Meet Our Team
Larchmont Leadership Team
Jennifer Gomes | Director
Graduate of Purchase College, SUNY with a BFA in Sculpture. Jenn (she/her) has a passion for connecting with students of all ages and sharing her mixed media experience as a studio art educator. Her own art making process is informed by memories and keepsakes. By freezing mixed media and found objects into resin cast sculptures and installations she immortalizes the everyday. New to the One River community; she is delighted to tap into the school's abundant creative spirit to bring the imagination out in all her students. She's spent the last five years in management positions within the gourmet food service industry and works tirelessly to support the administration and education teams while creating a budding community within the gallery and studio walls.
Caito Stewart | Director of Education
Caito Stewart (she/her) is a multi-disciplinary visual artist, educator, writer, and musician. After getting her BFA in Painting from Washington University, Caito moved to Tokyo to teach English for one year. She loved teaching, learning Japanese, and karaoke so much that she stayed almost ten years! In 2017, she returned to New York and got her MFA in Sculpture from Pratt Institute. Inspired by conceptual artists such as Robert Gober, Claes Oldenberg, Doris Salcedo, and Felix Gonzalez Torres, she makes mixed-media sculptures and uncanny installations of everyday domestic objects from her personal history.
John Monaco | Assistant Director of Member Services
John Monaco, Jr. is a Westchester, NY native who completed his Visual Arts degree with Westchester Community College. He has been working in the Arts for 20 years in both, the field of graphic design and also the comic book industry with Awe Yeah Comics, Oni Press, Pencil Tip Publishing and other indie gaming companies. He has also done work in the concept space for some independent films and commission work. John also has been teaching for the past 7 years in private art schools focusing on digital art, photography, and fine arts. He has experience working with students of all ages, from young children to adult learners. John has also been a teacher at other One River school locations.John loves working at One River because he can share his passion for art while nurturing the skills and creativity of budding artists in the community. John loves to empower and guide One River students so that they may maximize their potential in a fun and dynamic creative environment.
In-Studio Educators
Maria Campos | Instructor
Maria (she/her) received her BFA at Mercy College with a concentration in Digital Illustration and Graphic Design. She is inspired everyday to make art because it give her the ability to teach what she learns to other people. She began by looking through artbooks of concept art from her favorite animated movies. Concept artists like Glen Keane and Jim Kim, and the beautiful illustrations of modern artists like Lois van Baarle (Loish) and Xiao Tong (Velinix) are what keeps Maria inspired to learn and to teach every single day!
Jake Kaczmarek | Instructor
Jake Kaczmarek (he/him) received his Masters's Degree in Art Education from Manhattanville College. He specializes in digital art and design and has been creating digital art for over 10 years. He has worked with a variety of clients for commission work and has experience doing graphic design, game development, and painting. He is dedicated to creating a safe classroom environment for students to learn, grow, and enjoy art.
AJ Tignonsini | Instructor
AJ Tignonsini received his BFA in Design + Animation with a concentration in 3D Modeling at Mercy College in 2020. He's pursuing a Certificate in 3D Animation at WCC (2022-2023). His passion for teaching is rooted in the creative process. Aj's teaching philosophy contains both technical and imaginative perspectives which assist students at any skill level. He believes that to be a great artist, determination is needed to execute creativity. Students will then develop a critical eye and become more inclined to learning new techniques or softwares. Aj is experienced in the animation pipeline from Storyboarding, painting, modeling, animating, all the way to the final render.
Veronica Romano | Instructor
Veronica Romano (she/her) is an Alumni & Adjunct Professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology in the School of Art &
Design in NYC. She is dedicated to inspiring a passion for design by implementing innovative critical thinking skills to create rewarding works of self-expression. She is our go to person for exhibition planning and art installments for events.
Jordan Katter | Instructor
Jordan Katter (He/Him) is a multi-disciplinary visual artist, and art teacher for Mount Vernon High School. After getting his BFA in Sculpture, and a Masters of Art Education from Long Island University, Jordan was invited to a ‘World Rising Artist’ show in Hua Quan China in 2019. He stayed in China for a month, teaching students about American Art and the joy of taking inspiration from international artists. Inspired by representational artist Sueng Lee, he creates art installations for his ‘Broken Heart’ series of gilded broken hearts.
Ava Lee | Instructor
Ava Lee (she/her) is a recent graduate from Bard College with a Bachelor’s degree in Studio Arts. Her personal art practice focuses on the coexistence and contradictions of nature and man made industrial structures. She primarily works as a 2 dimensional artist, with an interest in a mixed media mode of working, including painting, drawing, printmaking and collage. She also enjoys working with ceramics. Her two greatest passions are art and working with children, and she feels very lucky to get to play a role in the creative development of the students at One River!
Kristina Ciklic | Instructor
Kristina Ciklic (She/They) Graduated from SUNY Purchase with an Interdisciplinary BFA in Graphic Design and Printmaking. She spends her free time designing and printing t-shirt designs for her friends to sell at various anime events around the U.S. She was inspired at a young age to teach by her middle school art teacher, who helped her to grow creatively and love art even more, she continues to channel that spirit into the classes she now teaches today. They hope to uplift and help every student reach their true potential through their art.
Lizzie Cohen | Instructor
Lizzie (she/her) is a portrait photographer and painter, and she received her BFA at Manhattanville College. She is currently a graduate student in art education at Manhattanville College and working towards a Master of Arts in Teaching. Lizzie loves teaching art and finds so much joy in bringing art into the lives of her students. During her free time, Lizzie loves making and doing commission work. She especially enjoys creating abstracted portraits based on a photograph. Lizzie finds that art makes such a difference in everyday life, and she aims to bring this idea into the classroom—encouraging her students to connect with art. Lizzie is a Larchmont resident, and she is thrilled to join the One River team.
Dora Tomulic | Instructor
Dora Tomulic is a graduate from the Academy of Fine Art of University of Zagreb, Croatia with a MA in Fine Art. Following graduation, Dora spent a decade in Sri Lanka where she first worked as an art director in advertising before transitioning into teaching. Together with a group of like-minded artists and designers, she founded a design school (Academy of Design, AoD). She was fully involved in setting up the programs and writing course curriculum. Additionally, she was the editor of a monograph about the archaeoastronomy of the Diocletian’s Palace in Split, Croatia. She also contributed a chapter to a book on the poetic and theoretical ideas in visual art. In addition to theoretical research and teaching, she is a practicing artist as well. She has participated in many shows both locally and abroad, as well as having a solo museum exhibition. In her free time, Dora enjoys hiking, gardening, and landscape design. She is excited to share her knowledge and passion for art with the students of One River.
Cristina Acevedo | Instructor
Cristina (she/her) is an artist and art teacher who obtained her MFA in Studio Art from City College of New York (CUNY). She is a seasonal instructor at One River who works in the Bronx during the academic year. She specializes in Mixed Media, mainly utilizing pen, ink, colored pencil, paints, and coffee. She is dedicated to creating and maintaining art classes that push kids to adapt to new skill sets and have an open space for deep questioning, curiosity, and exploration. Her favorite phrase to use with students who struggle at new challenges is "Discomfort curates adaptation."
Helen Marder | Instructor
Helen Marder (she/her) (b. 1989 Brooklyn, NY) is an artist, working in mixed media, sculpture, and installation art. In 2022, She received an MFA in Studio Arts from Brooklyn College with a concentration in painting. She has taught an undergraduate course in Three-Dimensional Design & Form Studies, and was a teacher assistant for Basic Design, Drawing & Color, and Art: Its History & Meaning. She has mentored teens in costume and set design at Roundabout Theatre Company, and mentored youth in fine arts at Free Arts NYC. She has completed commissions in portrait painting as well as various graphic design projects, and continues to develop her practice in her studio. Inspired by artists like Louise Bourgeois, her teaching philosophy involves diligence, sensitivity, being materially helpful, and supporting freedom of imagination and individual expression
Join Our Team
Career opportunities at One River School allow passionate artists, educators and lovers of art to share their love and knowledge of art and enhance the lives of people they connect with everyday.