Our Team
Jessica Hecht
Executive Director & Founder
Jessica founded The Campfire Project in 2017 to respond to the overflowing migrant population in Greek refugee camps and has since worked with refugee communities in camps world wide. Jessica Hecht is an acclaimed Tony Nominated stage actress and teaches acting at both Williams College and the HB Playwright's Studio. Broadway credits include Eureka Day and Summer, 1976 (Tony Nomination) The Price, Fiddler on the Roof, The Assembled Parties, Harvey, After the Fall, The Last Night of Ballyhoo, Brighton Beach Memoirs, Julius Caesar, and A View from the Bridge (Tony Nomination) . Off-Broadway, she has appeared in King Lear, Stage Kiss, Three Sisters, The Orchard, Letters from Max, and Admissions (Obie Award & Outer Critics Circle Award Nomination). Her recent television appearances include the Netflix series “Special,” for which she received an Emmy Award Nomination, and her roles on “Tokyo Vice,” “Super Pumped,” “The Sinner,” “The Loudest Voice,” “Dickinson,” “The Boys,” and “Succession.” She is also recognizable to television audiences from her roles in the beloved series “Friends” and “Breaking Bad.” She recently completed the film Eleanor the Great directed by Scarlett Johansson.
Alexandra Zaslav
Director of Operations
Alexandra first volunteered with the Campfire Project in 2023 to lead the movement module in their Uganda mission. She then coordinated Campfire's first NYC pilot initiative, before stepping into her current role as Director of Operations. Alexandra works at the intersection of arts, activism, education, and conflict transformation. She is highly experienced in integrating collaborative and embodied practices with initiatives addressing conflict, social justice, displacement, & trauma. Based in Israel-Palestine for the past decade, she danced professionally with KAMEA Dance Company, before earning her Masters in Conflict Resolution and Mediation from Tel Aviv University. Her research and facilitation focused on integrating movement practices into peacebuilding and dialogue initiatives with Israeli and Palestinian children, women, and community mediators. Since 2020, she has worked as the Evaluation and Donor Relations Manager for Hand in Hand - Israel's only network of bilingual, integrated schools for Jewish and Palestinian students. Alexandra relocated to the US in 2024, where she is completing her certification as a dance/movement therapist, and has turned her attention to therapeutic support for refugee communities in New York City.
Katie Flahive
Board Member, Field Team Leader
Katie Flahive is an actor, teacher, and coach. As one of the founding members of The Campfire Project, she has been on every international and domestic project since 2018. Her primary focus in programming is with the stilts team as well as organizational management. Select theater and television credits include The Public Theater, Atlantic Theater, Steppenwolf, and Northlight Theater. (TV) Looming Tower and Adult Swim’s Venture Bros. Law & Order: SVU, Chicago P.D., The Affair, Nurse Jackie, Blue Bloods, and Feed the Beast. In addition to her acting career, Katie is a dedicated educator and acting coach. She has worked as an on set acting coach on numerous productions for Apple, Showtime, CBS, Paramount, Fox, Amazon, Netflix, and Hulu. Katie has taught acting technique and advanced performance for camera at Pace University, New York University (Tisch) and continues to teach and coach privately with clients on TV series and Broadway shows.
Dr. Nisha Sajnani
Board Member, Arts Therapy Director
Nisha Sajnani is a founding member of The Campfire Project. Her expertise has grounded Campfire’s work from its establishment until today. Nisha is an Associate Professor and Director of the Graduate Program in Drama Therapy at the NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development and co-directs the Jameel Arts & Health Lab, established in collaboration with the World Health Organization to advance research and access to the health benefits of the arts and arts therapies. She is also on faculty with the Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma where she lectures on the role of the arts in the context of displacement. With more than 100 publications, Dr. Sajnani leads research in trauma-informed and intercultural practice, arts based methodologies, and therapeutic factors in the creative arts therapies. Her performance and curatorial practice reflects concerns with the unique ways in which aesthetic experience can inspire equity, care, and collective human flourishing across the lifespan. She co-produces Healing Arts, a global campaign of city and country-wide activations, exhibitions, dialogues, and live events to drive public interest and policy engagement with the arts as a health resource. Nisha has produced several award-winning documentaries including Behind Blue Sky which won Best Short Documentary at the Feel the Reel International Film Festival (IFF), Best Black Lives Matter Film at the Amsterdam IFF, and honorable mention at the Prague IFF. Dr. Sajnani’s work has been featured in the Boston Globe, National Public Radio (US), This Day Nigeria, The Art Newspaper, Arab News, Magazine of the University Hospitals of Geneva, Europe Now, and the EU Parliament Magazine. She has been recognized with several awards including the NYU Steinhardt Teaching Excellence Award, the Gertrud Schattner Award (NADTA), Corann Okorodudu Global Women & Advocacy Award from the American Psychological Association (Div 35) and the first award from the American Society for Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama in recognition of efforts to advance diversity and inclusion.
Maura Tierney
Board Member, Field Team Leader
Maura Tierney is a founding member of The Campfire project. Since 2018 she has been a proud participant in all of the organization’s international missions over the past 6 years as well as the current NYC programming. She works primarily with the stilts team, but also coordinates the project’s Female Friendly and Child Friendly Spaces in both Campfire’s international and local programming. Maura is an American actress who has worked in film, television and theater. Her work on “The Affair” and “ER” each earned her Emmy nominations as well as a Golden Globe Award. She is currently working on the television show Law and Order. This March she will be performing again with The Wooster Group in their production of Nayatt School Redux.
Dr. Cathy Raduns
Board Member, Campfire Psychiatrist
Cathy Raduns is a board certified Child, Adolescent and Adult psychiatrist who began her career in NYC 42 years ago as a case worker for abused and neglected children. Since becoming a physician, she has been in private practice specializing in traditional and alternative treatments for mental health. She is committed to sharing her expertise with the underserved through board work and participating in The Campfire Project as team psychiatrist since 2018. Dr. Raduns is also a writer and painter. She understands that the arts are an answer.
Orlando Pabotoy
Stilts and Movement Program Director
Orlando Pabotoy is a founding member of the Campfire Project, leading an innovative approach to arts therapy through the arts of stilt walking. Pabotoy is a NYC-based (Obie Award) multidisciplinary theatre artist. His role as a choreographer and movement designer has also been showcased in productions of Henry VI (National Asian American Theatre Company), The Cherry Orchard (Classic Stage Company by Andrei Belgrader), and Marisol (Trinity Rep), among others. Winner of the 2023 Callaway award for Choreography in The Half God of Rainfall at NYTW. He has also directed a physical approach to Everybody by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins at PlayMakers Repertory Company, and his contributions to the world of new productions extend to writing and performing in Sesar (commissioned by the Ma-Yi Theater Company) and writing and directing That Beautiful Laugh (La MaMa’s 50th year anniversary).
David Hugo
Stilts Instructor
David is a founding member of the Campfire Project, volunteering on multiple international missions and in NYC initiatives. David Hugo holds a BFA in Acting from Syracuse University and an MA in Theater Arts from Long Island University, CW Post. In 1992, he moved to New York City, where he performed on Broadway and National Tours in various productions, including Les Misérables and Jekyll and Hyde—two of his favorites. He understudied Terrence Mann as Javert in the final Broadway company of Les Misérables and performed in the show across China, Korea, Singapore, Canada, and the USA. He returned to school to earn a master’s degree in theater with the goal of teaching aspiring actors. He graduated from LIU Post in 2006, where he became the director of Musical Theater developing a musical theater program based on the Suzuki method, which the LIU program is known for. In addition to performing, David has directed professionally, with notable productions including Les Misérables and South Pacific at Reagle Music Theater in Boston. However, his true passion lies in creating original work with ensemble collaborators.