2019 dream teaM
This amazing crew brought Camp 2019 to life with their passion, playfulness, and persistence.
Amy Silverman
Founder & Camp Director
Amy is committed to bringing people together through play, connection, self-expression and creativity. Her passion for igniting human connection led her to build and facilitate The Connection Movement, a community that comes together and dives into self-discovery, transformation and deep, earnest connection through events, workshops, coaching programs, social experiments and retreats. She has initiated the launch of sister communities to the Connection Movement in Miami, Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Charleston.
Learn more about her in this video.
zettie shapey
assistant director
Zettie is a human from Oak Park, Illinois, and a current resident of Brooklyn, where she lives with 18 people, babysits a 3-year-old, organizes Jews to defund ICE, and eats cookie dough. In the last five years, she has taught wilderness skills in Yosemite, history in a 5th grade classroom, kindness to preschoolers, and deep listening and emotional support to adults. Zettie is a lover of community, song, play, making things, learning, collective liberation, earth, and humanness, and is thrilled to be part of Connection Camp.
cari gelber
director of partnerships
With other 13 years of sales experience, Cari specializes in Event Sales and Marketing Consulting. She works with clients in the Hospitality industry; restaurants and bars, film festivals, Summer Camps, and children’s events. She loves to come up with creative ways to fill venues, sell more tickets, and out-of-the-box ways to find new business.
kristi parson
PRE-production manager
Kristi discovered Connection Camp in 2018 after moving to NY from the West Coast and found her community through the campers she met there. She wears many hats in her daily life and is helping the with production of camp this year.
alex sommer
Social media strategist
Alex Sommer helps single men and women who are frustrated with dating create passionate, loving, communicative relationships. He’ll show you how to make dating exciting, relaxing and fun, while helping you to achieve your individual dating and relationship goals!
gilaad amir
venue & resources manager
Gil has been building communities and running events for over a decade across several cities, in both a corporate setting and in various personal and non-profit organizations. He aims to connect the right people with one another, solve the problem of loneliness, and inspire people to support themselves and each other through powerful social networks.
Nate jones
music & on-site tech director
Nate is a professional musician and freelance artist and entrepreneur living in Warwick, Rhode Island. He spreads a message of love and positivity through music and conscious mindful living. He believes there is no limit to what we can achieve when we work together in harmony; that’s exactly what music is.
Rachel clarK
nightlife space designer
Rachel is a body intelligence explorer, connector, and creative. Originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Rachel believes that human connection is activism, activism that is actively planting seeds towards a more fulfilling, vulnerable, permission giving, and expansive (inwards and outwards) culture.
erin mcintosh
production & marketing team
Hey Everyone, I'm super duper excited to be returning to Connection Camp this summer!!! I am stoked to meet & connect with amazing new humans, laugh, teach, laugh, play, laugh, dance, likely cry, run around barefoot, dominate in color wars YASSSSSSS & be present with all of you! I'm bringing my wild enthusiasm & zest for life & my excitement for camp to have the best experience ever!
alison bulman
Circling facilitator
Alison Bulman is a Manhattan-based psychotherapist and founder of IntimaCities. Harnessing collective group wisdom (Gestalt, psychodrama, meditation and CBT-influences), Alison empowers participants and couples she coaches privately, to see and clear their unconscious individual intimacy blocks and aggressions.
Sophie eleanor kruip
on-site event manager
Sophie has been coordinating health and wellness events and theatre productions for 10 years, and desires the full depth and magic of human interaction as often as possible. She is currently learning about living in intentional community and exploring self in relationship.
roniesha godfrey
social media manager
Roniesia has 6 years of experience in Event Marketing and Production. Roniesia helps companies and brands build buzz and reach their target audience through story-telling and unique brand experiences.
Info@lifestyleandevents.com
Instagram: @lifestyleandeventsbyroni
marcy clark
public relations
Marcy Clark is Co-Founder of VitaminR, a Wellbeing and Creative Expression Consultancy. She’s a seasoned Self-Expression & Public Speaking Coach, a PR and Brand Strategy consultant for over a dozen years, and the creator of the ‘Vocal Clearings & Empowered Declarations’ workshop. Her work is grounded in the principles of storytelling, creativity, and “the body as instrument.”
alexandra bayeva
arrival support
Alexandra Bayeva is a professional dancer and choreographer with a background in ballet, modern, and contact improvisation who believes that movement can be a powerful tool of transformation. She helps lead events that help people to connect to their creative selves and each other through dance and movement. She experiments with bringing the experience of dance improv to the stage.
vincenzo minino
circling co-facilitator
A certified Circling facilitator through Circling Europe, Vincenzo currently leads weekly Circling at Soho's NeuroLeadership Institute. He's committed to teaching mindfulness for family, personal, and professional conflict-resolution, especially interested in supporting men to reconcile society's rigid definition of masculinity and vulnerability.
crystl murray-mills
on-site licensed mental health counselor
Crystl offers in-depth services in several areas of personal development and therapeutic interventions, with over a decade of experience in mental health and family law. Crystl specializes in maternal mental health, early intervention, relationship-based therapies, parenting, and issues arising from adoption.
laetitia kavanaght
camp nurse
Laetitia Kavanaght is a Registered Professional Nurse of 10 years with experience in Oncology and Critical Care settings. She currently works in Hospice facilitating smooth transitions for patients and their families at the End of Life.
eleanora aleya lupyan
Teacher and healer manager
Eleonora Aleya Lupyan, MA is a Belarusian born Medicine Woman with a Masters in Clinical Psychology, Mind/Body Medicine & Spirituality Studies from Columbia University. Aleya weaves a space of love bridging ancestral knowing with modern science.
axios papaflessas
marketing lead
Axios is a soul-driven creative here to inspire worthiness in all and share the joy of life through authenticity, love, and the improvisational arts.
eric shaughnessy
lead photographer
Eric has spent the last 7 years shooting all different kinds of photography– wedding, corporate, editorial, fashion and commerce, and more. His work has been featured on Good Morning America, GQ, Maxim, Forbes, Bloomberg, The Chicago Tribune, and others. See more of his work here.
loury azucena
community support team
Loury is a Reiki Practitioner from New York, working as a Community Health Coordinator/Care Coordinator. She is passionate about helping others and desires to make deeper connection with people.
Emily Shaughnessy
camp big sister
Emily is a writer, Professional Cuddler, and workshop facilitator from Austin, Texas. She is trained in several healing and relational modalities, including Authentic Relating, Nonviolent Communication, professional listening and improvisational theatre. She holds degrees in English and journalism and has worked as a reporter, blogger, communications coordinator, improv teacher and children’s performer.
mary Catanzaro
color olympics director
Mary Catanzaro is the brainchild of POGO Events, an interactive event management company specializing in team building activities. Mary loves "fun" and especially enjoys board games, entertaining, cooking and running. She is looking forward to her second year at Connection Camp and organizing Color Olympics so people can express their love of competition!
JJ Kovacevich
2016 Camp Co-Founder
JJ Kovacevich has over a decade of professional experience in the performing arts and in the health and wellness industry (the latter, as a yoga instructor and mindful personal trainer). Kovacevich also has extensive experience in the nonprofit sector, in arts management, and small businesses, as a production coordinator and administrator.