About
Cynthia W. Primas holds an M.Ed. in Organizational and Small Group Development from Temple University in Philadelphia, Pa. She is currently CEO/President of the Institute for the Development of Education in the Arts, an arts education non profit that she founded in 1996 in Camden NJ. As founding member of IDEA, She is responsible for developing the areas of public relations, program and grant development as well as public/private support. In addition to being President of IDEA she is an independent consultant, and corporate trainer specializing in diversity and group dynamics. [Read more]
In her work in organizational development she has consulted with, designed and delivered training in diversity, staff development, customer service, teambuilding, and strategic visioning. She also works to assist fledgling organizations in their strategic planning and program development. She has conducted training workshops on such topics as Team Building, Staff Development, Valuing Differences, Time Management and Goal Setting, Multicultural Group Awareness, Leadership Training, Organizational Assessment, Strategic Planning, Creative Problem Solving, Empowering Parents, Self Esteem, and Total Quality Management.
Although David has an extensive background in the field of business that includes working to start up several businesses, serving as a corporate trainer, director of quality services, call center manager to name a few, his true love is in the arts. As an actor, he's an alumnus of the acclaimed Freedom Theatre in Philadelphia, PA., and has performed in various theatrical presentations throughout the Philadelphia area. He's a member of the Black Theatre Festival and performs regularly with Black Magic Woman Productions for their monthly staged readings at the Rotunda Building on Walnut Street between 34th and 35th street. [Read more]
David is also pursuing a TV and Movie career having captured roles in HACK, Homicide, The Sixth Sense, The West Wing, Rocky VI, Annapolis, along with numerous TV national and local commercials. Most recently, David can be seen on the HBO Series, "The Wire" as the city's budget director and also has a small role in the soon to be released, "National Treasure 2, Book of Secrets."
The combination of his two skills in management and the arts has been a good pairing to help him with his duties as Program Director for IDEA.
Ozzie Jones is a high honors graduate of Bates College in Lewiston, Maine with a BA in Theater and a secondary concentration in Political Science and Philosophy. He's taught students from pre-school to adult, in churches, public and private schools, universities and prisons.
While serving as Assistant to the Artistic Director at Freedom Theater, Ozzie wrote and directed numerous plays including: "Sanctified Jook Joint," "The Trip, Histories, and Time in Singing", "MOMS" starring Clarice Taylor, and "Black Nativity" to name a few. Out of seven Barrymore Award nominations, Black Nativity won both the "Hall Prince Award for Best Director of a Musical", and "Best Choreography". [Read more]
Ozzie has since directed plays all throughout the NY metropolitan area including the famous Goodman Theater and acclaimed Lincoln Center Theater. He's directed at Crossroads Theater Company in NJ and also directed "Chance's Champion" - the opening show at Patti Labelle's Theater: Chez Labelle in Philadelphia.
His recognition drew him opportunities abroad where he directed Shakespeare's "Othello" for the Second Stage Theater Company in Dublin, Ireland. He was the first African American to direct a play for an Irish Theater Company in the history of the Republic of Ireland. Joe Donnody of the Cork Examiner said, "Celebrated Black American Director and respected composer…Ozzie Jones has opened my eyes…Jones' sound track is quite amazing…This is a magnificent 'Othello,' one not to be missed by all lovers of Shakespeare."
Ozzie continues to write, teach and direct and currently is the Artistic Consultant for IDEA.
His interest in music began when he was in the third grade learning how to play the piano then later in high school learning the trumpet. This interest was also heightened from spending many hours listening to some of his parent's old records of artists such as James Brown, The Ohio Players and Prince. His love for music, singing and lyrics gravitated to the hip hop world which was already about to explode. On his way to school, he would study the works of some of the Old School Hip Hop greats and in the tenth grade, began writing his own lyrics and creating his own beats. [Read more]
In 1996, he recorded his first song with a group called "Natural Disasters" and after two more recordings, Earl "Chip" Grimes, who then worked for Dominion Records, signed him immediately. In 1998, Earl created Poor Boy Entertainment (a Camden based firm), signed Hamzah and they've been making music ever since. Because of the challenges he's faced throughout his life, he's very grounded in the community, helping young people every chance he gets. He's worked with students and given seminars for teachers at the Boys and Girls Club in Camden, NJ., Pine Point Middle School, The United Way, The Enterprise Building in Philadelphia and the Phila. free public library.
He even finds time to coach little league football.
A devoted husband of wife Halimah and loving father of his son Tyrone, Hamzah is determined to make Poor Boy one of the premier entertainment firms in the nation. He's also committed to helping develop youth in the Camden area and helping them exhibit their full potential.
Hamzah works as resident Hip Hop Artist for IDEA and their programs.
Dr Cross holds a PHD. DM Cum Laude from the University of Phoenix, Phoenix, Arizona. Dr Cross did his Doctoral Thesis on a phenomenological exploration and identification of factors of leadership that supported the concept of Cool Pose, as described by Majors, through conversations of black male entrepreneurs over the age of 30 in the northeastern United States. [Read more]
Dr Cross holds an M.ED from Arcadia University, Glenside, Pennsylvania. His thesis was: An autobiographical exploration of poetry's affect in retelling the life of urban youth, using elements of literature to provide inroads to character education, culminating in a book-length creative product. He also holds a BA from Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in Communications Management Broadcasting where he managed jazz formatted campus radio station (WRTI-90.1 FM) for two years.
He presently holds the position of Teacher of English/Faculty Administrator at the Camden City Academic Laboratory Program of Camden High School, Camden, New Jersey.
Dr. Cross serves as Education and Organizational Psychology Consultant for IDEA where in addition he teaches Jazz History, and Jazz Poetry
Eric Thomas is a third-year student at Rowan University majoring in Computer Science. While computer programming is most definitely going to be his future career, he is a professional web designer and developer on the side. Self taught since his freshman year of high school, Eric has developed and designed many websites over years and has increased his knowledge and experience in the field. [Read more]
What first was a hobby, now became a second job when he redesigned his high school's website. Since then, he has created many websites for various organizations including the IDEA website. In the summer of 2007, Eric helped City Kids Productions by introducing a web design class to a small group of students. He taught them to create websites without using expensive third party applications and showed them how to code their websites in only Notepad.
Eric also is a member of the Rowan University cross country and track and field programs. He has been running since high school.