Service Hour Awards

Museum Services Volunteers of the Year Awards

Heard Museum Shop and Books & More
Roy Mainger

Billie Jane Baguley Library and Archives
Jim Thompson

Information Desk
Susan Relacom

Education Awards
and Recognition of 2024 Las Guias Class

Outstanding Senior Guide:  Jeff Ross

 Outstanding Freshman Guild:  Terri Stanley

Outstanding Children’s Tour Guide: Cozette Matthews

20 Year Recognition: Rex Nelson and Emma Sansone

Las Guias Class of 2024

Special Awards 

Newton Linebaugh
Special Achievement Award to Recognize an Original and Outstanding Project

For going above and beyond the stated Treasurer role, working in concert with the Heard Museum Finance Department,
to ensure the ongoing financial success of the Heard Museum Guild.
 

 Cyndy Ross
Special Recognition Award for the Continuation of an Existing Project

For providing artist hospitality in support of the Katsina Doll Marketplace, enhancing the artist experience,
and establishing warm relationships with the Hopi carver community.

Las Guias Class 2024 Biographies

Denis Alcock

Born in Alabama. Deconstructed in New Mexico. Reconstructed in Arizona. My long-time interests include Native Arts, History, Creative Writing, and Travel. Person I’d most like to share a cup of coffee and conversation — Vincent Van Gogh.

Rich Bottarini

I am a fifth generation Californian raised, educated, and worked in the San Francisco Bay Area. I attended San Jose State University and obtained a bachelor’s in economics and a master’s in urban and regional planning. I was the Community Development Director in three cities, including the City of Napa. I am a Charter Member of the American Planning Association and served on numerous nonprofit boards of directors, including Rotary International. My favorite activities include golfing, traveling, and hiking with my wife, Janet.

DeLisa Brown-Guc

DeLisa was born and raised in New Orleans and attended LSU. After graduating, she worked for ten years as a researcher for an international human rights organization based in NYC before teaching ESL and Social Studies in NYC public high schools and Art History at various community colleges. Upon retirement after 40 years in the city, she and her husband relocated to the Southwest and have called Phoenix home for four years.

Roxanne Eklund

Roxanne studied textiles and learned the art of weaving during college  She spent the next 30 years working in the footwear industry as a shoe designer for major brands, as well as her own company. Retiring from the shoe business, she accepted the position of Professor at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY for 9 years. She and her husband always loved the Southwest and made a permanent move from the East Coast to Arizona in 2022. Roxanne is a juried member of the Sonoran Art League, a member of the Arizona Desert Weavers & Spinners Guild and looking forward to being an active member of the Heard Guild as well as a Las Guias docent.

Cindy Helentjaris

I am a retired paralegal who fell in love with the Native American culture at an early age. My hobbies are beading, cross stitch, Tucson Gem Show, reading, rockhounding, and stained glass.

Terena Kring

Most of my life has been spent on the move, having grown up in an Air Force family. New places and adventures have always been welcomed. I spent years in Tucson, as a young girl, then moved to the Midwest to pursue a career in healthcare. I have lived in Omaha, Nebraska, for the last 40 years, always wanting to come back to the Southwest. My partner of 18 years, Lou Ann, and I have both retired and decided to be winter visitors in a lovely community in Queen Creek. I feel that my life’s circle has come around and I am looking forward very much to the next chapter and becoming a Las Guias Docent.

Jill Newburg

Jill holds an undergraduate and master’s degree in foreign languages. She was a small business owner, international interpreter, educator, development officer for UNHCR refugee resettlement. Jill likes travel, international politics, and environmental activism.

Josie Owens

When not at the Heard, Josie Owens is giving tours at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, playing golf, reading, attending theater, traveling (often to New York City to see her daughter), writing, or walking her dog, Sebastian. She is married to Brian and has two children, Emma (24) and Jack (21).

Elizabeth Porter

Elizabeth Porter began her career as an archaeologist on the North Slope of Alaska. Later she became a teacher, an education specialist, and finally retired from a wonderful job teaching students with special needs. Her love of the Indian communities of the Southwest began with her first trip to The Hopi Nation at age six.

Susan Relecom

Susan Relecom shares a lifetime of volunteerism with the Heard Museum and other organizations. Susan’s life path has led her back-and-forth between Canada and the US, from Montreal to San Francisco, with stops in other cities, this being her third, and forever, stop in the Valley. In a previous stay in Phoenix, she graduated with the 1996 Las Guias class and volunteered in the Museum. After an 18-year sojourn in London, Ontario, Susan returned to Phoenix in 2022 and joined the Information Desk service. Susan was delighted to participate in the current class and rejoin the Las Guias program.

Monda Sagalkin

I am a retired Social Worker. I have also been interested in minorities and diversity and how minority cultures manage to survive the pressure to give up their beliefs, language, etc. and assimilate. This interest led me to work in the past with Alaskan Natives, foreign wives of Army soldiers, and refugees.

Sandy Sagalkin

I am a retired lawyer and moved with my wife, Monda, to Fountain Hills, Arizona, a year ago. My work included Native Indian water, land, fishing, and commercial rights for the US Department of Justice, and for the North Slope Borough, Alaska. My wife and I have been interested in Indian art for over 50 years.

Katherine Shields

A long-time visitor to the Heard, Katie Shields began volunteering at the Guild Fair as a Booth Monitor in 2023 and joined the Guild soon after. She chairs the Indian Market Committee of the S’edav Va’aki Museum Foundation and leads school tours at that museum. Born in Chicago, she has been interested in Native Art since childhood as her parents and grandparents were collectors. Katie works as a musician and music educator, running Chaparral Chamber Music Workshop in Prescott. She has degrees in music from Northwestern University (Evanston, IL) and Arizona State University-Tempe. In her free time, she enjoys shopping at Indian markets, hiking, cooking, and gardening.

Carol Van Puymbroeck

I am a native New Yorker born in Brooklyn, teens on Long Island, and educated in NYC at Fordham University and Columbia University. I was a Special Education teacher in Fairfax County, Virginia, for 30 years. I look forward to helping others become acquainted with all the treasures at the Heard Museum.

Rudy Van Puymbroeck

I was born and raised in Belgium and came to the US to go to graduate business school (Fulbright scholar) and, later, law school. For most of my career I worked in international development as a lawyer with the World Bank. After retirement I taught courses in law and policy for global health at Georgetown University. My wife Carol and I moved to Arizona in 2017. The Heard is our “haven for culture in Phoenix.”

Ettie Zilber

Before her retirement, Ettie Zilber served as an educator and school director at international schools in Israel, Singapore, Spain, Guatemala, China, and Arizona. She continues to support multicultural communities and organizations in achieving successful cross-cultural proficiency, improved relationships, and productivity. Ettie serves on the Board of the Phoenix Holocaust Association, is a docent at the Arizona Jewish Historical Society, and promotes Holocaust Education in the USA and internationally, through her presentations and publications.