Artistic Director for LitFest Pasadena

Jervey Tervalon, MFA, is the award-winning, Los Angeles Times bestselling author of five books including Understanding This, a novel based on his experiences teaching at Locke High School in Los Angeles, for which he won the Quality Paper Book Club’s New Voices Award. Jervey was born in New Orleans and raised in the Jefferson Park neighborhood of Los Angeles where he attended Foshay Junior High. He received his MFA in Creative Writing from UC Irvine and was a Disney Screenwriting fellow and a Shanghai Writers Association Fellow.

He is the Founder of Literature for Life. He is also the Co-founder of LitFest in the Dena (originally named LitFest Pasadena). Currently he teaches fiction writing and Literature at the College of Creative Studies at U.C. Santa Barbara. His latest novel is Monster’s Chef was published by Amistad/HarperCollins.

President of Light Bringer Project

Tom Coston has been actively involved in the greater Los Angeles nonprofit community for the past 18 years. As president of Light Bringer Project he leads the organization and its board to fulfillment of its mission “to build communities through the power of the arts,” and to achieve long-term success for its innovative learning, prevention and career pathways programs.

Tom has held leadership positions on the boards of many high-profile nonprofit organizations, including Villa Esperanza Services, Leadership Pasadena, Mothers Club Family Learning Center, Arroyo Seco Foundation, and Institute for Urban Research and Development and has served as board president of several of these. Tom is the producer of Pasadena’s famed Doo Dah Parade. He is a graduate of UCLA.

Managing Director of Light Bringer Project

Patricia has daily oversight responsibility of Light Bringer Project, its programs and operational needs. A graduate with a Fine Arts degree from Art Center College of Design, she has professional experience in public relations and marketing. She is a past board member of Leadership Pasadena and is on the communication task force for Villa Esperanza Services which serves developmentally disabled individuals and their families.

Project Developer of Light Bringer Project

Natalie oversees the production of Light Bringer Project’s free and public events, including LitFest in the Dena, the Pasadena Chalk Festival, and Pasadena Doo Dah Parade. She also manages other special projects under development.

Natalie is a graduate student in English at Cal Poly Pomona with a focus in Rhetoric & Composition and a former slush reader for Uncharted Magazine. She is a writer of speculative short fiction and poetry, saxophone player, and horror lover. Her writing has made appearances in Worlds of Possibility, Eye To The Telescope, and Third Estate Art. She is the 2024 recipient for the Ted Pugh Poetry Award.

Literary Arts Coordinator of Light Bringer Project & Omega Sci-Fi Project

As the Literary Arts Coordinator for Light Bringer Project, Ciena facilitates literary programs including Locavore Lit, bringing published authors to the classroom to work directly with aspiring young writers. She also leads Omega Sci-Fi Project, the only free sci-fi writing program for high schoolers in Los Angeles, teaching the power of science fiction to address the most pressing dilemmas of our time.

In her spare time, Ciena is a writer and visual artist. Her work has been published in F(r)iction Log, and Systems Change Alliance, and she recently received a mini-grant from the City of Pasadena for her art installation at ArtNight Pasadena, entitled “¿Dónde Está el Paletero?” Ciena graduated from USC with a Master’s degree in Literary Editing and Publishing and Bachelor’s in Creative Writing and Political Science. She is passionate about the role of art and literature in expressing our social and political realities, particularly in uncanny, speculative ways.

Locavore Lit Program Manager

Jessica Lopez earned her Bachelor of Arts in Human Development and Psychology as a first-generation Latina student. Her background is primarily in education and has worked as a behavioral interventionist with students with special needs. As the Program Manager of Light Bringer Project, she continues to devote her energy towards holistic teaching and learning, inclusive education through Locavore Lit, a program that fosters a community within the classroom, between authors, artists, teachers, and students, and creates a student-driven space that celebrates reading and writing in Pasadena and the greater Los Angeles area.