Amara Geffen is a public artist and founder/director of the Art & Environment Initiative (A&EI) in Meadville, PA. A&EI fosters community-focused, public and environmental art. These projects serve as tools for placemaking, environmental, and community enrichment, and as celebrations of “the local.” Amara has exhibited widely, receiving grants and awards for her projects that engage countless local residents, numerous artists—regional, national, and international—, a host of state and local government agencies, as well as scientists, environmental engineers, landscape architects, hydrologists and more. Her early work is included in a collection of contemporary ceramic sculpture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. In 2014 she received Governor Raymond P. Shafer’s award for Excellence in Community Service and secured a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Our Town   grant for Conneaut Lake Borough. That project resulted in revitalization of Fireman’s Beach, a proposal for a public art trail along the lake, and one community-inspired, public sculpture: Ganesh: Remover of Obstacles. She is one of four co-editors for Ecoart in Action: Activities, Case Studies, and Provocations for Classrooms and Communities, which was published by New Village Press in February 2022. To learn more about this volume, visit: https://nyupress.org/9781613321461/ecoart-in-action/.