About Us

About

We Be Illin is an innovative, diverse events series dedicated to supporting the movement for a National Health Plan. We believe that health insurance should be provided for all Americans and we aim to draw attention to the issue through our productions of concerts and other fundraising events.

Meet the team!
Jaime Williams -- Managing Director

Years ago, Jaime broke her arm snowboarding. Like many uninsured people, she waited instead of immediately going to the hospital because she didn't know what to do. Luckily, Jaime's arm healed, but the feeling of helplessness that she had has stayed with her. This was just one of many incidents that led Jaime to believe that everyone deserves health care. And it's not enough to make sure she's covered herself; Jaime would like to see all her uninsured friends and neighbors and EVERYONE have direct access to full and complete health care. We Be Illin' has, in a sense, been years and years in the making.

Jaime was born in Washington State and spent many years living in Oregon and Vermont. She has worked as a licensed massage therapist and studied to become a Doula. Jaime eventually moved into Stage Managing while in Vermont and continued working on events even after her move to New York City to take a job with Blue Man Group. She now works as an event coordinator for non-profit fundraising events. It wasn't long before Jaime realized she could combine her talents to form one organization – We Be Illin' – to help raise local and national support for a universal health plan.

Jaime likes music, dancing, parties, food, wine, art and community and these are all things you will find at future We Be Illin' events. Luckily Jaime doesn't like fine print, loop holes, traps, rejection, greed, waste and automated phone systems. Those things can really kill a party.

Tascha Van Auken -- Talent Supervisor

Tascha was raised in Brooklyn and went to college at Emerson in Boston for film and writing. She's worked in New York as a manager of a sewing store, ESL teacher, people counter, camera loader, sound operator, lighting operator, bartender for two nights, transcriber for television, and many many more odd jobs. Recently she's worked in the music industry writing for various independent music magazines (currently a contributing editor for Impose Magazine), promoted fund-raising events in Brooklyn, and as a music consultant for new media companies. Now she's working in the casting department for Blue Man Group. Tascha's been without insurance on and off for years but feels lucky enough to have health insurance now. Years of hypochondria have made her appreciate access to doctors, and sometimes actually gets sick: like when she had mono and pneumonia at the same time when she was fifteen. That wasn't fun. Well the codeine was – the pneumonia wasn't. Went to Paris when she was 22 and had an epiphany about the pathetic state of the American health care system when she was able to have a doctor visit her apartment at 2AM, examine her, prescribe her medicine and only charge $50 that was reimbursed later. Finally saw what it was like not to live in mortal fear of getting sick…an irony for sure.

Tascha's a loyal New Yorker and likes pizza so much it's scary. And

bagel meals with one egg, cheddar cheese and bacon on an onion bagel(not toasted). She really really loves coffee and looks forward to it for ten minutes every morning before it's brewed. Her favorite dessert is volcano cake with the oozing chocolate. With pistachio ice cream and raspberries. Her favorite restaurant in NYC is Frank on 2nd Ave. Get the gnocchi.

Jaime and Kelsey agree that Tascha's the most rock star of the WBI girls. Tascha's favorite band right now is King Khan and BBQ Show… Jaime and Kelsey haven't heard of them.

Tascha thinks that We Be Illin' is an exciting thing to be a part of. She's grateful to meet all the people who support the cause who have made her feel better about the world. Oh – and she absolutely despise plastic bags. Her hatred of plastic bags is taking over her life. The end.

Kelsey Brown -- Logistics Associate

Kelsey grew up in Western Massachusetts in a small town where her mother keeps a beautiful garden. Her upbringing taught her that life could and should be enjoyable and people (including the government ) should always be decent to each other. The values she learned informed her belief that all people in the US should have an absolute right to health care!

Kelsey is an employee of a peace and social justice group, and has been alarmingly devoted to her job for over 4 years! This partly because her employers offer a health insurance plan which is about as good as it gets here in the States. Kelsey admits that she is a bit of a hypochondriac, but that even with her "superb" plan, she finds herself avoiding the doctor unless absolutely necessary because she hates arguing with her insurance company over what they will and won't cover.

Some of Kelsey's dislikes include morning commutes and doing anything before coffee, war, feeling powerless, being tired, motorcycles, saying goodbye, and skin doctors. But she LOVES strong coffee, whole-fat yogurt, bad puns, pretty boots, booty dancing, food, red wine, staying warm. She also loves beautiful ladies, good friends, kitties, travel, and being ridiculous. Kelsey also prefers women gynecologists!

Robyn Foresta -- Project Manager
Matty Pollock -- Venues Management
Todd Perlmutter -- Director of Funny Affairs
Tanya Lewellyn -- Finance Manager
John Stravato -- Legal Advisor

Ben Ratliff -- Art Director and Web Design

In alliance with the PNHP and with special help from:

David Marcus
Susan Tansil
Deborah Feuerman

We welcome you to Contact Us with questions, feedback, ideas, and connections .