The Firefly Arts Collective Board of Directors is comprised of the following members:
Voting Members:
- Max Alexander (max@fireflyartscollective.org)
- Tristan Brown (tristan@fireflyartscollective.org)
- Jon Evans (jon@fireflyartscollective.org)
- Jered Floyd (jered@fireflyartscollective.org)
- Iva Gishin (iva@fireflyartscollective.org)
- Omar Hamilton (loverboy@fireflyartscollective.org)
- Jack Reid (jackreid@fireflyartscollective.org)
For general Firefly questions, please email: info@fireflyartscollective.org
To contact the Firefly Board of Directors, please email: board@fireflyartscollective.org
Board Member Bios
Max Alexander
Max first attended Firefly in 2014 and has been back almost every year since. Between Firefly and NECTR he has helped organize a number of different camps, and in recent years has walked the woods on Ranger duty. Despite a decade of attending regional burns, he’s never been to the big burn (although he still insists he’ll go someday, when the stars align just right.) In the default world, Max is a computational biologist and software engineer, and can often be found on the bike trail, at local goth nights, or in cafes around Somerville.
Tristan Brown
Tristan first attended Firefly in 2013 and since then has camped with a variety of camps and helped with various aspects of the event. They have also been attending NECTR since 2014 and Burning Man since 2022. Outside of burns, they are a scientist, musician, and overall hobby collector. They are always looking for interesting science demonstrations that could be presented in interesting and engaging ways at burns.
Jon Evans
Jon’s first Firefly was in 2011, and he returned in 2012 to found The Universe theme camp, which he’s been bringing back to the woods every year since. When he’s not camping, he works as an electrical engineer (currently building 3D printers) and has used those skills to collaborate with other Fireflies on various LED art installations over the years. He’s also active with the organization of the NECTR regional burn, where among other duties he leads the Ranger core. When not working on circuits, he enjoys playing music, cooking, brewing delicious beverages, and cycling.
Jered Floyd
After hearing about Burning Man for years, Jered’s first burns were Firefly and Burning Man in 2006. At Burning Man, he organized both Kamp Kaos and The Hive village from 2011 through 2018, and became both a member of the Firefly Board of Directors and a Burning Man Regional Contact in 2013. With a background in technology and management, Jered likes building robust, complex, useful systems out of bits, atoms, and/or people (with their consent), and supports most of the extended Boston Burner community IT infrastructure behind the scenes. He enjoys helping create the opportunity for our community to welcome new participants, experiment, create, amaze, and expand the impact of our principles at the event and beyond. At Firefly, Jered can typically be found cooking over the campfire at Meat Camp.
Iva Gishin
Iva first attended Firefly in 2014 and had no idea what to expect as she’d never been to a burn before. She took to it like fish to water and has arrived early, left late and not missed a single work weekend since. Iva joined DPW in 2016, became Core Co-Lead in 2018, and additionally took on the role of Infrastructure Cluster Lead starting 2022. When not running around doing other things, she loves to help Joed and the Bug team. During the event you will probably find Iva if you swing by the DPW. Iva enjoys collaborating with or helping folks on a variety of art projects large and small, and has worked on unique deco for a number of Camp Lamp fundraiser events over the years.
Omar Hamilton
In 2019 Omar crash landed in VT with a group of aliens known as C.U.L.T where he experienced his first burn. He’s returned to this crash site almost exclusively for camping ever since with Camp Fire Camp. Outside of FAC, Omar has done some community organizing for exclusively BIPOC camping events, Co-founded Boston’s KPOC, and hosted munches in the Gr. Boston area to welcome a more diverse group of people into the outdoors and into spaces that practice radical self expression. Omar has served our community in several volunteer roles and enjoy assisting with bug builds during the work weekends and as Ranger Loverboy. The Firefly community has enriched his life in so many tangible ways and has inspired a new sense of curiosity and artistic expression. Omar hopes to continue this service by welcoming new members to our community as a member of the board. He intends to leverage his decade-long career as a project manager in the tech sector to support the organization’s missions and be an ambassador for those values.
Jack Reid
Jack first attended Firefly in 2022 and has attended each year since, always as part of the ever-expanding Universe. You can typically find him volunteering with Perimeter or Rangers, running figure drawing at the Universe, or attending all of the Secret Goth Club / Nevermore dances he can. Outside of Firefly, he’s an engineer specializing in the use of earth observation satellite imagery (don’t worry, trees provide good cover for Firefly) though is currently working more on the policy side of the house. He’s also a longtime Camberville (astonishing!) co-op resident.