Our people
Lena Cirillo, Chief Executive Officer (she/her)
Jan 2025 - present
Lena Cirillo is the Chief Executive Officer of 100 Story Building, a dynamic leader and passionate advocate for creativity, education, and community development. As a practising visual artist, mentor/coach and speaker, she actively contributes to the arts and education sectors. Lena serves on the School of Art Industry Advisory Committee at RMIT University, and is a Board member of Art Education Victoria.
With over 20 years of experience in the non-profit, creative industries, and education sectors, Lena has held pivotal CEO roles at Art Education Victoria, Arts Project Australia, Polyglot Theatre, Westside Circus (Circus Nexus) and the Lygon Street Festa, where she led initiatives empowering artists and communities through inclusive creative opportunities. An alumnus of the 2007 Williamson Leadership Program, she also served as Strategic Projects Manager for Leadership Victoria and is a sought-after speaker on leadership, creativity, and the arts.
Lena has held key governance roles, including Chair of The Women’s Gallery, Vice-President/Programming Director of Midsumma Festival, Chair of Melbourne Workers Theatre, and member of the Cultural Arts Advisory Board for the City of Melbourne. Her academic background includes a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts from RMIT University, a Graduate Diploma in Arts Management from the University of Melbourne/VCA, and a Master of Teaching from RMIT University.
Lena is deeply passionate about the transformative power of storytelling and the arts. At 100 Story Building, she is driven by the vision of empowering young people through creative expression, believing that storytelling and the arts are essential tools for personal growth and community connection. Lena aspires to expand 100 Story Building’s reach, ensuring young people have the opportunity to thrive and use their voice through imagination and creative risk-taking
Simon Conlon, Program Manager (he/him)
Jan 2015 - present
Simon is the Program Manager and Story Hubs Project Manager at 100 Story Building. With a background in theatre and visual arts, he is enthusiastic and excitable about the intersection of arts, education and social justice. His work focuses on developing creative and active learning experiences, supporting all to have ideas and express those ideas.
Simon has over 20 years of experience designing and delivering arts-based programming for children, young adults and grown-ups in a variety of disciplines including story-making, performance, theatre, science, visual arts and circus, and tries to bring a little bit of everything into all he facilitates. More recently Simon has facilitated strategic planning sessions, community consultations, creative collaborations and co-design projects inside and outside of 100 Story Building. Simon also serves on the Brimbank Arts Advisory Committee as a proud Westie.
Simon enjoys helping participants from a range of backgrounds and communities to explore their own creativity, making lots of wonderful mistakes along the way. When not at 100 Story Building, Simon is a medical clown, a photographer and writes poetry on his phone for no-one else’s eyes.
100 Story Building is built and run on stories. The change that emerges when these stories are surfaced, supported and celebrated can be found everyday. The serious work of playing with stories continues when it leads to literacy, confidence and belonging.
Ella Bucovaz, Marketing Manager (she/her)
Oct 2021 - present
Ella Bucovaz is the Marketing Manager at 100 Story Building. With over 15 years specialist experience in the arts sector, Ella brings a wealth of knowledge and experience from her past work in festivals, events, galleries and performing arts centres as both a producer and marketeer.
Ella has a theatre background and a love of theatrical storytelling. Ella holds a bachelor of Creative Arts (Theatre) from Deakin University and a Masters of Arts & Cultural Management from the University of Melbourne.
Ella’s past work has always centered on community and inclusion, having previously worked at the City of Darebin in festivals and events and programming. Designing and delivering different community events such as Carols in All Nations, Darebin Music Feast, Homemade Food and Wine Festival and Community and Kite Festival.
As Associate Producer for Artlands Victoria – Australia’s largest regional arts conference and festival delivered by Regional Arts Australia, Ella delivered varied arts programs in Bendigo, Victoria.
Ella held different roles at Regional Arts Victoria as Programming Communications Coordinator and Touring & Communications Administrator respectively. In both roles, she established strategic communications and oversaw marketing for national touring projects.
Ella brings a deep understanding of creative practice and utilises this to better support artists and communities to communicate their work. As a proud ‘westie’ for nearly 10 years, Ella is particularly passionate about communicating the value of 100 Story Building and celebrating its uniqueness with the local community and beyond.
Jenny Tran, Operations Manager (she/her)
Oct 2023 - present
Jenny serves as the Operations Manager at 100 Story Building. Growing up in both Australia and Vietnam, Jenny is a multicultural marketer and storyteller with expertise in digital marketing, partnerships, branding, public relations, strategic communications, and campaigning across the nonprofit, private, and public sectors.
At 100 Story Building, Jenny spearheads marketing and communications strategy development, collaborating with the team to implement marketing initiatives. She holds a deep passion for the transformative power of education, viewing it as the key to unlocking opportunities and reducing inequity.
Before joining 100 Story Building, Jenny worked as a sustainability, communications, and stakeholder engagement consultant. She has worked with leading agriculture, F&B, and waste companies, as well as government agencies, to create meaningful changes for people and the planet.
Jenny loves travelling and is always on the lookout for her next great book.
Brenna Ternus, Senior Producer (they/them)
Mar 2019 - present
Brenna is the Senior Producer for Creative Learning at 100 Story Building and an educator, theatremaker, photographer and writer who has lived and worked all over the world.
Brenna attended 8 different schools in Prep-Year 12, which inspired their interest in how different learning environments worked - and how to combine arts and education. They actually started their professional career with an internship at 826Valencia in San Francisco the same year as two of 100SB’s co-founders! After studying interdisciplinary creativity at Yale University, they moved to Beijing where they spent three years building an experimental arts-integrated learning centre called Armada. They went on to contribute to many worldwide education environments and innovative learning projects including startups and not-for-profits, gaining a program design skillset and learning about the power of collaborating across cultures and backgrounds.
Brenna moved to Footscray in 2017 and grew in their connection to 100 Story Building from an enthusiastic volunteer to a staff member working across Early Harvest, workshop facilitation, and some of our very first council consultation projects. But they have also had formative experiences of other local organisations and creative education projects: the Reach Foundation, the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, Carlton Primary School, and various collaborations as an independent artist.
As Senior Producer they have developed and delivered commissions from MPavilion and State Library Victoria alongside management of our Creative Victoria Creative Ventures grant, the launch and growth of the Futuremakers youth advisory team, facilitation of the Carlton Story Hub, and more.
They believe in a future for 100 Story Building where everyone can be their authentic selves, thrive as a team, and keep youth voice at the centre of our programs and operations.
Julia Coscolluela, Program Coordinator (she/her)
Aug 2023 - present
Julia is the Program Coordinator at 100 Story Building. Her role is to provide coordination and administrative support for key programs, including Story Hubs, Early Harvest, school workshops, after-school programs and special projects. She also works with the Program Manager to coordinate volunteer recruitment and onboarding. In 2024, she was the Lead Facilitator for the Early Harvest young editorial committee and supported the group in publishing Two-faced Tales, an anthology of stories written and illustrated by children, for children.
Outside of 100 Story Building, Julia works as a Co-facilitator for Women with Disabilities Victoria. She co-facilitates Empowering Women, a leadership program for women and gender-diverse people with disabilities. She is also a Youth Advocate for Centre for Multicultural Youth, where she co-designed and delivers mental health workshops for high school students to improve their understanding of wellbeing and encourage proactive help-seeking behaviours. She also co-designed and will deliver professional development workshops for Headspace clinicians to improve their cultural competency.
Julia currently studies a Bachelor of Psychology at RMIT and intends to become a psychologist. She is strongly passionate about youth mental healthcare and volunteers with organisations including Orygen, Headspace, System2 and Western Health. She is also passionate about advocacy, leadership, youth empowerment, public speaking, etc.
In the past, Julia has worked for Brimbank City Council’s Youth Services team and was seconded into various other community-focused roles during her employment. She has worked for GenWest to produce Take Up Space, a youth mental and sexual health resource featuring local young people, community leaders and health professionals.
Julia aspires for 100 Story Building to reach more youth from under-resourced communities. She wants more schools to know of 100 Story Building’s work and apply the organisation’s approaches to learning and creativity.
Our program facilitators
Brendan Barnett (he/him)
Jan 2016 - present
Brendan’s work with 100 Story Building ranges from collaborating with students to design creative spaces for their schools to unpacking the creative process with teachers to enliven and enrich classroom learning. He also runs the primary aged after school program, Creative Club, and acts as an in house illustrator when the need arises.
Brendan is a graduate of the Queensland College of the Arts and the Victorian College of the Arts with degrees in Animation and Acting respectively. Beyond 100 Story Building Brendan works as an artist across the mediums of illustration, animation, performance, game design and voice over (Don’t ask him to pick one - he won’t and you can’t make him). He has toured with theatre companies such as Bell Shakespeare and Complete Works and has been working to support the creativity of children and young people for more than a decade.
Brendan aspires for 100 Story Building to be an organisation that advocates for creativity as a vital force in all our lives and for the right of all children to connect with each other and the world through imagination and play.
Megan Petrie (she/her)
Jan 2021 - present
Meg is a facilitator at 100 Story Building, she leads the secondary After-School Program, alongside other creative projects. With a deep passion for education, community arts, and creative writing, Meg is dedicated to fostering and supporting creativity and expression among young people. She also teaches in the Education department at Victoria University.
With over twenty years of experience in education, Meg has worked across a variety of roles, within diverse learning communities. She has worked for Western Autistic School, in early intervention programs as well as a specialised VCE program for adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Her teaching journey led her to a chapter in Northern Italy, where she spent several years teaching theatre, filmmaking, and English as an Additional Language (EAL) at secondary schools and language centres. During this time, she also worked on documentaries about farmers and their beloved animals, she wrote short stories exploring these communities.
In addition to her teaching work, Meg has contributed to a number of significant community arts and youth initiatives. Her collaborations include projects with the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Footscray Arts Centre, The Future of Toys workshops, Merri Merri Creekulum, and the Western Autistic School Saturday Social Club.
Meg is a writer of creative nonfiction, spoken word and poetry, her work has been featured in publications and festivals, including The Faber Academy Anthology, Meanjin, The Big Issue, Midsumma Festival, Melbourne Fringe Festival, and the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.
For Meg, 100 Story Building is a space where young people can connect to their creativity, have agency in their participation, and build a sense of community. Meg aspires to be part of the ongoing work of 100 Story Building being a place for all young people to authentically express themselves and find belonging.
Julian Gasparri (he/him)
Apr 2024 - present
Julian is a writer, editor and workshop facilitator at 100 Story Building, drawing upon more than a decade of experience across digital publishing, community broadcasting, and youth engagement. He adopts a strength-based approach to facilitation, cultivating optimism and inclusivity to empower creativity.
At 100 Story Building, Julian has facilitated creative workshops to schools and community centres across the state. He has co-designed and led facilitation for programs in partnership with the Department of Transport and Planning and the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria. His communications expertise has also supported the ‘Building Futures’ fundraiser for the launch of the current building space. Additionally, Julian has been instrumental in supporting the organisation's after-school programs, producing two anthologies for The Perfectly Normal Human Writers in 2024.
Holding a Bachelor of Journalism degree from La Trobe University, Julian has contributed to many not-for-profit organisations and community initiatives across multimedia platforms, in addition to freelance work. He has served as a communications professional, writer, editor, director, producer and presenter, while mentoring emerging young storytellers. He has also created and launched his own podcast on youth empowerment. In his own creative practice, Julian writes poetry, personal essays and short fiction. He is currently working on a longer manuscript inspired by the impactful events of his first volunteering experience as a teenager.
Julian maintains his dedication to fostering community effort, and with 100 Story Building, hopes to continue inspiring the next generation of creatives to develop and share their stories.
Ben McKenzie (he/him)
Jan 2016 - present
Ben is a 100 Story Building facilitator, currently working in an administrative and marketing support role. He recently completed a Graduate Certificate in Higher Education (Creative Arts), and teaches comedy writing for the Bachelor of Performing Arts (Comedy), as well as first year foundational creativity skills, at tertiary arts college Collarts. He is also a freelance writer, performer, game designer and podcaster. He produces and co-hosts the monthly Terry Pratchett book club Pratchat. His favourite element is helium, and his favourite dinosaur is Stegosaurus.
Ben has been working in the arts for more than twenty years as an actor, comedian, and producer of playful and educational events for adults and children, including workshops, museum tours and improvised comedy shows. He was lead game designer for Melbourne’s long-running live game company Pop Up Playground, designing and running dozens of games including the hit bank heist experience Small Time Criminals. He has written, presented and narrated science and other educational videos for ClickView, and also appears in Story Box Library’s Story Tools series of creative writing tutorials. His most famous work as a writer and actor is the time travel audio comedy series Night Terrace, as heard on BBC radio.
100 Story Building is a unique combination of many of Ben’s passions: storytelling, creative play, and immersive environments. He believes in the transformative potential of creative expression, and that all children are creative and curious. He hopes to continue fostering those skills and publishing children and young people’s stories, and expand them into new media and forms of storytelling beyond the written and illustrated word.
