Chrissy Sinatra

Chrissy Sinatra is the Assistant Director of Communications and Outreach at the Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience and administers the Explore America Summer Internship program, which places Washington College students as paid summer interns at leading cultural institutions, non-profit organizations, and government agencies from New York to West Virginia.

Chrissy is a design and development professional who is passionate about mission-driven work and programs that support education, workforce development, wellness, humanitarian aid, and environmental stewardship. As a visual artist and a storyteller, she has combined her graphic design and communication skills to create media campaigns for a variety of industries, from entertainment to healthcare, spanning film/music video production to pharmaceutical advertising. She was instrumental in creating media assets for a worldwide expeditionary healthcare company that established forward surgical posts for the United Nations and health clinics for humanitarian non-government organizations.

As a non-profit advocate, she believes that investment in education fosters innovative solutions that inspire a promising future. Chrissy was integral in the development of a vanguard Buddhist high school, diversifying funding sources and initiating pioneering research on the effects of mindfulness in a school setting to support at-risk youth. Her love of tennis led her to work with the United States Tennis Association (USTA) Foundation to secure funding that revitalized a public park and established a tennis and learning center with a science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics (STEAM) program for under-resourced youth. She developed a curriculum that inspired teachers to add experiential learning and arts programming into the classroom and coordinated with local food producers to present healthy snack initiatives in after-school programs.

Through her extensive travels, she has researched Mesoamerican pottery and indigenous medicine in Belize; essential oil production in Nepal, India, Morocco, and Turkey; and the trade routes for medicinal herbs in western China and Tibet. She has developed several businesses, ranging from haberdashery and perfumery to glassware and high-end millworks and murals for worldwide hotels, casinos, and restaurants. She received her B.F.A from Tufts University, magna cum laude 1990, through the Museum School of Fine Arts in Boston, MA.