Board Member Bios | West Windsor Arts Center

Mikel Cirkus, President
Mikel Cirkus has spent his 30 year career in creative thinking. As a designer, photographer, illustrator and writer, he has a unique perspective on the rapidly changing world of trends, content creation, and execution. He is currently the Global Director of Strategic Foresight for the Flavors Division of Firmenich, the largest privately owned company in the fragrance and flavor industry – where creativity is both an essence and a guiding principle. He has worked personally with many of the most innovative people in marketing, R&D, technical applications and brand management, for hundreds of products in nearly every category of consumer package goods, worldwide. Mikel is a graduate of The Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California and makes his home in the Princeton, NJ area.

Sashi Sreekanth, Vice President
Sashi Sreekanth moved to Princeton Junction from Greenwich, CT in 2017. As a Talent Acquisition professional for the past 15 years, she has a passion for people, with a primary focus on women’s empowerment. Sashi runs the Social Women of Greater Princeton group (established in 2018) that is successful in empowering women to form interest based clubs, and giving back to the community through fun and exciting events. She is also the editor of the “What Matters To You?” series of children’s books written by her son, Chakra Sreekanth. One of the books, All Shapes Matter, topped the Amazon Bestseller list under New Releases. It has since been incorporated into the state of Washington’s Elementary school curriculum for its emphasis on the power of kindness and inclusion. The books are also available at all West Windsor-Plainsboro Elementary school libraries. Sashi has a keen interest in all forms of art and sees it as a great binder in connecting people from different walks of life. She is an avid supporter of the Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Sashi has a Bachelor’s degree in e-commerce from Brunel University in London where she was raised, and a Double Masters from the University of Westminster and Hochschule Bremen in Germany respectively.

Jyotika Bahree, Secretary
Jyotika Bahree is a former West Windsor councilwoman and Zoning Board member. As such, she worked tirelessly on issues that are important to the community and is passionate about bringing the community together. She believes that the Arts can serve as a vital instrument to tie the diverse threads of our community together. Jyotika has a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Delhi University and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad. Her professional experience has been in the areas of Sales and Marketing. Jyotika grew up in New Delhi and moved to the US close to twenty years ago. She has been a resident of West Windsor since 2007. She has three lovely boys and loves to travel and spend time with her family.

Ann Zawartkay, Treasurer
Ann Zawartkay holds a B.S. in Accounting and a B.A. in Classical Civilization from Lehigh University, where she was a high honors graduate and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She is a Certified Public Accountant licensed in the State of New Jersey, a Chartered Global Management Accountant, and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. Ann formed Nonprofit Accounting Solutions, LLC (NPAS) in 2014, where she specializes in accounting services for non-profit and tax-exempt organizations, including bookkeeping, financial reporting, budgeting, outsourced accounting department, and outsourced Controller/CFO services. Prior to forming NPAS, Ann spent ten years at Mercadien, P.C., Certified Public Accountants. She currently resides in Robbinsville, New Jersey.

Alisa Algava strives to understand how child- and community-centered schooling contests structural inequity and creates moments and spaces of radical possibility. A former student, teacher, principal and board member in progressive elementary schools, Alisa connects a developmental approach with a social and educational justice stance in her work with both children and adults. She graduated from and teaches in Bank Street’s leadership programs and is currently a doctoral student in Urban Education at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York City. Alisa’s greatest accomplishment and joy, though, is being the eldest daughter of artist and art teacher Priscilla Snow Algava, or as Priscilla used to call Alisa and her younger sister Carin: “My two greatest works of art.” Alisa learned from her mama to see beauty everywhere. Priscilla was a beloved teacher at West Windsor Arts until she was tragically diagnosed with cancer in 2016 and then died in 2019. WWA created a scholarship fund in her honor. Priscilla is deeply missed and her creative joyful spirit lives on right here with her daughters, family and friends, the regional arts community and all of us, every day.

Maureen Connolly-Hersh currently teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in secondary education at The College of New Jersey and is a consultant with CBK Associates, an organization committed to service learning and engaging educational experiences. Before moving from New York to New Jersey, Maureen was a high school English teacher and grant coordinator for the New York Metropolitan Area. In these roles, Maureen has developed many standards-based initiatives that link community outreach, character education, and literacy. Her work has enabled her to collaborate with teachers across the United States and around the globe, including an international fellowship in Morocco, volunteering to teach in India, Ghana, and Peru, and teaching graduate courses in Spain. Maureen believes that at the core of her work is a commitment to developing purposeful learning that opens people’s eyes to the potential for positive change in themselves and in their local, national, and global communities.

Vishnu Enjapoori was born in India, migrated to the USA in 2000 and moved to West Windsor in 2020. He holds a Master’s in Physics and a Master’s in software engineering. He is passionate about art; he enjoys painting and miniature sculpture. He believes that art is a freedom of expression. His professional experience has been in software engineering for more than 20 years. In the past, he worked for Siemens Healthcare and Archetype. At Archetype, he built a new technology team and helped many startups and small businesses develop and launch their scalable software products and services. He is currently working for a new startup. He has two lovely boys who spend time with his family and enjoy travel.

Elane Gutterman is a founding board member, a previous board President, and currently serves as Chair of the Governance Committee. A published poet who honed her skills through classes at West Windsor Arts, she has served as literary arts committee chair since the opening of the art center. She is a health researcher with a PhD in public health from Columbia University. For several years, she was president and principal epidemiologist for a small global health company based in West Windsor. She and her husband live in West Windsor. In addition, her two adult daughters grew up in West Windsor and attended West Windsor-Plainsboro schools.

Andrew Morris was born in Birmingham, England, but raised in the United States. He has been in the financial services industry for 29 years and is currently a financial advisor with Prudential. Andrew has held mainly two positions throughout his career as a financial advisor and a V.P. Regional Sales Director (external wholesaler) for major financial services firms like John Hancock, Delaware Investments and Prudential. Andrew earned his bachelor’s degree from Iona College and his MBA from Sacred Heart University. He also maintains various industry licenses and designations within his field. He is on the Board of Trustees for the Princeton Blairstown Center, a speaker and advocate for the National Downs Syndrome Society and volunteers for the American Alzheimer’s Association. He is a published author, loves to travel and is a true adventure seeker since he loves to scuba dive, skydive, fly planes, and has climbed Machu Picchu. He is happily married to his beautiful wife Michelle and has 5 wonderful children. Andrew is also a self-taught artist who loves to paint and draw for his family and friends and has recently sold a few pieces of his artwork at popup art shows in NYC.

Aarti Nathan considers herself a “creative technologist” as she is passionate about both technology and the arts. She has a Bachelors degree in computer engineering and has spent more than 2 decades in the IT industry. Aarti currently handles strategic accounts for Persistent Systems, a leading software services provider. On the art side, she especially enjoys acrylic painting and zentangle drawing. Aarti recently worked as the COO of an India-based not-for-profit, Katalyst. Under her operations and technology leadership of 2 years, the organization scaled from handling 500+ students to 800+ students. She continues to mentor students from the program and support the not-for-profit on their technology systems. Born in India and having lived in 3 continents, Aarti has varied perspectives and loves to understand and interact with different cultures. She enjoys traveling and meeting new people. She is passionate about women empowerment, education and mentoring youth.

Kristen Oberlin was born and raised in Georgia and relocated to New Jersey in 2019. She currently works for a local accounting firm as the Human Resources Director where she is responsible for developing and supporting the firm’s internal policies and procedures, boosting the firm’s culture and aligning their core values and strategies with their HR initiatives. Prior to moving from Georgia to New Jersey, Kristen was the Human Resources Director for Atlanta International School, a 3K-12, multi-linguistic International Baccalaureate school. She and her husband live in Princeton and actively volunteer in their community.