Meet Our 2025 Creator Grantees
We’re thrilled to announce the three incredible winners of the 2025 Causability Grant, each using their art to foster meaningful change and community impact:
Marnino Toussaint & Art Prevails Project
Project Title: First House Concerts (Fort Lauderdale, FL)
Singer-songwriter Marnino Toussaint, through his platform First House Media, collaborates with Art Prevails Project to create intimate, community-focused events that uplift emerging artists and foster meaningful connections through live music, poetry, and storytelling.
Follow their journey:
Beatriz Guzman Velasquez & UTRGV Agroecology Department
Project Title: Natural Pigments Workshop & Farm-to-Art Studio Tours (Rio Grande Valley, TX)
Visual artist Beatriz Guzman Velasquez partners with the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Agroecology Department to deliver eco-conscious art workshops teaching the creation of sustainable pigments and regenerative agricultural practices.
Learn more:
Tiiwon Siaway & Black Women Rest
Project Title: BWR Illuminates: Tales of Our Sisters (Montgomery, AL)
Visual artist Tiiwon Siaway partners with Black Women Rest to create transformative spaces emphasizing rest and resilience through vibrant art, open dialogue, and healing practices tailored for Black women and girls.
- Tiiwon Siaway: Art That Really Illuminates
- Black Women Rest
Meet Our Judges
Alice Bybee
As a design leader with a background in both sociology and graphic design, Alice has been able to move fluidly between non-profit, consumer and global tech sectors providing design solutions, creative direction and brand management that produces results. Clients and companies include The Marine Mammal Center, the de Young Museum, the North Face, Levi's, Salesforce, Microsoft, Slack and more.
Alice served on the board of AIGA San Francisco (AIGA SF) where with her in-depth knowledge of design for social good, she co-created the AIGA SF Social Impact chair and cause/affect, a biennial graphic design competition celebrating the work of designers and organizations that set out to positively impact our society. She also went on to serve as Vice President and President of the board.
Alice received a BA in sociology from Brandeis University and a BFA in graphic design from the Academy of Art University. She is currently Director of Brand Design at Lattice.
Nic Cocco
Nic Cocco graduated in 2010 with a BFA in Drawing and Painting from the University of North Texas. Over the years she has studied and worked with various mediums from drawing, painting, ceramics, mixed media, interactive media, digital art, and graphic design. She served for over 5 years as an advisory board member for Scrap Denton, a creative reuse center that provided sustainable art education and art supplies to teachers and after school programs. Nic has worked with a variety of artists that promote a more sustainable future with their craft, the materials they use, and their processes.
Alex Rosalez
I am a product executive that has over 25 years of experience in the tech industry. I am a pragmatic, empathetic, principled, customer-obsessed and technical leader with a proven track record of impact in AI/ML, eCommerce, search, personalization & recommendations, and product equity.
My career includes 22 years of success at Amazon, where I directly managed product and engineering leaders and teams to deliver innovative and impactful products. These products generated billions of dollars in revenue and also delight hundreds of millions of customers worldwide.
Most recently, I was a Director of Product at Snap, where I built and led a center of excellence with the long term of goal of making Snap's products fully inclusive for marginalized communities. I tapped into my experience as a 3rd generation Chicano and a member of the LGBTQIA+ community to build empathy with these communities. My efforts in initiating, developing and implementing processes and metrics laid the foundation for measuring and continuously improving product inclusiveness across Snap's product teams, ensuring long-term impact on inclusion and user growth
Dione Sims
Dione Sims is the President and Founder of Unity Unlimited, Inc. She is also the granddaughter of Dr. Opal Lee, known as the Grandmother of Juneteenth. Dione and her grandmother both fearless female leaders and forces for positive change. Dione is the producer of the Annual Juneteenth Fort Worth Celebration. She orchestrated the Opal’s Walk campaign for national Juneteenth recognition. And she is also the Founding Executive Director for the National Juneteenth Museum that is being constructed in Ft. Worth, Texas.