Staff

Bob at 18

Bob Perkins: Executive Director
Bob Perkins joined Youth in Focus as Executive Director in January 2006. He has more than eight years' experience in non-profit management, primarily at The Center for Wooden Boats in Seattle. He has also worked as an actor, boatbuilder, carpenter, sailor and fisherman and in children's television. He holds a degree in theatre and art, is a certified high school teacher and a father of 3. Bob's adolescent funding was provided via his father's 30-year career at Kodak.

Bob believes that every person has an important story to recognize and celebrate. He finds energy and hope in the artistic visioning and exploration of our students as they examine their world and imagine their role in it.

Kat at 19

Kat Vellos: Program Director
Kat is a lot of things: multimedia experimentalist, teaching artist, photographer, graphic designer, organic urban gardener, painter, lyricist, writer, poet, MacGyver of DIY craftivism, and creative innovator. She is originally from Belize and currently resides in West Seattle. Kat’s been shutterbuggin' since she was 15 and has a rich background in design, community-building, program management/implementation and youthwork. She loves adhesives, the sound of zippers and waking up before dawn to write.

Jessica at 14

Jessica Glein: Administrative Manager
Jessica's spaceship landed on planet earth in the late Twentieth Century. Her mission is to keep taking photos to document her journey while boldly going where no has gone before (in white overalls). Her superpowers include the ability to identify celebrities from very old photos, knitting at the speed of light, and teaching her technologically inept co-workers how to use their computers.

Sam at 16

Sam Smith: Program Deputy/Teaching Artist
Sam is a South Seattleite by birth and a photographer by trade. He began working with Youth In Focus in 2005, and has since acted as Volunteer Wrangler, Teaching Artist, and Freelance Project Coordinator. He currently serves as 'Resident Awesome Guy' and 'Bearer of Delicious Seitan.' Sam's interests include archaic novelties such as black and white photography, land-based telephone lines, bicycle riding, saving the planet, and Salt-n-Pepa.

Teaching Artists

CB at 18 Sherry at 16 Khoi Nguyen Rosie at 14 Zorn at 17

CB Bell: Teaching Artist
CB has been a working portrait photographer since before you were born. His hobbies include polka music, high-wasted pants, eating cheese, and spending quality time with his next-door neighbors, the Winslows.

Sherry Loeser: Teaching Artist
Sherry Loeser is a Canadian born, Seattle based freelance photographer specializing in portraiture. Over the last fourteen years she has been actively involved in the Seattle photographic community as a photographer, producer, assistant and teaching artist. Some of her clients include Time Inc., Microsoft, Make A Wish Foundation, Vulcan Inc. and Seattle Magazine. She is currently shooting Advertising, Editorial and Documentary work... and loving every minute of it.

Khoi Nguyen: Teaching Artist
Khoi Nguyen is a product of the late 20th century Renaissance and mid-century Vietnamese diaspora. A photographer whose work now incorporates video, small sculpture, multimedia, and installation, he defies anyone to pigeonhole him into any one medium.

Khoi's interest in photography began as a fascination with tiny spy cameras, and with spying in general. He started shooting with a small 110 pocket camera at the age of 6 and taught himself photography until his first photography class at the age of 20. He has since earned an AA degree in Commercial Photography at Seattle Central Community College, a BFA in Photography at the University of Washington, a BA in Interdisciplinary Art at the University of Washington, and an MFA in Photography at the Rhode Island School of Design. He began his college career studying electrical engineering.

Khoi enjoys long walks on the beach (and on sidewalks), building and enjoying tube-based audio systems, shaving with a straight razor, and cooking and eating delicious foods – lots of it. He is also a competent rock climber. Khoi believes in the transformative power that the mastery of craft can provide. He hopes his students will take the lessons they learn at YIF use them to succeed in the world.

Rosie Sabaric: Teaching Artist
Rosie Sabaric often dreams in the sequence of snapshots with small pauses between each frame. The closest thing in life to this experience is holding a camera and trying to capture the uniqueness of the world. This is something she discovered close to the age of 5 where her passion and interest in photography blossomed. Since then, she has earned a degree in Photography from Western Washington University and keeps pursuing this art form and developing her own style. She loves working at Youth in Focus and interacting with all the amazing people that come through the door. When she is not photographing or working at Youth in Focus, Rosie likes to travel, sleep, and read.

Zorn Taylor: Teaching Artist
Zorn B. Taylor is an artist who expresses his creative vision through film and digital photography. Formally trained at Seattle Central Community College in commercial photography, he has worked shooting his own fine art projects as well as weddings and other commercial contracts since 1997. He has taught beginning black & white film and for several years has taught digital photography as a teaching artist with Youth in Focus. His current series, the Black Fathers Project, addresses the urban myth of black men being unable or unwilling to parent. Zorn's work has been displayed at SAM, NAAM, Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center, the M. Rosetta Hunter Gallery, the Seattle Center, and ACT. His latest project, Eve and the Apple, is a response to the idea that women are somehow cursed for having the temerity to use their initiative and improve themselves (kindly taking Adam along for the ride) in the Garden of Eden.