Conference Advisor

Conference Advisor

Conference Advisor

Conference Advisor

Conference Advisor

Conference Advisor

Conference Advisor & Design Admin

Conference Founder & Creator

Conference Host Site Coordinator

Flavia Zuñiga-West (she/her) is the founder of Adding Voices. She is an artist, art educator and consultant who works full time as Middle School Visual Arts Teacher at an independent school on Tongva land (what is known as Los Angeles). She holds her MA in Museum Studies from New York University and her BFA in Fiber and Material Studies from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She currently serves on the CAEA ED+I Commissioner for the California Art Education Association. Flavia is the recipient of the 2022 National Art Education Association’s Committee of Multiethnic Affairs In Service Teacher Award and the 2022 National Art Education Association’s Independent School Art Teacher of the Year Award. You can find more information about Flavia on Instagram @flaviazw_hwart.

Sydney Snyder is an artist and art educator living in Los Angeles, CA. This is her fourth year teaching in a TAB (Teaching for Artistic Behavior) studio and tenth year teaching art in a school setting. Access, agency, and choice are the guiding principles in Sydney’s work with student artists. Sydney also works as a co-conspirator at Adding Voices with founder Flavia Zuñiga-West, creating curriculum resources, editing newsletters, and organizing events. In her own studio practice, Sydney currently enjoys working with glitter, yarn, felt, and dye to create happy, soft, colorful, and sparkly works. You can find more information about Sydney on Instagram @sydneyteachingart and online at www.justsydneysnyder.com. She often shares free curriculum resources for teachers, parents, and young artists on her website under “Teaching Resources.”

Emi Aguilar is a Coahuiltecan Arts Educator, community organizer, and multidisciplinary artist, based among the Coahuiltecan homelands where her people have resided for over 14,000 years (or, what is recently known as Central Texas to Northern Mexico). She holds her MFA in Drama and Theatre for Youth and Communities from The University of Texas at Austin. In her 8th year of teaching, she specializes in Indigenous arts integration, digital storytelling as a community-affirming practice, and Indigenizing storytelling. More information at emxaguilar.net and @IndigenizingArtsEd on Instagram.

Alisha Mernick (she/her) is a Visual Art and Social Justice Educator based in Los Angeles, CA. She specializes in using art making to engage students in a critical analysis of issues of identity, social justice, anti-racism, and civic engagement. Alisha currently serves as Southern Area President and Lead ED+I Commissioner for the California Art Education Association, Lecturer at California State University Northridge, board member at Adding Voices, and member of the National Art Education Association’s policy review committee. Alisha previously served on the National Art Education Associations Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Task Force, and has lectured and consulted for several major museums and art schools. She holds her Masters in Art Education from New York University, and has been implementing liberatory, critical arts pedagogy in k-16 classrooms for over a decade. Alisha’s most recent publication “Critical Arts Pedagogy: Nurturing Critical Consciousness and Self-Actualization Through Art Education” can be found in Volume 74 of Art Education Journal.

Libya Doman is a National Board-certified visual art educator and a cultural responsiveness facilitator. Using art and conversation as “mirrors and windows” to seeing ourselves and others, she designs and delivers curriculums, workshops, and keynotes to help educators grapple with topics that are often deemed “taboo.” Presentation focuses include--but are not limited to--race, gender, orientation, (dis)ability, language, SES, and other special populations. Ms. Doman is proud to have a degree from Spelman College; an HBCU. She received a post-Baccalaureate from Moore College of Art & Design. She earned her Master’s in Art Education and 2D Art from TC, Columbia University.

Ms. Doman is an Equity Lead for her school. She has served as a professor at George Mason University. She was a member of NAEA’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Task Force. She was recently named VAEA Art Educator of the Year and VAEA Elementary Art Educator of the Year.

Gladys Preciado (she/her/ella) is a first-generation Chicana Museum educator and professor at Mt. San Antonio Community College. Her work involves anti-racist, non-Eurocentric, student-centered, and community-engaged art education. She aims to implement a liberatory pedagogy in her practice and uplift the voices of the global majority who have traditionally been left out of the traditional art historical canon.

Kat Lee is an art educator and mixed media artist specializing in ceramics. She was born and raised in Philadelphia, PA where she currently resides. She has most recently exhibited at the Philadelphia International Airport and continues to make work along-side of her students in the classroom. She practices a choice-based curriculum within her High School ceramics classes where she promotes teacher and learner collaborative work. She has been working in independent schools for the 8 years of her teaching experience.

In addition, she has been assisting the Art Education Masters Program at Moore College by being a thesis mentor as well as teaching the research methodology course in 2020-2021. She holds her master in art education from Moore College of Art and Design and an Undergraduate degree in ceramics and teaching certification from Tyler School of Art.

Alongside teaching High School ceramics, her passion and focus includes DEI work around her school campus by facilitating the Human Rights Club and Middle School PoC club in addition to co-leading SEED experiences. You can find more information about Kat on her teacher website katleeceramics.wixsite.com/katleeartistteacher

Jennifer Gabrail is an educational therapist and learning specialist with over 10 years of experience working in independent schools. She is the middle school learning specialist at Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles, CA. She has experience working with a wide range of learning differences, including dyslexia, reading disorders, dyscalculia, math disorders, Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), slow processing skills, and executive function skills. Jennifer is trained in a variety of research-based programs in order to provide the best remediation and intervention inside the classroom and outside of school. She has also made educational assessments that lead to the creation of individually-tailored remediation plans, including the steps for implementation, working directly with students and assisting teachers in supporting those students. She holds a BA in Liberal Studies and Life Science from California State University, Long Beach, a MA in Special Education and Educational Therapy from California State University, Northridge, and she is currently earning a doctorate in education from Johns Hopkins University. Jennifer was integral to the success of the first Adding Voices 2020 conference, sharing her previous knowledge and experience organizing national conferences.

Jenna Gabriel (she/her) is a Ph.D. student and adjunct faculty member at Virginia Commonwealth University, where she teaches undergraduate and masters level coursework related to sociopolitical struggles in education and practicum coursework on supporting students with disabilities in art education. Her research focuses on how disabled students develop a political identity and the role of art teachers in challenging deficit-based framings of students to advance material transformation in public schools. Jenna’s previous professional roles include managing special education initiatives at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and directing K-12 youth development programs at IBA- Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción, programming that was awarded the 2016 National Arts and Humanities Youth Programs Award, presented by Former First Lady Michelle Obama. She holds a BFA in Drama from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, and studied Intellectual Disabilities and Autism at Teachers College, Columbia University before completing her Masters in Education at Harvard University.

Jenna facilitates professional development workshops at conferences, arts organizations, and schools across the country. Recent workshops include the National Art Education Association, the Smith Center for the Performing Arts, MINDPOP, and the Guilford County Public Schools. She is a 2022 recipient of one of Abolitionist Teaching Network's Educators Working for Disability Justice grants. To learn more about her work, visit @antiableist.art.ed on Instagram.

Lauren Stichter (she/her) is the Director of Art Education, and an assistant professor, at Moore College of Art & Design in Philadelphia. Prior to her director role at Moore Lauren was the lead art teacher at Pennsylvania School for the Deaf for 15 years.

Lauren is passionate about accessibility in the arts and presents regularly at national and international conferences. Most recently Lauren has done work with the Disability Studies, Arts & Education group, the Kennedy Center VSA program, the National Art Education Association, the Council for Exceptional Children, the National Gallery, the Barnes Foundation, KidSmart, the Art Educators of New Jersey, the Georgia Art Education Association, and a wide range of college settings and school districts across the country.

Additionally Lauren has become known for hosting large scale events at Moore including two annual symposiums with a focus on the intersections of Art & Special Education, the 2nd International Conference on Disability Studies Arts and Education (Fall 2019), the Pennsylvania Art Education Association (Fall 2016 and Fall 2021).