Carmel Avegnon Sanders, proudly, is a wife, a mother of three children, an arts administrator, a youth arts advocate, a teacher/coach and a performer. She recently received the Alston Award for Social Justice from Leadership Westerville and in 2018 the Civilian Award from the City of Westerville for her work with youth at Westerville’s 4th Friday Festival.

Carmel has been fortunate to perform domestically and abroad in TV, Film, Radio and her first love, Theatre. She has reunited with her passion after taking some time off to raise her children. She was recently seen at Opera Columbus in Rigoletto and a TV commercial for LearningRX Dublin-Columbus. Carmel graduated from Otterbein University with a BFA in Musical Theatre. Upon graduation she moved to Chicago to start The Treehouse Theatre Company with several other Otterbein grads. Along with being seen in productions with the Treehouse, she worked with Steppenwolf’s Arts Exchange program, Redmoon Theatre, Cornservatory Theatre, Voice of the City and others.

Though Carmel found great joy in performing, she quickly learned that working with young people to develop their artistic craft brought her even more joy than performing herself. With that, she has immersed herself for over 20 years in the world of youth arts and advocacy.

With her work at well-known and internationally recognized youth theatre companies, she was able to develop her artistic philosophy working with young people and hone her skills as a teaching artist. After working as a teaching artist for several years, she joined the staff at the Center for Community Arts Partnerships at Columbia College Chicago (CCC) where she lead the Youth Theatre Coalition of Chicago in designing workshops for community-based youth theatres in the Chicagoland area as well as organized an annual youth theatre festival. Carmel then became Assistant Director of Community Partnerships, where she brokered collaborations between departments in higher education and community-based arts organizations. Along with key members at CCC, she designed (the first of its kind in the United States), a Master’s Level Concentration in Arts in Youth and Community Development in the Arts, Entertainment and Media Management Department at Columbia College Chicago. She also had opportunities to participate in an exploratory arts exchange program with the United Kingdom, collaborate with linguist anthropologist Shirley Brice Heath and contribute to various publications focused on youth arts, youth arts advocacy and the value of arts within communities. Carmel also was an adjunct faculty member in the School of the Liberal Arts and Sciences Department at Columbia College Chicago. Her last position before focusing on raising her children was as the Program Director for Little Black Pearl. A youth multi-arts organization in Chicago. Carmel has served on many arts councils, advisory committees and organizational boards throughout her career. Currently she is a board member of the Ohio Thespians which is a chapter of the Educational Theatre Association. She serves as Co- Award/Scholarships Chair, Hospitality Chair, a member of the Jr. Thespy’s Conference committee and DEI committee.

Above all, Carmel is committed to the idea that theatre has a transformative power to create opportunities for meaningful dialog that is vital to the healing of our society.

Tori is honored to be a part of this project and working as a valued member of the team. Tori first became involved with BYV during the 2018 Summer Project as an MC of the talkbacks. She then served as the Assistant Director and Social Media Manager of the 2019 Summer Project. She is happy to continue her work in the marketing space and spread the word about the amazing work by the talented artists of BYV.

Tori is a mom, wife, and arts enthusiast with a passion for learning. She believes that sharing thoughts and experiences in a compassionate and open way can build a thriving and progressive community.