Venus-Tyané is the Culture and Engagement Director at Desert Sage School. She studied Musical Theater in Berlin, Germany and has a B.A in Global Arts & Culture and Education. She performed for many US productions, including Nickelodeon and Stories that Soar; and internationally, from Friedrichstadtpalast to Jazzclub Neukölln. Venus-Tyané was the Musical Director for the performing arts school JMEM Berlin. She has toured throughout Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Estonia, Czech Republic, India, South Korea, and Japan. She has a passion for the arts and people's stories and is dedicated to making a positive impact that has a world ripple effect.

Elizabeth Maughan is President for the State Education Agency Directors of Arts Education (SEADAE) and fine arts project manager at the Oklahoma State Department of Education. She also serves on the Organization of American Kodály Educators (OAKE) Research and Publications Committee. In addition, she is a member of the National Association for Music Education (NAfME) and advisor to the Oklahoma Alliance for Arts Education (OAAE). She has articles published in Oklahoma Music (OkMEA), Kansas Music Review (KMEA), Kodály Envoy, and Kronicle (OAKE). 

Cody Talarico, is a musician and supporter of arts education. Cody taught music in the Bellevue (NE) Public Schools and is currently serving Nebraska as the Fine Arts Education Specialist at the Nebraska Department of Education where he leads and supports visual arts, media arts, dance, music and theatre education.  Cody also serves arts education nationally, as a member-at-large on the Executive Team for SEADAE (State Education Agency Directors of Arts Education). He is a professional musician and an all-around fine arts fanatic who resides in the Omaha, NE, area with his family. One of his greatest joys is seeing how the arts and arts education connects us. 

Dr. Lauren Conrad serves as the Education Associate for Visual and Performing Arts for the Delaware Department of Education.  In this role Dr. Conrad oversees arts programming in public and charter schools in the state.  She works to provide high quality professional learning experiences for arts educators and provides guidance through an arts lens with the Curriculum, Instruction, and Professional Development workgroup at the DOE. Dr. Conrad taught vocal music education for 15 years where her primary role was to encourage human self-expression and academic excellence from her students through multiple choral ensembles.  Dr. Conrad is currently serving as President-Elect of the State Education Agency Directors of Arts Education (SEADAE).

Ken Bolinsky holds an MFA in Directing from Syracuse University and is a licensed arts educator who taught theatre on both the secondary and post-secondary levels for more than twenty years. As an educational consultant he's worked with national, regional, state and local educational and arts organizations to develop standards-based curricula, instructional formats and assessment methodologies in the arts, and served fourteen years as State Coordinator of the NEA's Poetry Out Loud initiative for the Mississippi Arts Council. 

Ken is also a stage director with seventy-seven productions under his belt, covering the gamut of educational, community, and professional theatre. With credits ranging from New York's Off-Broadway to Chicago's Off-Loop, he is a member of two theatrical Unions: Stage Directors & Choreographers Society and Actors' Equity Association.

Ken Bolinsky holds an MFA in Directing from Syracuse University and is a licensed arts educator who taught theatre on both the secondary and post-secondary levels for more than twenty years. As an educational consultant he's worked with national, regional, state and local educational and arts organizations to develop standards-based curricula, instructional formats and assessment methodologies in the arts, and served fourteen years as State Coordinator of the NEA's Poetry Out Loud initiative for the Mississippi Arts Council. 

Ken is also a stage director with seventy-seven productions under his belt, covering the gamut of educational, community, and professional theatre. With credits ranging from New York's Off-Broadway to Chicago's Off-Loop, he is a member of two theatrical Unions: Stage Directors & Choreographers Society and Actors' Equity Association.

Quanice G. Floyd (she/her) is a renaissance woman who wears many capes. Born and raised in NYC, she has spent over a decade in Washington, DC where she has received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Music Education from Howard University and Kent State University respectively. Her passion for arts administration led her to pursue her second Master’s degree in Arts Management at American University and is currently a doctoral student at Drexel University. Quanice was recently appointed as the Executive Director of National Guild for Community Arts Education after previously serving as the Executive Director at Arts Education in Maryland Schools Alliance, an arts education advocacy and service organization. She is also the Co-Founder of the Arts Administrators of Color (AAC) Network, an organization committed to empowering artists and arts administrators by advocating for access, diversity, inclusion, and equity in the arts in the DC and Baltimore metropolitan areas. She has also been a public-school music educator where she taught elementary and middle school general music, chorus, band, and orchestra. Quanice serves as a commissioner for the DC Commission for the Arts and Humanities and is an alumna of Fractured Atlas’ Artist Campaign School, the National Guild for Community Arts Education's Leadership Institute (CAELI), ArtEquity's Racial Facilitator Cohort, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s Music Educators and Arts Administrators Academy, 4.0 Schools' Essentials Program, and the Arts Education Collaborative’s Leadership Academy. Quanice received the Americans for the Arts' American Express Emerging Leader Award and the Arts Advocate of the Year Award from the Coalition of African Americans in the Performing Arts.

Jade Maia Lambert is the proud director-dramaturg who serves as the executive producer of Lambert Smith Media, a creative hub dedicated to producing groundbreaking entertainment through multimedia performance. LSM most recently produced the broadway hit, FELA! The Musical to sold out crowds in Atlanta, Georgia Through the mission of LSM she currently manages a creative coaching and consulting firm, “The Everyday Actor,” which guides artistic visionaries through techniques to realizing their dreams. Jade’s Living Authentically Method of Artistry (LAMOA), is a transformative training experience for the21st century artist grounded in performative practices that encourage creatives to develop their authentic voice. Jade previously served as the theatre director at Tri-Cities High School, instructor of acting at Spelman College and as artistic associate, dramaturg, and teaching artist at the Alliance Theatre.  Jade currently serves the theatre community in Atlanta through LAMOA workshops and college coaching, as returning adjunct lecturer at her alma mater Spelman College, and as an associate producer at True Colors Theatre Company. You can find jade on Instagram, Facebook and Tiktok @theeverydayactor and on Youtube at The Everyday Actor.

Arielle Lever is an arts educator who focuses a great deal of energy and work around accessibility in theater. She works with The New Victory Theater, Museum, Arts and Culture Access Consortium, Lincoln Center and CO/LAB Theater Group and also consults on inclusion in the arts. 

P. Tyler Britt is a Brooklyn native, Theater Practitioner, Stage Manager and Teaching Artist. He works to craft brave spaces, within the intersectionality of education and theater, that offer meaningful opportunities for discourse and growth. Currently, P. Tyler is a teaching artist with The New Victory Theater and Disney.

Karen Salvador is Associate Professor and Chair of Music Education at Michigan State University, where she teaches courses on early childhood and elementary general music as well as graduate seminars in music education psychology and research. She previously taught elementary general music (K-4) in Eaton Rapids, MI; choir and drama in New Zealand; children’s choirs in Grand Rapids, MI; and early childhood music at the UM-Flint Early Childhood Development Center. Currently, she directs the early childhood music education programs at Michigan State’s Community Music Schools and conducts the MSU Children’s Choir.

Dr. Salvador’s research pertains to how music educators meet individual student needs, particularly in early childhood and elementary general music. This research extends into music teacher education, exploring both program practices for music educator preparation and the lived experiences of music educators who are working to become more inclusive and responsive educators. Over the past two years, she has focused on the impacts of divisive concepts laws on music education and educators. A frequent presenter, Dr. Salvador is in demand for workshops on early childhood and elementary and as a facilitator working with music teaching and learning organizations to strategize toward more inclusive, responsive, and sustaining practices.

Arushi Maheshwar is extremely grateful to be serving as an International Thespian Officer for the 2023-2024 school year. From Saratoga High School's Troupe 6354, she is passionate about increasing the neurodiversity in theatre arts education in addition to empowering students to serve as change makers in their local communities. Additionally, Arushi is keen about exploring the intersection between the business and the theatre world, which has led to her interest in producing as well as marketing. In her free time, she enjoys reading Marvel comics, analyzing films, and singing in the car with her friends.

Lisanne Shaffer-Dickerson is an Assistant Professor of Theater Education/Theater for Young Audiences.  Prior to her appointment at ECU, she served for nine years as a Theater Teacher and Director of Musical Theater at Brooklyn High School of the Arts, an esteemed public performing arts school in New York City.  Alongside her work as a high school theater teacher, she served as an adjunct professor at The City College of New York in the graduate program in Educational Theater. In her role at CCNY, she mentored prospective theater teachers in the Internship Seminar classes, as well as taught Curriculum Development and Drama in Education.  Lisanne also served as lead theater teacher at the Summer Arts Institute held every summer in NYC, lead teacher at Lincoln Center’s Middle School Bootcamp, and as Director for Piper Theater Company’s Starlings program. Lisanne has also taught Speech and Communication at City College of New York’s Center for Worker Education, worked at Camp Wicosuta as a drama director, Town Hall as a teaching artist and as a touring children’s theater actress with Virginia Repertory Theater (formerly Theater IV).   In 2020, Lisanne was awarded the Excellence in Arts Education award given by the Arthur Miller Foundation. Lisanne received her MS in Educational Theater in 2014 from The City College of New York and her BFA in Musical Theater from East Carolina University in 2003.