Co-Chair

Carolyn Rogers retired to Wellfleet in 2016 from her work as an administrator in higher education, where she focused primarily on the development of innovative and collaborative programs to support student success. She is also a singer of Broadway tunes and American standards, having performed extensively throughout Connecticut and in Boston. More recently, she has been enjoying her work with pianist/producer John Thomas and is on the Advisory Council of the Great Music on Sundays at 5 Broadway concert series in Provincetown. She lives year-round in Wellfleet with her wife, Mary.

Co-Chair

Kevin comes to the Cultural Council with nearly 40 years of experience as an award-winning professional actor, singer, and teacher. His major credits include the Broadway/1st National companies of WICKED, BRIGHT STAR, and CITY OF ANGELS, as well as over 100 professional productions at some of our nation’s very best regional theatres, including the Ahmanson, Fords, Pioneer, Paper Mill Playhouse, ACT, South Coast Repertory and Boston’s Charles Playhouse. He was recently featured in A MAN OF NO IMPORTANCE at Cape Rep in Brewster and sings regularly in Provincetown's Great Music at 5 Broadway series. For the past 25 years, Kevin has been honored to be a Tony Award voter.

He holds a BFA from the Boston Conservatory and has extensive experience in non-profit management, marketing, grant proposal writing, and grant management.

A Massachusetts native, Kevin is happy to be settled in Wellfleet and helping to assist in the important work of the Cultural Council.

Yvonne Barocas has been a member of the Wellfleet Cultural Council for eight years and previously served as co-chair for two years. Over these years she has enjoyed assisting in the acquisition of grants to artists, musicians, scientists, and humanitarians who enrich the cultural life of Wellfleet.

Yvonne was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY. She attended college and graduate school through the City University system and received a double Master's plus professional diploma in school psychology. She taught elementary school for 12 years, then special education, and went on to be a school psychologist until her retirement. She headed up staff development and was on the crisis intervention team for her district. In addition, for many years, she reviewed jazz performances in two New York-based newspaper columns. Music, and particularly jazz, are among her greatest interests. She also dabbles in stained glass and fused glass. In addition, for 40 years, she and her husband ran Abiyoyo, a well-loved retail gift shop in Wellfleet. Abiyoyo reflected their social and political values through community involvement.

Yvonne currently lives mainly in Wellfleet, MA and part-time in Montclair, NJ. She is married with four children and three grandchildren. Her strengths and interests are concentrated on issues regarding child development and education, exploration of literature and the arts (art, music, theater, dance), political activism, and, most of all, family and friends.

With a BFA from William & Mary and a MFA from Washington University Jean’s career has most defiantly not followed a straight path. 10 years as art director in fashion advertising in Boston and then 15 years as business manager/owner of Integrative Animal Health Center in Stow, MA.

Trying to infuse art and creativity along the way: teaching art, producing town theatre productions, and supporting local art shows. She has 2 wonderful kids who take the ferry from Boston to visit, surf, and shuck oysters as often as they can. Nearly a full-time fleetian, Jean loves painting large-scale works promoting environmental awareness and volunteering with the food pantry, PMC and at Skip in Provincetown. Jean is very happy to participate in Wellfleet’s artistic and cultural communities, helping those to find their own unique paths as she serves the Wellfleet Cultural Council.

After teaching 3rd grade for ten years, Kathie took six years off to raise two children. During that time, she was very busy with volunteer work running story hours in her local libraries in Hebron and Mystic, CT, and Ashby, MA. She taught both piano and adult guitar and vacation bible school for many summers, worked on many committees with the Junior Woman's club, tutored for Literacy Volunteers, and as a girl scout leader, was the top "cookie mom" for two years!

She returned to teaching full-time, where she initiated a Community Service program and Community Reading Day event and served on the Arts Council. After her retirement in 2019. Kathie continued to volunteer both in Ashby for the Cultural Council and here in Wellfleet, helping Martha Gordon with music for the summer story hours. She has worked for the Provincetown and Nauset schools as a reading tutor for their ESY program and presently is a substitute teacher for the Nauset and Truro schools.

Florence Heller is a film and theater director, writer, and storyteller who has spent the past decade in the commercial industry.

Driven by a passion to make people feel less alone, Florence uses her unique ability to work with actors to ground her storytelling with the intricacies of humanity. Her background in theater influences her approach to film and vice versa. No matter the medium or genre, Florence strives to create deeply personal and impactful stories that compel the audience to think.

Florence holds an MFA in Film and TV Production (with a focus in directing) from USC School of Cinematic Arts, a certificate from FAMU (NYU’s 35mm film program in Prague), and a BFA in Theater (with a focus in directing) from NYU Tisch School of Arts. Beyond directing, she has a background in sound (from production to all aspects of post) as well as fifteen years of training as a dancer in ballet, modern, jazz, and hip hop. On top of her experience in the world of film and theater, she has worked various positions in the commercial and music video industry from assisting numerous directors to working her way up to Head of Creative Resources, spending nearly ten years working in Los Angeles. She has worked with leading production companies such as PRETTYBIRD, Ruffian, and Golden LA.

Florence grew up moving up and down the east coast. This peripatetic lifestyle led to Florence’s love of travel and immersing herself in other cultures and ways of life—finding community in learning the stories of unheard voices; it also created the ability to discover home outside of material roots. Identifying as a New Yorker and a “washashore” Fleetian, Florence is currently contemplating the world full-time from the winding dunes of the Outer Cape. She is beyond excited and honored to be a part of the Wellfleet Cultural Council and to aid in their important work.

Bill Jacobs is a film and stage director, producer, writer, cinematographer and actor/singer/voiceover artist now living full-time in Wellfleet. Bill worked many years at Columbia, Warner Bros., and Paramount Pictures in Los Angeles before starting his media production company, Shooting Star Creativeworks. Currently, Bill is in the final stages of postproduction on the independent feature film, When the Moon Was Twice as Big, a project that he wrote and directed, and coproduced with his husband, John Killwey.

As an actor and voiceover artist, Bill has worked on projects for entertainment icons such as Disney and Sid & Marty Krofft, as well as providing character voices and narration for countless commercials, documentaries, short films, and corporate image pieces from Los Angeles to New York City. And in what seems like a lifetime ago, Bill graced the stage as Harold Hill in The Music Man, Beauregard Jackson Pickett Burnside in Auntie Mame, Henry Drummond in Inherit the Wind, and King Arthur in Camelot.  In more recent times, Bill has appeared at the Cape Rep, Academy Playhouse, and The Pilgrim House theaters, performing in The Helltown Players “More Little Devils,” an evening of short plays (one of which, Convergence, Bill also wrote and directed).

In addition to his passion for the arts, Bill possesses a strong drive to be connected with and contribute to his community –– making his being a member of the Wellfleet Cultural Council a perfect fit.

Janet Lesniak has spent the last 30+ years at the intersection of healing and wellness through creativity and community engagement. She began her career as an Occupational Therapist in mental health and chemical dependency treatment settings, using the creative arts as tools for healing. In the early 1980’s, she was a member of the team that created a unique partial-hospitalization model that became the standard of treatment nationwide and continues today.

In 1988, Janet joined her family in purchasing the Big Sur River Inn, an historic inn and restaurant on California’s famed Big Sur coastline and managed the family business for over 20 years. Janet served on the boards and leadership teams of the Big Sur International Marathon, the Monterey County Convention and Visitors Bureau and was a co-founder of the Big Sur Jazz Festival.

Janet moved to Cape Cod in 2009 and became involved with Wellfleet Preservation Hall as a volunteer. When the doors opened in May 2011 she was named the first Executive Director where she served until January of 2023. Embracing the vision of ‘arts, culture and community, the Hall is now a thriving hub of cultural life in the Outer Cape community.

Janet currently serves on the boards of The Local Journalism Project, Cape Wellness Collaborative, the Community Development Partnership. She is also a working artist represented by the Frying Pan Gallery in Wellfleet and Orleans.

Myriam has been working in the software industry for several years. She has had a long career as a software developer and then transitioned to managing various teams of engineers, leading and coaching them through multiple projects impacting multiple industries.

Myriam has pursued dance and piano for years, both as a child and as an adult, demonstrating her passion for the arts. She considers herself fortunate to have been able to take advantage of Boston's vibrant cultural scene, including theater, ballet, jazz, world music, opera, and musicals.

Myriam and her husband recently decided to move full-time to Wellfleet after their children left for college. Since moving here, she has joined the Conversational French Club at the Wellfleet Library and eagerly accepted the opportunity to serve on the Cultural Council, where she hopes to contribute to Wellfleet's cultural life.

Throughout her career, Vicki Solomon has worked in the arts and in education. She was a dancer and a dance teacher for 35 years. She is co-founder of the intergenerational and diverse Back Porch Dance Company, for which she choreographed and produced performances over 12 years. In 2002, she earned a Master's in Library Science and became a children’s and teen’s librarian in the Cambridge Public Library. Two years ago, she retired as a school librarian from the Shady Hill School. She now divides her time between Cambridge and Wellfleet. She is delighted to participate in Wellfleet’s artistic and cultural communities and to serve on the Wellfleet Cultural Council.

Treasurer Advisor

Fran joined the Council in 2022 as its Treasurer and now serves as a non-voting Treasurer Advisor to the Council. He is a CPA and an experienced financial executive. Over his career, he has held senior finance and operational roles at a number of well-known firms. In addition, Fran has been involved with a number of non-profits, most recently an emergency food and social services agency serving residents of the Bronx, New York.

Fran has been a long-term visitor to Wellfleet and purchased a home here several years ago. He and his wife Anne moved from Manhattan permanently in 2020, just in time for the pandemic. While they will miss the easy availability of Broadway shows, they are looking forward to taking advantage of the many local cultural opportunities.