SMAC Staff Directory

Jody Ulich
Director, Convention and Cultural Services
Email: 
(916) 808-5105

Lennée Eller
Metro Arts Manager, Art in Public Places
Email:  
(916) 808-8877

Lennée has a strong background in public art, exhibition programming, and museum management. Her professional goals in her career have been to integrate the arts into the fabric of the community, through excellence, equity, and education. Prior to working for the City of Sacramento, Lennée established and directed the Phoenix Airports Museum, home to one of the largest airport art programs in the United States. During her tenure, the Airport’s Museum built a collection of more than 900 works of art and showcased art in 35 exhibition spaces throughout the airport complex and managed the Phoenix Aviation Archives. Lennée has been active in the Museum and nonprofit Arts for more than 30 years. When not being an artist administrator, Lennée is a visual artist. Her work: sculpture, screen prints, drawings, and paintings are in private and municipal collections, both nationally and internationally.

Donald Gensler
Art in Public Places Project Manager
Email: 
(916) 808-8493

Donald joined the Arts Commission staff in January, 2018. He manages restorations, ongoing projects, and new build public art projects for the City of Sacramento. He is both an attorney and visual artist with a passion for and experience in making and managing public art projects both nationally and internationally. Having worked as an attorney in land conservancy and site acquisition, he understands the unique land use and contract challenges involved in locating projects in public spaces. For over twenty years he has worked as a visual artist in community arts, private, public, and non-profit public art programs in Arkansas, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, California, and internationally in Dublin, Ireland. He understands the challenges artists face in working with municipalities and project stakeholders. He was an Adjunct Professor in public art at the School of Architecture at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY and was a Lecturer in public art and mural making for ten years at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design in Philadelphia, PA where he also worked with the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program, developing social justice centered arts programing. He actively writes about public space, mural making, social justice, and public art. His murals and writings on public art have been featured in the New York Times, Time Magazine, Philadelphia Inquirer and in recent publications such as books by Maureen O’Connell, If These Walls Could Talk: Community Muralism and the Beauty of Justice, Kiriakos Iosifidis, Mural Art: Murals on Huge Public Spaces Around the World Vol. 2, and Jane Golden, Natalie Pompilio, and Robin Rice, More Philadelphia Murals.