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Congratulations to our new Leadership Scholars!

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TAEA is proud to announce the selection of eight new leadership scholars for our 2022-2023 Leadership Cohort.

The TAEA Leadership Scholar Cohort Program is designed to work in tandem with the TAEA Leadership Institute to provide the membership of the Texas Art Education Association (TAEA) with innovative, relevant, structured and supported professional growth focused on leadership skill sets to advance art education. The Leadership Scholars were selected from a large pool of applicants and will learn in depth about leadership in art education, service and structure of the Association and how they can grow professionally. The TAEA Leadership Institute is part of the Association's Strategic Plan for its members and future growth and impact.

Kathryn Baker

My ultimate goal is to ensure that everyone in education understand the vital importance of art in every student's education. So many studies have shown how important a visual arts program is to the development of a child. Studies have shown how visual arts can improve the academic success of individuals. With my background of also teaching other subjects such as language arts and math, I could help bring awareness of such studies to leaders in all fields of education. I feel TAEA could be critical in helping to establish visual arts programs on all Texas campuses from early education all the way to the university level. As a TAEA leader I could help be a part of this movement.

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Cristina Correa

First and foremost, I want to ensure that TAEA, art education, and art educators always have a seat at the table. More specifically, I want to ensure that we have a seat at the 2023 Texas Legislative Session's table. This will mean door-knocking, creating informative artifacts for stakeholders, and empowering teacher and student voices.

Second, I want to ensure that our TAEA leadership is diverse and represents the beautiful make- up of Texas. It would be productive to have more regular meetings of TAEA leadership with regional representatives, and additionally, more clarity about the nomination and voting process. Regional representatives can work together with TAEA leadership to ensure that monthly newsletters or news blasts are sent out to every member in the state, which could also potentially open the doors for more member participation.

Third, I would like to find ways for TAEA to bring more innovation back to the FREE sessions at the state conference. When I was a young teacher, some of the best TAEA sessions I went to were hands-on sessions that were free AND required me to find new ways to use overlooked or cheap materials. What if we encouraged teachers to bring their own small set of supplies to the conference and then built sessions that innovated around those supplies? So many teachers struggle to even get the funding to pay for TAEA, let alone ticketed workshops. Let's find ways to send teachers back to school with more in their teaching tool kits.

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Shannon Thacker Cregg

My goal for being a TAEA leader is to grow as an advocate, leader, and public servant. I hope to learn how to advocate more effectively for the arts in my district so that I can provide better learning opportunities for my students. Furthermore, I hope to develop my leadership skills and learn about the structure of TAEA so that I can become involved in TAEA leadership in the future. Lastly, my goal as a TAEA leader is to continue to serve the public - through creating community arts programming for adults with disabilities and ultimately opening an art center for artists with and without disabilities.

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Amber Forgey

I want to work to encourage the next generation of art educators to take up leadership roles and train future leaders to carry this great tradition forward for decades to come. I would like to encourage more art students to become passionate art educators as I believe that art education is one of the best jobs. I want to continue to support VASE, JrVASE and TEAM as I believe it has been a very important part of my success as an art student and a teacher. I also want to work with pre-service teachers to help train them to be successful art teachers.

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Willie Keener, Jr.

My goal in being a TAEA leader is to enhance awareness of the importance of Visual Arts while simultaneously creating avenues to utilize Visual Arts to assist with Social Emotion Learning and building stronger parent/teacher relationships.

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Larry West

My goal in being a TAEA leader is to coach the upcoming educators to keep this great thing moving forward. I am super positive about TAEA and the great things the organization does for Art Teachers in Texas and beyond. As we look to the future I simply would like to do my part to keep it going with the integrity of the organization.

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Matthew Wright

My goal begins with being mentored within TAEA, and to transition to being a mentor for others. I want to build stronger connections with other Art teachers within the region and across Texas. I also wish to be adaptable to change as we continue with education in digital and distance learning.

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Past Scholars

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