David Crowell – Board President

David Crowell returned to the board of the St. Lawrence County Arts Council in early 2025, having previously served over six years in leadership roles including vice president and president. A lifelong North Country resident, David brings a deep commitment to service and a passion for the arts.

David is a plein air painter and watercolorist, drawing inspiration from the Adirondacks and beyond. His work has been featured in local and regional exhibitions, including SLC Arts, TAUNY, the Frederic Remington Museum, and plein air festivals across New York and the U.S. He has also participated in international painting projects and conventions.

David holds a bachelor’s degree in Anthropology from SUNY Potsdam and a master’s in Counseling and Human Development from St. Lawrence University. His professional experience includes work with service organizations supporting youth, families, and individuals with developmental disabilities.

He resides in Massena, New York, with his wife, three cats, and a dog.

Rivka Eckert – Board Vice President

Rivka Eckert is a bodyworker, mother/artist, educator, and abolitionist theatre-maker. Her recent book, Into Abolitionist Theatre: A Guidebook for Liberatory Theatre Practice (Routledge, 2024), invites an abolitionist framework into theatre-making processes and pedagogies. She received her M.F.A. in Theatre for Youth from Arizona State University and her B.A. in Theatre Education and Writing, Literature, and Publishing from Emerson College.

Eckert has taught theatre and English in prisons, high schools, and middle schools, and has worked internationally with the Peace Corps in Samoa and Liberia. She brings over a decade of experience teaching in higher education, including eight years at SUNY Potsdam’s Department of Theatre, Dance, and Arts Management. She currently teaches at Saint Lawrence University and serves as a school board member for the Potsdam School District.

Lisa Dashnaw – Board Treasurer

Lisa Dashnaw is a high school art teacher at Massena Central School and a Varsity Cheerleading coach in the fall and winter sports seasons. She has been a dedicated member of the SLC Arts Board for the past six years, serving three terms as Secretary and currently holding the role of Treasurer. Lisa is also actively involved in the North Country Art Teachers Association, where she serves as Executive Treasurer.

Passionate about arts advocacy and education, Lisa is deeply committed to inspiring her students, with a professional concentration in ceramics. In addition to her work in education and the arts, she runs her own business as an Independent Mary Kay Consultant and is a strong advocate for women’s health and wellbeing. In her limited spare time, Lisa enjoys scrapbooking, spending time in nature with her pets, and playing The Sims.

Virginia Burnett – Board Secretary

St Lawrence County Arts Council has been one of the most important influences in my life as an artist.  My interactions with the organization over the last 25 years have provided me with training on running my small business, opportunities to learn and teach art skills locally and has connected me with other artists in my region.  Many of the regional arts events that my family & I have enjoyed through the decades have been hosted by or funded through SLC Arts Council. 

I feel very honored to help carry the legacy of the SLC Arts Council into the future by serving on the Board of Directors.  A vibrant Arts community can help build safer, happier neighborhoods, greater economic prosperity and most importantly, create connections of understanding & empathy between all people. 

John

John Berbrich was born and raised on Long Island, New York. He has worked in factories, a car wash, food service, and as a construction grunt, & an obscure paperwork drudge in a dreary government office building—plus he’s played in several experimental rock bands. John’s served on the Board of Directors for the St. Lawrence County Arts Council for the past six years, finishing up his three years as Board President in January 2026. He was chief editor & publisher of BoneWorld Publishing, under the aegis of which were published the literary quarterly Barbaric Yawp and the many chapbooks of MuscleHead Press. Known as Exotic John, he is a founding member of SLAP (St. Lawrence Area Poets). He’s also known as DJ Johnny B, host of the Midnight Show heard on WTSC radio, 91.1 FM, Potsdam, New York. John is also a member of the Grasse River Players & the See-More Players, two estimable acting associations. He & his wife Nancy live among the wild northwestern foothills of the Adirondack Mountains in Russell, New York.

Nathan Strock

Nathan Strock, Bass-baritone, is an Assistant Instructor of Voice at the Crane School of Music. He holds a Master’s of Music in Music Performance from SUNY Potsdam’s Crane School of Music and a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from the University of North Carolina Wilmington. 

Nathan has always been an avid performer, from his early days in middle school musicals to traveling across the east coast, bringing performances of famous operas to a wide range of cities. Strock can frequently be found touring with Teatro Lirco D’Europa in New York, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Florida to name a few.

Raamitha Pillay

Raamitha is learner centered STEM educator in the North Country for over 30 years, having taught in the area public schools and now in higher education. Having lived in a few different countries, she is a firm believer that we all need to feel included and have a sense of belonging, Raamitha has designed and facilitated many interactive workshops and conversations for groups to work together and learn together and build community along the way. Her Difficult Conversation Labs are workshops that bring awareness to what makes conversations difficult and how to navigate them. She is a community activist, organizes the North Country Poor People’s Campaign, and works with many groups to make the area more inclusive and welcoming for all who live here or are passing through. She is a mindfulness practitioner, and her hobbies include cooking, baking, knitting, crocheting, gardening, jigsaw puzzles, and problem solving. Raamitha appreciates all our natural resources and is always looking for ways to fix, repurpose, reuse and upcycle. 

Dakota Wielgasz

Dakota Wielgasz is a theatre technician from Sinclairville, NY specializing in props design and stage management. As well, he is a fantasy lover, D&D enthusiast, and all around crafter of adventures. Moving to Potsdam full time in 2020 and joining the Board in 2025, the arts culture and community in town has always been an important adventure for him. His passion in art is and always has been to make a positive difference with the work he does with it, and along with the rest of the SLC Arts Council he hopes to follow that dream as far as it can take him.  

Ali Feser

Ali Feser is a cultural anthropologist and interdisciplinary artist. She works primarily in the fields of performance and expanded photography and has exhibited in solo and group shows at the Ringling Museum in Florida and the Coprosperity Sphere and Logan Center galleries in Illinois. She has attended and been awarded residencies at the Montalvo Arts Center, the Visual Studies Workshop, and The Soil Factory, and her recent publications include essays in Color Protocols: Technologies of Racial Encoding in Chromatic Media and Film Stock: Histories, Technologies, Aesthetics. She is also the editor of Visual Anthropology Review. In Potsdam, Feser teaches at Clarkson University and hosts The Redirectory artists’ residency. She is currently writing a book about how Kodak film changed everything.