Mary Beth Ausman, founder and president of NPE Consulting, Inc., has over ten years experience in the non-profit sector. She holds a bachelors degree from Davidson College in Art, and a masters degree from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education. Her master’s curriculum focused on arts education, as well as technology in education. Ausman has served as the project manager for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Public Art Commission, and most recently as the educator at the Mint Museum of Craft + Design, where she spearheaded the education program for the fledgling museum from its opening in 1999 until spring 2006. In her role as a museum educator, Ausman was responsible for program design and implementation, K–12 curriculum development, technology initiatives, drafting funding proposals, and developing evaluation plans for a variety of museum programs. She now continues in those capacities as an independent consultant for non-profit and education organizations.

Beverly Botsford is a cross-cultural percussionist and educator; blending music, movement, and spoken word in solo and ensemble presentations. Embracing drumming traditions and inspirations of Africa, Cuba, South America and her native North Carolina, she weaves colorful rhythmic tapestries with her infinite array of collected and homemade instruments.

Beverly celebrates more than 30 years of full-time, professional experience, performing and teaching in an infinite variety of situations. Highlights include 13 years of touring with Chuck Davis and the African American Dance Ensemble as well as more than a decade on the faculty of the American Dance Festival. Over the years, she has shared her passion for rhythm and culture in hundreds of school and community residencies, workshops and performances, in solo and ensemble presentations. Since 1998, Beverly has toured internationally with Grammy nominated jazz vocalist, Nnenna Freelon in such venues as the Kennedy Center, the Hollywood Bowl, and the Umbria Jazz Festival. Television credits include appearances on CBS “Good Morning”, BET Jazz, UNC-TV’s “Our State” and WRAL’s award winning, “Smart Start Kids”.

Beverly offers a variety of solo and ensemble performances as well as workshops and residencies. She tailors presentations to the needs of the presenter, the audience and in educational settings, to the curriculum. The language of rhythm is universal. Her goal is empowerment, enlightenment and inspiration for people in all walks of life.

Martha Burdette has a Bachelor of Arts in Humanities from the University of South Florida and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Art Education from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Graduate work includes Studies in Urban Planning at the University of South Florida, Advanced Studies in Book Arts at the University of Georgia Studies Abroad Program in Cortona, Italy, and Graduate Studies in Sculpture at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Martha has been a classroom teacher for grades K–5 and a visual arts instructor for K–12. As a teaching artist she has been a resident artist for K–12, a designer and instructor of museum arts education for children and adults, a facilitator of professional development for educators and designer and creator of on-line arts integration lessons for a museum website.

Martha Connerton is the Director of Kinetic Works, a company founded in 2000 with the mission of fostering awareness of dance as an art form that impacts lives in a direct, positive and evolving process. Martha is a choreographer and teacher with a wide range of experience. Her career has included time with the Pacific Northwest Ballet, Louisville Ballet, and The Joyce Trisler Danscompany, as well as 12 years as a dancer, choreographer and teacher in New York City, where she produced concerts of her work and danced with other independent choreographers. Martha has served as a Visiting Artist in dance at UNC-Charlotte, UNC-Greensboro; Hamilton College, NY; and Winona State University, MN. She has been a guest teacher for Summer Arts at Bologna PAC; Delta State University, MS; Greenville Ballet, NC; and Columbia City Ballet, SC, among others. From 1993 to 1996, she was the director and principal teacher of DancePlace, the Official School of North Carolina Dance Theatre under the artistic direction of Salvatore Aiello. She was also the Education/Outreach Coordinator for North Carolina Dance Theatre. Martha has been a teaching artist for the Lincoln Center Institute in New York, and she is on the artist rosters of the North and South Carolina Arts Councils, Alternate Roots, United Arts Council, Fayetteville/Cumberland Co. and Asheville/Ashe Co.

Elizabeth Grimes Droessler, Senior Administrator for Arts Education with the Wake County Public School System, holds a B.S. in Dance and a M.Ed. in Theater from UNC-Greensboro. Elizabeth has more than 20 years of experience as an arts educator, teaching dance and theatre arts at elementary, middle and high school levels. She has conducted numerous workshops on arts education, arts integration and arts education advocacy.

Aya Duafe is a dancer, poet and arts advocate. An alumna of AADE (African American Dance Ensemble), Aya is currently a performing artist with Djembe Fire! (part of Magic of African Rhythm) and a teaching artist with CAPS (Creative Arts in Public and Private Schools). Her workshops Dances of the Diaspora is a culmination of her studies in Haitian, Cuban, Afro-Brazilian forms under esteemed teachers– Richard Gonzalez, Yvonne Daniels, and Isaura Oliveira respectively. Aya has been awarded funds to study dance in 2004 at the renowned Jacob’s Pillow and aesthetic education in 2008 at Lincoln Center Institute in New York. A dance administrator in her native Cambridge, MA for several years, Duafe served as Outreach Coordinator at The Arts Center in Carrboro, NC before joining the staff of The Magic of African Rhythm as Marketing Director. Current creative projects include –The ÒPÓ Word and Other Fragile Promises– a multi-media performance piece about pregnancy, choice, and the promises mothers and daughters make and break to one another. Still very much a work in progress, Aya’s three-year old son Delacey is her most beloved subject.

Puppeteer Hobey Ford has been working with puppets for almost 30 years, and he established the Golden Rod Puppets in 1980. He has received the UNIMA Citation for Excellence (puppetry’s highest honor) and three Jim Henson Foundation grants. He has presented workshops at the Kennedy Center and is a member of the UAC Artists in the Schools Directory. In addition to presenting puppet shows in a variety of styles, from Bunraku and rod to marionette and shadow puppetry, Mr. Ford also designs and constructs all of his own puppets and their sets. He studied at the State University of New York and the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and his presentations showcase tales from the United States and around the world.

Since 1981, Lenore Blank Kelner has directed her own educational theatre company, InterAct Story Theatre. She is an actress, theatre director, playwright, educator and author. She has been a presenter with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for 27 years and for the Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning Through the Arts for 25 years. Lenore had conducted staff development workshops and demonstration lessons for teachers throughout the United States and abroad. She is the author of three books including: The Creative Classroom (14th printing) and her newest book co-authored with Rosalind Flynn, A Dramatic Approach to Reading Comprehension published by Heinemann. Lenore frequently works as a consultant for the Maryland State Department of Education. She was awarded the 2004 Creative Drama Award from the American Alliance for Theatre and Education and was nominated for the Maryland Governor’s Arts Awards for 2005-2006.

A writer and teacher of fiction, poetry, journal writing and nonfiction, Mimi Herman holds an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Warren Wilson College. She is the author of The Art of Learning: A Guide to Outstanding North Carolina Arts in Education Programs. She has presented residencies in poetry, journal writing and fiction for students in grades 4–12. Each residency involves discussion, group work, individual writing and revision. She also leads staff development workshops on writing across the curriculum, journal writing and teaching tough kids. Mimi is a Poetry Mentor at Lesley University’s Masters of Education program and Associate Editor for Teaching Artists Journal and NC Poetry Out Loud Coordinator.

Diane Petteway is a native of North Carolina, having grown up in Laurinburg. Both the performing arts and the power of teaching impacted her early life, and she has spent most of her adult years balancing professional responsibilities as an artist and a teacher. As a 20-year teaching veteran, she has taught in public schools in Franklin, Wake and Scotland counties and in private schools in Wake and Durham counties. She is committed to using the arts to broaden the perspectives of teachers and students, and she has supported arts integration as an artist, a classroom teacher and a music specialist. Diane is particularly proud of her affiliations with A+ Schools (as an A+ Fellow), NCCAT (as a seminar leader) and United Arts Council of Raleigh and Wake County (as a grants panelist, guest artist and active participant in workshops and conferences).

As an artist, Diane is a seasoned musician, performing primarily in the areas of musical theater and contra dance. She performs regularly throughout the southeast with her contra dance band, Contrazz (www.contrazz.org), and with theaters in and around Raleigh—sometimes as an actress, sometimes as a pianist, sometimes as a musical director, always as a passionate believer in the power of music, theater and dance to change the ways we experience the world.

Charles William Thomas, Jr., is a 1995 graduate of Duke University and a professional photographer/photojournalist and cultural arts educator. The names of his companies are Sankofa Photography and Sankofa Journeys. Sankofa is an Akan symbol and philosophy meaning, “Go back and fetch it!” Go back and fetch the story of your past, to understand who you are today, to move forward to the future.

Mr. Thomas challenges students to create visual art reflecting the story of self, family and community. He facilitates student exploration through hands-on photography workshops, residencies, and lecture/demonstrations. Each program includes an introduction to photography and camera concepts and uses a specific theme to facilitate student social and academic growth. Mr. Thomas has been facilitating educational programs for the past 10 years in the Charlotte region, North Carolina and South Carolina. In addition to owning his own business, Mr. Thomas is currently Director of Education for The Light Factory, Contemporary Museum of Photography and Film.

Virginia Zehr has more than 29 years experience in arts management and arts in education and is a practicing artist. She served as Executive Director of the Raleigh Symphony and the Community Music School and as United Arts Education Director before becoming Vice President for Education and Community Programs. Support staff for this project is Stephen Britt, who graduated with a BBA in Management and a Minor in Music from Texas A&M University in May 2008. At Texas A&M he volunteered with MSC OPAS, the local performing arts presenter, serving as Student Director of Education Outreach, Student Committee Chair, and VP of the MSC OPAS Board of Directors. Stephen joined United Arts in September 2008 after an internship with the National Partnerships office of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.