November 2015

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2015 Pennsylvania Outstanding Art Educators

 

Outstanding Art Educator of the Year 2015
Amy Anderson

Amy Anderson, an 8th Grade Art Educator at Mount NittanyMiddle School in State College, PA has been a long time, active member of PAEA, serving in a number of different and wide ranging capacities. When something needs to be done, Ms. Anderson is often the person that our PAEA Board of Directors go to. She began her service to PAEA as a Region 4 Co-Representative coordinating numerous workshops in the region.In 2010, Ms Anderson was asked to serve as PAEA Secretary.Recognizing the large size of our board and the need for members to be able to access information more easily, she began the task of envisioning, building and managing a cloud-based infrastructure within Google Drive. This on-going task has changed the way board members do business and given us access to the most current and up-to-date documents, any time and any place. At this same time, she also joined the newsletter committee, where she assisted Kris Fontes with the launch of the digital PAEA newsletter.

In 2012, when a need arose, Ms Anderson stepped into the position of treasurer. As PAEA Treasurer and a member of the leadership council, she develops, maintains, transcribes, and streamlines the procedures, events, accounts, and finances of the organization. She works many hours behind the scenes to enhance the organizational transparency and vibrancy of PAEA. 

Ms Anderson is a proud and founding member of the PAEA Learning By Design, special interest group. She advises the National Junior Art Honor Society at her school and serves as an up-cycling mentor for aspiring young artists and designers in this role. Her students have participated in the state-wide Project Innovate Wearable Art Design Challenge for several years, hosting this event in 2014. One of Ms Anderson's proudest accomplishments is that this project has continued to inspire participating students long after they leave her program. 
PAEA Outstanding Higher Education Art Educator
Dr. Heather Fountain    

Dr. Heather Fountain is an Associate Professor of Art Education and Crafts at Kutztown University, where she serves as the chair of the undergraduate art education program. She teaches graduate and undergraduate art education students, as well as elementary education majors about the power of art to reach and teach all people.

At the national level, Dr. Fountain has served as an executive board member and membership chair for the NAEA Women's Caucus and the NAEA Special Needs Issue Group on the Bi-law and awards committees. At the state level she has served as a board member, conference chair and Higher Education Division Director for PAEA. Dr. Fountain has also served as a reviewer of college programs for the PA Dept. of Ed. (PDE), an advisor on the PA Advisory Board for arts accessibility and on the PDE Task Force on Arts for Students with Disabilities.

She often consults with schools and regularly presents at state and national conferences on topics related to differentiated instruction,disability awareness, 3-D print technology and the use of art to teach literature instruction. She was an invited columnist on the use of art to differentiate literature instruction for Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development's (ASCD). Her research on differentiated instruction is nationally recognized in multiple publications. Her latest book, Differentiated Instruction in Art (2013) was published as part of the Art Education in Practice series by Davis Publications, and she is currently the editor for a new series of art education best practice books expected to begin publication in 2015.

Dr. Fountain has been recognized both locally and nationally for her teaching and service. She was honored by Kutztown University in 2014 with the John Schellenberg Award for Teaching Excellence and has received two Sharadin Awards for the College of Visual and Performing Art, one for service in 2011 and one for teaching excellence in 2013. In 2012, she was awarded the PAEA Outstanding Special Needs Art Educator Award and in 2013 was honored to receive the NAEA, Council for Exceptional Children, VSA Peter J. Geisser Special Needs Art Educato rAward. More important than anything listed above is her desire to help empower teachers to be amazing for their students.
PAEA Outstanding Non-Public School Art Educator
David Love
 
David Love has been drawing his world as far back as he can remember. Exceptional public school art experiences provided him with a solid foundation for studies in printmaking and drawing at The Columbus College of Art and Design and Penn State where he earned his BFA and MFA degrees respectively. While he loved the immediacy of drawing and painting, he discovered a process that magically transformed his ideas into something new and exciting through printmaking. After graduate school, David backpacked all over the world, visiting every temple from Northern Scandinavia to Southern Italy.

Drawing was always a constant throughout his travels. David started working more abstractly when he returned to Philadelphia's artistic community. He began teaching, experiencing the ups and downs of adjunct, teaching at five different colleges. Eventually this led to positions at Moore College of Art and Design and The University of the Arts, where he taught for ten years.

A growing family led David to Germantown Academy, where he has been teaching for the past 13 years. Reflecting on his path, David says that he, "realizes how much I valued my education and the connections to my instructors, now colleagues. This connection is so important, that it inspires me to still meet yearly with my grad professor from 30 years ago and this is the kind of connection I hope to nurture with my own students."

David is a life-long learner who travels frequently to print workshops all over the country. He is a founding member and director of Professional Development of Prints Link Philadelphia, a group that promotes printmaking in the Philadelphia region. He continues to make drawings, paintings and prints. His most recent series, Musings and Meanderings, explores a fascination with identity through personal symbolism and an embrace of accidental processes. The idea of balance is a common visual thread-whether it's the relationship between contrasting colors, marks or the man made and the organic, he is intrigued by the play of opposites and desire to make them whole. David embraces his role as both artist and teacher, "I love teaching and am incredibly inspired by the give and take that happens between students and teacher." 
PAEA Outstanding Elementary Art Educator
Jessica Noel     
 
Jessica Noel is active within her school, community & the PAEA organization. She started teaching full time as a primary school teacher in the fall of 2009 in the Danville Area School District. Though she has only been there for a short time she has done a phenomenal job educating, inspiring, and molding creative minds to love and appreciate art. She has created an outstanding art program that is respected by students, parents, staff and administration throughout the Danville School District. She has the ability to introduce art fundamentals while also sharing information that adds context to art in an age appropriate, engaging and creative way. Noel prides herself in displaying every single piece of student artwork throughout her building year round, transforming her school into an art gallery.

Miss Noel is actively engaged in her school and community. She has created and executed a before school Art Club program for second grade. Additionally she created a school wide Celebrate the Arts Night for her school in 2015. She also has developed a program called the Legacy Project through which students create a permanent piece of art for the school each year. To date, students have created a self-portrait work for the main stairwell (2011-2012), a tree mural made from recycled bottle caps in the library (2012-2013), a chandelier made from plastic water bottles in the library (2013-2014) and a mosaic piece for the playground (2014-2015). Student artwork is also displayed throughout the community at a variety of events such as the Bloomsburg Fair & TreeFest.Miss Noel also serves as a member of the Student Alliance Program (SAP) team.

As a young professional, she attends both PAEA and NAEA conferences and is an active member of the PAEA Elementary Division. She has written articles for NAEA and Partners for Education professional publications.
PAEA Outstanding Middle Level Art Educator    
Judith Treffinger    

Judith Paternoster Treffinger has been an arts educator 
since 1979. As a military wife, Judith had the opportunity to travel and live throughout Central and South America teaching and working as an artist. Upon returning to the US in 1988, she resumed her teaching career with the Carlisle Area School District. Judith received a Master's Equivalency from California State University after attending Penn State and Shippensburg Universities for graduate studies.

Ms. Treffinger has been an active member of PAEA and 
NAEA, working on conference committees and presenting workshops. She has attended several Governors' Institutes as a participant and as a Content Area Partner, served as an evaluator for the Middle States Association, and has been a cooperating teacher for many student teachers through Shippensburg University and Messiah College.

A pioneer in her field, she piloted the first ever model for a co-taught student teaching experience in an art classroom.Ms. Treffinger has been a contributor to the vibrancy of the arts in her community and is a founding member of the Carlisle Arts Learning Center (CALC), a non-profit organization that serves a wide range of needs through art for youth in Carlisle and surrounding communities. She served on the board of directors for 15 years and was the Vice President of CALC for 10 years. Ms. Treffinger has been a member of ACC Crafter's Guild and has exhibited and sold work in Pennsylvania and Maryland. Currently, she is involved with the Learning by Design (LBD) team and has published work in the LBD Magazine.
PAEA Outstanding Secondary Art Educator    
David T. Miller   

David Miller has been active in art education since 1980 when he began teaching art at Tom C. Clark High School in San Antonio, Texas. After seven years in the classroom he became an Admissions Counselor for the Kansas City Art Institute. Art school admissions travel provided a first hand, national perspective of high school and community college art classrooms and their students. This was augmented by regular attendance at national and regional portfolio day events with insight obtained from countless student interviews and portfolio reviews.

Miller's initial goal was to return to the classroom energized and informed by the experience of two or three years of admissions travel. In 1998,eleven years and four art colleges later (Kansas City Art Institute,School of the Museum of Fine Art Boston, San Francisco Art Institute and the School of Visual Arts NYC) he returned to the high school classroom at Wissahickon High School (WHS) in Ambler, PA. He currently teaches courses titled Honors Art and Portfolio Art and serves as Chair of the Art and Music Department. Additionally, he serves or has served on almost every leadership or initiatives committee at WHS.

Miller actively participates in PAEA and NAEA through conference attendance and professional presentations. He has recently served as a regional co-representative on the PAEA board. Miller's teaching methodology has been referred to in numerous publications and he is an active art maker who exhibits throughout the nation on a regular basis.
PAEA Outstanding Emeritus Art Educator    
Beth Berkhauser    

Beth Burkhauser has been an art educator of students in Pennsylvania's public schools for 40 years. In 1980, she was the recipient of the PAEA Outstanding Art Educator Award. She has taken leadership roles in local, state and national organizations, focusing on integration of the arts into the general curriculum. Ms. Burkhauser served on the PAEA Board as the Region 9 Representative for 10 years and continues to present workshops at state, national and international conferences. She founded, and has been the chairperson of the International Interdependence Hexagon Project for the past 10 years. She encourages all teachers to engage students with the Hexagon Project, "you just may find [the Hexagon Project] a way to heighten your students' sensitivities to their own needs and the needs of others and stretch them by creating activist art. The compelling, tessellating hexagonal shape becomes a metaphor for our interconnectedness, our commonalities and our differences."

Although Ms. Burkhauser retired from public education in 2005, she remains an adjunct faculty member at Kings College and Keystone College. She currently serves as the faculty adviser for the NAEA-PAEA Student Chapter at Keystone College and has supervised student teachers at Marywood University and Keystone College. Additionally, she has authored articles for the InSEA-USSEA Newsletter, and writes for School Arts Magazine. She coordinates the artist-in-residence program with the publicly funded EOTC Arts Engage Program and with The Everhart Museum, in collaboration with Keystone College Pre-service Art Education students. One of her proudest accomplishments is that six of her pre-service teachers have won the Clyde McGeary Award.

Ms. Burkhauser actively produces and exhibits her work in several venues. She is an Artist-Mentor-Designer for Heart to Art, a Community-Building, Collaborative Art-Making and Marketing Company, co-chairs community aid projects with, OneBigBoost, a service organization, and is a board member of Artists for Art Gallery in Scranton.
PAEA Outstanding Special Needs Art Educator    
Dr. Lisa Kay  

Dr. Lisa Kay has found a home as an art educator. Her path came from several directions, including a B.F.A. in Graphic Design,M. Ed. in Art Therapy and Ed. D. in Art Education. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Art Education and the Program Head and Graduate Coordinator in the Department of Art Education and Community Arts Practices at Tyler School of Art, Temple University,where her 20 plus years as an art therapist was a perfect fit.

Dr. Kay has always found ways to incorporate art into her life.Working with critically ill children; troubled adolescents and adults in hospitals; developing art programs in residential facilities and schools; working as an art therapist in private practice, Lisa has always been fascinated with the psychology of art. Guiding others to find their creative voice and meaning through art has been her life long passion.

Dr. Kay's research is linked by the common threads of art therapy, art education, and arts-based research. She has been able to infuse her therapeutic skills into her work and has found a creative voice in the tripartite identities as art therapist, art educator and artist/researcher. Her interest in narrative story telling that encourages personal reflection, self knowledge and healing in the context of making art, is part of everything she does. Dr. Kay has found inspiration from Friedl Dicker-Brandeis, the Bauhaus trained artist renowned for her work with children at the Terezin ghetto camp near Prague. Her current research involves adolescent girls at-risk and teaching art teachers ways to work with students who have experienced trauma and adversity.
PAEA Outstanding Museum Art Educator    
Miranda Clark-Binder   

Miranda Clark-Binder joined the La Salle University Art Museum in 2007 as the Assistant Curator of Education and became Curator of Education in 2011. In 2014 she was promoted to Curator of Education and Public Programs and became responsible for all of the Art Museum's educational offerings for the La Salle community,as well as for public audiences of adults, families, special needs groups, and school groups. Ms Clark-Binder designed and implemented La Salle University Art Museum's first Pre-K-12 education program. Under her management, the Art Museum served over 5000 Pre-K-12 students last year. 
 
Ms Clark-Binder is committed to making art museum visits accessible for all audiences and is particularly interested in providing educational and creative opportunities for unreserved youth and special needs groups. According to Linda Price,  Director of SpArc Services' Cultural Arts Center,"[Miranda Clark-Binder's] lectures and museum tours help the artists of the Cultural Arts Center to learn new skills and language that informs their creative process and help them make increasingly sophisticated artwork . . . Miranda encourages the participants to talk about the work they are viewing, helping them to express their thoughts and opinions about the subject matter being explored. The  simple act of having one's opinion be considered and discussed is a social interaction many take for granted but is often not afforded to people with intellectual disabilities. By fostering an environment in which a dialogue about more abstract concepts is valued, Miranda enables program participants to become increasingly comfortable with expressing choices and opinions openly and appropriately."
PAEA Outstanding New Professional Art Educator  
Jessica Carlini-Thatcher    
 
Jessica Carlini-Thatcher loves being a teacher and enjoys encouraging her students to explore, create and find opportunities to express themselves while making big connections and engaging with their communities. A previous presenter at the NAEA Conference, she is in her third year as an educator. During this time she has had the pleasure of teaching science, STEAM style, to 9th  and 10th grade science students at Pleasant Valley School District and art to students in grades K-5 at Carlisle area School District (CASD). As a member of the CASD faculty, Ms. Carlini-Thatcher worked with the Carlisle Arts Learning Center and retired art educator, Demi Hauseman, to facilitate student participation in an Empty Bowls project. Ms Carlini-Thatcher worked in two Title I schools at CASD and the proceeds from Empty Bowls benefited Project Share, a relief organization that helps families in her community that are in need of assistance.

Ms Carlini-Thatcher was an extraordinary new teacher in a demanding situation. She taught in three buildings, traveled every day and still found time to research new lessons, incorporate new ideas, meet the demands of three principals and hang extensive displays in each of her schools that included detailed information on art learning goals. Mentor art educator Susan Durgin shared, "I found that our meetings were at least as valuable to me as they were for Jessica because she asked insightful questions, which sometimes generated ongoing conversations and prompted me to take a fresh look at things . . . that we later shared with the other art staff."

Ms Carlini-Thatcher is currently a Founding Art & Biology Teacher at Allentown School District's newest high school, Building 21. In this role, she will have ample opportunities to design curriculum that is rich with integration between the arts and sciences, as well as to provide her students direct opportunities to work in the community with local area business partners such as the Allentown Art Museum and the Baum School of Art. 
Outstanding Friend to Art Education
Ursula Willis 

Ursula Willis is a twenty-plus year veteran of public 
education. Her career began in the mid 80's as a third grade teacher with the East Orange Board of Education in East Orange,New Jersey. She received a Masters of Science in Instructional Technology from Rosemont University in the early 90's and completed an Educational Leadership Certificate program at Penn State University. She is an innovative practitioner of integrating technology across the curriculum and currently serves as an administrator at Penn Wood High School. 
 
During her tenure in the Philadelphia Public School System, Ms. Willis held many positions including teacher, Instructional Technology Facilitator, and Director of Learning Technology Support. Ms. Willis then moved to Baltimore, Maryland to join the Baltimore City Public School system where she served as Director of Learning Technologies. She also served as Director of Instructional Technology and Data Management in the William Penn School District and is now an Assistant Principal at Penn Wood High School. Ms. Willis also worked as an adjunct Instructor for the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University.

In all of these positions, she advocated the appropriate use of technology and the arts in schools to improve student learning and achievement. Ms. Willis has been an avid supporter of the arts programs in schools by integrating technology equipment and graphic arts programs into the art curriculum.
James R. Ritchey 

"The Board of the Pennsylvania Art Education Association recorded an official Minute of Appreciation to recognize James H. Ritchey for his exemplary service and career contributions to both PAEA and art education across Pennsylvania. Through his pioneering vision, innovative leadership, ever-patient mentoring, and generous support, James has gifted us all with his presence and availability while modeling the very best values of the arts and education day by day."
   
PAEA Outstanding Regional Representatives

   
Joy Knepp 
PAEA Region 6 Regional Representative   
2014 PAEA conference co-chair.  
PAEA Outstanding Secondary Art Educator, 2001
 
 
 
 
Lisbeth Bucci   
PAEA Region 12 Representative    
Adjunct Professor, Department of Art + Design,  
West Chester University, PA 2012 - present     
2016 Conference Co-Chair   
 
Clyde M. McGeary Scholarship Program
  
The Pennsylvania Art Education Association Fellows' Clyde M. McGeary Scholarship Program presents annual scholarships to art education students in Pennsylvania colleges and universities.
  
Mr. Clyde M. Mc Geary is a retired art educator and Fellow of PAEA. Fellows of the Pennsylvania Art Education Association are a group of members who have contributed enduring distinguished service to Pennsylvania art education. Although no longer active on the Board of the organization, Fellows continue to seek ways to serve the profession.
 
As a Fellow, Mr. Mc Geary has created an endowment supporting the education of students entering the field of art education here in Pennsylvania. The cash value of the scholarships is determined by the income produced by the endowment and the number of scholarships that are awarded in any given year. In addition to the scholarship funds, a grant is also available to scholarship recipients for the purpose of attending the Annual PAEA Conference. The grant money is used by scholarship winners to offset registration and other travel expenses.
  
The 2013 PAEA Fellows Clyde M. Mc Geary Scholarship winner is: 
 
Kathryn Close
 
Indiana University of Pennsylvania

Kathryn Close is a senior art education major at Indiana University of Pennsylvania with a minor in studio art. Once completing her student teaching in Spring 2016, she will graduate with a Bachelor of Science degree in Art Education. Kathryn has been President of IUP's Student Chapter of NAEA since January 2015. During her tenure as Student Chapter President, the Chapter received both the NAEA 2015 Outstanding Student Chapter Award and the IUP Student Government Association 2015 Excellence in Leadership Award. While attending school full-time and working as a fitness instructor, Kathryn has maintained a 3.82 grade point average, earning a spot on the Dean's List and was inducted into the Phi Eta Sigma National Honors Society. She was recently named a Provost Scholar and awarded the College of Fine Arts Dean's Merit Scholarship.Upon graduation, Kathryn cannot wait to start her career as a K-12 art educator!   
PAEA logoPAEA Awards Program

Program Objectives:
  • To focus professional attention on quality art education and exemplary art educators.  
  • To increase public awareness of the importance of quality art education.  
  • To set standards for quality art education and show how they can be achieved.  
  • To provide tangible recognition of achievement, earn respect of colleagues, and enhance professional opportunities for PAEA members.

Call for Nominations for 2014

AWARD PROCEDURES for NOMINATION: Use the nomination form and and curriculum vita form posted on the PAEA web site http://paeablog.org/about-us/awards/, include two letters of recommendation, and a digital portrait image.  E-mail to Marcy Bogdanich at [email protected] 
CATEGORIES:    
  • Outstanding Elementary Art Educator
  • Outstanding Middle Level Art Educator 
  • Outstanding Secondary Art Educator
  • Outstanding Early Career Art Educator
  • Outstanding Non-Public School Art Educator  
  • Outstanding Higher Education Art Educator
  • Outstanding Special Needs Art Educator
  • Outstanding Museum Art Educator
  • Outstanding Supervision/Administration Art Educator
  • Outstanding Retired Art Educator (3 years retired)
  • Outstanding Friend to Art Education
  • New Category - Outstanding New Professional Art Educator 
    • (First year K-12 Art Educator) Additional requirements for this submission.
The Pennsylvania Art Education Association actively supports and promotes visual art education through professional development, leadership, and service.