Resume

KATHRYN VERCILLO

Writer | Artist | Researcher 

Workshop Facilitation | Project Management 

 

PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY

I’m the founder of Create Me Free, an independent practice at the intersection of creativity, mental health, and community that has given me an unusually broad set of skills. My work falls into two categories: original research, writing, and creative projects that are mine alone, and work I’ve done for and in the voice of other organizations across a range of sectors and sizes. That combination has shaped me into someone who moves easily between research, writing, strategy, and hands-on program delivery. Everything in the experience below sits under that one practice.

I hold a Master’s degree in Psychological Studies and bring qualitative research, storytelling, and editorial strategy together with grant writing, workshop facilitation, and cross-cultural community partnership building. I’ve also worked steadily to understand and ethically integrate new technology into creative and communications work, from the early days of SEO through today’s AI tools. I do my best work with mission-driven organizations supporting wellness, creative practice, community resilience, or equity.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Founder, Create Me Free   Since 2006

Independent practice spanning research, writing, community arts programming, and communications consulting. Began as a self-published zine for incarcerated artists (2001), relaunched as an independent business (2006), and incorporated as a sole proprietorship (2021).

Research and Creative Health Framework

  • Conducted 100+ in-depth qualitative interviews with artists navigating health challenges, mental illness, disability, and marginalization; work cited in academic and therapeutic literature.
  • Developed the Creative Health Cartography framework, a six-domain model mapping how health shapes creative process, medium, content, productivity, identity, and sustainability.
  • Designed the Visual Interview Methodology, a trauma-informed, neurodivergent-accessible research approach using image, color, and texture in place of verbal response.

Books and Original Writing

  • Selected publications include Creative Health Cartography: The Workbook (self-published, 2026), The Artist’s Mind: The Creative Lives and Mental Health of Famous Artists (Schiffer Publishing, 2023), Internet Addiction (ABC-CLIO, 2020), and Hook to Heal (self-published, 2015), used in therapeutic and rehabilitation settings.
  • Publish Create Me Free on Substack (100+ essays, roughly 3,000 subscribers).

Freelance and Contract Writing

  • Wrote tutorials, articles, and blog content for craft and yarn industry sites and magazines, including Red Heart Yarn, Lion Brand, Plymouth Yarn (also a print magazine), Craftsy, and About.com (now The Spruce).
  • Served as a columnist for Happily Hooked Magazine and Interweave Crochet.
  • Wrote for mental health outlets including Psych Central, and ghostwrote blog and website content for individual therapists.
  • Contributed exhibition reviews and art history essays to Sartle: Rogue Art History (2019 to 2022).

Client and Contract Work

  • Delivered writing, content, and communications work in-voice for organizations spanning very small to large, including a two-person knitting designer’s studio, venture-backed startup tech companies, and Masterpiece Arts, an established artist supply retailer.

Community Arts Programs

  • Founded and coordinated Mandalas for Marinke (2015 to 2018), a global collaborative project on grief and mental health (300+ contributors, 1,000+ works, gallery exhibitions, healing circles).
  • Co-founded In My Fluffy Pajamas, trauma-informed workshops helping immigrant and displaced communities visualize and share experiences of belonging and resilience, coordinating Mandarin, Spanish, and Farsi translators; partnered with cultural centers including the Chinese Culture Center and Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts, galleries including ARTogether and DirkX Brown Gallery, and public pop-ups at the Ferry Building and Japantown Mall.
  • Coordinate the Liberty Crochet Mural (Northern California section), an 11 by 17 foot reproductive justice textile installed at The Women’s Building, San Francisco.
  • Designed the Craft to Heal workshop series, 100 exercises for healing and connection, delivered virtually and in person.
  • Brought this work to public scale at the Hungry Ghost Festival (10,000+ attendees, Portsmouth Square, Chinatown).

Client Partnership: Center for Mindful Psychotherapy (Since 2021)

  • Lead website, communications, and content strategy for a nonprofit collective of more than 100 therapists.
  • Advise the collective on ethical, HIPAA-aware use of AI in content workflows, including prompt engineering and model evaluation, helping a mental health organization adopt tools responsibly.

SPEAKING AND PRESENTATIONS

  • Panelist, LaunchPad Small Business Success, Makahakama Foundation Real Talk Series (2026).
  • Presenter, “Using Crochet for Anxiety and Difficult Times,” Power of Positive Crochet Summit (2026).
  • Host and moderator, artist talk by Hope Mohr on dance and interdisciplinary art practice, California College of the Arts (2024).
  • Panelist, Liberty Crochet Mural reproductive justice panel, The Drawing Room Annex (2024).
  • Host and moderator, book talk by Gigi Otálvaro-Hormillosa, Ph.D., California College of the Arts (2023).
  • Featured guest, Why I Knit Podcast (2023).
  • Readings at Mandalas for Marinke exhibitions (2017 to 2018).

GRANTS AND RECOGNITION

Grants

  • 2026: San Francisco Arts Commission Arts Impact Endowment, Makahakama Foundation Grant
  • 2025: Author’s League, CERF+, and American Society of Journalist and Authors
  • 2024: APICC and Center for Art and Public Life grants for In My Fluffy Pajamas, awarded jointly with co-founder Badri Valian; San Francisco Arts Commission funding for the same project was awarded solely to Badri Valian with grant I wrote
  • 2023 and earlier: CA Dream Fund, CERF+ Get Ready, and CA Relief Fund

Grant Panel Service

  • 2026: Grant Panel Juror, California Arts Council
  • 2025: Grant Panel Juror, Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center

Additional Recognition

  • Cited in academic and therapeutic literature as an expert on crochet as therapy
  • RenTank Business Pitch runner-up (2022)

SKILLS

  • Research and methodology: qualitative research, in-depth interviewing, framework development, trauma-informed and arts-based research, narrative analysis
  • Content and strategy: editorial planning, brand voice, accessible health and science writing, newsletter and platform management, AI-assisted content workflows
  • Community and programs: workshop facilitation, cultural partnership building, multilingual programming, translator and interpreter coordination, public speaking and panel moderation, grant writing and reporting, budget and compliance management

EDUCATION

  • MA, Psychological Studies, California Institute of Integral Studies (2017)
  • Graduate Studies, Visual and Critical Studies, California College of the Arts (2023 to 2024)
  • BAS, Public Agency Service, Northern Arizona University (2003)