Commissioners

Heidi Wilson’s visionary strengths were the driving force in the establishment of the Coronado Cultural Arts Commission(CAC). After assessing regional resources and surveying key community stakeholders, Wilson built consensus supporting the need for a commission championing the arts and in 2011 the Coronado City Council established the Coronado Cultural Arts Commission. Wilson was appointed to the newly established commission and elected as the chair, a position she held for five years.  As a member of the commission Wilson led the effort to launch CoronadoARTS.com – the CAC sponsored website highlighting Coronado’s vibrant art scene. Under her tenure the commission conducted Coronado’s first Economic Impact Study evaluating the arts and culture organizations in the community. This study confirmed that the arts are indeed an economic driver that supports jobs, generates revenue and provides arts programming that bring entertainment and enjoyment to the community, beautifies our shared public spaces and strengthens the social fabric of Coronado. In 2015 Wilson lead efforts for the  City’s 125^th Anniversary Celebration which raised funds for the 2018 Coronado CREATES Strategic Plan for Arts and Culture.  Wilson has 30+ years of Arts Administration experience and has returned to lead the commission into its next decade with a mission to harness the power of collaborative efforts to bring together artists, organizations, and the community to support, encourage and further develop a thriving creative community in Coronado..

Jeanmarie Bond joined the Coronado Cultural Arts Commission in May 2022 after an extensive career in various industries. Most recently she served as President and CEO of the Coronado Schools Foundation where she led that organization through one of its most challenging times during the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to that she spent more than 10 years working for UC San Diego where she was the Corporate Secretary for the UC San Diego Foundation. In that leadership role, she worked directly with the university’s most prolific and generous donors serving on the Board of Trustees. She also worked closely with the Chancellor, Vice Chancellors, and other academic leaders in advancing the philanthropic mission of the institution in support of its inaugural strategic plan.

Prior to UC San Diego, Jeanmarie served as the Education Director for the San Diego County Bar Association where she oversaw their MCLE program serving more than 10,000 legal professionals. Previous to that she had a very successful career as a freelance journalist and media consultant where she launched two columns nationally syndicated through Parenting Publications of America and was published prolifically in both local and national media.

Jeanmarie has lived in Coronado for almost 25 years and where she has served as a substitute teacher in the Coronado Unified School District for more than a decade. Her two adult sons graduated from Coronado High School where they both played on the CHS Varsity Soccer Team. She graduated summa cum laude from Linfield College with a triple major in Communications, English, and Education. When not volunteering in the community or substitute teaching, she enjoys spending time with her sons, daughter-in-laws, and three grandchildren, preferably at the beach or in the pool.

Deb Kaller, Commission Vice- Chair and Public Art

Deb Kaller expresses her creativity as both an artist and an engineer.  Her lifelong passion has been ceramics, maintaining both a home studio as well as working in group studio environments. Deb has traveled extensively and enjoys food and cooking. Other creative outlets include a travel sketchbook and a cooking blog. Her professional background is in the semiconductor industry, where she worked with worldwide teams to develop new technology and make cell phones smaller and smarter. Deb has a degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Arizona. She has two patents and has made numerous presentations at industry conferences. She started a consulting company in 2008 which advised multiple companies on technology strategy and intellectual property. Before joining the commission, Deb served as a volunteer with the Visual Arts working group including the installation of the C3 Gallery, and then with the Communications team, leading upgrades to the CAC’s social media presence.

Paul Schutz, Arts Education

Paul Schutz joins the Cultural Arts Commission as Commissioner of Art Education.

Teresa Espaniola, Visual Arts

Teresa Espaniola joins the Cultural Arts Commission leading the Programming Area. She has enjoyed creating art since childhood, which was encouraged in the household. With a portrait artist father and landscape artist grandmother, art has been a natural avenue for her to follow. Her mother was very crafty, which broadens Teresa’s pallet of creativity. Her background as an art teacher for children and adults prompted her to publish a book called Silly Goose Gramma Games which is filled with arts and crafts, word games, and much more. Since moving to Coronado in 2005, Teresa has been active in her own artwork as well as working with public and private schools in the San Diego area. Advocating for the health of the ocean, she collaborated with teachers and their students in elementary schools in Southern California to create public art using beach trash. She was hired by KPBS to produce educational projects for a national campaign based on the Jim Henson Company’s Splash and Bubbles Children’s animated series. She has volunteered and donated art to several nonprofits in San Diego over the years. Teresa has lots of ideas for promoting the visual, literary, and performing arts in the community. “Having benefitted from the Coronado Cultural Arts programs, including the Orange Avenue Banner project, the C3 Gallery, the Flower Show, and art receptions in the Winn Room and Spreckels Center, I would like to give back to the Coronado Cultural Arts and to the community of Coronado. I look forward to working together with the Cultural Arts Commissioners and volunteers.”

Marcus Echols-Booth, Arts + Prosperity

Marcus Echols-Booth joins the Cultural Arts Commission as Commissioner of Arts and Prosperity. After growing up locally, for most of his twenties he toured the world as a professional pianist, composer, and fine arts advocate. In addition to performances in Paris, Tokyo, Mexico City, New York, New Orleans, and elsewhere, some of his fondest on-stage memories were here in Coronado where he was welcomed back during holiday seasons to perform at the library and as a featured CoSA alumni. Besides performance, his theoretical work led to a residency at the storied Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique in Paris and an opportunity to help military cybersecurity professionals back home in the States avoid eye strain by converting visual signals to musically viable sounds. Nowadays he works as a financial planner, continuing to support the arts by putting clients at ease buying paintings and concert tickets in town or donating to the aesthetic cause. Having recently decided to make Coronado his permanent home, he sees it as a duty and a privilege to serve in any capacity he can.

Commission Staff Liaison

Kelly Purvis, Senior Management Analyst/Arts, and Culture

Kelly Purvis was hired as the first Contract Arts Administrator for the City of Coronado and staff liaison to the Coronado Cultural Arts Commission. She joined the team in December of 2013. In February 2019 she was hired as a Senior Management Analyst for Coronado and continues to work in support of Arts and Culture and the Cultural Arts Commission.  A local arts supporter and longtime community volunteer, Purvis assists the Cultural Arts Commission in fulfilling its mission to strengthen, coordinate, and connect the arts with the citizens of Coronado. Purvis served as the first director of development for the Coronado Historical Association and did event coordination for the San Diego political fundraising firm of Dorsee Productions. Volunteer experience includes work with the University of Southern California, Coronado Unified School District, P.E.O. International, and the City of Coronado. A strong proponent of preservation, Purvis served on the City's original Residential Standards Improvement Committee as well as the Vice-Chair of the City of Coronado R-4 Standards Committee. She was named the San Diego Save Our Heritage Organisation "Preservationist of the Year" in 2007 and was honored by the University of Southern California in 2012 with an Alumni Service Award.