Faculty Bios

Drew Brown is currently an art teacher at Milton High School in Milton, Georgia, although she has taught at all grade levels. She draws inspiration from her students and encourages them to embrace personal connections to their artwork while making dialogue and reflection major components of learning through the arts. Brown was previously the associate curator for education services at the Morris Museum of Art, and has also served as an adjunct professor on the university level. She is past president of the Georgia Art Education Association and was designated as its Georgia Art Educator for 2020. Brown has shown her own work in various venues across Georgia including the University of North Georgia and the Alpharetta Arts Center. She has frequently presented on the state and national levels, including Harvard’s Project Zero, and especially enjoys co-presenting and collaborating with colleagues.

Ann Clements is a professor of music education at Pennsylvania State University and serves as assistant vice provost of faculty affairs-faculty development, where she oversees the advancement of more than 6,400 full time faculty members. Clements is an active researcher, musician, and pedagogue, who has given more than 150 keynote addresses and presentations throughout the United States and around the world. She is published in multiple national and international journals and is the author and editor of multiple books in her field, including Field Guide to Student Teaching in Music, Alternative Approach in Music Education: Case Studies from the Field, and Popular Music Pedagogies: A Practical Guide for Music Teachers. Her primary research areas include music participation, game theory in education, learning in augmented realities, professional development in higher education, arts integration, and ethnomusicology. Clements is also a recognized scholar in Maori music of New Zealand.

Deborah Damast is director and clinical associate professor of dance education at the New York University Steinhardt School, where she teaches classes, directs concerts, oversees outreach, and serves as director for the Uganda study abroad program. She has presented at numerous conferences, and her choreography has been performed in more than one hundred venues in New York City, including the Ailey Citigroup Theatre; Peridance Center, World Financial Center, and Symphony Space. She has worked throughout the United States, and internationally in Canada, Italy, Japan, Korea, and Uganda. Damast has been active in numerous professional organizations and has written curricula for Peridance and New York City Ballet, among others. She is the recipient of the 2010 Outstanding Dance Educator Award from the National Dance Education Organization, the 2019 New York University Steinhardt Excellence in Teaching Award, and the 2020 Dance Teacher Magazine Award.

Dru Davison is a music program leader for Shelby County Schools in Memphis, Tennessee, and an active researcher in areas of creative leadership, education policy, and program development. Davison recently served as project chair for the Tennessee State Board of Education’s Standards Revisions for Arts Education and has consulted for the United States Department of Education Reform Support Network and the Insight Education Group. He is active with the National Association for Music Education with past service as chair of the council of Music Program Leaders, where he oversaw the revisions of Opportunity-to-Learn Standards for Music Instruction. Prior to his work in administration, Davison taught instrumental music in rural and urban areas, was an adjunct jazz and saxophone instructor at Arkansas State University, and was a teaching fellow at the University of North Texas, where he received a doctorate in Music Education. He recently developed a course in creative leadership for Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee. He is also active as a freelance saxophonist in the Memphis area.

Manju Durairaj was born and raised in India and studied in Pune, India. As a graduate student at Middlesex University in London, she was involved in research projects on comparative pedagogical practices of Indian (Carnatic) and Western music. Later, at VanderCook College of Music in Chicago, she earned her second master’s degree as well as her K–12 teaching certification. Durairaj is currently the lower school music teacher at the Latin School of Chicago. She is past president of the Greater Chicago Orff Chapter and is a certified Orff-Schulwerk instructor and arts integration specialist. She also serves an adjunct professor at VanderCook College of Music, Chicago, where she teaches curriculum and elementary methods courses. She is a frequent clinician for state, national, and international conferences. She has been published in numerous publications, including the Orff Echo, Reverberations, Illinois Music Educators Journal, General Music Today, and the Journal of the Council for Research in Music Education.

Author, artist, and filmmaker Aaron Dworkin exemplifies commitment to action when it comes to connecting people to the arts. He served on President Obama’s National Council on the Arts and on President Biden’s arts policy committee. Dworkin served as dean of the University of Michigan’s School of Music, Theatre, and Dance and is a tenured professor of arts leadership and entrepreneurship. He is also a professor of entrepreneurship at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. He is the founder of the Sphinx Organization, an organization with a continued legacy of changing lives through the transformative power of diversity in the arts. Dworkin also serves as the host of Arts Engines, a weekly nationally broadcast show that represents a collaboration between several influential arts and media organizations. He was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2005 and is a frequent keynote speaker at national conferences. He continues his own artistic practice as a published author, a highly sought spoken word artist, and an award-winning filmmaker.

Scott Edgar is associate professor of music, music education chair, and director of bands at Lake Forest College. He received degrees from the University of Michigan, the University of Dayton, and Bowling Green State University. Prior to his work in higher education, he taught music to students from kindergarten through twelfth grade in Ohio and Michigan. Edgar is the author of Music Education and Social Emotional Learning: The Heart of Teaching Music and is an internationally sought-after clinician on the topic. Additionally, he serves as director of practice and research for The Center for Arts Education and Social Emotional Learning. In addition to clinics, he also teaches graduate courses on musical social emotional learning at VanderCook College of Music. Edgar is a Music for All educational consultant, a Conn-Selmer educational clinician, and VH1 Save the Music Foundation educational consultant.

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Amanda Galbraith is an art educator with the Bartlett City Schools in Tennessee. In 2017–2018, she was an educator fellow with the State Collaborative on Reforming Education, a Tennessee-based nonprofit education research institution. Her students have consistently received recognition and awards, and many have gone on to successfully pursue further studies in the arts. Galbraith has served on the Tennessee Department of Education’s subject matter expert committee, two standards revision committees, a textbook and instructional materials advisory panel, and numerous curriculum development teams. She’s received the Tennessee Art Education Association’s West Tennessee Art Educator of the Year award two times—in 2011 and 2013. In 2019 Galbraith was named the Tennessee Art Education Association Art Educator of the Year. She is a frequent presenter at local, state, and national conferences.

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Rachel Hamilton holds degrees from Arizona State University and Texas Woman's University. Currently, she works with Thinkery, a children's museum in Austin, Texas, as the vice president of guest experience. Hamilton creates welcoming, inclusive, inquiry-based, STEAM programs and museum experiences for learners from birth through age eleven. Before moving to Texas, she ran the theatre division at Metro Nashville Parks and Recreation and was the associate director of education at Nashville Children's Theatre. She is a recipient of the National Arts Strategies'; Creative Communities Fellowship and was a member of the Metro Nashville Arts Commission's Racial Equity in Arts Leadership cadre. Her work focuses on community building, storytelling and facilitating opportunities for students to use their innate creativity to shape the world into a more vibrant and equitable place.

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Wynita Harmon is an associate professor and instructional coach at the Art of Education University, an organization committed to developing amazing art teachers by providing rigorous, relevant, and engaging learning at every stage of their careers. Harmon holds a doctorate degree in educational leadership from Dallas Baptist University. She taught in elementary Title I schools for fourteen years and served as an art team lead teacher in a large Texas school district. As an advocate for choice-based art education and student equity, Harmon has presented in various capacities on student choice, equity, and cultural awareness. She actively seeks opportunities to support the arts and promote change within the field. Recently, Harmon presented as part of a panel for the Columbia Museum of Art’s webinar Doing the (Art)Work: Building an Anti-racist Curriculum using the Arts.

Gary Hill is a professor of music and the director of bands emeritus at Arizona State University. He taught at Arizona State from 1999 to 2019 and is one of the most sought-after guest conductors and clinicians in the instrumental music education field. As a conductor, he has made appearances in more than a dozen countries and throughout the United States, including performances with myriad honor bands, numerous college and university wind bands and orchestras, and many professional ensembles. He has also been a conductor at the Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic and at conferences of the World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles. As a clinician, Hill has presented hundreds of workshops on conducting and rehearsal technique for music teachers of all levels and has worked with thousands of bands and orchestras and their teachers. Hill is currently a Conn-Selmer educational clinician.

Victor Johnson, a native of Dallas, Texas, is the school choral editor for the educational publishing division of Choristers Guild. A prolific composer and arranger, he has more than 350 choral works, vocal solo books, and keyboard collections currently in print. Previously, he was a choral director at the Fort Worth Academy of Fine Arts. During his time there, he directed the Academy Singers, the Academy Men’s Choir, and was artistic director of the Singing Girls of Texas and Children’s Choir of Texas. Johnson is in demand as a guest conductor, adjudicator, and clinician for music educators and students throughout the United States. His choirs have performed at the Texas Music Educators Association Convention as well as the American Choral Directors Association Southwest Division conference. His professional affiliations include the American Choral Directors Association, the National Association for Music Education, and the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (commonly known as “ASCAP”).

Margaret Laurena Kemp is an actor, multi-disciplinary performing artist, writer, and teaching artist. She is an associate professor of theatre and dance at the University of California, Davis, and has been a guest artist at several institutions both in this country and abroad. Her research explores authorship and spatial politics through performance. As a solo actor, Kemp has toured her work in Australia, South Africa, and the United States. She has won worldwide praise for her starring role in the film Children of God. Her visual work has been shown in solo and group shows in the United States and the Bahamas. In 2019, Kemp was awarded a Lucas Art Residency at the Montalvo Arts Center; and in 2017, she received a Headlands Residency. She is also a recipient of the Michael Chekhov Artist Scholar Award and the 2019 Voice and Speech Trainers Association Featured Artist Award. Her production of The Bluest Eye was recently honored with multiple Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival Awards. Kemp is a faculty member of the Michael Chekhov Association and a designated Fitzmaurice Voicework Lead Teacher.

Ashley McKee is currently teaching kindergarten through sixth grade art in Westfield, Pennsylvania. She actively advocates for the arts in her rural community, uses local resources, celebrates what makes the area special, and maximizes student experiences on a shoestring budget. She encourages her students to explore, make mistakes, and try new things. The primary goal of her work in the classroom is to develop creative problem solvers who can communicate effectively. McKee recently presented for the virtual art conference A Call to Art, hosted by Art Class Curator, in which she shared ways to make art with what is available in remote areas and when supplies are limited. She has also been a presenting artist for Pentel of America. In this role, she focuses on thanking her community through her illustrations.

Leslie Pearson is a multimedia artist who uses diverse fiber-based materials, processes, and techniques to create sculptures, installations, encaustic paintings, and handmade books in which she explores themes of memory and identity. She pursues art as a studio artist, community arts advocate, and educator. She earned her first degree in fine art from Southeast Missouri State University. She earned a master’s degree in Museum Studies at Newcastle University in England and completed an internship at the Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art in Sunderland. In 2011, she earned a degree in Textile Design at East Carolina University’s School of Art and Design in Greenville, North Carolina. She has taught at various colleges and universities and currently serves on the board of trustees at the Arts Council of Fayetteville. Pearson exhibits her work nationally and internationally.

Rob Roznowski is an award-winning actor, author, director, educator, and playwright. He is a professor at Michigan State University, where he serves as the head of acting and directing in the Department of Theatre. His publications include the books The Introverted Actor, Roadblocks in Acting, Inner Monologue in Acting, and Collaboration in Theatre; numerous plays, and more. He worked as the national outreach and education coordinator for the Actors’ Equity Association and has appeared extensively throughout the United States as an actor and director in New York and Los Angeles, and regionally, at Goodspeed Musicals, Long Wharf Theatre, and the Pittsburgh Public Theatre. He was part of the original cast of I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change and can be heard on the show’s recording. He has directed internationally in Colombia, Dubai, and Greece, where he was a Fulbright Fellow. Among his many awards are the Mid-Michigan Alumni Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching and the Michigan Professor of the Year Award from the President’s Council State Universities of Michigan.

Julie Cohen Theobald is the president of the Educational Theatre Foundation and executive director of the Educational Theatre Association (EdTA), which is the home of the International Thespian Society. At EdTA, Theobald serves more than five thousand theatre educators and one hundred thousand student members of the International Thespian Society. Since taking the helm in 2011, she has doubled the size of the organization and forged key partnerships with the theatre and entertainment industry. Theobald has a lifelong involvement in theatre and more than twenty-five years of business, marketing, and management experience. In her career at Procter & Gamble, she launched the Febreze brand, served as brand manager of Tide detergent, and grew sales during the strongest period of growth in the company’s history. Theobald is active in Cincinnati community theatre as an actor, director, and producer.

Natasha Thurmon teaches Kindergarten through fifth grade general music, choir, strings, recorder, and Orff ensemble at Boldt Elementary School in the Northside Independent School District in San Antonio, Texas. She has degrees from Pacific Lutheran University and the University of Texas at San Antonio. She completed her Orff certification training at Trinity University in San Antonio, where she now teaches recorder. Thurmon is past president of the Central Texas Orff chapter, has served on several subcommittees for the American Orff Schulwerk Association (AOSA), and currently serves on the Recorder Teacher Apprenticeship Panel. She has presented numerous local and regional workshops, including for many Orff chapters. She has also presented at state conferences and the national AOSA conference. In addition to these many roles, Thurmon serves on the executive board and professional development committee for her local American Federation of Teachers association.