GOAL: To teach and create art with students in a dynamic educational setting that utilizes her strength-based approach.
STRENGTHS:
SKILLS: Ability to cultivate a classroom culture that is playful, experimental and expands students' creative capacity, strengthens their engagement and promotes self-awareness. Provide instruction for varied learning styles & manage classroom behaviors and student interactions in a positive manner, yet firm when required. Ability to deal professionally, tactfully, and effectively with others. Trained (and continue to train) in SEL, UDL, Arts Integration, Cultural Competence, Self-Identifying Implicit Bias, Equitable Classrooms, and CPS (Collaborative Proactive Solutions).
TEACHING POSITIONS
Longview School -"Reinventing education one child at a time", K-12 Progressive Democratic School
Arts Program Director 2020-2021
An extraordinary egalitarian school community in which all community members, students, and teachers alike are equally empowered. Student interest-based classes focus on inquiry-based instruction in conjunction with hands-on projects with real world applications.
Howard Center Baird School, Therapeutic K-8
Arts Integration Curriculum Designer & Teaching Artist 2014-2020
Created and taught an Integrated Arts curriculum built on the Universal Design for Learning framework that supported students with learning differences and severe behavioral challenges, grades K-8. She made adaptations to support each individual student in the following areas:
Lisa was them (7 yr) Artist-in-Residence at the therapeutic Baird School. The amazing students at Baird have experienced trauma and are also highly reactive and reluctant to engage. She taught the visual arts with a strength-based approach that was integrated into the core curriculum the students were already being taught in the classroom. All teaching sessions were logged in detail for the purpose of tracking results-based-accountability (R.B.A.) for funding. The program Lisa designed and led in partnership with the funding of Inclusive Arts Vermont is credited with shifting the culture of Baird School to a place where art currently permeates the classroom on a day to day basis and where the children feel successful, engage in the arts and feel empowered when expressing themselves creatively. Lisa was also a Jane Trust recipient in partnership with Inclusive Arts Vermont to train additional artists to carry out her approach. Her program is now being taught, by other artists, in four different schools, both public & therapeutic.
Inclusive Arts Vermont (Formally: VSA Vermont : The State Organization on Arts and Disability)
Senior Teaching Artist & Arts Integration Designer/Facilitator 2011-2020
Community Engagement Lab Creative Schools Initiative
Teaching Artist Fellow 2017-2020
Chosen:
Middlebury College
Artist In Residence Fall 2018
Goal: to cultivate community and college student engagement through art making. Organized and facilitated an open studio at Middlebury College organic farm making art in the landscape and with natural materials. Constructed collaborative sculptures created from invasive plants gleaned from the farm.
Middlebury College MiddCORE Program Mentor
Group Facilitator 2012-2019
Design and facilitate workshops on creativity, ideation/prototyping, and visual communication.
Open Studio Project
Group Facilitator Evanston, IL 2009-2011
Was asked to be a facilitator, completed facilitator-in-training and mentorship program. Facilitated “connecting with the creative process” and community outreach programming.
North Shore Academy Therapeutic High School
Teaching Artist IL 2011
Designed and facilitated sculpture workshops for kids in crisis to gain creative empowerment. Educated art department on process-oriented work with a writing component. Trained art department on how to set up their space to be a functional art studio for youth
Middlebury Union High School
Varsity Soccer Coach, VT
St. Mary's Elementary School
Art Educator, VT
Awarded teacher of the year in 2006
Designed and implemented art curriculum for the school, grades K-6.
Wasatch Academy High School
Art Educator & Varsity Soccer Coach Mount Pleasant, UT
Designed and taught college preparatory studio art, art history and AP art courses. Tasked with integrating art throughout the school-wide curriculum. Dorm parent, coach, ran outdoor leadership trips in a boarding school setting.
Morgan School Art Department Head
Varstiy Soccer Coach and Outdoor Leader Lenoir, NC
Art department head. Designed and implemented art curriculum and co-designed outdoor leadership program. Dorm parent and varsity soccer coach in a boarding school setting.
PRESENTATIONS & AWARDS
2021 Alternative Education Resouce Organization 2021 International Conference, Panel Member
2018 Community Engagement Lab Creative Schools Initiative, Selected fellow, workshop presenter & participant
2018 Northern New Hampshire Arts Alliance, Designer & Leader -2 day training for NH educators on
2017 Vermont Agency of Education: Keynote Speaker, K-Conference
2017 Creative Schools Initiative Teacher Institute, workshop designer and leader, 5 day training for VT educators on building creative capacity in schools.
2017 Vermont Arts Council Art of Inclusion: Accessibility Symposium, Selected panelist to address: “Engaging people with diverse learning styles, abilities, and interests through the power of the creative process.”
2016 Vermont Arts Council Creative Summit, Presenter, Vermont College of Fine Arts
2016 ArtPlace America Finalist, appointed artist on committee for creative placemaking grant
2016 Jane Trust Foundation Recipient, for education she designed and taught in partnership w/VSA Vermont
2015 John F. Kennedy Center VSA International Conference Special Education and the Arts, Speaker and Workshop Participant
2015 Vermont Creative Network, state panel, Presenter and Workshop Participant
2015 Vermont Teaching Artist Conference, Speaker & Workshop Participant, Flynn Theater
2015 Facilitative Leadership For Social Change Workshop participant tasked with developing a Family Engagement Arts-Based Early Childhood Literacy Program for the state with VSA VT which was funded in 2016- continues to be successful to this day
2014 Award for Excellence in Arts Education awarded to VSA VT by the VSA Affiliate Council for Start With The Arts
2013 Arts Connect! - Juried & Selected, fully funded,1 of 10 teaching artists in the state of Vermont for Arts Integration and Universal Design for Learning graduate level training
LARGE SCALE CREATIVE PROJECTS
The Gunnery, private H.S., Artist, Designer and Leader of Collaborative Project 2020
Mount Abe Middle School in partnership with Community Engagement Lab, 2017
Middlebury College MiddCORE, Town wide "Gratitude Project" Installation
Most recent:
TEACHING ROSTERS:
EDUCATION
Art Therapy Certificate Northwestern University, graduate level Evanston, IL 2011
Taught by Dr. Harriet Wadeson (fondly known as the “Grandmother of Art Therapy”)
Open Studio Project Facilitator Training Certification Evanston, IL 2010
Founded by Pat B. Allen, author of Art is a Way of Knowing
Bachelor of Fine Arts Western Michigan University, Major: Painting & Photography; Minor: Art History, Museum Studies, Paper Engineering and Technology
Cortona, Italy Study Abroad Fine Art Program: Oil Painting & Art History
STRENGTHS:
- Growth mindset thinker who loves working with kids, including neurodivergent thinkers and reluctant learners
- Creative problem solver trained to implement inclusive practices
- Practiced Artist & Integrated Art Curriculum Designer that generates multiple pathways for all learners to engage with the curriculum; including those that are reluctant and reactive to learn & people with learning differences
- Responsive facilitator, flexible collaborator, and strong relationship builder
- Calm in difficult situations and a leader during tough transitions
SKILLS: Ability to cultivate a classroom culture that is playful, experimental and expands students' creative capacity, strengthens their engagement and promotes self-awareness. Provide instruction for varied learning styles & manage classroom behaviors and student interactions in a positive manner, yet firm when required. Ability to deal professionally, tactfully, and effectively with others. Trained (and continue to train) in SEL, UDL, Arts Integration, Cultural Competence, Self-Identifying Implicit Bias, Equitable Classrooms, and CPS (Collaborative Proactive Solutions).
TEACHING POSITIONS
Longview School -"Reinventing education one child at a time", K-12 Progressive Democratic School
Arts Program Director 2020-2021
An extraordinary egalitarian school community in which all community members, students, and teachers alike are equally empowered. Student interest-based classes focus on inquiry-based instruction in conjunction with hands-on projects with real world applications.
- Taught studio art, critical thinking through visual thinking strategies, creative capacity building, portfolio development, math & art, site-specific art, hand-building and other integrated art courses.
- All courses taught in an art studio setting with real-world purposeful applications.
- In addition to artistic and academic skills, a deep focus placed on the whole child/teen's interpersonal, social-emotional and organizational skills.
- Faculty support for student jobs, LGBTQIA squad, Non-punitive disciplinary committee, student-led special events, and student-led panel for the Alternative Education Resource Organization 2021 International Conference
Howard Center Baird School, Therapeutic K-8
Arts Integration Curriculum Designer & Teaching Artist 2014-2020
Created and taught an Integrated Arts curriculum built on the Universal Design for Learning framework that supported students with learning differences and severe behavioral challenges, grades K-8. She made adaptations to support each individual student in the following areas:
- Social Emotional Learning & Community Building
- Integrating Common Core & Art Forms to meet Evolving Objectives
- Building Creative Capacity & Support of Creative Empowerment in all participants
- Art and classroom adaptations made for people with disabilities, the behaviorally challenged and inclusive practices designed to engage all learners.
Lisa was them (7 yr) Artist-in-Residence at the therapeutic Baird School. The amazing students at Baird have experienced trauma and are also highly reactive and reluctant to engage. She taught the visual arts with a strength-based approach that was integrated into the core curriculum the students were already being taught in the classroom. All teaching sessions were logged in detail for the purpose of tracking results-based-accountability (R.B.A.) for funding. The program Lisa designed and led in partnership with the funding of Inclusive Arts Vermont is credited with shifting the culture of Baird School to a place where art currently permeates the classroom on a day to day basis and where the children feel successful, engage in the arts and feel empowered when expressing themselves creatively. Lisa was also a Jane Trust recipient in partnership with Inclusive Arts Vermont to train additional artists to carry out her approach. Her program is now being taught, by other artists, in four different schools, both public & therapeutic.
Inclusive Arts Vermont (Formally: VSA Vermont : The State Organization on Arts and Disability)
Senior Teaching Artist & Arts Integration Designer/Facilitator 2011-2020
- Taught in K-12 schools: Collaborative Integrated Arts Residency Program
- Generate and facilitate Start With the Arts (SWTA); a dynamic, inclusive 16-week arts-based early childhood literacy program carried out in therapeutic and non-therapeutic child care centers and with in-home childcare providers
- Mentor and train adult childcare providers to implement SWTA program.
- Teach interactive workshops on art and inclusive practices throughout New England.
- Train our instructors and teaching artists on social & emotional learning, circle of courage, integrated arts, universal design for learning, inclusive practices, art and classroom adaptations for people with disabilities, the behaviorally challenged and inclusive practices to engage all learners.
- Teaching artist in the VSA VT adults with disabilities mentorship training program
- Lead adults with dementia and their caretakers in a gallery setting modeled after the “Meet me at MoMA” programming. Lisa is trained by Gordon Sasaki and VSA to facilitate “Meet Me at MoMA” programming.
- All teaching sessions were logged in detail for the purpose to track results-based-accountability (RBA) for funding.
Community Engagement Lab Creative Schools Initiative
Teaching Artist Fellow 2017-2020
Chosen:
- as a fellow to teach dynamic art programming in schools
- to train other teachers how to use the creative process to invigorate the classroom
- to implement adaptations and inclusive practice into a setting to creatively engage all learners
- To be one of the 8 lead teaching artists for week-long Teacher Institute Training of 50 educators from across the state of Vermont to implement creativity at the center of learning.
Middlebury College
Artist In Residence Fall 2018
Goal: to cultivate community and college student engagement through art making. Organized and facilitated an open studio at Middlebury College organic farm making art in the landscape and with natural materials. Constructed collaborative sculptures created from invasive plants gleaned from the farm.
Middlebury College MiddCORE Program Mentor
Group Facilitator 2012-2019
Design and facilitate workshops on creativity, ideation/prototyping, and visual communication.
Open Studio Project
Group Facilitator Evanston, IL 2009-2011
Was asked to be a facilitator, completed facilitator-in-training and mentorship program. Facilitated “connecting with the creative process” and community outreach programming.
North Shore Academy Therapeutic High School
Teaching Artist IL 2011
Designed and facilitated sculpture workshops for kids in crisis to gain creative empowerment. Educated art department on process-oriented work with a writing component. Trained art department on how to set up their space to be a functional art studio for youth
Middlebury Union High School
Varsity Soccer Coach, VT
St. Mary's Elementary School
Art Educator, VT
Awarded teacher of the year in 2006
Designed and implemented art curriculum for the school, grades K-6.
Wasatch Academy High School
Art Educator & Varsity Soccer Coach Mount Pleasant, UT
Designed and taught college preparatory studio art, art history and AP art courses. Tasked with integrating art throughout the school-wide curriculum. Dorm parent, coach, ran outdoor leadership trips in a boarding school setting.
Morgan School Art Department Head
Varstiy Soccer Coach and Outdoor Leader Lenoir, NC
Art department head. Designed and implemented art curriculum and co-designed outdoor leadership program. Dorm parent and varsity soccer coach in a boarding school setting.
PRESENTATIONS & AWARDS
2021 Alternative Education Resouce Organization 2021 International Conference, Panel Member
2018 Community Engagement Lab Creative Schools Initiative, Selected fellow, workshop presenter & participant
2018 Northern New Hampshire Arts Alliance, Designer & Leader -2 day training for NH educators on
2017 Vermont Agency of Education: Keynote Speaker, K-Conference
2017 Creative Schools Initiative Teacher Institute, workshop designer and leader, 5 day training for VT educators on building creative capacity in schools.
2017 Vermont Arts Council Art of Inclusion: Accessibility Symposium, Selected panelist to address: “Engaging people with diverse learning styles, abilities, and interests through the power of the creative process.”
2016 Vermont Arts Council Creative Summit, Presenter, Vermont College of Fine Arts
2016 ArtPlace America Finalist, appointed artist on committee for creative placemaking grant
2016 Jane Trust Foundation Recipient, for education she designed and taught in partnership w/VSA Vermont
2015 John F. Kennedy Center VSA International Conference Special Education and the Arts, Speaker and Workshop Participant
2015 Vermont Creative Network, state panel, Presenter and Workshop Participant
2015 Vermont Teaching Artist Conference, Speaker & Workshop Participant, Flynn Theater
2015 Facilitative Leadership For Social Change Workshop participant tasked with developing a Family Engagement Arts-Based Early Childhood Literacy Program for the state with VSA VT which was funded in 2016- continues to be successful to this day
2014 Award for Excellence in Arts Education awarded to VSA VT by the VSA Affiliate Council for Start With The Arts
2013 Arts Connect! - Juried & Selected, fully funded,1 of 10 teaching artists in the state of Vermont for Arts Integration and Universal Design for Learning graduate level training
LARGE SCALE CREATIVE PROJECTS
The Gunnery, private H.S., Artist, Designer and Leader of Collaborative Project 2020
- Designer and leader of orchestrating an all-school Collaborative Art Project: culminating in a large scale art piece installed into the new Art Community Center.(community= 435 total participants: 315 students and 120+ adults)
- This integrated collaborative project mirrored the all-school summer reading and ecosystem of a boarding school community
Mount Abe Middle School in partnership with Community Engagement Lab, 2017
- Led entire 7th grade of Mount Abe Middle school designing and implementing an art residency with the ELA, Science & Social Studies dept. based on an essential question.
- Residency was multifaceted including:
- an interactive installation built by the students for a community festival hosting 5,000 visitors
- Students installed 5 site specific ephemeral art installations in surrounding 5 small towns that feed into one middle school for community building and unification.
- Utilized visual art practices to explore and generate three social agreements as a 7th grade class to abide by until they graduated to highschool.
Middlebury College MiddCORE, Town wide "Gratitude Project" Installation
-
Most recent:
- Lisa led her H.S. Site-Specific Art class students in painting a Lazure style mural at the Longview School.
- 335 sq. ft. corridor: Lisa designed this mural in collaboration with the school director and then painted in a therapeutic setting to provide a transitional space for students to regulate in between the isolation room and the general school community. So far, very successful at achieving this goal.
- 280 sq. ft. corner: Lisa designed, in collaboration with the special education director and literary specialist, and painted the corner to shift the energy of the entry from a space where children gathered during escalation to a cubby-nook where children would gravitate to find calm. So far, very successful at achieving this goal.
TEACHING ROSTERS:
- Inclusive Arts Vermont, Senior Teaching Artist
- Community Engagement Lab: Creative Schools Initiative, Fellow
- Middlebury College MiddCORE - Dept of Creativity & Innovation
- Instructor Registry: Early Childhood Building Bright Futures
- Vermont Arts Council
- Open Studio Project Facilitator, Chicago
- Member: Teaching Artists Guild
EDUCATION
Art Therapy Certificate Northwestern University, graduate level Evanston, IL 2011
Taught by Dr. Harriet Wadeson (fondly known as the “Grandmother of Art Therapy”)
Open Studio Project Facilitator Training Certification Evanston, IL 2010
Founded by Pat B. Allen, author of Art is a Way of Knowing
Bachelor of Fine Arts Western Michigan University, Major: Painting & Photography; Minor: Art History, Museum Studies, Paper Engineering and Technology
Cortona, Italy Study Abroad Fine Art Program: Oil Painting & Art History
