Our Team
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Founder
Alison Parker
Alison Parker started her professional career developing and maintaining costumes for the Cirque du Soleil. In recent years she shifted her focus to wardrobe for TV shows like Girls, NCIS New Orleans, and Stephen Soderbergh’s Mosaic, or feature films like Looper, I Am Legend, or The Highwaymen, costuming Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson.
After spending 20 years surrounded by the waste of fabrics and clothing, and finding a lack of sewing resources, Alison Parker knew ricRACK was an organization that needed to exist.
Born in Bradford, England, Alison immigrated to the States in 1980, and went on to graduate from the University of Florida with a degree in theatre production, specializing in Costume Design.
In November 2019, Alison accomplished her greatest feat by combining her passions, historical costuming, social justice, and repurposing clothing. She created prototypes and patterns, organized sewing circles, and in effect, costumed close to 300+ re-enactors for Dread Scott’s 1811 Slave Rebellion Re-enactment. Her techniques are the most prolific and sustainable used by any costume designer today.
When Alison and her husband are not working, they live on their sailboat in Southshore Harbor with Beatrice the Boat Cat and Thibodeaux the dog.
Executive Director
Elizabeth Freeman
Elizabeth Freeman Kelly is a New Orleans resident and artist whose combination of experience and interests made her a natural choice for the Executive Director position following the retirement of ricRACK’s founder in 2022. She has 15 years of retail management experience in secondhand consignment clothing stores in 8 different states, as well as 10 years of financial management experience at the New Orleans Musicians Clinic and Assistance Foundation.
Freeman is also a textile artist whose work includes quilting, applique, natural dye, cyanotype, and embroidery using only salvaged and secondhand fabric, modes of construction that echo the sustainability ethos underlying ricRACK’s mission.
Outreach Education Coordinator
Jahireen Hebert
Jahireen Hebert is a self-taught multimedia artist and performer with a passion for sewing/ fabric manipulation. Born and raised in New Orleans, they have a unique relationship with fashion and self-expression which is translated in the garments they produce.
As an instructor and the Outreach and Education Coordinator at ricRACK, they are on a mission to teach and engage with the community until all of the skills they have acquired are passed on to the next generation. Jahireen hosts the weekly Community Sew every Wednesday, an inclusive and welcoming space for the community to come together and sew.
Operations Coordinator, Instructor
Samar Malek
Samar Malek is a graduate of the Sewing Training Academy in Nashville and the Material Institute in New Orleans.
She has worked in sewing production for notable small brands such as Elizabeth Suzann and has her own fashion line called Sim Sim, utilizing her grandmother’s fabric collection. She helps keep operations running smoothly at ricRACK and leads various adult beginner and intermediate sewing classes in the studio.