Professional Development Presenter Biographies PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
PRESENTER BIOGRAPHIES
KAREN L. ERICKSON has been a Professional Teaching Artist for more than 20 years. As Executive Director of Creative Directions, she trains artists and teachers in drama education, curriculum planning, arts integration, and assessment development nationally and internationally. Ms. Erickson continues her work as a playwright and stage director in addition to authoring seven drama education books used in schools throughout the country. Her most recent publication, The Arts: Keystones to Learning was published in 2005 and documented 26 arts integrated programs in the Chicago Public Schools. She served as the Artistic Director of Trinity Square Ensemble Theater in Chicago for eight years in addition to several years working at the Goodman Theater where she was an assistant to Tennessee Williams during his two-year residency. Ms. Erickson has written more than 15 plays for youth and adults produced by theater companies across the United States. She works with the Kennedy Center's professional development programs including Changing Education Through the Arts (C.E.T.A.). Ms. Erickson is a certified teacher in English, speech communications, and theater education for grades K-12. She co-wrote the Illinois Arts Goals, Standards, Performance Descriptors and Chicago Drama
Benchmarks in addition to a state book on Fine Arts Integration.
DANIEL BARASH, founding Director of THE SHADOW PUPPET WORKSHOP, relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area from Washington, D.C. in 2009. Since founding his arts-in-education organization, he has conducted hundreds of assembly programs, workshops, and residencies at local schools, museums, and libraries. He holds a Masters Degree in elementary education from New York University, and has pioneered the use of shadow puppetry, an ancient Asian art form, in diverse formal and informal educational settings. Daniel performed a one-man educational theater program for more than 100,000 students across the United States, and has worked with students in Belarus, India, Laos, and Lithuania. He regularly conducts trainings for educators in the use of shadow puppetry to explore curricula, both in the U.S. and abroad.
PAIGE WHELAN served as the Arts Integration Specialist at Abingdon Elementary, in Arlington, Virginia where she was recently named Teacher of the Year. She taught fifth grade for five years at Abingdon
Elementary before creating Tech Crew, an arts-integrated technology course for first through fifth graders of all ability levels. Her work garnered the attention of Apple, Inc., and Paige showcases her work at various Apple, Inc. events.
Paige Whelan was a participating member of the Kennedy Center's Changing Education Through the Arts program in Washington, DC for 5 years, and presented her work on numerous occasions to local and national audiences and recently wrote an article on the program's behalf.
Currently, Paige resides in San Francisco, and is a candidate for National Board Certification. She earned her BA in Psychology and Education from the University of California, Davis.
ERIC JOHNSON is the dance specialist for twelve Seattle public and private schools and a leader of professional development workshops for educators nationally and internationally. Since 1985, he has traveled to sites from Florida to Alaska sharing strategies with teachers for lesson planning, assessment, classroom management, and integration of movement and dance into the classroom. Mr. Johnson teaches educators annually in Japan under the auspices of Japan Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD), and is an artist/mentor for individual classroom teachers for Arts Impact of Tacoma, Washington, one of 19 projects honored nationally by funding from the U.S. Department of Education. He is a graduate of Michigan State University.
MARY FRANCIS "CISSY” WHIPP presents workshops nationally on integrating dance into the curriculum. She has been working as a performer, choreographer and dance educator for more than 25 years. She received her BFA in choreographic design from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and her MA in performing arts: dance from the American University in Washington, D.C. She founded Louisiana’s first professional modern dance company, Moving South Dance, Inc. She has taught in college dance programs at Potsdam State University of New York, and most recently at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette where she directed the Children’s Dance Guild and choreographed for the State of LA Danse Concert series. Ms. Whipp has served on the committee for developing arts assessment standards for the Louisiana Department of Education and is currently teaching creative movement and dance at the J. Wallace James Elementary School for Arts & Technology in Lafayette, Louisiana.
JOHNETTE DOWNING is a multi-award winning musician and author presenting concerts and author visits for children, and keynotes and workshops for educators globally. Dedicated to cultural exchanges and fostering literacy through her music and books, Johnette has performed in the Middle East, Asia, Africa, Central America, North America and the Caribbean. Johnette's presentations celebrate childhood and speak to a child's interests in an engaging, interactive, thought-provoking, educational, entertaining and culturally respectful way; earning her a reputation for being the "Musical Ambassador to Children."
CAREY HAMBURG has worked as an artist, multimedia developer, and instructor of Art and Technology. He served as the computer lab instructor at J. W. James Arts & Technology Academy in Lafayette. He also created and conducted curriculum-based art classes as a PACE teaching artist for the Acadiana Center for the Arts.
Carey is currently working at Louisiana State University as an Education Technology Consultant in the Faculty Technology Center. He is also a doctoral student in the field of Human Resource Development. Carey's area of study is integration of Art and Technology into STEM curriculum development.
ERIN BROUSSARD is a visual artist who resides in Lafayette, Louisiana. She has spent the past 4 years sharing her love of learning and the arts with Lafayette’s elementary school students as a Teaching Artist with the PACE (Primary Academic Creative Experiences) program, and the past 2 years teaching teenage and adult students as a visual arts instructor for the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s Potpourri program. She is currently employed by the Lafayette Parish School System as a visual arts teacher for the Talented program for elementary and middle school students. In her own artwork, Erin strives to create narrative through illustration and portraiture, and sees the arts as a natural vessel for telling stories and inspiring creative writing based on personal experience.
JENNIFER HERBERT, a native of Lafayette, Louisiana, studied Fine Art at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. She is a mixed media artist that has taught private art lessons to children and adults for over 15 years. Jennifer has been a Teaching Artist in the PACE (Primary Academic Creative Experiences) program for the past 9 years. She is also very active in teaching summer art programs and numerous grant projects in the community.
MICHELLE SALTS is an ELA lead teacher with the Lafayette Parish School System where she has taught secondary English and creative writing. Michelle also works as a Teacher Consultant with the Writing Project of Acadiana facilitating a variety of professional development opportunities for teachers,
including the Invitational Summer Institute, several museum workshops, and an open institute exploring the topic of writing and inquiry.
CHRISSY SOILEAU is Co-Director of the National Writing Project of Acadiana and Director of the
organization’s Invitational Summer Institute for teachers. Chrissy taught English and creative writing in Acadia Parish, where she also provided inservice for constructed response and writing across the
curriculum. She currently works with Gear Up to provide inservice to teachers in Lafayette Parish, as well as coordinates youth writing opportunities such as Festival of Words Student Writing Contest, Dead of Winter Poets’ Retreat, and Word Up Youth Writing Camp for Louisiana State University Eunice.
SASHA NICK has been involved in arts education for over 12 years and is a certified Montessori teacher. She is currently a teaching artist in the PACE (Primary Academic and Creative Experiences) program. She is the owner and operator of The Little Paintbrush, a private art studio for all ages.
KESSLER REED is a mother of two and currently teaches first grade at Woodvale Elementary in Lafayette parish. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Child and Family Studies and Early Childhood Education (Prek– 3rd). Kessler has taught grades K–2nd in her eight-year teaching career. She uses many different teaching techniques to engage and motivate her students. She has found the arts in education as a valuable component in her repertoire.
PADDY BOWMAN is Director of Local Learning: The National Network for Folk Arts in Education and an adjunct professor in the Lesley University Integrated Teaching through the Arts Masters Program. She has developed many folk arts education resources, including Louisiana Voices and the anthology Through the Schoolhouse Door: Folklore, Community, and Curriculum (Utah State University Press, 2011). She received an M.A. in folklore from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
DAVID FOX earned an MFA in sculpture and painting from the University of Colorado at Boulder. He is certified in Louisiana as an instructor in Commercial Design and as a Trade and Industry Co-coordinator. He operates Fox Design Studio in Lafayette, La.; specializing in site/subject specific artworks. Mr. Fox is the recipient of the ACADIANA ARTS AWARD from the Acadian Center for the Arts. He has served as Artist in Residence for Lafayette Parish Schools and taught commercial design at the W.D. Smith Career Center and the Louisiana Technical College, Lafayette. Mr. Fox has been a presenter at the National Association for Gifted Children, the Dept. of Gifted Education’s Lagniappe Summer Training Institute, the Summer Scholar Program, the Louisiana Writing Institute and the Dead of Winter workshop for young writers. He has conducted numerous workshops and residencies integrating arts across the curriculum in the Acadian area.
ALLAN WOLF is an author, poet, performer and educator. After three years teaching at Virginia Tech, Wolf became the Educational Director for Poetry Alive!, a national touring company that presents theatrical poetry shows for all ages. Wolf is also a member of The Dead Poets, a musical trio who transform classic poetry into toe-tapping tunes. An active organizer in the early days of the poetry slam competitions, Wolf’s mission has always been to take poetry to the people. Wolf now writes and presents full time. His books includeThe Blood-Hungry Spleen and Other Poems About Our Parts, New Found Land: Lewis and Clark’s Voyage of Discovery, a novel in verse chosen as a School Library Journal Best Book, an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, and an IRA Children’s Book Award Notable. He is the
author of a book about writing poems titled Immersed In Verse: An Informative, Slightly Irreverent & Totally Tremendous Guide to Living the Poet’s Life(Lark Books) and a YA novel in verse titled Zane’s Trace(Candlewick Press). His newest book is The Watch that Ends the Night: Voices from the Titanic, a lyrical, monumental work of fact and imagination that reads like an oral history revved up by the drama of the event.
