MEET THE TEAM

Kellie Barbour has the eye of an artist. Her mom still owns a picture of the rainbow beta fish she drew in steady detail at age two. Now with the same hands she works in the background, studying the scene the way a painter studies a portrait. Paying close attention to balance and the little details others may pass over. Fixing what's out of place and what's unfinished. When managing teams she can spot infinite possibilities in early ideas. A future full of promise in the soft structure of a detailed deck built for your company's success. She develops creative systems to solve problems, shaping day-to-day operations with intention so the work moves smoothly like colorful oils across canvas. Seeing the messy sketch, the hustle and bustle of workplace culture she is able to slow down and zoom in to make sure the bigger picture is a full scale masterpiece. An artist can look at a field of dead flowers and see an abstract landscape. Kellie brings that same perceptive clarity to an office space transforming chaos into elegant systems, keeping the company running in tip-top shape while preserving Grapple’s resilient creative spirit. Kellie is a teacher and writer. She has taught at UCLA three times, workshops at CAAM, and at The Academy of Motion Pictures Museum. She has performed at Fire Drill Fridays with Jane Fonda, Joaquin Phoenix, and Rainn Wilson. She graced the stage at Artists for Amazonia opening up for artists like Morgan Freeman, Barbera Streisand, Dave Matthews, Ricky Martin & Jane Goodall. Kellie has hosted, coordinated talent, and wrote for the Guadalajara Film Festival for the past five years. Working with film makers, actors, and writers to celebrate BIPOC cinema, she has been able to give a Tree of Life award to her hero Patricia Aquette & Rodrigo Prieto cinematographer of the Barbie movie & The Wolf of Wall Street. Kellie taught the all-star cohort of youth poets the GLP’s. Training superstars who have performed at the White House and opened stadiums. She personally has trained the previous United States Youth Poet Laureate Salome Agbaroji, the past three California Youth Poet Laureates: Salome Agbaroji (2023), Dilinna Ugochukwu (2024), Summar Hamzah (2025), and the past three LA Youth Poet Laureates: Sierra Leone Anderson (2023), Summar Hamzah (2024), Samantha Rios (2025). In her free time she manages a youth lead newsroom Piute Tv who has thousands of views in the first few weeks on Instagram. Prepping for the future she is studying for the CALDRE exam. She hopes her years in alignment with humanitarian efforts will lead her to property management and helping those in low-income communities to give back to the systems that gave her adolescent life structure and stability.

Griffin Flowers thrives in motion: drawing inspiration from skate culture, surf lifestyle, and the ever-evolving energy of LA’s street art scene. With a degree in Graphic Design and a background in coding, he has collaborated with a range of businesses, including the legacy brand Anderson Surfboards, as well as The Black Surfers Collective, blending heritage with contemporary design, inspiring and fortifying important brand identities. Griffin has also partnered with a range of smaller businesses, including Rony’s Autobody Shop, where he revitalized the company’s identity for its 50th anniversary, giving the brand a bold and modern refresh, as well as developed a distinctive brand identity and logo for Zenlife Massage Studio, proving that if there’s one thing Griffin is, it’s local. During his time at ASU he became a pro at HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and marketing and even made a few video games along the way.

Karen Hernandez is a graduate in Business Administration (Finance) from the University of California, Riverside. She brings a rare blend of financial acumen and brand-building experience, having contributed to brand marketing initiatives at Nike and consumer product strategy at Paramount. Her background bridges analytical rigor with creative execution — combining financial analysis, marketing operations, and consumer insight to support impactful brand strategy and growth. Currently, Karen is focused on integrating artificial intelligence into video creation and operational systems to elevate storytelling and audience engagement. In collaboration with ed-tech company eKadence, she designs education-driven video content that leverages AI to enhance clarity, scale, and production efficiency while preserving authenticity and creative intent. Driven by research and continuous learning, Karen explores how AI-powered tools can transform data into compelling narratives — optimizing workflows, strengthening brand communication, and unlocking new possibilities at the intersection of technology, strategy, and creativity.

Samantha Rios discovered poetry the way a lot of people do: through heartbreak, bad guitar playing, and the realization that words could do what her fingers on fretboards couldn't. Once she let poetry in, it changed everything. Her notebook became the place she could be honest in ways that felt impossible anywhere else. She thinks radical authenticity is how strangers become connected, that sharing your scariest moments with someone you've never met can actually set you both free. In 2023 and 2024, Samantha competed in the GetLit Words Ignite Classic Slam with her team from Mark Keppel High School. They won first place both years. During those competitions, she started to understand what her poetry could actually do in the world. In 2024, she and her team wrote a group poem about social media's grip on young girls and the slow work of learning to love yourself anyway. After the video was posted on TikTok it immediately took off, receiving 5 million views, and a comment section flooded with girls who had been feeling the same pressures. That's why Samantha writes. She knows someone out there is dealing with the same thing and just needs to know they're not alone. In the summer of 2024 Samantha competed in the National competition Brave New Voices, in addition to becoming Get Lit Player, a position she still holds. She's performed at the Anderson Paak House, the Ford Theatre, Guadalajara Film Festival, and high schools all over Los Angeles. Her work digs into social justice, family, and what it means to be a girl right now. In June 2025, Samantha was named Los Angeles County Youth Poet Laureate for 2025-2026, chosen from thousands of applicants. For her, the title wasn't about the recognition. It was about having a bigger microphone. In August, she starred in the Grammy-eligible production "If I Awaken in Los Angeles", part love letter to the city where she's been born and raised, part rallying cry for people trying to survive political chaos. Maybe someday Samantha will show up on your radio singing a song while playing phenomenal guitar. But for now, she hopes you'll listen to her poetry instead.

Violeta (she,her) is a Mexican American poet, performer, and artist from Long Beach, CA. After experiencing her stepfather being incarcerated by ICE (Immigration Customs Enforcement), she became an advocate for immigration reform through her poetry. Violeta has continued performing all over Los Angeles building her name as La Poeta Violeta. Violeta has been featured at venues like, A Day of Unreasonable Conversation with John Legend and in articles like CNN and most recently at the Guadalajara Film Festival and the Mexican Consulate of Los Angeles. As she embarks on her journey of college education in Political Science with a focus in Women in Politics, Chicano Film and Mexican Modern Art and Archeology you can keep up with her all over Los Angeles and social media @lapoetavioleta