Staff

Laura Rafaty
Executive Director
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Laura Rafaty is an experienced nonprofit arts leader, producer and writer, and also brings decades of both nonprofit and for-profit business and legal experience to her position as Executive Director. A veteran of local nonprofits including the Napa Valley Performing Arts Center at Lincoln Theater, Friends of the Cameo Cinema, and the Napa Valley Opera House, as well as nonprofits in New York and Palo Alto, she is a Tony-nominated theatrical producer and founder of NapaShakes, and a former retailer selling limited editions and originals by artists including Lowell Herrero and Aaron Foster. Laura lives in Saint Helena with two dogs and a particularly opinionated cat, and leads with sparkle and silliness – plus a propensity to email the staff at all hours – ensuring that there is never a dull moment at the Museum.

Cindy Taylor
Finance & Administrative Manager
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Cindy Taylor, Finance Administrator, brings 25 years of bookkeeping experience, a sassy attitude, and a bright smile to her position running the Museum’s finance and administrative functions. Cindy has lived in Napa for 18 years working as a bookkeeper and financial administrator for a variety of businesses including Thomas Bartlett Interiors. She studied early childhood development at Napa Valley College and has two children, Luke and Megan, with whom she loves to enjoy the outdoors, camping and fishing. Cindy also enjoys travel, streaming her eclectic mix of music (from Rap to Salsa to Soft Jazz) at her desk, and sweetly bossing everyone around – earning her the nickname/handle: “cupcake.”

Ariel Loraine
Exhibitions & Programs Manager
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Ariel Loraine, Exhibitions & Programs Manager, is originally from Canada. She completed her BFA in Theater Design at Concordia University and has worked with many independent theater companies and festivals in Montreal and Toronto, as well as with corporations handling event production, and exhibit and display design and manufacture, including display design and fabrication for Urban Outfitters. She is an accomplished designer, woodworker, artist, and technician, as well as a set designer and painter, who has created sets for the Cafeteria Kids musicals at the Lincoln Theater, and served as Production Manager for Napa Shakes. Ariel designs and builds our exhibits, and manages the Museum’s programs and events, relying on her inventive and transformative aesthetic, along with her unnervingly superhuman physical strength (her muscles have earned her the nickname “Guns”), to get the job done.

Eden Chung
Education & Visitor Experience Manager
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Eden Chung comes to us from the delightful Children’s Museum at La Habra in Orange County, bringing a passion for STEM education, multiple subject teaching credential, and extensive experience developing engaging educational trunk shows, tours and curricula. A graduate of Cal State Fullerton and Los Angeles, she also studied at Seoul National University in Korea, has a background in finance and insurance, and has been known to grab a power drill and build an exhibit! This multi-talented multi-tasker will head up our education program as well as ensuring that all of our visitors have a museum experience that is fun and inspiring.

Devin Lamb
Docent
Community Engagement & Outreach Manager Effective mid-July
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Devin Lamb brings an artistic eye, boundless energy, and a passion for volunteerism to this newly created position, managing our relationships with volunteers, members, partners, and renters of our venue. She has a Masters degree in public health, undergrad degrees from Sonoma State and Napa Valley College, and has been working for the Napa County Office of Education as a program assistant for their after school athletics program. She was the Volunteer Infrastructure Project Coordinator for AmeriCorps Corporation for National Community Service in Napa, and herself volunteers for numerous organizations. Devin’s quest for enlightenment led to service as an intern for the Center for Molecular Dynamics in Katmandu, Nepal.

Mike Cabral
Facilities Manager
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Mike Cabral, Facilities Manager, is a native Californian who has owned numerous successful businesses. When not working (which happens rarely), Mike enjoys music and the outdoors. Having staffed the Napa Valley’s best venues, including the Napa Valley Performing Arts Center at Lincoln Theater and the Napa Valley Opera House, he now supports events at the Uptown Theater in a supervisory capacity. Currently the only male member of our staff, Mike spends most days completing his multiple “honey-do” lists, as well as managing his own numerous projects that keep the Museum humming.

Vida Jaffe
Intern Summer of 2017
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Vida Jaffe, Summer Intern, is a Napa Valley native who grew up in St Helena, graduating from Justin-Siena. She just finished her first year at UC Santa Barbara. A very gregarious, talented person with a particular interest in our veterans, she is a philosophy major but also a karate expert, so don’t make her mad!

Zuni Cheong-Torres
Intern
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Zuni Cheong-Torres, intern, has a background both in business and art & design. She worked as a star marketing merchandiser for the broadcasting company SBSi in Korea. After moving to the U.S., she studied fashion design, architecture design, and art. She earned a Certification of Fashion Design from Pasadena City College and completed internships with BCBG MAXAZRIA and Andari Fashion. She is also a photographer, videographer, and painter who received B.A in Art Practice from UC Berkeley. Daily, Zuni practices ballet and is happily married to a former ballet dancer who is now retired from dancing and pursuing career in wine. We are dancing for joy that she’s joined our team!

Elizabeth Laning
Intern
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Liz comes to us with a Bachelor’s Degree in Communications/ Journalism with a minor in Art History from UC Berkeley.
Here are her faves:

“I love traveling— My favorite places in the world are Phuket, Thailand; Barcelona, Spain; and Istanbul, Turkey. I love visiting places for extended amounts of time to immerse myself and to try to learn about the culture. I spent 1 month in Thailand,  and studied abroad for 3 months in Sussex, England. I just got back from living in Turkey for 5 months, working as an English tutor.

And her hobbies:

I love running, (Really) amateur painting, Reading books about the history of the English royal family. I’m obsessed. You can ask me anything about the War of the Roses. I love camping/outdoors. and I love volunteering—I will also be working with the adult literacy program at the Napa Valley Library.”