Interesting People
Homecoming
Javier Plasencia is the new director of education at the Crocker Art Museum. He oversees eight programmers and educators in the planning and execution of more than 300 programs to serve about 35,000 people each year.
The job is a homecoming for Plasencia, who grew up in Pocket-Greenhaven. His experience includes work with the arts and design team at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority of New York and Museum of Modern Art.
Most recently, he was program manager for the Museum Studies Master of Arts program at University of San Francisco. He recruited, advised and taught graduate students.
Wellness Doctrine
Dr. Scott Fishman could have retired last year. Instead, he opened a new door to continue his work in pain management.
Fishman became executive director of the UC Davis Office of Wellness Education. He’s the Jacquelyn S. Anderson endowed chair of wellness for the organization. He’s also a professor emeritus for UC Davis Health Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine.
“Jacquelyn Anderson was a patient of mine who had cancer, and when she passed away, her husband Jim left us a gift of $5 million that founded this organization,” Fishman says.
Balance Me Out Coffee
Founded in 2020, Balance Me Out started as a coffee trailer, which you can still find every Saturday at the Midtown Farmers Market. Owner Nancy Guzmán was trained by roasters and baristas at Chocolate Fish Coffee Roasters during the pandemic to hone her craft.
Air Born
Kat Boston loves to defy gravity. The high-flying athlete has been an aerialist since 2012 when she sought a new way to stay fit. Her sport involves yoga-style movements in the air, using silks, hoops, hammocks or ropes.
“I have a background in Olympic weightlifting and Crossfit, but I kept getting injured,” Boston says. “I needed something different for my body and I was looking for a creative outlet. I stumbled on an aerial class and was instantly hooked.”
Boston is always up for a challenge, which is why she loves aerial performance and the fire service. She became a firefighter in 2006.
Unity Academy
For LuTisha McGregor, principal at Umoja International Academy in East Sacramento, it’s all about love.
“I lead with love,” says McGregor. “I tell my students and staff I love them every day and the parents every week. That’s the type of leader I am. I want to come on campus and feel and see the love.”
Leading with love led to the school’s name change. Long known as Kit Carson, the combination middle and high school was one of three Sacramento City Unified School District campuses renamed in what Sac City officials call a “commitment to address school facility names that do not support the district’s values.”
Self Help
“I was a young girl who never felt comfortable in her skin or content in my body,” Jesse Bennett says. “I was good at being positive and caring to others, but I wasn’t kind to myself.”
“When I started practicing Pilates and yoga in college, it was a gamechanger,” she continues. “I fell in love with how the practices changed how I felt in my skin. I want to give that gift to other people, to empower women to love who they are and where they’re at.”
