Board of Directors - Firefly Arts Collective

The Firefly Arts Collective Board of Directors is comprised of the following members:

Voting Members:

Tristan Brown (tristan@fireflyartscollective.org)
Jon Evans (jon@fireflyartscollective.org)
Jered Floyd (jered@fireflyartscollective.org)
Iva Gishin (iva@fireflyartscollective.org)
Meytal Kotik (meytal@fireflyartscollective.org)
Carly Nix (carly@fireflyartscollective.org)
Peter Salomone (pete@fireflyartscollective.org)
Dan Snyder (dan@fireflyartscollective.org)

Non-Voting Members:

Alexander “Spencer” DeFelice-Kent (spencer@fireflyartscollective.org)
Brian Endy (bendy@fireflyartscollective.org)
Frank Gerratana (frankg@fireflyartscollective.org)
Brian Gowdey (gougey@fireflyartscollective.org)
Sage Kochavi (sage@fireflyartscollective.org)
Sharon Kubo (kubo@fireflyartscollective.org)
Liz LaManche (liz@fireflyartscollective.org)
Mike MacHenry (magneato@fireflyartscollective.org)
Kendra Pugh (kendra@fireflyartscollective.org)
Lia Rudolph (lia@fireflyartscollective.org)

Non-Voting members are past board members in good standing who have chosen to participate in an advisory role, but are no longer able to fully meet the participation responsibilities of a board member.

For general Firefly questions, please email: info@fireflyartscollective.org

To contact the Firefly Board of Directors, please email: board@fireflyartscollective.org

Current Board Member Bios

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.

Meytal Kotik
Meytal first attended Firefly in 2007 after hearing about it from new friends and having total FOMO. The following year, she returned to VT and made her first track to Black Rock City with camp KAOS. Meytal has volunteered for many Firefly cores and taken on roles such as Volunteer Coordinator and Kitchen Cafe Co-lead. Meytal enjoys cooking (which is lucky, as she is a chef) and can be seen handing out bites at Cabana Hammock’s BBB. She loves connecting with members of the community, new and old, and enjoying new woods with her dog.

Carly Nix
Carly’s first burn was Firefly in 2015. She returned as a co-lead of the Mush Room for 4 years and a main collaborator on Amanita musicalia (the big glowing sound-reactive mushroom sculptures), for which she and collaborator Chris Chronopoulos received 2 Firefly art grants. She’s been to 10 burns so far, including her first big burn in 2019 with Electric Koolaid in the Hive. At Firefly she’s also helped out with bug builds, the Steam Bath Project and consent initiatives. In default world her day job is running HR for a tech startup in Somerville. She was formerly a radio producer for NPR’s Car Talk, director of Industry Lab coworking space and art gallery where she founded their artist-in-residence program, and a steering committee member of an anarchist community media center and radio station. Outside of work and Firefly, her biggest passions are making art, community building, and connecting with nature.

Dan Snyder
Dan has been a Firefly since 2008. He’s helped design and build many Bugs, along with one Firefly temple and one Goat; and also worked on effigies for Frostburn and NECTR. You may have seen him at every work weekend since 2012. Dan’s been on the Board for six years and Ticket Core for nearly as long; he helped found the Conduct Committee and Festival Committee. In addition to being a hippie, Dan is a scientist and a midwesterner. He camps with Little Winter Hill at Firefly, and KAOS at BRC, typically because he got suckered into building big art.

Pete Salomone
Pete is a relative n00b, having first been to Firefly in 2017. In that time Pete has founded a camp, led a camp at NECTR, and made the pilgrimage to Black Rock City in 2019 in addition to ranger-ing and serving on the Firefly Communications Committee. You may have seen Pete insisting that you take some spicy mayonnaise with a breakfast sandwich, making coffees at The Universe’s cafe, spending far too long in the steam bath, or leading a group of chanting cultspeople down the main path.

Non-Voting Members Bios

Brian “Bendy” Endy
Brian has been going to Firefly every year since 2011 and each year he has gotten more involved. He has always camped with the Lion’s and is one of their Core Leaders, mainly helping with high-level decisions, treasury responsibilities, and fire duties. Brian was the Co-Lead of Fire Core from 2016-2019, focusing on fire spinning and performance including running Conclave. 2019 was his first year as the Safety Cluster Lead in addition to his other leadership roles. This meant that he worked with the leads of all of the safety cores (i.e. Rangers, First Aid, Fire, Sanctuary, and Radio) and the Festival Committee before, during, and after the event. At Firefly you can usually find Brian running around with a radio, spinning fire, or hanging in a hammock at the Lions.

Frank Gerratana
Frank has been to Firefly since 2012, served as Placement co-lead for two years before joining the Board, and co-founded camp Electric Kool-Aid Vision Quest. He’s also been to 6 Burning Mans (Burnings Man? Burning Men?), and a few regional burns. His day job is in legal stuff so he usually deals with Firefly’s legal stuff too. Outside of Firefly he does a lot of local political activism.

Brian Gowdey
Brian began his journey to the flame in 2009 because of an episode of Malcom in the Middle (S7E1 “Malcolm Goes to Burning Man”) during a period of unemployment. Realizing that there really was a place for him in this world, he convinced a bunch of creatives to take him with them. Brian has been to BM and firefly ten times and on the Firefly board since 2017. Brian created the first AutoSub beer cannon just after his first burn as well as the giant automatic subconscious sign in 2012 that could be seen across playa guiding Boston burners home. Brian has camped with AutoSub and KAOS five times each and camps with Meat camp at Firefly. He has been a Ranger and a Sanctuary volunteer as well as co-lead of Sanctuary for two years. He is also an amateur DJ and goes by Gougey or Lido. He is a Network/Systems Administrator in the default world. Other burns Brian has been to include Transformus and PDF.

Kendra Pugh
Kendra’s first burn was Firefly in 2008. She started a camp, made big art, and worked medical during the burn before starting to work on Placement with Pecan, Danielle, and Finn. In a former life she was an EMT, and helped coordinate the first medical transport from the event in 2012. She joined the Firefly board in 2015 and now prefers the more boring task of taking notes and filing paperwork with the state. She usually works at least one ranger shift. At the big burn, she camps with KAOS, makes big art that Hapto inevitably touches up, and occasionally works for Gayte. At NECTR she runs bachelorette parties and yells at people who can’t drive trucks safely.

Liz LaManche
Liz LaManche started going to the big burn in 2004, has been to 14 Fireflies and 10 Burning Mans. Originally an Autosubber on the playa (2005-2011 building lots of infrastructure and making deco art), Liz started learning aerial silk at Burning Man 2004 and grew to perform in and run the pre-Bug-Burn circus show at Firefly that was a tradition for about 9 years, with her partner Phil. Lately Liz has been concentrating on public art and LED lighted paintings, done artwork for Playa projects (Cosmic Praise in 2014, Luster Cluster in 2017), as well as serving a 6-year stint on the Firefly Board. She was on the original working group advocating for creating the Conduct Committee. Liz also uses her web and UI professional skills on the Communications Committee editing and maintaining the FF website.

Mike “Magneato” MacHenry
Mike MacHenry, aka Magneato, has been going to Firefly for about nine years and has been a ranger for all but the first. Through the years, Magneato has been a member of FUCC most years and has volunteered for parking, gate, and greeters. In 2019 Magneato took over as ranger lead.