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2025 Conference Proposals are now being accepted!!
Art Educator, West Chester Area School District
Bette Naughton, a pioneer in adapting art instruction for students with disabilities, calls upon her years of experience in art education to create engaging lessons for students of all abilities. Naughton looks at what a student with special needs can do rather than what they cannot do, and creates adaptations that engage students in artistic exploration built on their strengths.
Throughout her 20-year career in art education, Naughton has conducted in-depth field research to understand how students’ diagnoses affect them, so that teaching strategies can be adapted to provide successful endeavors. By embracing a student’s strengths, educators can remove many obstacles a student with disabilities might encounter during the process of creating art.
Naughton further asserts that art is a powerful tool as an avenue for self-expression and communication. For students with disabilities, art is often a crucial path to communicating their thoughts & feelings. Naughton uses her years of experience to create engaging, meaningful lessons that coincide with current trends and research.
She is a published author, keynote speaker and is well known for her engaging presentations. Art educators in schools across the United States now work under Naughton’s guidance to develop programs, strategies, and adaptations for students with special needs.
Art Educator, School District of Philadelphia
Erica Mandell is a passionate art educator with an overarching goal of making art education accessible for everyone. She is a K-8 art educator at McCall School in the School District of Philadelphia, where she also serves as co-building rep. Her teaching practice focuses on identity and practical problem solving through an anti-bias lens with ED&I and SEL in mind.
Erica received her MA in Art Education In 2018 from Moore College of Art and Design with an emphasis in inclusive practices. Her thesis was on supporting ELLs in the art room, and she continues to do research and present on this topic at state and national conferences. She was recently published in SchoolArts magazine because of an art show she curated at Cherry Street Pier in spring 2021. The exhibit featured her middle school students’ work on social topics that they chose, namely celebrating a community or highlighting a problem that they felt needed to change.
In addition to being a full time art teacher for over eleven years, Erica also mentors newly hired teachers through the School District of Philadelphia and supports pre-service art educators at University of the Arts and Temple University through guest lectures and as a cooperating teacher. She is very active in the local art education community, running professional development at the school district level and through PATA, a group of Philadelphia art educators who meet monthly.
Art Educator, Whitehall-Coplay School District
Daniel Danneker received his BA in Art from Shippensburg University, focusing on multimedia sculptural and wall-mounted pieces. During his time there, he concentrated on exploring acidic surface treatment and oxidation on wood panels. Daniel also received several undergraduate research grants from the Shippensburg Alumni Association, which allowed him to explore the incorporation of non-traditional materials in his work. Daniel received his Art Education Certificate from Kutztown University and is currently an M.Ed candidate at Kutztown. His work primarily focuses on student identity formation, and cultivating and expressing student narrative through curriculum.
Daniel teaches in the Whitehall-Coplay school district and is a pillar of the community, having dedicated 17 years of his career to Whitehall-Coplay Middle School as an art educator. He has advised WCMS’s Art Club, Yearbook Club, and Drama Club. Daniel aims to create an art learning experience that reinforces core learning principles, while empowering students to think critically to solve creative and real-world problems. As an NAEA and PAEA member, Daniel frequently utilizes the agency's online resources to enhance student learning and grow as a professional.
In his personal time, Daniel exhibits his own paintings locally and regionally and has been an involved member of the Lehigh Art Alliance, having also served on their Board of Directors from 2007-2012.
K-12 Art Department Coordinator & Art Educator
Williamsport Area School District
Dr. Andrea McDonough has served for 16 years as secondary art educator and K-12 art curriculum leader for the Williamsport Area School District. She supports the art and education departments at Lycoming College, working with pre-service art educators and PK-4 certification seekers. McDonough is also a successful grant writer with a passion for public art and the expansion of K-16 visual arts experience in local communities. She holds a Pennsylvania K-12 Art Education Certificate and a Pennsylvania PK-12 Supervisory Certificate in Curriculum and Instruction.
McDonough received her doctoral degree from Drexel University, researching Creative Mindfulness in Secondary Art Education. Her pilot studies and research findings have been presented at PAEA annual conferences and WebinARTs over the years with titles including: The Power of Student Voices; Mindfulness: Embrace and Create; Creative Mindfulness in Secondary Art Education; and Art in the Absence of Sound. McDonough is presenting at the 2022 PAEA annual conference on Saturday, October 29. The session is entitled: Mindful Movement, Mindful Making.
Dr. McDonough’s current art-making practice involves the exploration of mindfulness through drawing and experimental works, as well as mixed media approaches. The most recent exhibition of her personal work was in Mansfield, PA as a participant in the Master and Grasshopper Juried Invitational.
Art Educator, School District of Philadelphia
Leila Falcon has been teaching art in the School District of Philadelphia for fifteen years. Her love for art and community started where she grew up, on 43rd Street in West Philadelphia. She attended CAPA High School for visual arts, received a BFA in painting from Tyler School of Art, and an MA in Art Education from Moore College of Art and Design. Her students have shown work in traveling art shows all over Philadelphia, collaborated and painted multiple large-scale murals, and continue to help her grow, reflect, and challenge herself as an educator.
Leila has had the pleasure of hosting eight student teachers as well as countless student interns. Her goal as a cooperating/ supervising teacher is to encourage student teachers/interns to think outside the box and to use their own incredible talents and interests to motivate and excite their own learning. She believes it is also extremely important to help prepare student art teachers for the challenges that come with teaching in Philadelphia public schools, and it brings her so much joy to witness student art teachers helping students build, create, and discover, while thinking critically about the world around them.
She is forever grateful to each and every student, student teacher, and intern that she has had the honor to learn from.
Assistant Professor, Art Education and Community Arts Practices
Tyler School of Art and Architecture, Temple University
David Herman Jr. is a lens-based exhibiting artist, educator and scholar whose work explores the relations between the perceptual and the social as a political endeavor. His research and teaching agenda revolves around issues of embodiment -- the enactments and performances that ensue as space is occupied by human and other-than-human things. This work is both culturally and educationally significant because it signals to a better understanding of how one finds themselves in the world along with other humans and environments.
Much of Herman’s research and pedagogical practices involve a concern for early childhood visual art education, posthumanist theories of new materialism, and urban art education. His work with pre-service visual art educators is grounded in a belief that learning and teaching is inherently a politics of the senses; of bodies in relations; of perception. He has presented his research and scholarly work at national and international conferences and published several articles and book chapters in support of his research and pedagogy focused on embodiment.
Director of Education at the Susquehanna Art Museum
Tina Sell is the former Director of Education at the Susquehanna Art Museum, and has 10 years of experience in both education and exhibitions in a museum setting. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Art, with concentrations in painting and Southeast Asian Studies from Cornell University, and completed a Post-Baccalaureate Teacher Certification in Art Education at the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University.
Since 2014, Tina has coordinated and provided onsite and remote programming for the Susquehanna Art Museum in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, including serving as an adviser for the VanGO! Museum on Wheels school and community outreach program. She also contributed to interpretation and the design of exhibitions and developed curriculum for a broad educational vision for the museum.
In addition to her work at the museum, Tina co-developed a program designed to provide customized, research-based art education for medical students, nurses, and providers through a partnership with the The Doctors Kienle Center for Humanistic Medicine at the Pennsylvania State College of Medicine. Tina has also served as a grants review panelist for the Pennsylvania Council for the Arts.
Tina is a practicing artist whose most recent commission served as a significant contribution to the 2015 restoration of the choir loft at St. Stephen's Cathedral in Harrisburg, PA.
PAEA Special Needs Art Education Association Chair
Art Educator, Martin Luther School , Approved Private School
Margo Wunder began her teaching career in 1997 as a volunteer painting instructor at the Inglis House, a residential facility supporting individuals with disabilities located in Philadelphia.. Twenty five years later, Margo continues to serve students with disabilities at Martin Luther School. Martin Luther School is an approved private school that serves the needs of students with severe emotional and behavioral challenges, some of whom live at the school in residential treatment.
Margo has opened her door to mentor many student teachers and interns, eager to share her approaches to teaching diverse learners. Margo is also a lecturer in the Art and Design Education Department at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. As a veteran teacher, she is often asked to speak and provide workshops for students, teachers and staff members for institutions like the Clay Studio, the University of the Arts, and Moore College of Art and Design to impart strategies and pedagogical approaches for teaching students with special needs.
When she is not teaching, Margo can be found working in the Clay Studio, hiking, or playing ice hockey.
Retired Art Educator & PAEA Book Club Coordinator
Melissa Gallagher remains actively involved with PAEA as the Membership Chair and Book Club Coordinator. Melissa started teaching middle school in Sunbury, PA in 1979 and retired as Art Department Chair of the Carlisle Area School District in 2015. Melissa helped co-found the Carlisle High School Art and Literary Magazine and advised an award-winning HS Yearbook for 10 years.
Primarily a high school art educator, Melissa has taught and supervised art educators at all levels. She served on the Patriot–News Scholastic Art Awards Steering Committee (President 2005–
2007) and was a board member of the Trout Gallery of Art at Dickinson College in Carlisle. Melissa has held a number of positions on the PAEA Board, including Artist/Educator 84 Exhibit Steering Committee (1982–1984); Region 8 Representative (1984–1988); Treasurer (1988–1992); Region 7 Representative (2010–2015); Membership Chair (2015–present); and Book Club Coordinator (2019–present).
Melissa has co-chaired one conference, served on 12 conference steering committees, designed the programs for 10 conferences, and presented workshops at numerous PAEA and NAEA conferences. Since retiring, Melissa has focused primarily on volunteer work. The Susquehanna Art Museum is her favorite place to volunteer, and she looks forward to more students returning to the museum in post–pandemic days.
PAEA Youth Art Month Committee Chair
Art Educator, Whitehall-Coplay School District
CJ Matz is an elementary and middle school art educator working and living in the Lehigh Valley. He received a B.S. in Art Education and an M.Ed. in Art Education from Kutztown University. Joining the PAEA Board a few months before the pandemic, CJ’s notable work includes transitioning the 2021 and 2022 YAM Exhibits and Award Ceremonies to a virtual format. This action increased accessibility to and engagement with the events, and earned PAEA’s 2021 exhibit a Merit Award from the Council for Art Education. Additionally, CJ has expanded the YAM Awards to provide more opportunities for Pennsylvania’s K-12 artists to be recognized for their talents.
CJ has presented several times at PAEA and NAEA conferences on topics surrounding creating authentic art experiences for elementary students, engaging in critical dialogue and social action as a white educator, and exploring the formation of teacher identity. Recently, CJ worked with Davis Publications as an Editorial Consultant for the new edition of their middle school textbook, Experience Art, authored by Dr. Marilyn Stewart. For this book, he wrote the Studio Investigation lessons. He also serves on the NAEA Policy Review Committee and has twice been elected to the position of Majority Inspector of Elections for his local voting precinct.
In his free time, CJ can be found antiquing with his husband, tending to his native urban garden, and Geocaching. He also enjoys camping, hiking with his dogs, kayaking, and visiting friends and family in Canada and Florida.
Outstanding Friend to Art Education
Art of Recycle
Chelas Montanye, Creative Director
Art is a fundamental need. It is one of the most stress relieving and therapeutic ways of healing your body and mind. Our nonprofit organization Art of Recycle believes that art and music belong in the same category as diet and exercise, and people who are robbed of the ability to create art because of economic hardship live a life of the lowest quality. We believe that uniting with other organizations and creating community service programs and volunteer opportunities helps to create a stronger and healthier community.
We started Art of Recycle in 2009 teaching free arts and crafts workshops in downtown Lancaster. In 2012 we registered AoR as a non-profit and moved into our permanent Ephrata location. In 2015 we started the Art is a Necessity program and began focusing our efforts on helping other nonprofits and schoolteachers to get the resources they need to keep their programs going. We have been very successful in getting the word out that activity and art programs are failing because they lack the resources to sustain themselves.
There are about 50 people actively employed and volunteering at Art of Recycle Ephrata, our main branch. In addition, there are about 6-12 staff and volunteers at our Hanover location. Joshua Myers is the CEO/President and Chelas Montanye is the Vice President. Our Ephrata location has over 18,000 square feet of space, with a 2,500 square foot free resource center just for teachers, as well as an undersea activity room for free crafting. We have four art installations inside our facility so far: the sand castle craft castle where people can craft for free with materials included; the sunken pirate ship puppet stage; the fairy wishing tree; and the book reading tree in our magic beans and books store.
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