Meet our team

Kirsten is the Artistic Director, founder and visionary of Motus Theater. She is a narrative artist, master teacher in the field of autobiographical monologue work and editor of the Motus Monologues and Shoebox Stories podcasts. Kirsten has created several award-winning multi-media performances exploring history through the lens of race and class. She excels in supporting individuals who are marginalized in writing compelling narratives aimed at opening hearts and minds. Since 2013 she has been working with undocumented leaders to share the stories of people on the frontlines of U.S immigration policy. She began collaborating with formerly incarcerated leaders to share their stories of the criminality and injustice of the criminal justice system in 2019. Kirsten is known for creating safe places of courageous empathy and civic hospitality where the stories of Motus Theater’s undocumented or formerly incarcerated monologists are paired with local and national leaders who stand with them and read aloud their stories on stage. Kirsten has won multiple regional awards for leadership, as well as for her artistic works. She has received funds and commissions from the National Endowment for the Arts for numerous projects. Her work has been featured in media as diverse as Theater Magazine, NPR, FAST Company Magazine, Ms. Magazine, and USA Today.

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Rita brings to Motus Theater 15 years of experience as an arts administrator and curator. She has led and collaborated with professional teams around the world to bring theater and dance projects to fruition for audiences in diverse contexts: the plains and villages of rural Portugal, the city theaters and slums of the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil, and the Fowler Museum, J. Paul Getty Museum, and the Department of World Arts and Cultures (WAC/D) at UCLA. Rita completed her Ph.D. in Culture and Performance Studies at WAC/D in 2017. Rita is responsible for oversight of Motus funding, staff, operations, and assuring Motus can continue to offer innovative theatrical programming for years to come. In 2023, Rita joined the Bonfils-Stanton Livingston Fellowship; you can watch her fellowship mini-documentary here.

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Cristian Solano-Córdova (he/they) serves as the Director of Communications, Outreach, and Development for Motus Theater. In his current role at Motus Theater, Cristian leverages his extensive experience in immigrants rights advocacy and activism to foster dialogue and understanding among diverse communities. He is particularly focused on issues that intersect immigrant rights, criminal legal reform, and LGBTQIA+ rights. His work aims to build bridges through storytelling, advocacy, and community engagement, all of which serve as powerful tools for social change. A Denver-based DACA recipient from Chihuahua, Mexico, Cristian began his advocacy journey in 2015 as the first DACAmented Student Body President at Metropolitan State University of Denver. He united student governments across Colorado to prevent higher education budget cuts. From 2017 to 2020, he was the Communications Director at the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition (CIRC). There, he led communication efforts for legal services, voter registration, and legislative campaigns to protect the undocumented community in Colorado. After CIRC, Cristian worked with the National Partnership for New Americans (NPNA), coordinating advocacy and policy initiatives with 61 member organizations across 40 states.

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Debora brings to Motus over 20 years of financial industry and operational management experience, having held leadership roles at firms including Wells Fargo and Mellon Bank. She has led multi-national groups at global firms such as Altisource and Computershare and has worked for a former US Comptroller of the Currency. Within these companies, she had the opportunity to build and lead DEI programs domestically and internationally. With these efforts, she brings experience advocating through both front-line support work and broad conference coordination including developing the first North American Women’s Summit for Computershare. Debora holds a Bachelor's in Business Administration from Alverno College and a Master's in Economic Policy from the University of London. At Motus, Debora is responsible for providing organizational, financial, and operations management related to our infrastructure and production activities.

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Tania is an undocumented immigrant born in Chihuahua, Mexico and raised in Phoenix, Arizona. She received a B.S. from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and M.Ed. from Grand Canyon University. For the past decade, Tania has prioritized her passion for the intersection of immigration and education as a grassroots community organizer and educator in secondary and post-secondary spaces. Watch her TedX Talk on being Undocumented and Unafraid and uplift her nonprofit, Convivir Colorado, which supports immigrant and refugee students. She currently sits on the Board of Directors for the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, Joy as Resistance, and Free Migration Project.

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Juaquin was once incarcerated for the better half of a decade and knows all too well how a “helping hand,” as opposed to a “hand out,” can motivate one to success. He is the CEO of Community Anchor Academy. Juaquin helps those individuals who were recently incarcerated and/or at risk of becoming incarcerated to realize their true potential and manifest their limitless potential. Juaquin is a proud father of three beautiful girls and he refuses to let the next generation fall into the same traps that both he and his peers negotiated. Juaquin is also a monologist in Motus Theater's JustUs project.

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David Breña has a Master's Degree in Social Work (MSW) a BA minor in Theater. He is passionate about fostering and advocating for the mental and physical health of marginalized communities and using theater for community conversation and healing. He has experience and knowledge working with LGBTQIA+ youth and adults, as well as Latin American immigrants. He is bilingual in Spanish and bicultural. David is also a monologist with Motus’ TRANSformative Stories project.

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Alejandro Fuentes-Mena (M.Ed) was born in Valparaiso, Chile, and grew up in San Diego, California after age four. Through Teach for America, he was one of the first two DACAmented teachers in the entire nation. Alejandro is a musician and a monologist with Motus’ UndocuAmerica project. He’s been part of the Motus Playback Improv Theater ensemble since 2022.

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Areyana Proctor is a Media & Cultural Studies graduate student at University of Wisconsin, Madison. Born and raised in the Denver area, Areyana graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Colorado, Boulder with a double major in journalism and media production and a double minor in leadership studies and sociology. She has presented her honors thesis, focused on criminalized representations of the Black body in multiple conferences. She is interested in research on racial and educational inequality and media and technology's impacts on these issues.

Art is the Director of Student IT Services at CU System. He was the Board Vice­-Chair of the Boulder County Community Action Programs and he also served on the Board of the Boulder Asian Pacific Alliance, which he co­-founded in 1994. He served on the City of Boulder Human Relations Commission between April 2017 and March 2022, including as Chair.

Audrey is a long time community volunteer advocating for social, economic and educational justice. She has served on numerous non­profit boards in Boulder County during the last 40+ years, including Safehouse Progressive Alliance for Non-Violence, Boulder Community United (co-Chair), Intercambio Uniting Communities (Chair), Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art (Trustee), and The Mountain States Anti-Defamation League. Audrey holds a B.A. from Simmons College, Boston, MA.

David Breña has a Master's Degree in Social Work (MSW) a BA minor in Theater. He is passionate about fostering and advocating for the mental and physical health of marginalized communities and using theater for community conversation and healing. He has experience and knowledge working with LGBTQIA+ youth and adults, as well as Latin American immigrants. He is bilingual in Spanish and bicultural. David is also the project strategist and a monologist with Motus’ TRANSformative Stories project.

David is retired from a telecommunication engineering and program management career. He has thirteen years of non­profit experience in various board roles at OUT Boulder and BCAP, Boulder County AIDS Project. He currently serves on the City of Boulder Planning Board. Being on the board of Motus Theater has allowed David to follow his passion of working toward social justice, and his leisure time pursuits include running and cross-country ski racing.

Juan is a media professional who has worked as a freelance producer in Boulder for many years. He teaches media literacy, video and radio production at many local high schools. He is one of the producers of the Media Gardens program at KGNU, Boulder's community radio station. He is a bicultural and bilingual Guatemalan immigrant with family ties to Boulder that go back three generations. He is also an entrepreneur and owner of Green Belly Foods, a Guatemalan hot sauce company.

Lorenzo has been a theatre performer, director and an educator for the last twenty years. He is currently an Associate Professor at Naropa University and head of the BFA in Performance.  Among the various theatres he has worked are: The RED CAT and The Ahmanson Theatre in L.A., San Jose Repertory Theatre, Seattle Repertory, Arizona Theatre Company, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, El Teatro Campesino, and the Colorado Shakespeare Festival.

Margi is a retired nonprofit administrator who worked primarily in the arts and transportation. She has volunteered for many local, state, and national nonprofits and is particularly passionate about immigrant rights and social justice. Her past volunteer work has been with International Peace Initiatives, Intercambio, and Boulder County Circles.  In addition to Motus, she currently volunteers for Boulder Food Rescue, Boulder International Film Festival, and Chautauqua.

Katharine serves as Senior Advisor Corporate Partnerships at CrossPurpose. She has worked in fundraising for over five years, including three years at the “I Have A Dream" Foundation of Boulder County, and as Senior Grants Officer at LAPA Fundraising. She also worked as a journalist in New York for nearly a decade and taught writing at various community colleges. Katharine holds an MFA in nonfiction writing from Sarah Lawrence College and a BA in English from Wellesley College. She was a 2020-21 Boulder County Leadership Fellow and served from 2019-2021 on the Boulder Arts Commission.

Leslie has three decades of experience leading fundraising teams, partnering with boards, and creating innovative development and communications programs for organizations of all sizes. After receiving a MBA with Honors from Boston University’s Questrom School of Management, Leslie spent 15 years at Greenpeace USA in Washington, D.C. In 2008, Leslie partnered with Co-Founder Ann Goldman to create Front Range Source, a full-service fundraising consulting firm serving a variety of clients all over the world for over a decade. Leslie has served on a variety of nonprofit boards over her career. From 2008-2014 she was on the Board of Directors of ActionAid USA. From 2016 to the present, she has been a Trustee of the Board of the Community Foundation Boulder County, including two years as Chair of the Board. Leslie currently serves as Interim Chief Development Officer at Greenpeace USA.

Pedro is a globally-minded leader with extensive experience and depth in a variety of sectors. Throughout his career in military, corporate, and ministerial spaces, as well as in his volunteer work, he has developed the relational acumen to inspire people, create compelling narrative, and articulate vision in ways that both challenge and comfort as required. He thrives and best serves with organizations that are imaginative, inclusive, vision-centered, and welcome relational accountability. He currently serves as Director of Engagement at YOUnify.