FOUNDER & ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Read Jean's full biography here. 

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR & COMPANY DANCER

Read Meghan’s full biography here.

Marie-France M Noel, born and raised in Haïti, is a lover of art, food and nature. Marie-France has danced since Haïti and fell in loved with Jean’s class in 2005. She believes that dance heals, rejuvenates and build communities.

Professionally, she is a Community Health Center Program Manager at the Executive Office of Health and Human Services. Artistically, she is the creative designer and founder of KADOKÉLÉ (www.kadokele.com), a lifestyle clothing and handcrafted jewelry brand that inspires women to Live Artfully by embodying an unapologetic, kind and purposeful life.

Marie-France received a bachelors degree in Healthcare Management at Newbury College and her masters in Healthcare Administration at Suffolk University.

Poet, actor, playwright, Cambridge Poet Populist from 2009 to 2011, and the current Poet in Residence at First Church in Cambridge. He created the Many Voices Project, a series of readings and follow-up poetry workshops, inspiring conversations about race and equality. He is the director of City Night Readings, a series featuring diverse poetic talents, writers, and artists. Jean Dany is a 2017 Massachusetts Cultural Council grant recipient for his play: Your Voice Poet, and the winner of STC's Playwrights of Color competition. He travels nationally and internationally to perform his poetry. He has published in English, French, and Haitian Creole. He says, Life is Good!

Sahita Pierre-Antoine is always exploring the ways in which dance and movement intertwine with issues of community care, advocacy, and social justice. She is a Registered Dance/Movement Therapist and a Mental Health Clinician, currently based in the greater Boston area. Prior to her career in mental health, she worked in the international development and nonprofit sector for 10 years in her home country of Haiti, where she collaborated with grassroots groups and international organizations focusing on preventing and eliminating violence against women, women’s economic empowerment, and community development.

Sahita is always dancing and she is happy to have found Jean Appolon Expressions (JAE) where she can move to her beloved and warm Haitian rhythms in the cold New England climate.

Sahita joined the JAE Board in 2022, and is currently serving as the Governance Committee Chair and the Capital Campaign Committee Chair.

Carey McKinley is a multimedia artist based in Gloucester, MA. She met Jean in the late 90s, and has witnessed first hand how his work transforms people, young and old, and the communities that he engages. She is delighted to serve on the JAE board. Carey's career spans from performing with prominent dance companies (Snappy, Prometheus, Batuke do Norte, Sun Ho Kim), to guest performing with national artists (Bobby McFerrin, Sara Rudner, Reggie Wilson, David Parker), to working with start-ups on the environmental forefront and in technology (Harvard Green Campus Initiative, YouthStream Media), to designing dynamic, integrated curricula and programming at Boston area schools (Winsor School, Cambridge School of Weston, Walnut Hill, Tufts, Babson). Carey’s choreography has been presented at UNC-Chapel Hill, Harvard School of Design, Bard College, UW-Milwaukee, and locally. Her philosophy centers empowerment, integrity, and connection, and her classroom/studio is a container for contagious courage. In 2023, Carey moved to Gloucester, and joined the faculties at MAGMA and The Landmark School.

Molly has been dancing in community with Jean and the JAE family for over a decade, being drawn in by the drums one Saturday in Central Square. She is a 2008 graduate of Mount Alvernia High School. After two years studying Biology at UMass Amherst she took a hiatus from academia and traveled extensively in Mississippi, Haiti, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic, during which time she became fluent in Haitian Creole. In 2018 she enrolled in UMass Amherst’s University Without Walls, graduating with a degree in Journalism and Advocacy & Social Justice in 2021. She works at the Waltham Public Library. She was elected to the Hudson School Committee in 2021 and is currently Vice Chair. Most importantly she is a mother - and her world circles around raising her daughter to be bold, brave, and above all loved. Molly is a storyteller and enjoys traveling, dancing, writing, reading, painting, eating - and encouraging others to be politically informed and active so that together we can create a just and joyful world.

STEAM EDUCATOR, FORMER DIRECTOR OF MEDIA + MARKETING, FORMER COMPANY DANCER

Meghan enjoys finding ways to let new audience members find dance, and see it as a welcoming place for joy and accessible self-exploration. She developed her chops building dance audiences in co-producing and marketing Calamity Co Dance, a series of variety shows, featuring dance alongside music, comedy, and always snacks. Education has also been a though-line in her work, having worked behind the scenes supporting Reach, a teen outreach program at Boston University, and being heavily involved in extracurricular performing arts events when she was a teacher at Watertown High. In addition to her work with JAE, Meghan is a professor in mathematics education at Vanderbilt University.

Maggie Marseille is an accomplished Program Manager with extensive expertise in financial management, HR operations, and administrative leadership. Since June 2024, she has overseen division-wide accounts, financial transactions, budgeting, and HR functions for non-exempt staff, driving a 30% increase in operational efficiency through her leadership in workflow optimization and process improvement.

In her previous roles, Maggie has enhanced organizational policies and supported senior stakeholders in implementing strategic initiatives. She has also led successful grant development efforts, securing a 30% increase in funding while improving administrative processes to support broader institutional goals.

Outside of work, Maggie enjoys working out, dancing, traveling, and spending time with family and friends. A lifelong lover of music, she has been singing Gospel since the age of 12.

Maggie holds a Master of Science degree from Northeastern University and a Bachelor of Science degree from Emmanuel College. She is a proud member of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority Incorporated and The Greater Boston NAACP, reflecting her deep commitment to advocacy and community service.

Eryn Johnson is a non-profit leader and advisor whose work is grounded in racial/social justice, and inspired by close to 25 years of service in arts-based community organizations. Eryn is a full time nonprofit consultant with expertise in professional development workshop facilitation, inclusive community engagement, youth leadership, creative place making, fundraising (including grant writing and corporate donor cultivation), and strategic program development. Her local and national clients have included Health Resources in Action, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Julliard School of Music, Eliot School of Fine and Applied Arts, Massachusetts Afterschool Partnership, Massachusetts Cultural Council, and Linde Family Foundation.

Eryn served as Executive Director of the Community Art Center in Cambridge, MA for 13+ years, as Director of Education at the Boch Center, and Program Coordinator at ZUMIX, Inc. Eryn has an MA in Performance Studies from New York University, and a BA in Theater from Oberlin College.

Eryn has been connected to Jean Appolon Expressions for many years through her work in arts advocacy and education, and through regularly attending JAE community classes.

Amelia Crawford (Clerk)