Partner program
The SLF Arts Council brings artists, designers, educators, and cultural leaders into the center of environmental advocacy. The council guides our creative initiatives, public art campaigns, youth engagement programs, and local arts policy conversations, while helping translate complex environmental and nuclear waste issues into accessible public storytelling.
The council was created around a shared belief that art can reach communities in ways data and policy alone cannot. Through collaborative campaigns, public installations, educational programming, and artist-led storytelling, the Arts Council works to expand awareness around the ongoing risks posed by nuclear waste at San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station and inspire greater civic participation across Southern California.
Current initiatives include the development of a regional public art and billboard campaign, partnerships with local artists and climate design organizations, and our 2026 youth art challenge inviting students across Southern California to respond creatively to themes of renewable futures and nuclear waste awareness. The council is also helping shape our long-term strategy for integrating art into advocacy through multimedia storytelling, community activations, public exhibitions, and symposium programming.
The Arts Council emphasizes collaboration with local artists whose work reflects the environmental, cultural, and social realities of Southern California communities most impacted by the risks posed by nuclear waste. The council is focused on creating campaigns that are visually compelling, emotionally resonant, and action-oriented, using art not simply as decoration, but as a catalyst for public awareness and community engagement.
Council Members
Ruth Westreich
Ruth Westreich is a life-long artist, activist and passionate philanthropist. She believes deeply that we cannot have personal health without planetary health. Ruth is a connector and strategist who creates communication bridges that bring together people from varied disciplines in health, the environment, discovery science and investigative journalism. The Westreich Foundation uses thought-provoking art, activism and philanthropy to engage and unite people around the science and societal issues that erode and threaten human and planetary health.
Sheila Darcey
Sheila Darcey is an artist, author, and founder working at the intersection of creativity, healing, consciousness, and social impact. She is the Founder & Executive Director of Living Canvas Foundation™ and the creator of SketchPoetic®, an internationally recognized creative expression practice, and author of Sketch by Sketch: A Creative Path to Emotional Healing & Transformation. Her work is rooted in a single conviction: creativity is not a luxury, but a lifeline with the power to restore, reconnect, and transform.
Instagram: @sketchpoetic · Instagram: @livingcanvasfoundation · LinkedIn
Ping Ho
Ping Ho, MA, MPH is Founder and Director of Arts and Healing Initiative, a nonprofit organization that transforms lives through the innate power of the arts, guided by mental health practices, to foster healing, connection, and resilience for all. Ping spearheaded the development of the Certificate Program in Social Emotional Arts (SEA) and the SEA Toolkit. She is associate editor for the Creative Arts Therapies section of the Journal of Integrative and Complementary Medicine, and co-author of the 2019 National Parenting Products Award-winning book, The Innovative Parent. She has a BA in psychology from Stanford, an MA in counseling psychology from UC Santa Barbara, and an MPH from UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.
Alexis Dixon
Alexis Dixon is an international mediator and facilitator specializing in the resolution of complex interpersonal, organizational, and cross-cultural conflicts within academic, institutional, and global contexts. Grounded in a humanistic, person-centered (Rogerian) framework, his work engages conflict not as disruption, but as a disciplined entry point into self-reflection, relational clarity, and institutional coherence. He has facilitated high-stakes dialogues among corporate executive leadership and international stakeholders, with particular expertise in navigating identity, power, and institutional culture within higher education. His practice is distinguished by intellectual rigor, emotional acuity, and a refined capacity to hold complexity without diminishing the humanity of those engaged. Additionally, he’s the President of Thinkist, and Founder & Creative Director of Brilliance Exposed.
Chris Hoover
Christopher Hoover is a technology entrepreneur with interests spanning genomics, digital health and energy innovation. Based in San Diego, he focuses on business ideation, marketing and business development for startups with market-defining technologies. His experiences range from molecular biology system companies (Invitrogen) to global sales and marketing of biocomputing systems for drug discovery. He also served as the US CEO of the MedinCell Corporation, a controlled-release injectable drug delivery company.
We are actively expanding the Arts Council. If you are an artist, designer, educator, or cultural leader in the Southern California region and are interested in joining, please email Nadia@samuellawrencefoundation.org.
