones, Chair
Ryan LeVasseur, Vice Chair
Jessica Seff, Interim Treasurer
Teresa Porter, Secretary
Erika Mei Chua Holum, Chair, Advisory Board
Anna Walker, Executive Director
Piper Faust
Elizabeth Roath Garcia
Marco Hernandez
Cheryl Looper
Michelle Matthews
Jeryn Woodard Mayer
Nic Phillips
Regina Escamilla Reggie
Nicole Laurent Romano
Dr. Andre Shaw

Advisory Board

Erika Mei Chua Holum, Chair
Sterling Allen
Nick Barbee
Andy Campbell
Lily Cox-Richard
Jamal Cyrus
Saúl Hernández-Vargas
Loc Huynh
Lovie Olivia
Angelica Raquel
Gerardo Rosales