By Discovery
We are passionate about supporting children's growth through the visual arts.
Jocelyne
Adkins
Jocelyne Adkins is the Program Director and Lead Educator for By Discovery. Jocelyne founded By Discovery at Beye School in 2011 to offer children creative, project-based learning in art and nature-based science. She loves working with youth and is inspired by their enthusiasm, creativity and endless knowledge. As a child, Jocelyne was fascinated by the process of making and enjoyed bringing something into the world that didn't exist before. Her family's resourcefulness and creativity provided a foundation for her to build upon and she strives to provide the same for her students. Jocelyne holds a Master of Arts in Art Education degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Saint Mary's College in Indiana. She has 23 years of teaching experience, including preschool through college levels. She loves spending time with her family and their dog Luna, exploring nature and creative endeavors. She always looks forward to facilitating spectacular creative projects with By Discovery students!
Stacey
Grieff
Stacey has a background in the Arts and Early Childhood Education. Her previous career as a fine art portrait photographer spanned more than 15 years. It was through this work, while photographing families and children, that she discovered a natural ability to connect with children and a desire to work with them in more impactful ways. Stacey earned her master’s in Early Childhood Education from The Erikson Institute. Here she gained a deep knowledge of child development and research-based instructional practices. Stacey holds a Professional Educator’s License with endorsements in both Special Education and English as a Second Language.
Since earning her master’s, Stacey has worked as the Assistant Director of a non-profit organization focused on early literacy, a parent-child literacy coach, a preschool teacher in Cicero Public Schools and, in conjunction with an Erikson Institute research study, she worked in Chicago Public Schools with kindergarten through second-grade students teaching mindfulness concepts. Stacey was a lead educator at By Discovery from 2019 through the spring of 2023.
Growing up in a family of artists and craftsmen, Stacey knows first-hand how creating something with your hands can build confidence, expand problem-solving skills, and fill one’s heart with joy. She believes all children benefit from creative experiences and cannot
wait to start creating with your children once again at By Discovery.
Greta Olson
​Greta Olson is an interdisciplinary artist based in Oak Park. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2023. Greta’s artwork is inspired by folk art, magic, and nature, often telling stories through bold colors, organic forms, and mixed materials. She describes her process as “playful prayer” - a journey of collecting, experimenting, and discovering. She explores a wide range of mediums and enjoys how working with different materials and techniques opens new creative possibilities.
Greta’s passion for public art and community-driven projects is at the heart of her practice. She creates mosaic murals that transform public spaces into welcoming environments, aiming to integrate art into daily life and foster connection and healing. She views art as a way to care for her community and loves sharing this joy through teaching and collaboration.
With extensive experience teaching and mentoring students of all ages, Greta is dedicated to creating a supportive space where students feel comfortable experimenting and learning. She believes art education should allow students to explore freely, make mistakes, and grow in confidence. She’s excited to bring her creativity and enthusiasm to the By Discovery Art Enrichment Program and inspire the next generation of artists. When not making art or teaching, Greta enjoys collecting rocks and shells, gardening, and cooking new recipes.
Gray
Snyder
Gray Snyder is an interdisciplinary artist and educator from Southeast Michigan, based in Chicago, IL. She earned her BFA in Art & Design from the University of Michigan in 2023. Gray works primarily with the mediums of sculpture, ceramics, fiber, and video. Through multimedia exploration her work explores themes of memory, intergenerational stories, and the role of objects and rituals in healing practices.
Gray believes that art making is an incredible catalyst for inspiring self discovery, community building, and intellectual curiosity. She has experience working as a Graphic Design Instructor at the Detroit Boxing Gym, and is thrilled to continue teaching with By Discovery. She looks forward to facilitating a supportive environment for expansive art making, where students are encouraged to confidently experiment, collaborate, and discover new creative processes. Outside of artmaking, Gray deeply enjoys dancing to good music, cooking with friends, and biking fast.
Lacy
Bohannon
Lacy Bohannon is an interdisciplinary fiber artist from North Carolina, based in Chicago, IL. She received her BFA in Studio with a concentration in fiber and material studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2025. Lacy’s work is inspired by the generations of women who came before her who made clothing and quilts for their families. She utilizes the traditional technique of quilting as a point of connection between domestic craft and fine arts, and enjoys experimenting with found materials and printmaking on fabric. Family and community inspire Lacy’s artistic practice, and she likes to create work that is interactive and collaborative. These values drove her toward a career in teaching, and in the past year she has enjoyed working with children at the mural arts nonprofit, Green Star Movement, where she helped students create mosaic murals at several Chicago elementary schools. She believes that art education is essential for young people to build self efficacy, embrace who they are as individuals, and enhance their social and cultural knowledge. Lacy is excited to work with your students at By Discovery and looks forward to a year of creating!
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Jane
Henry
Jane Henry is a Chicago-based illustrator and a graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art, where she studied Illustration and fell in love with drawing, painting, and the craft of visual storytelling. Since graduating, she has worked as a freelance illustrator and shared her practice with students of all ages, including a recent internship with the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum's Arts and Leadership Program in New Mexico.
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Her work explores folklore, mythology, fantastical creatures, and the complicated relationships between people and the natural world. She's drawn to the way stories travel how they get passed down, half-remembered, and reshaped each time someone tells them again. For Jane, narrative and image-making come from the same impulse: both ask us to imagine, and to find our own way of saying something true.
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Outside the studio, she loves watching movies, reading, and experimenting with new ways of making art. She's excited to bring that same spirit of curiosity and play into her teaching.
Anne
White
Anne White (b. 2002; New Orleans, LA) is a cartoonist and writer who is currently based in Chicago, Illinois. Anne creates work that is fiction and auto-biographical fiction. Their work focuses on the interpersonal uncanny, futurism and black queerness. The artist is an alumnus of The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, with their Bachelor's in Fine Arts.
Anne is excited about joining the By Discovery team as they previously worked at the YMCA's STEAM summer camp in 2025. They most enjoyed connecting with students and helping them thrive academically and emotionally. Anne looks forward to sharing the joy of art and its history with youth. They see being a Teaching Artist at By Discovery as a great way to nurture these passions. In their personal time Anne enjoys watching movies, tv shows and reading.
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Sarah
Winans
Sarah Winans is an artist from Oak Park. She received her BFA from the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design (MIAD) in 2025, majoring in Illustration.
Growing up, Sarah was always drawing, creating characters and worlds with her powerful imagination. She developed a strong sense of storytelling through design and setting. Sarah loves working in all sorts of mediums from pen drawings to painting to digital art. Her creations aren't limited to illustrations; she also loves to sew, designing and creating some of her own clothes and stuffed animals, and she enjoys sculpting with clay and other materials.
Since graduating, Sarah has worked as a freelance illustrator creating backgrounds for a short film, and she is developing her own video game. Outside of art, Sarah worked at the West Suburban Special Recreation Association (WSSRA) for the last 5 summers, where she honed her ability to help and inspire others through leadership, creativity, and compassion. She's very excited to use her WSSRA experience, plus her passion for art, to help foster your children's creativity and storytelling this year!
Kristin
Graham
Kristin Graham is an interdisciplinary artist and educator from the western suburbs, currently living and working in Chicago. She received her Bachelor’s in Media Design from University of Colorado Boulder in 2022.
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Her experience teaching children has deeply influenced her creative practice, inspiring a sense of play, curiosity, and imagination that carries throughout her work. Influenced by natural landscapes, cartoons, comics, and childhood creativity, Kristin creates vibrant and expressive work across ceramics, textiles, illustration, soft sculpture, and design that reflect her fascination with craft, storytelling, and nostalgia.
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Kristin is excited to join By Discovery and create a welcoming environment where students feel encouraged to explore all forms of art freely and confidently. She hopes to help children see that art has no single right answer, and that creativity can grow through experimentation, curiosity, and unexpected outcomes. She also values the collaborative nature of teaching, believing educators can learn just as much from children as children learn from them.
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Outside of her artistic practice, Kristin enjoys exploring historical architecture, watching movies, swimming, and spending time at the lake in Michigan.
Mark
Adkins
Mark Adkins is a mixed media artist who enjoys working abstractly with pen and ink, collage, watercolor and acrylic paint. He has been a participant in sixteen exhibitions, inclusion in nine publications, including New American Paintings, New York Arts Magazine and featured in a 2006 Chicago Reader artist profile by Fred Camper. He retired from a twenty-eight year career at the Art Institute of Chicago in 2019. Since then, Mark has volunteered behind the scenes in many of By Discovery's day to day operations and also as a substitute teacher. Creating art with students has been especially meaningful and he looks forward to working with students as a substitute teacher again this year! In his spare time, in addition to art making, Mark enjoys spending time with his family, his dog Luna, and exploring nature.
Pamela
Penney
Pamela Penney is a textile and mixed media artist who has enjoyed teaching children and adults for the past 25 years. Through the Oak Park Education Foundation, she has taught in the Art Start program for D97 schools and OPEF's Summer BASE Camp. Pam is actively involved at the Oak Park Art League as an instructor, artist member and having served 6 years previously on their board. Prior to this, Pam had a studio gallery in the Oak Park Arts District and was the Director of the Arts District Kids Camp for many years. In addition, she taught after school art programs through the O.P. Park District. Pam raised two children who are now adults. She continues to enjoy the company of working creatively with kids, including substitute teaching for By Discovery, when she's not spinning and weaving in her studio or out walking her two dogs!
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Heath
Penney
With seven years of experience as a STEAM educator, Heath has a desire to inspire children to love learning. Committed to stoking curiosity and creativity, Heath has experience teaching in after school programs at Holmes, Longfellow, and Lincoln schools. He worked at Code Play Learn for 5 years as teacher and assistant manager. Heath has also worked with the Oak Park Arts District Summer Camp and has worked individually with children as a math & science tutor.
When he isn’t teaching children, Heath loves reading and studying a diverse range of topics, including history, philosophy and science. He also enjoys listening to podcasts on current events, politics and history.
Heath joined By Discovery in 2021 and this year, in addition to pursuing his educational goals, he will join us as needed as a Substitute Teacher.
