Andréa Stella, Executive Director
Andréa has immersed herself in the HIV/AIDS community for as long as she can remember. As a freshman at Fordham University, Andréa started working at Incarnation Children’s Center, a housing facility for children who are born HIV positive. Her passion for this work grew over the four years she spent at ICC, and she decided to branch out to another at-risk and highly stigmatized community in order to write her Urban Studies Senior Thesis: intravenous drug users of the Lower East Side. Andréa became a Community Outreach Worker conducting a bi-weekly walkabout syringe exchange for the Lower East Side Harm Reduction Center, and she stayed on after graduation.

Andréa also embarked on an array of international public health initiatives, working with the HIV/AIDS epidemic in South Africa and Brazil. The one blaring similarity that she has seen across continents, languages, and cultures, is the need for better access to healthcare. Using her international experience as an educational stepping stone, Andréa still chooses to call New York City home and is committed to working with this community before all others.

With The Space, Andréa plans to expand her public health skills beyond the HIV/AIDS epidemic and assist in opening doors for a transient community that, right now, is being defined only by its’ barriers to healthcare access. Andréa is also currently pursuing her Master’s in Urban Public Health at Hunter College.

Francesca Kennedy, Animal Program Manager

Francesca Kennedy is a native New Yorker and long time member of the East Village community. She has a background in animal rescue and care. As a former member of the homeless community herself, she brings a unique perspective to The Space at Tompkins. Francesca began working with The Space in April, and she is putting her love for animals to good use by starting a pet program that will focus on connecting pet owners with free services throughout the city.

James Thacher, Development and Marketing
James is a graphic and web designer who helps organizations develop and strengthen their voice in the community. He has been intimately involved with The Space since its inception and has spent much of the last six years in and around Tompkins Square Park. By developing new and creative ways to spread the word about the organization, he hopes to amplify the effect its services have on the neighborhood. He also maintains The Space website and blog.

Ryan McCune, Photo Documentarian
Ryan’s interest in the world and those living in it inspired him to venture out his native Los Angeles to the far reaches of the globe.  Spurred on by his artistic flair and a passion for visual communication, Ryan honed his skills as a photographic documentarian first in Japan while working as an elementary school teacher, and then at Boston University, where Ryan received his master’s degree in Photojournalism.  It was in Boston where Ryan documented subjects ranging from homelessness to winter surfing in the Northeast to taxi cab drivers to much more.  He moved to the East Village in August, 2009 and has since been working as a freelance photojournalist in New York City.

Heather Hargraves, Consultant
Heather is a candidate for an MS in Urban Policy Analysis and Management at Milano The New School and is the Social Services Cooridnator at Part of the Solution (POTS), in the Bronx. Employing her knowledge of urban policy and program management, her experience working with marginalized populations in New York City, and her passion for improving public health, she is researching which organizational model will most effectively enable The Space to carry out its mission.

Joel De Andrade, Ethnographer
Joel is currently enrolled at Fordham University working on his BA in Sociology and Urban Studies as well as his Master’s in Sociology through a 5 year program. While always having an interest in studying marginalized populations, Joel became active with homelessness throughout college. Participating in activities such as the HOPE Count NYC and also volunteering in the Concourse House, a single mother’s shelter in the Bronx, Joel felt as if he was called into action in dealing with homelessness. Working with The Space at Tompkins Joel will be studying the transient population, their culture, music, as well as their transforming neighborhood in the East Village. Through ethnographic studies he hopes to raise understanding about the transient population in the East Village, as well as help The Space at Tompkins provide the services this marginalized population lacks.

Stephanie Jernigan, Outreach
Stephanie has spent much of her adult (as well as teenage) life travelling and squatting throughout the United States and Europe, and is intimately familiar with both the culture and the hardships associated with life on the streets. Her passion for the people and the way of life of the squatting community led her to work at the youth Drop-In Center in New Orleans, where she spearheaded many new programs to help drop-in clients pursue their artistic and educational interests, and helped open New Orleans’s first ever Needle Exchange.

Ian Jernigan, Outreach
With his wife Stephanie, Ian has also travelled and squatted countless cities and been involved in countless squatting communities. Having worked both on Wall Street and having owned a business in New Orleans (untill the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina eventually bankrupted most of the locally owned businesses in the French Quarter), he has had enough experience within the socio-economic system of the United States to understand how it works, while at the same time having been an anarcho-punk long enough to want to change it.

Lisa Barczak, Outreach
Lisa has squatted in many cities from the east to west coast, from Baltimore to L.A. and even throughout the islands of Hawaii. She knows first hand what it’s like to be pushed aside and overlooked by our society. After overcoming a serious addiction, she is now fighting for others to get the help they so desperately need and deserve. Always having been interested in the aspects of counseling and social work, Lisa is now in the process of enrolling in college to pursue a career in the field.