Light Fellows

Amalya Rajparia has been part of Pseads since 4th grade, growing from volunteer to research fellow and peer mentor. As a Lambert Light Fellow, she designed and carried out an independent research project on the lasting impact of birth stories, collecting both structured data and intimate interviews from over 100 participants. Her work culminated in a peer reviewed journal publication (Curieux, Aug 2025), a keynote address on maternal narratives and generational shifts, and an audio documentary she researched, scripted, and produced. She supported the expansion of the fellowship to other high school and middle school students and now provides mentorship to new fellows. Amalya also launched a program to secure scholarships to bring students from across Marin to participate in a unique educational opportunity through the Bioneers Conference at UC Berkeley. Her commitments extend beyond research and advocacy: she is a dedicated tennis player and shares music weekly with elders in an assisted living community, where her piano playing brings comfort, joy, and companionship to residents each week.

Margot Agnew is a college student studying humanities with a lifelong love of learning and creative expression. She has been writing poems and stories since early elementary school and remains drawn to forms of inquiry that invite curiosity and authenticity. She is especially passionate about the conditions that allow people to express themselves freely and truthfully. Margot’s creative interests span writing, painting, photography, guitar, and songwriting. She loves seeing live music, reading, and movies of all kinds. She is fascinated by faces, expressions, dimensions of human experience, created worlds, and the challenge of capturing what feels unsayable. From the punk music scene to upcycled fashion and the graphic lines and storytelling of tattoo art, she gravitates toward forms that honor reinvention and individuality.

Lucy Bakowski grew up in Fairfax, California. She’s been writing since she was old enough to pick up a pen, and has found in poetry a safe haven on her journey of self-discovery. She is currently working on her first collection of poems for publication, which already includes more than 350 original poems, and spends two-three hours a day on the practice and craft of writing. Lucy is a creative of all worlds, from the stage, to the blank page and the camera. She’s also a supporter, holding space for the creativity in all people, from hosting open mics to supporting feminist issues in Girl Talk Magazine. She has a vision for the power of art to awaken the human soul and differently open hearts and minds to a just and peaceful world. Lucy is committed to social and environmental justice, and to LGBTQ+ rights. She believes in the power of reading poetry in between the lines, and has been a part of Pseads since its first years. Lucy loves spending her time with the trees and wildflowers, and writing in the company of her cat, Lucky. She is a freshman California State University, Chico.

BIO HERE

Maisie Ferner is a senior at Archie Williams high school, and a dedicated member of the Team Academy; an experiential outdoor education program that focuses on connecting students with the natural world around them. Maisie is passionate about poetry, the outdoors, and helping others, all elements she has combined into her project focused on social justice and environmental care. Since elementary school, Maisie has been an avid part of the Pseads community through volunteer work, filmmaking projects, and poetry programs. As an inaugural member of the 2025 Lambert Light Fellowship cohort, Maisie is continuing to work on combining her passion for the outdoors with her desire to help others.

Amanda Harris is an artist, dancer, choreographer, movement educator from Los Angeles, CA. and an alumna of the Alonzo King LINES Ballet BFA Program at Dominican University. She began her training under the tutelage of Debbie Allen, and has since immersed herself in a wide range of various styles of dance and movement traditions, including contemporary and classical ballet, multiple modern techniques (Limon, Horton, Graham), flamenco, tap, hip hop, jazz, West African dance, and Dunham. During her time in the LINES BFA program, Amanda had the opportunity to work with choreographers such as Gregory Dawson, Carmen Rozestraten, Maurya Kerr, Laura O’Malley, and Anne-Rene Petrarca, gaining valuable knowledge and meaningful experience with diverse creative processes and artistic lineages. Following graduation, she’s had the honor of working with Charlotte Smith, Santiago Rivera and Valkyrie Yao through Deborah Brockus’ Match Residency. Soon after the residency she joined Maura Townsend Dance Project. In addition to her work as a performer and educator, Amanda is exploring expression through poetry and writing. Guided by a deep hunger for knowledge and understanding, her creative work often delves into questions of the human experience and the state of the world.

Lizzie Lamorte is an artist who loves to collaborate on creative projects and inspire ideas in everyone around her. She began making art and stories before she could write, and teaching has always come naturally to her. Lizzie writes and produces her own songs and loves jamming with friends and her brother, Toby. She sees a canvas everywhere – visualizing movies in her mind, hearing stories in melodies, composing songs in her dreams, sensing patterns in poems, and finding rhythm even in a smile. Last year, she began volunteering in elementary classrooms, leading lessons in writing, spoken word, and filmmaking in collaboration with Pseads’ Hope on the Rize program. She loves to write, hike, and spend time at the California Academy of Sciences and Bay Area trails, sights, and hidden gems. She believes that creativity is essential to growth, not only art. Inspired by this belief, she founded two clubs: a film club at her high school and the Awe + Wonder Club, a creative collective for all ages. An invited speaker at Pseads events and a participant in Pseads’ programs from the beginning, Lizzie feels most alive when she’s creating or helping others find their voice. She believes creativity reminds us what it means to be human – and gives us the power to shape the future.

SenSaSheri Maasera is a professional dancer in her debut season with Saint Louis Dance Theatre. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance from the Alonzo King LINES Ballet Program at Dominican University of California, with a minor in Philosophy and Religion. As was one of the inaugural Pseads Fellows, SenSaSheri helped inspire the first Lambert Light Fellowship cohort and currently serves on the Pseads’ Mother Tree Council, uplifting youth voices through the Hope on the Rize program. SenSaSheri was born in Saint Louis and also spent a lot of her childhood in Bermuda. She grew up in a family active in The Organization for Black Struggle (OBS), dedicated to serving oppressed communities within St. Louis. Her early experiences with Freedom School, gardening, and school district reconciliation fostered a lifelong passion for social and environmental justice, ethics, and a deep connection to nature. Guided in part by her family’s deep rooted spiritual practice, she has developed a love for introspection, mindfulness, and the exploration of spirituality, including through movement.

Abbie Morehouse is a junior at Archie Williams High School in Marin, CA, with a deep love for writing and storytelling. She studies journalism as a staff member of the Archie Williams student newspaper, The Pitch, where she brings curiosity and care to her reporting. A varsity volleyball player, Abbie carries that same passion and commitment to teamwork into her creative and academic work. Beyond school, she is a longtime advocate for environmental stewardship in her community, including leading a campaign to reduce local reliance on single-use plastics. She also spent a summer learning with The New York Times fashion team, exploring the intersections of culture, fashion, and media. As a Pseads Fellow, Abbie is currently working on a series of essays that examine fashion through multiple lenses, from self-expression to environmental impact. When she’s not writing or playing volleyball, she loves to bake. Fun facts: she’s adopted an elephant and has been bucked off a horse.

Isabella is a student, artist and activist, and enjoys spending her time writing, drawing, painting, and making short films on environmental topics in hope of bringing awareness and a deeper appreciation for our home. In 2021, her short film, Nature, was awarded distinction in the Redford Center Stories Challenge, and that summer she won a Planet 911 Youth Film Fellowship, where she made her film We the Trees to help others realize what we can learn from trees. Isabella also loves screen printing, drawing, painting, and photography. Her painting, Absent Smiles, received a national silver medal in the 2020 Scholastic Art and Writing awards, and her painting, Out the Sliding Door, in 2022 received a Gold Key, the same award as Amanda Gorman and Andy Warhol. Isabella has been participating in Pseads poetry and writing programs since her early elementary years, and is now designing curriculum and film projects with Pseads. She is a first-year student at the University of California, Berkeley.

BIO HERE

Zara Prime is an avid lover of the arts and the outdoors. A senior at Archie Williams High School, Zara is a dedicated member of Team Academy, an outdoor education program seeking to redefine learning. She loves hiking, time at the beach, and outdoor adventures. A creative from a young age, Zara is passionate about painting, photography, music, and countless artistic mediums. Since moving from the East Coast in elementary school, Zara has been an active member of the Pseads community and has spent time as a volunteer, leader, and innovator. She has participated in Psead’s poetry and filmmaking programs, volunteer work, as well as attended the Bioneers Conference with Pseads. In 2025, Zara wrote and performed original poetry for Pseads’ first annual Harvest of the Heart celebration. As an inaugural member of the 2025 Lambert Lights Fellowship cohort, Zara’s project is designed to balance her passion for art with community need for environmental advocacy.

BIO HERE

Edie Stubblefield is originally from Minneapolis, Minnesota, and has recently returned to the Twin Cities, where she is dancing in a professional training program in Minneapolis-St. Paul. She is a graduate of Dominican University of California, where she earned her BFA in Dance through the Alonzo King LINES Ballet Program. Edie was one of the inaugural Pseads Fellows and helped inspire the first Lambert Light Fellowship cohort. She also helped create the first Pseads poetry anthology, published in 2025. Edie is pursuing a professional career in contemporary dance and hopes to continue her academic journey through graduate study and research in neuropsychology. She is particularly interested in how dancers learn, process emotion, and perceive their bodies, especially in relation to the mirrors. She finds joy at the intersection of writing, movement, and science. Outside the studio, Edie loves to dance, swim, attend concerts, spend time at the beach, and paint.

Emma Ulvestad is a passionate innovator and one of the inaugural Fellows of Pseads, which she also helped inspire. A middle school student with a strong sense of purpose, she created and leads the BLOOM workshop series for elementary school students centered on creativity, reflective writing, and community-building. She has served as a featured speaker at Harvest of the Heart, where her clarity, kindness, and creative vision deeply moved the audience. A strong poet, imaginative filmmaker, natural leader, and thoughtful builder of ideas, Emma is always thinking about ways projects can create cross-benefit and meaningful ripples of impact. She chose to donate the proceeds of her Bloom workshops to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital and has been an active volunteer with the Marin Postpartum Center. Outside of her creative work, Emma finds joy playing sports (especially soccer), spending time with her family and friends, and hanging out with her dog, Buddy. She loves making things that help people feel seen, inspired, and more connected to who they are and what they care about.

BIO HERE

BIO HERE