Felicia Barber is an adjunct associate professor of choral conducting, and conductor of the Yale Camerata at Yale University. In addition to teaching graduate-level and undergraduate choral conductors, Barber is developing a new initiative designed to prepare Yale students to work with young musicians on choral music in both school and church settings. Her research interests include effective teaching strategies, fostering classroom diversity, incorporating equity and justice initiatives in choral curricula, and the linguistic performance practice of African American spirituals. Barber regularly engages as a guest conductor at All-State festivals and will conduct at the American Choral Directors Association eastern division conference in 2024 and the Carnegie Hall Festival in 2025. She holds a degree in vocal performance from Oral Roberts University, a master’s degree from Mansfield University, and a doctorate from Florida State University.
Jonathan Bernstein’s plays and musicals have been produced all over the country. Under the auspices of the Jerome Robbins Foundation, he is currently developing a new project with actress and choreographer Susan Misner entitled Here in the Bright Colorado Sun. His directing credits include work at the Atlantic Theater Company, Signature Theater, the Kennedy Center, Ensemble Studio Theater, and many others. He has worked at New York’s City Center, Manhattan Theatre Club, Second Stage Theater, Roundabout Theatre, and the 52nd Street Project. Supervising director credits include the still-running revival of Chicago, overseeing both the Broadway production and the many national and international productions it has spawned. He is a professor of playwriting and script analysis at New York University and he serves as the artistic director of the Performing Arts Project, an international arts training non-profit organization designed to serve people from ages fifteen to twenty-five.
Barry Blumenfeld is on the faculty of Friends Seminary, New York University, and the Dance Education Lab of the 92Y, for which he co-created the DanceMaker app. He has served as president of the New York State Dance Education Association (NYSDEA) and was a recipient of the Outstanding PreK-12 Dance Educator Award from NYSDEA in 2017. Blumenfeld received the Outstanding Leadership Award from the National Dance Education Organization and for eight years he wrote a monthly “Ask the Experts” column for Dance Teacher Magazine. He founded the tap and modern dance company, TAPFUSION, and has choreographed numerous works that have been presented in New York, Florida, Maryland, and Washington, DC. Blumenfeld holds a degree in dance from American University; is a certified level 1 teacher of Language of Dance®; a certified yoga instructor; and a registered dance educator.
Olivia Aston Bosworth is an artist, educator, and producer who deeply believes in the power of theatre for young audiences. She is the head of youth and family programs at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia and works with educational programming for children from birth through fifth grade. She oversees the Alliance Bernhardt Theatre for the Very Young program, early learner and elementary classes and camps, caregiver initiatives, and family programming. As a Wolf Trap Early Learning Through the Arts Teaching Artist, Bosworth has taught arts integrated lessons in early childhood and elementary school classrooms around Atlanta and has also presented at several professional development conferences on immersive storytelling through the curriculum. Additionally, she is a proud board member of Theatre for Young Audiences in the United States. Bosworth holds degrees from Georgia State University and Kennesaw State University.
Larissa Brown is a versatile artist with a tapestry of creative endeavors spanning diverse industries. Formerly an animation artist for Nickelodeon’s iconic show Rugrats, Brown has also illustrated nearly a dozen books within Nickelodeon’s licensed universe, including Avatar: The Last Airbender. Her debut graphic novel, Blake Laser, will be released in December 2024. As the founder of OC Art Studios, her educational initiatives have touched lives globally. During the pandemic she pioneered an online community for BIPOC art students, granting more than five hundred full scholarships to aspiring animation and illustration artists. Brown expertly juggles her role as a Disney fine artist with her commitment to teaching at colleges and universities in Orange County. Her artwork in the galleries of both Walt Disney World and Disneyland Resorts seamlessly blends her traditional and digital painting skills. She has a special affinity for celebrating characters of color within the Disney universe.
Latasha Casterlow-Lalla serves as the supervisor of art and music for Passaic Public Schools in Passaic, New Jersey. She attended Montclair State University, where she earned a degree in music education and then a master’s degree in counseling, human development, and guidance. She received her doctorate from Seton Hall University. After teaching music in the elementary grades, Casterlow-Lalla was appointed as Supervisor of Gifted & Talented Education for Passaic Public Schools, where she implemented the district’s first Saturday Enrichment Academy, and led the district’s Jump Into Summer Program, which served more than 5,000 students. In 2015, she was selected as the founding assistant principal at the Passaic Gifted and Talented Academy, the city’s first magnet school. As the current supervisor of art and music, Casterlow-Lalla has revived the theatre arts program in three high schools, implemented modern band in seven schools, and launched programs in music technology, digital arts, and theatre arts.
Julie Derges is associate professor and chair of music education at the University ofHouston, where she teaches courses in elementary and secondary general music and music education research. She is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and also holds master’s and doctorate degrees from Michigan State University. Derges’s research exploring popular music learning and music teacher professional development has been published in international and national publications, including the Journal of Research in Music Education, International Journal of Music Education, The Orff Echo, and the Oxford Handbook of Social Media and Music Learning. She is an active clinician for general music teachers and has twice been named the Texas Invited Clinician for Elementary Music at the Texas Music Educators Association annual convention. Derges has taught general music in Virginia and Michigan, and is certified in Music Learning Theory and Orff-Schulwerk.
Ruth E. Dwyer is internationally recognized as a youth and children’s choir specialist and Kodály educator. She is a frequent guest conductor and clinician for national and international colleges, universities, honors choirs, and festivals. Dwyer has recently retired from the Indianapolis Children’s Choir after thirty-six years as a conductor and director of education and as artistic director of the Columbus Indiana Children’s Choir. Her ensembles have performed across North America, Spain, and central Europe. Her teaching experiences also include nineteen years as a public school music educator and adjunct professor with Butler University. Dwyer has authored several music education text books for Illinois Central College and is a frequent guest author for the Hal Leonard choral music text book series. She is an accomplished composer, arranger, and is the editor of the Ruth Dwyer Choral Series with Colla Voce Music.
Arris Golden is the assistant director of bands and associate director of the Spartan Marching Band at Michigan State University (MSU). In this capacity, Golden teaches the MSU Concert Band, courses in conducting and marching band techniques, coordinates the MSU Performing Arts Camps, and assists with all aspects of the total band program. She held a similar position at UNC-Chapel Hill and also had a distinguished eighteen-year career as an educator in the public schools of North Carolina. Golden holds degrees from the UNC-Chapel Hill, UNC-Greensboro, and completed the doctor of musical arts in wind conducting from Michigan State University as a 2014 recipient of a Michigan State University Distinguished Fellowship. She maintains an active schedule with engagements throughout the United States and internationally as a guest conductor, clinician, and adjudicator.
Lynn Hoare is a facilitator, educator, and director working in the field of applied theatre and arts education with regional, national, and international partners. She was the senior director of school-based programs at Creative Action, the largest arts and education nonprofit in central Texas. She is an adjunct faculty member at the University of Texas at Austin, a co-founder of the Center for Imagining and Performing Justice, and the co-director of the Performing Justice Project which devises original theatre with young people about gender and racial justice. Her co-authored book, Devising Critically Engaged Theatre with Youth: The Performing Justice Project, won the distinguished book award from the American Alliance of Theatre and Education in 2021. Hoare collaborates with others to use theatre as a tool for imagining justice, building connection and community, and fostering critical dialogue.
Tia James is an actor, director, teacher, and vocal coach. She is an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and teaches voice and acting to the graduate students in the professional actor training program. She also serves as a company member, resident director, and vocal coach for PlayMakers Repertory Company. James’s acting credits include Hamlet in Hamlet, Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing, Clyde in Clyde's, Angel in Blues for an Alabama Sky, and Mark Antony in Julius Caesar. James has directed numerous plays, including By The Way, Meet Vera Stark; Constellations; Grand Concourse; and A Bright New Boise. She has served as vocal coach for more than a dozen plays. James earned degrees at Virginia Commonwealth University, the New York University graduate acting program, and the Miller Voice Method Teacher Certification program. She has won numerous awards and scholarships including the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival Irene Ryan Award.
Ryan Kasprzak is the co-head of acting for musical theatre at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, and an adjunct faculty member at Montclair State University. He recently served as dance supervisor for Hamilton in San Juan, Puerto Rico, with Lin-Manuel Miranda in the title role. Kasprzak received a Chita Rivera Award nomination for his Broadway debut in Bandstand under the direction of Tony Award-winner Andy Blankenbuehler. His Broadway national tours include: Billy Elliot (associate resident choreographer/dance captain) and Fosse (dance captain). His television work can be seen on NBC’s Smash and Fox’s So You Think You Can Dance. His choreography has been featured in numerous regional productions and in New York Musical Festivals’ award-winning shows. Kasprzak continues creating new work with Parallel Exit: Physical Comedy Theater. He received his degree in acting from Marymount Manhattan College and a degree in choreography from Wilson College.
Jacque Schrader and Rick Layton have been teaching adults in Orff Schulwerk teacher education courses, state conferences, and national conferences in the United States for more than twenty-five years. Since the late 1980s they have taught together at the University of North Texas, Southern Methodist University, and George Mason University. In addition to their work in this country, both have taught internationally, including courses in Australia, Canada, China, Dubai, Germany, Poland, Slovakia, and Taiwan, and twice at the Orff Institute in Austria.
For the past thirty years, Jacque Schrader taught in the first school, lower school, and middle school at the Key School in Annapolis, Maryland. Most recently, Schrader has been appointed as the director of the Discovery Outreach Program for the Annapolis Symphony Academy. In this role, she has launched the Discovery Outreach Program for children from age five to ten. Schrader holds a degree from Drake University, and Orff Schulwerk Level III certification from Hamline University.
Richard Layton’s teaching has included being a professor of music theory at the University of Maryland, College Park since 1992, and teaching at the Key School in Annapolis, Maryland since 1979 where he was the upper school performing arts department chair. He holds a degree from West Chester University, and his master’s degree and doctorate from the University of Maryland. He is co-author of The Elemental Style: A Handbook for Composers and Arrangers.
Robyn McClendon is a mixed media artist. She studied paper making and bookbinding in the tradition of apprenticing, as these disciplines were dying art forms in the 1980's and were being revived by artists. She subsequently taught in universities and museum systems as an adjunct professor, often setting up the programs in the art departments of these schools nationally, as the discipline of book as art was becoming recognized as a significant art form. She also worked and taught in the book binding department at the Smithsonian Institution. She has exhibited widely both nationally and internationally, and has written a best selling book called Gel Plate Printing for Mixed Media Art, published through Schiffer Publishing. As an artaeomythologist, McClendon leads retreats and workshops that combine the visual arts, idea generation and book arts which help participants find a voice for their story, move forward, and recognize a more authentic artistic experience.
Amanda O'Shaughnessy is an elementary art teacher in Overland Park, Kansas, and has been teaching for thirteen years. She also runs pop-up style creative workshops for adults through partnerships with area businesses using her company Studio Art Club, which she founded in 2021. O'Shaughnessy studied at the Kansas City Art Institute and the University of Missouri in Kansas City, where she graduated with a degree in studio art and then earned a master of arts in teaching from the University of Central Missouri. In addition to teaching in schools, she spent several years at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art leading classes for all ages. O'Shaughnessy has presented at multiple conferences, including the National Art Education Association conference in 2023 in San Antonio, Texas. Printmaking, ceramics, and drawing have always been areas of interest as both an artist and an educator. O'Shaughnessy recognizes that everyone can tap into their own unique creativity, and she provides opportunities for this to happen.
Robert (Rob) Russell Pethel is a musician, educator, and content creator based in Atlanta, Georgia. Pethel holds degrees from Georgia State University, including a doctorate, and a master’s degree from Auburn University. He has worked for Atlanta Public Schools since 2008 and taught at Sutton Middle School and Peyton Forest Elementary. Pethel currently serves as the lead technology teacher, music instructor, Apple learning coach, and eSports coach at the Atlanta Virtual Academy. He is also active as a professional development speaker and has presented for the Georgia Music Educators Association, Louisiana Music Educators Association, and the Georgia Educational Technology Conference. Pethel is the creator of BlueGuitar Classroom Curriculum (www.BlueGuitar.us), Music Prism (www.YouTube.com/@MusicPrism), and Armuchee Craft (www.ArmucheeCraft.com).
David Tamori taught at Oroville High School for more than thirty-seven years, teaching drawing, 2D design, 3D design, and jewelry making. He supervised more than thirty student teachers. Tamori received the National Art Educators Association Award for Outstanding Secondary Art Educator in the pacific region and the California Art Educators Award for Outstanding Secondary School Visual Art Educator. He served on the development committees for the Praxis, and National Board for Professional Teaching Standards and as a member of the Commission on Teacher Credentialing Bias Review Committee. Tamori is a consultant for the College Board Advanced Placement Art and Design Program, in the Western states region. While much of Tamori’s career as an artist and educator has focused on visual art, he is also an accomplished drummer and a founding member and president of the Artists of Rivertown, a non-profit group of Oroville artists.
Nina Unitas is currently serving as senior program officer for arts education in the Pittsburgh Public Schools. She is passionate for the visual arts and is known for being very hopeful and inclusive. Unitas relentlessly advocates for humanizing education by offering young people opportunities to ask questions, re-imagine our world and their role in it, and define ways that they see the world becoming a more just, loving, and compassionate place for all people. She previously served as principal of Wylandville Elementary in the Canon-McMillan School District. While there, she worked to promote visible thinking and arts-based teaching practices that challenged the faculty to grow as learners. Unitas began her career as an art teacher at Chartiers Valley Primary School in 1999, and she taught there for seven years. While studying at Carnegie Mellon University she received a master in public management in educational leadership and recently earned a superintendent letter of eligibility through Point Park University.
