It seems like a happy coincidence that Jessa Ciel’s last name means “sky” in French. The sky is truly the limit for this creative force who is a photographer, filmmaker, professor, activist, Black Artists Fund board member, and owner and founder of visual storytelling agency IAMCIEL. And she’s just getting started.
“I often feel like I’m a late bloomer,” admits Ciel, 36, who went back to school at age 30 to earn her MFA in photography from the prestigious Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan. “But I want to have the time to come to the choices that I come to and know that they’re mine. That I’m not doing it for somebody else. I’m doing it for me.”
Linda Easton-Waller has become something of a mother hen.
As the founder of GullyRumpus Farm in Rio Linda, Easton-Waller provides eggs from pasture-raised chickens at Oak Park Farmers Market and other locations. Now she has launched a program for families to incubate and hatch their own fertile chicken eggs at home. In addition to offering people the chance to participate in hatching newborn chicks, Hatch@Home contributes to the preservation of heritage breed chickens.
Darrell Steinberg is a smart, sophisticated guy. He has a law degree from UC Davis and decades of legislative experience. Sacramento voters figured they were getting a pro when they elected him mayor in 2016. He won a second term without serious opposition last year.
So it’s a mystery why Steinberg has been unable to muster nothing beyond the most elementary, simplistic response to the deepest challenge of his mayoral tenure—the homeless crisis.
This year marks the 25th anniversary of Inside Sacramento. At a time when print publishing has been decimated, my husband Jim and I feel grateful to have survived and thrived.
Today, a new publication like Inside would be called a “micro” business. In 1996, we divided the tasks based on the experiences and success of our previous careers. My career was in interior design and project management. My strengths were writing, graphic design, sales, marketing and community involvement. Jim handled accounting, payroll, printing, delivery, invoicing and business details. He had been an executive for IBM and a small business manager.
What made Inside unique was our motivation. Neither of us had publishing experience.
Eulonda Lea never thought she’d play tag again at the age of 56, but here she is—and she’s loving it.
Lea volunteers as a court-appointed special advocate—or CASA—for the Sacramento County branch of the National CASA Association, which provides consistency and support for children in the foster care system through volunteer advocates. These advocates are community members—no law background required—trained by CASA and then appointed by a judge to advocate for a foster youth on a one-to-one basis.
Rich Desmond is ready to join the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors as the representative from District 3, which stretches from Sacramento State University to beyond Hazel Avenue.
Desmond is excited but knows the challenges. He says his father would have offered this advice: “Always remember who you are and what you represent.”
For the newly elected supervisor, those words mean doing the right thing and helping the less fortunate.