Board & Staff

Christine Trent Parker is Vice President and Deputy General Counsel for Regulatory Legal at Coinbase. Prior to joining Coinbase, she was a Partner in the Energy and Natural Resources Group at Reed Smith. Christine’s practice focuses on regulatory, enforcement and transactional matters related to commodities, derivatives, and cryptocurrencies, including trading and exchange-related matters and compliance and regulatory issues relating to the Commodity Exchange Act, CFTC regulations, and CFTC-regulated exchanges and clearinghouses.

Christine has significant experience representing swap dealers, intermediaries, and non-financial end-users in connection with derivatives advisory and regulatory matters under Title VII of the Dodd-Frank Act, as well as related SEC, and prudential regulations.

Christine advises market participants in the development digital asset and cryptocurrency technologies including token sales, market infrastructure, trading, clearing, and settlement solutions on distributed ledger technology.

Before entering private practice, Christine was legislative counsel to U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer, focusing on defense, energy and foreign policy issues. Christine holds undergraduate and law degrees from Yale. Christine joined the Smack Mellon Board of Directors in November 2017. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and three daughters.

Niloo Sobhani Steele is the Chief Analytics Officer at the Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) in NYC where she leads the organization’s enterprise data analytics and data science strategy, helping drive business transformation with data insights and telling stories using data. Prior to HSS she was the Corporate Director of Analytics at New York Presbyterian Hospital and prior to that, a Senior Manager in healthcare technology consulting. Niloo spent four years in higher education at Carnegie Mellon University, advising undergraduate students in addition to developing programming designed to expose students to a diverse range of social, artistic and community service experiences. This included the management of student art exhibitions & sales and coordination of the University Lecture Series. Niloo earned a B.S. in Mathematics as well as a Masters in Public Policy and Management from Carnegie Mellon University. Niloo joined the Smack Mellon Board of Directors in November 2017.

Paul Yook, Treasurer, founded and manages investment units for LifeSci Venture Partners including LifeSci Ventures, the BioShares exchanged traded funds and LifeSci Index Partners, an SEC-registered investment advisor. Before LifeSci, Paul worked as a healthcare hedge fund portfolio manager and research analyst at Galleon Management. He began his Wall Street career in healthcare investment banking at UBS Securities and at Goldman Sachs. He earned a B.S.E in Economics from the Wharton School and a B.A. in Biochemistry from the University of Pennsylvania. Paul lives in New York City and joined Smack Mellon’s Board of Directors in 2006.

Elana Herzog, Co-Secretary, is a mixed media artist who makes large scale installations as well as intimately scaled work. Elana has exhibited widely, both in the US and abroad. She has been awarded numerous residencies, including at the The Joan Mitchell Center; MacDowell Colony; Yaddo; the Back Apartment Residency in St. Petersburg, Russia; the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, to name a few. Elana received various grants, amongst them a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship in 2017, the Anonymous Was A Woman Award in 2009, the Louis Comfort Tiffany Award in 2007, and the 1999 Joan Mitchell Award. She holds a BA from Bennington College and an MFA from Alfred University.

Ward Shelley, Co-Secretary, works as an artist in Brooklyn, New York. He specializes in large projects that freely mix sculpture and performance. Ward earned his Masters degree from NYU and has been working and showing in New York since 1994. Shelley has exhibited in more than 10 countries and his work is in a number of museum collections including the Museum of Modern Art, the Brooklyn Art Museum, and The Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art. Ward received a painting and Sculpture award from the Joan Mitchell foundation, and has been a fellow of the American Academy in Rome since 2006. Before and during his art career he worked in advertising, construction, teaching, special events, theater, rock bands, and built a 37-foot sailing sloop. Ward joined Smack Mellon’s Board of Directors in February 2014.

Cecile Chong is a multimedia artist working in painting, sculpture and installation layering materials, identities, histories and languages. She was born in Ecuador to Chinese parents and grew up in Quito and Macau. Fellowships and residencies include The Hispanic Society of America, LMCC Creative Engagement, Urban Field Station, The Block Gallery, BRIC Media Arts, Joan Mitchell Center, Wave Hill Winter Workspace, Lower East Side Printshop, Jerome Foundation Travel and Study Grant and the Center for Book Arts among others. Solo exhibitions include Selenas Mountain, ICFAC at Pinta Miami, Smack Mellon, Kenise Barnes Fine Art, Five Myles Plus Space, BRIC House, Emerson Gallery Berlin Germany, Honey Ramka Project Space, Figureworks, Praxis, Corridor Gallery and ArtSPACE. Her public art installation EL DORADO – The New Forty Niners has been installed in four boroughs of NYC. She received an MFA from Parsons, an MA in education from Hunter College, and a BA in Studio Art from Queens College. Cecile is a studio member at EFA Studios, an artist member at Tiger Strikes Asteroid and is on the board of Art Yard Bklyn. She taught art in NYC public middle schools till 2019.

Augustine Boyce Cummings is an artist living and working in New York City. Born and raised in Denver, CO, he is a recipient of the Rome Prize and has been a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome since 2006. Cummings has exhibited nationally and abroad, and his work was included in “New American Talent 19,” Arthouse at the Jones Center (Austin, TX). Cummings completed undergraduate studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he was a Merit Scholar. He earned a Masters Degree in Fine Art (MFA) from the School of Visual Arts (New York, NY). Cummings has received grants from ARTISTS SPACE (New York, NY) and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and was the recipient of the Stacey S. Sussman Traveling Fellowship from the School of Visual Arts. His work is in the prominent collections of Barbara Goldsmith, Agnes Gund, John Guare, and Nancy Negley, among many others. In the fall of 2017, he took residence as a Fellow of the Civitella Ranieri Foundation, located in the Umbertide province of Perugia, Italy. Cummings is an instructor at the Art Students League of New York, where he teaches Mixed Media and Contemporary Art, Inclusion, Diversity and Activism. Boyce joined Smack Mellon’s Board of Directors in September 2021.

Linda Nagaoka is a Japanese-American artist making paintings and ceramic sculpture. She also has a background in performance and modern dance. Linda’s work has been included in shows at Pierogi, Drive-By Projects, Russell Janis, Dorrance H. Hamilton Gallery/Salve Regina University, ARENA at Suite 18, Point B Workspace, LABspace, Monya Rowe Gallery, Artist Space and PPOW. She has participated in workshops with the Meredith Monk Ensemble and Eve Sussman’s Madison Color Theory project.  As a parent, she worked with kids at a NYC public grade school, creating and implementing some of their fundraising programs with independent booksellers and Gimme! Coffee. Linda has a BFA from UC Berkeley and was also educated at Alfred University School of Art & Design. Originally from California, she is a longtime resident of Brooklyn.

Carol Salmanson works with light and reflective materials to create installations, sculptures, and wall pieces. She is best known for her window installations, which have been seen in Russia, New York, and New Jersey. Salmanson also has an extensive solo, two-person, and group exhibition history throughout the United States and internationally. Her work has been shown in galleries and non-profit venues and artist run spaces such as SL Gallery, Guild Gallery II, PS122, FiveMyles, Storefront Bushwick, Dam Stuhltrager, Sideshow Gallery and others. She has curated and co-curated shows as well.

Salmanson earned a B.S. from Carnegie-Mellon University and an M.B.A. in finance, accounting, and marketing from the University of Chicago. After working for a large corporation, she started a company which bought, renovated, and sold historic houses in Denver. She studied art in New York City at the Arts Students League, School of Visual Arts, and National Academy of Fine Arts’ Abbey Mural Workshop Fellowship program. She currently serves on the Board of Trustees for Independent Curators International, Smack Mellon, and the Hearing Health Foundation.

Jeff Wallace is a mixed-media artist whose work examines the palimpsest of time and memory through compositions and installations that rely on the use of repurposed materials and ephemera. Wallace earned a BFA in Visual Arts from Purchase College and attended the Yale Design Program in Brissago, Switzerland. His work has been exhibited in numerous group and solo shows including Cristin Tierney Gallery; Rick Wester Fine Arts; The Painting Center; Lichtundfire Gallery (New York, NY); Craven Contemporary (Kent, CT); Swenson Gallery (Miami, FL); and is included in private collections in the US and abroad. Wallace has been awarded fellowships at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VCCA); the American Academy in Rome (Visiting Artist / Visiting Scholar program); the Vermont Studio Center; and Yaddo. In addition to his studio practice, he is curator of Main Window Dumbo, a presentation space for emerging New York artists.

Prior to transitioning to his art practice full-time in 2016, Jeff led the creative team at BorsaWallace, a multi-disciplinary design firm established in 1990. The firm consulted with a diverse clientele in the beauty, fashion, and consumer product segments on the development of strategic branding programs, corporate communication initiatives, packaging, and multi-media design.

Wallace lives and works in Brooklyn.

Kathleen Gilrain is the Executive Director and Chief Curator of Smack Mellon. She oversees all aspects of program, planning, and organizational development. Kathleen launched the Artist Studio Program soon after her arrival at the organization in 2000 and created Art Ready, a mentorship program for high school students. In 2004 she led the organization through a capital campaign and the renovation of 1880s boiler house to become Smack Mellon’s home. Prior to joining Smack Mellon, she was the Executive Director of Socrates Sculpture Park from 1995 to 2000 where she presented exhibitions of large-scale projects by emerging, mid career and renowned artists. Throughout her career Kathleen has been dedicated to supporting female-identifying artists and artists of color, providing opportunities for a diverse group including our youngest artists, NYC’s teens. Kathleen is also an artist and she is an Adjunct Professor at Brooklyn College. She received a BFA from The Cooper Union, NYC and an MFA from The University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Rachel Vera Steinberg is the Curator & Director of Exhibitions at Smack Mellon. Her work focuses on science fiction as well as political, historical, and cultural distinctions between facts and fictions. She is committed to the presentation of time-based media and examining the roles of alternative art spaces and artistic agency. Her research on science fiction as an exhibition-making modality culminated in the group exhibition A faint hum at the Hessel Museum at Bard College’s Center for Curatorial Studies, where she completed her master’s degree. She was the 2019-2020 fellow at the Curatorial & Research Residency Program at the Julia Stoschek Collection in Düsseldorf, Germany, where she curated the exhibition JSC ON VIEW: MYTHOLOGISTS (2021). She was the Director of SOHO20 Artists Inc from 2015-2018 and the Assistant Director of NURTUREart Non-Profit Inc from 2010-2015 where she founded exhibition and event-based programs promoting time-based media and gender equity. She is the co-founder of Custom Program (2017-2019), a micro-gallery in Brooklyn focusing on humor, irreverence, and site-specificity. As an independent curator, she has curated exhibitions locally and internationally and spoken at universities throughout the United States.

Maryam Chadury is the Programs & Events Manager at Smack Mellon, overseeing both the Artist Studio Program and Art Ready Program for high school students. She has a strong interest in arts administration and supporting artists and art workers at all stages of their careers. Prior to coming to Smack Mellon, Maryam held positions and internships at several art and cultural institutions, including CUE Art Foundation, the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Museum of Modern Art, where she served as a CUNY Student Ambassador. Maryam graduated from CUNY Brooklyn College, where she received a B.A. in Art History and Studio Art.

Maggie Pavao is the Associate Director of Communications and Development at Smack Mellon. Invested in organizations that offer artists long-term and sustainable support, she manages the Tusen Takk Foundation artist residency in Northern Michigan and held positions in artistic programs at the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC). She earned her BA in Art History and MA from New York University’s Program in Museum Studies.

Javier Maria joined Smack Mellon in 2020 as the Media Systems Manager. He is responsible for maintaining the electronic media equipment in the Artist Studio Program and assisting the studio artists in using the equipment. Javier also installs electronic media equipment for Smack Mellon gallery exhibitions and maintains the office equipment. Javier is a multimedia artist and designer who is interested in privacy, access to information, gender and emotional capitalism. He has also worked for the past 10 years as a network and technology specialist under the CWA Union for HBO, Bank of America, Verizon, and Google, among others. He is particularly interested in structured cabling systems and cross connection in telecommunications to explore aspects of social and power relationships.

Rowan Renee joined Smack Mellon in 2024 as the Shop Manager and is responsible for maintaining the onsite woodshop and fabrication studio. As an artist, they create site-specific installations that are the culmination of months or years of research within communities, landscapes or archives. Their work addresses legacies of violence within the family, the state and the criminal legal system, especially their impact on women, LGBTQ+ and incarcerated people. They have a deep relationship to material across a broad range of processes including printmaking, stone carving, weaving, welding, wood-working and kiln-fused glass. They conceptualize craft as care-work to transform experiences we cannot put into words. Their solo projects have been presented at The Green-Wood Cemetery (2023), KODA (2022), Smack Mellon (2021), FiveMyles (2021), Aperture Foundation (2017), and Pioneer Works (2015), and their installation, No Spirit For Me (2019), was included in Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration at MoMA PS1. Over the past 10 years they have been renovating a Sandy-flooded bungalow as a living sculpture, conceptual artwork and experimental artist space in the Rockaways. In early 2025, they plan to host their first programs as the KODA x Stilt City Retreat.