Kathi R. Levin, a national leader in arts education for over 20 years, is an ongoing consultant with the National Art Education Association, managing a portfolio which supports the association’s policy, advocacy, research, national standards, and leadership development efforts. She is the Program/Development Officer for NAEA's grant-making National Art Education Foundation and consults with organizations in arts education, strategic planning, management, and governance. Her clients have included the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Los Angeles County Arts Commission, and Americans for the Arts. Ms. Levin was Director of the Kennedy Center Alliance for Arts Education Network for over a decade where she conceived of and wrote A Community Audit for Arts Education (the foundation of the Center’s "Any Given Child" Initiative), and managed outreach and leadership development initiatives, including over 25 national partnerships. She previously served as a senior staff member of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. 

Donna Russell is Executive Director of the Alabama Arts Alliance, an Advocacy and arts education organization providing statewide services including professional development and advocacy activities for educators, administrators, arts organizations, and citizens. Her work supports programs, policies, and practices that ensure that all Alabamians can discover and develop their talents, have access to a comprehensive arts education, and possess a knowledge of arts that enables them understand the cultural heritage of others. Ms. Russell serves as Alabama's State Captain for the Americans for the Arts Advocacy Coalition, the State Arts Action Network, and the Alabama Artistic Literacy Consortium. She has been appointed by the governor to serve on the Arts Education Course of Study task force and is the President of the Alabama PTA.

Director, Arts in Basic Curriculum Institute 

As Director of Arts in Basic Curriculum Institute, Kim works to bring artists, educators, and advocates from civic, government, and cultural agencies and organizations together for a common goal: to achieve quality, comprehensive arts education for all South Carolina students.

Assistant Executive Director, Advocacy and Public Policy
National Association for Music Education (NAfME) 

Amanda Karhuse is the assistant executive director for advocacy and public policy at the National Association for Music Education (NAfME), where she works with policy makers and other national organizations to promote music and the arts as integral and core component of a well-rounded education. In this role, she coordinates all federal and state policy and advocacy efforts for NAfME, including lobbying, coalition-building activities, and strengthening the capacity of music education advocates. Additionally, Amanda leads the Music Education Policy Roundtable, serves as facilitator for the National Coalition for Art Standards, represents NAfME on the board of directors for the Title IV-A Coalition, and co-chairs the Arts Education Partnership Data Working Group. In 2024, Amanda became the lead federal lobbyist for the Arts Education Alliance, a new partnership between NAfME and the Educational Theatre Association, the National Art Education Association, the National Association for Media Arts Education, and the National Dance Education Organization. 

President & CEO
National Association for Media Arts Education (NAMAE) 

Dain Olsen is a national leader and specialist in media arts education with over 35 years of experience as a teacher, administrator and program developer. He is currently President, CEO, and cofounder of the National Association for Media Arts Education, and he has authored a book on the subject for Routledge. Dain led the establishment of media arts in LAUSD, and the development of National Media Arts Standards, now adopted in 39 states. He has served as a consultant and presenter for numerous states and organizations. Dain has also taught at Otis College and UCLA, and he is an intermedia artist in imaging, video, sound, interactive, and multimedia performance. 

Executive Director
Educational Theatre Association (EdTA) 

Jennifer Katona is the current executive director of the Educational Theatre Association and president of the Educational Theatre Foundation where she works to serve theatre educators across the United States with comprehensive resources to build, support, and sustain their theatre programs. Jennifer is also the president of 3 Looms Creative Education Consulting, which served as program manager for the NYC DoE Filmed Theatre Partnership with the National Theatre, London, and the Connecticut expansion of the Arthur Miller Foundation theatre teacher development program. Jennifer is the former founder and director of the Graduate Program in Educational Theatre at the City College of New York, where she developed and taught curriculum development, theatre directing foundations, arts integration, and a student teaching seminar. Jennifer holds a PhD in Urban Education: Arts Policy and her current research explores factors that influence school leaders to maintain or eliminate arts programming in their school and building sustainable arts programming in urban schools. Jennifer has spoken and presented on this topic at many conferences across the country and works directly with schools to support their efforts in creating arts-rich schools. Through her career and work at EdTA, Jennifer has led strong advocacy efforts to ensure all students have access to theatre education and that those spaces are inclusive of all students. 

Executive Director
National Art Education Association (NAEA) 

Mario R. Rossero is the executive director of the National Art Education Association (NAEA), the leading professional membership organization that champions visual arts, design, and media arts education. He is an experienced art educator with roles as a museum educator, elementary and middle school art teacher, and adjunct professor, and he has held a number of leadership positions. Prior to joining NAEA, he served as senior vice president of education for the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, managing their national education portfolio and opening the REACH expansion. Before moving to Washington, DC, Mario served in a variety of leadership roles in Chicago Public Schools, including chief of core curriculum, supporting all content areas; director of arts education, leading the charge to increase equity and access to all art forms for all students through the inaugural Arts Education Plan; and director of magnet schools and programs. Mario also served as the senior program officer for arts education for Pittsburgh Public Schools. Mario is active on a number of advisory boards and is a practicing visual artist. 

Executive Director
National Dance Education Organization (NDEO) 

Susan McGreevy-Nichols is the executive director of the National Dance Education Organization and has served in that role since 2012. Her service to the field of arts education includes sitting on a number of national committees and task forces, and she has contributed to the development of the National Core Standards in Arts Education. As a teacher at Roger Williams Middle School in Providence, Rhode Island, from 1974 to 2002, Susan founded and developed a nationally renowned middle school dance program. She is the developer of a cutting-edge reading comprehension strategy that uses text as inspiration for original choreography and has coauthored five books. 

Executive Director
National Association for Music Education (NAfME) 

Christopher B. L. Woodside is the executive director of the National Association for Music Education. Prior to his hiring as executive director, Chris served NAfME for over a decade in a variety of roles. Most recently as interim executive director, Chris guided NAfME through the height of the COVID-19 global pandemic, working to ensure financial stability and mission-driven activity reflective of the needs of music educators serving students in a constantly evolving landscape.  

Chris has contributed extensively to NAfME public policy and advocacy achievements, helping grow the association’s advocacy footprint through state-level capacity building, creation of the Music Education Policy Roundtable, expansion of the NAfME Hill Day advocacy event, and via legislative and regulatory lobbying, including efforts to ensure the inclusion of music-specific provisions in federal education law. In 2016, Chris received the honor of Lowell Mason Fellow in recognition of his advocacy work on behalf of the profession. 

Prior to his time with NAfME, Chris was the policy coordinator for the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues. Chris also served on the legislative staff of a member of the U.S. House of Representatives and has worked on several political campaigns. Chris received his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Miami University. 

Chris comes from a family of arts educators and advocates. He believes strongly in the mission of NAfME and has a deep passion for the work of expanding equitable access to music education. He is a spouse, the father of two young (musical) children, and a proud resident of the greater Washington (DC) Metropolitan Area. 

Tricia Erickson is an art educator and "design thinking" enthusiast. A twelve-year veteran, she currently teaches at Northview High School. She is also an enrollment instructor for Kendall College of Art & Design. She volunteers for the Michigan Art Education Association serving in many roles.

Steve Harryman is an award-winning filmmaker and art education advocate. His cinematic work has appeared most recently in the Hallmark Hall of Fame movie “Away & Back" and earlier this year, his art-based film “The Last Lesson" was awarded top honors in the 37^th Annual Telly Awards. In making “The Last Lesson" Steve rediscovered his once-lost love for art and is now focused on being an advocate for K-12 art education through film and video.

Tina M. Atkinson has taught elementary visual arts in Nashville for the past 26 years at Percy Priest Elementary. She has served as an art education adjunct at Belmont University, hosting over 20 university interns. Tina has received awards from national, state, and local organizations for her work. She holds degrees in art education, curriculum and instruction, and leadership and professional practice, and she is National Board Certified in Early/Middle Childhood Visual Art. Her research interests include authentic assessment, student voice, and research-focused instructional design in the elementary art classroom, as well as exploring aspects of how art educator professional identity is developed over the educational life cycle of the individual for the purpose of identifying barriers to the profession. Having recently taken ownership of researcher as part of her own professional identity, Tina strives to empower other early and middle childhood practitioners to embrace research as part of their own practice.  

Fine Arts Coordinator
Howard County Public School System, Maryland

Gino Molfino has served as an artist, teacher, advocate, and education leader for the Howard County Public School System for over 20 years. He has collaborated to develop state, national, and district fine arts policies and practices that cultivate innovation in public education programming, curriculum development, and professional learning for educators that honor the teacher as an artist and promote contemporary practices in artmaking. As the current coordinator of fine arts for the Howard County Public School System, Gino is responsible for the design, development, implementation, and evaluation of the fine arts curricula, assessment materials, professional learning, and instructional supports for over 200 preK–12 fine arts (art, dance, theatre) educators in the district. 

Amy Pfeiler-Wunder currently serves as the interim associate dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts at Kutztown University. She received her PhD in teaching and learning–art from the University of Iowa. Prior to joining higher education, she taught and made art alongside preK–9 students in various settings. Her work examines the impact of intersectionality on one’s professional identity and positionality with keen attention to views of the learners and curriculum creation. In addition, Amy explores how transdisciplinary studies have the ability to dissolve hierarchical boundaries between disciplines to illuminate the transformative power of integration. She is active in the National Art Education Association (NAEA) as the Chair of the Research Commission, a former Higher Education Division Director on the NAEA Board of Directors, and the cofounder of the Professional Learning Through Research working group. In 2017, she received the Outstanding Higher Education Art Educator Award from PAEA.