Staff Members

Matrisha Armitage, Executive Director

Matrisha Armitage graduated from South Eugene High School in 1999 and received an AAOT and Business Management degree from Lane Community College in 2002. 

Her passion for volunteering began at the First Place Family Center working  in the child care facilities where she could support and understand youth struggles after experiencing generational poverty and homelessness as a child.  That position led to working and volunteering with other youth empowerment organizations. Her non-profit administrative experience was enhanced working for L.E.A.D. (Leadership, Education, Adventure, Direction), where she managed multi year large budget grants and supported the administrative and direct service programming that provided resources to young people in need, studied youth oppression and learned how to treat youth with respect and compassion.

Matrisha has managed, volunteered, and provided administrative and grant support for several nonprofit organizations including The Rainy Day Blues Society, The Dragon Family Foundation, Self-Reliant Center, Healing Harvest, and Books to the People. She has been a professional musician with her husband since high school and has played guitar, drums and loves being a vocalist.  Her band and her life partner, Austin Armitage, supports all the program events and developed an instrument repair program that is helping many students and families maintain quality instruments. 

After founding a successful bookkeeping company out of high school, Matrisha was able to focus on her passion of supporting women and youth in the arts by founding a production company to run events for local organizations with the goal of creating safe and supportive performance environments for bands of all ages.  This company managed events and stages for the Olympic Trials, Eugene Marathon and music festivals, including the GRRRLZ Rock Music & Arts Festival, which became her dream program.    

In 2015 she founded MEPAA and combined several local programs that were providing access to music education and arts resources including Grrrlz Rock, Kidz Rock, MuseArt and the newly established MEPAA Music & Arts Center which have all become important and successful programs under the MEPAA umbrella. 

​Phoenix Burns, Administrative Assistant

Phoenix Burns has been involved with MEPAA since 2014, starting as a rocker and playing bass in MEPAA’s program band, Sirens Of the Next Generation (S.O.N.G). Having served as a youth representative on the MEPAA and the Network Charter School boards, Phoenix has a passion for working in nonprofits that provide safe communities for youth to grow, explore, and be inspired.

Their love of spreadsheets and organization has led Phoenix to become our part-time Administrative Assistant. They have been working tirelessly to update and expand MEPAA’s database capabilities as we grow forward through and past the pandemic. Coming from a musically inclined family, Phoenix knows how important art and creativity are for a community. They often spend their free time writing and playing D&D, and enjoy finding new ways to combine their creative passions with their technical skills.

​Cooper Morris, Staff Music Mentor

Cooper is a singer-songwriter from Eugene, Oregon. He has been performing at wineries, breweries, and private events around Eugene and Veneta since early 2017. "I’ve been playing  guitar since Thanksgiving day of 2016, but I have been singing my whole life. I’ve always enjoyed playing music and making people dance and smile since I was very young."

Cooper has been in some sort of choir since he was five but even before then, he was singing for family and anyone that would listen. His goals are always to keep bettering himself as a person and in his musical abilities. "I've spent my life learning everything I could get my hands on and I want to continue doing that and sharing it with others so they can have these amazing skills that heal the world."

​DeForest Rolnick-Wihtol, Group Coordinator & Music Mentor

Forest began taking piano lessons and singing in choir at six years old, and they joined the MEPAA team as a performer and volunteer in 2015, taking up other instruments such as the guitar and drums. 

At MEPAA, they research, create, and execute curriculum for the group classes, deepening students' appreciation for their favorite artists and exposing them to new musicians, instruments, and genres. They also run several trainings for MEPAA, including our Gender Inclusion and Awareness training.

When they're not playing music, Forest loves trying out other art forms like collage, painting, and sewing, as well as spending time in the kitchen cooking and baking for their friends and neighbors.

Dakota Harris, Staff Music Mentor

Dakota started taking guitar lessons with Sean Brennan at Sean's Music study at 14 years old. After a few lessons with Sean he was hooked. Sean has been such an inspiring teacher that Dakota has now been in several bands and performs as a solo act all around the community. 

"MEPAA has opened so many doors for not just me but for so many other youth in our community. I love how they always make each individual person feel like they belong. Each team member brings a different strength to the table and I'm finding myself learning something new from them every day. I am so proud to be a part of the amazing MEPAA family."

Dakota's favorite music styles are 50's and 60's, Rock & Jazz, but he loves all types of music. Dakota grew up near Branson, Missouri, where he went to music shows often and believes that's when he started taking an interest in music. Dakota's mother also performed and sang, so music has always been a big part of his life. Dakota's future goal is to become a music teacher. He wants to teach other kids that anything is possible if they put time, heart and dedication into it. His musical goal is to play and perform as many places as possible and as often as he can. As Dakota put it, "If I can make just one person smile with my music I have had a great day."

Isamu Sato, Staff Music Mentor

Isamu was born in La Paz Bolivia and moved to the US when he was a teenager. He studied architecture in Redwood City and graphic design at the University of Oregon. Once graduated, he started working for biotech companies doing graphics, design and project management within marketing communication functions. 

His love for music began when he was 12-14 years old, starting with the bass and now likes to play guitar and drums as well. He has been a member of several heavy rock and metal bands since the mid 80s and has helped local bands record their material over the years. He is excited to apply all of his musical skills as the newest team member at the MEPAA Music & Arts Center!

Other passions include rockhounding, the outdoors, cooking, and hanging out with his partner Dionne and his dog, Bernie.