eric saltzman

Eric Saltzman serves as PROTOTYPE237’s Communications Director, applying strategic communications principles and community building thinking. He’s grokked through a mix of professional experiences to help advocate for and amplify the voice of Prototype, its residents, and its visiting artists. Though not(yet)an Artist himself, Eric is excited about helping artists achieve autonomy through mentorship and by creating structures for cross-pollination to take place between artists and professionals.

Eric’s approaches to community building and outreach were shaped in his early 20s as a Peace Corps Volunteer—on a tiny island nation in the central Pacific Ocean and later in inner-city Central America, where he used Participatory Analysis for Community Action tools to strengthen the capacity of community members to actively participate in their own development. Later, his graduate research project at American University proposed alternative communication strategies to promote clean energy solutions—like clean cookstoves—to better reach impoverished rural communities, like those in India.

This led to a year in south India’s biggest city and smallest villages working as a researcher and project manager, aiming to develop better insights into India’s rural communities to improve health and finances.

He returned Stateside to Washington DC, where he spent the next several years working to implement communication and marketing strategies in a variety of public health contexts—first, at DKT International, an international non-profit delivering reproductive health and family planning to the developing world, and later, at Palladian Partners, an agency specializing in communications for federal health and science agencies, where he supported clients at CDC and NIH.

Eric next shifted gears to work with local businesses and artists to build brands, amplify their messaging, and improve their business and communications strategy. In addition to his role at Prototype, he currently works as an English/LanguageArts educator and hopes to bring some unique classroom experiences to Paterson. But don’t let that professional veneer fool you: the artistic and DIY spirit is inescapably worming its way in. When the residents are making music, you can find Eric on hand percussion—behind a cajon, doumbek, or djembe. Ready to get the dance party started at a Prototype event, or busting out some spontaneous moves on any given day working in the space, Eric is never shy about dropping his award-winning ass to the floor. Hailing from Queens, but spending his adolescence in central New Jersey, Eric is proud to be part of an effort to revitalize Paterson and beyond with creative energy and artistic expression.