Board Members |
Members at Large |
Ex Officio Members Member Organizations |
Ted Hamm
President
Ted Hamm is currently the Coordinator of Arts Education, Physical Education and Educational Development for the Sheboygan Area School District (SASD) where he provides instructional leadership to a staff of over 90 teachers in dance, music, visual arts and physical education and oversees the development of charter schools and new programming throughout the SASD. Presently, Ted is in the process of starting the Étude School, a school focused on developing creative thinking in students in grades 9-12 and the Elementary School of the Arts and Academics a school that focuses infusing arts with the academics throughout the K-5 curriculum. He is currently president of the Wisconsin Alliance for Arts Education a non profit organization affiliated with the Kennedy Center Alliance for Arts Education Network committed to advocating and developing arts education in the state of Wisconsin.
Barry Applewhite
President-elect
Barry Applewhite has had the honor of sharing music education with students and colleagues in Milwaukee since 1991. A graduate of Western Illinois University where he received his bachelor's degree in music merchandising and music education, and his first master's degree in music education. Barry received his second master's degree in leadership and supervision from Cardinal Stritch University. A former music teacher at Milwaukee North Division High School, Milwaukee High School of the Arts and Director of the UMOJA Community Marching Ensemble, Barry has enjoyed many musical moments as an educator in the Milwaukee Public Schools. While under his direction, his ensembles have represented MPS in performances in Virginia, Madison, Indianapolis, Washington, D.C., Florida, Nassau Bahamas and Freeport Bahamas. The climax of his teaching career was seeing his students/ensemble awarded grand champions at the Disney World Music Festival in Florida and having his ensemble perform on the west lawn of our nation's capital, Washington, D.C. While a music educator, Barry was always active with several committees in Milwaukee and throughout the State. He is proud of the work that was done with Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, City At Peace Through the Arts, Wisconsin Educators Association Council and the National Educators Association.
Barry is currently the Music Curriculum Specialist for MPS, where he has seen a total reversal of music programs throughout the district. Supervising and managing all music programs for the district of over 100,000 students is an enlightening experience. Students as well as teachers are given the opportunity to grow personally and professionally. Much of the work that is done within MPS Music has been featured in the January issue of the Wisconsin School Musician magazine.
While serving as the Music Curriculum Specialist, Barry continues to be a strong advocate for strengthening the profession of music education. He has continued to be a successful presenter and clinician, presenting at Wisconsin Music Educators Association Conference, Metropolitan Milwaukee Alliance for Black School Educators, Music Educators National Conference and the Urban Music Leadership Conference to name a few. Through consistent support and advocacy from teachers and administration, students receive the gift of the arts making them life long learners. Barry performs professionally throughout the nation, while also continuing his teaching at Lakeland College and as Director of the Milwaukee Public School's Vincent High School Drumline. Currently, Barry serves as President Elect for the Wisconsin Alliance for Arts Educators and serves on the board for the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra educational committee as well as the board of the Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra.
Beth Bashara
Treasurer
Beth Bashara has been the director of the Oneida Nation Arts Program, the only tribal local arts agency in Wisconsin or the midwest states, since 1996. In her tenure at the tribe, she has worked with staff in creating more than 11 new programs including the Oneida Concert Series, Dollars for Arts Program (regranting), Kaliwiyose Radio Hour, Artist Residency Program, Duck Creek Community Theatre. Prior to Oneida, Bashara was the Arts in Education Program Coordinator for the Indiana Arts Commission. Bashara received her Master of Arts Administration from the College Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati in 1994, and her bachelor degree in Music Education from the University of Wisconsin-Superior in 1986.
Erin Colburn
Secretary
Erin Colburn is a recent graduate of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, with a Bachelor of Science degree in Art with an emphasis in Art History. Her professional experience began at the Chazen Museum of Art as a museum education assistant. Presently Erin is a curator of education at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum in Wausau, where she is responsible for managing all aspects of docent and school programming, including research, visitor advocacy, presentation and publication duties, and developing, implementing, and assessing the Museum's docent and school programs and projects as well as general public education activities.
Members at Large
Patricia A. Ellis, Ed.D is the Associate Vice President of University Outreach at Cardinal Stritch University. She has previously served as the Director of Academic Excellence, a curriculum specialist-multicultural emphasis, and an elementary and middle school teacher in the Milwaukee Public Schools. Patricia is a graduate of James Madison High School in Milwaukee, WI. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in elementary education and communications from Carroll College in Waukesha, WI, and a Master of Educational Leadership and a Master of Education in Professional Development from Cardinal Stritch College in Milwaukee, WI. In 2001, she received her Doctorate in Leadership for the Advancement of Learning and Service from Cardinal Stritch University in Milwaukee, WI.
She has been the recipient of numerous awards, grants, and recognitions including Who's Who Among America's Young Professionals, Ameritch/Wisconsin Bell Silver Teacher Award, Metropolitan Opera Guild Creating Original Opera Grant, TAP Arts Grant, Sr. Joanne Marie Kliebhan, O.S.F. Outstanding Graduate Student Award, Metropolitan Milwaukee Alliance of Black School Educators' Sarah Scott Administrator Award, and Empire Who's Who of Executives and Professionals.
Patricia serves on a variety of boards including the Milwaukee Partnership Academy, Metropolitan Milwaukee Alliance of Black School Educators, Creative SHARP, Milwaukee Ethnic Council, Sally Ride Academy, and Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra.
Laura Aaron Sear is currently Education Director at the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts in Brookfield. Laura brings twenty years of arts education experience to the her role forging partnerships and programming for a broad audience. Prior to the Wilson Center, Laura was Director of Education for the Weidner Center for the Performing Arts in Green Bay where she coordinated an extensive school matinee series, provided professional development for teachers, worked closely with touring artists and the local schools. She has also worked at art museums in Eugene, Oregon, and Worcester, Massachusetts, planning public programs and events, classes, workshops and school partnerships, as well as interning at the Art Institute of Chicago. She holds an undergraduate degree from Beloit College and a master's degree in art history from Brown University.
Randal Swiggum has enjoyed a diverse teaching career that has spanned first grade general music, high school choir, college orchestra, music theory and conducting. As composer, conductor, teacher, and advocate for young people in the arts, he has established a reputation for musical excellence and a commitment to music education through performance. A frequent guest conductor of orchestral and choral festivals, he most recently conducted the first ever Pennsylvania ACDA/PMEA All-State Junior High Choir, as well as the Singapore American Schools Choral Festival, the MENC All-Northwest Honor Choir in Portland, and American Mennonite Schools Orchestra Festival, the Northern Arizona Honors Orchestra, and both the Wisconsin Middle Level Honors Choir and Orchestra.
A passionate advocate for a richer learning experience in the performing ensemble, he served as Chair of the Wisconsin CMP (Comprehensive Musicianship through Performance) Project, now in its 28th year. A frequent presenter at MENC, ASTA, and ACDA conferences, he recently addressed the Pennsylvania MENC on "The Art of Rehearsing," as well as the Maryland MENC, the ACDA North Central Division in Des Moines, the Texas Orchestra Directors Association, and national conventions of the MENC in Phoenix and Kansas City.
Swiggum has conducted successful performance tours to Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Canada, and throughout the U.S. His choirs performed throughout Italy under the auspices of UNESCO, in Brazil as guests of the city of Rio de Janeiro and Intercultura Brasil, and with the Icelandic National Symphony in Reykjavik under the direction of Lukas Foss. In 1998, he conducted the University of Wisconsin Symphony Orchestra in Prague, Brno, Bratislava, Budapest, and Vienna. He is well-known to Wisconsin theatre audiences as a conductor of opera and musical theatre and has music directed over thirty stage works including the 1991 premiere of the Theatre X opera, Liberace. He created the music for celebrated director Eric Simonsen's new production of Moby Dick for the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, named by TIME magazine as one of the 10 Best Theatrical Productions of 2002.
As a writer, Swiggum has served music critic for the Milwaukee Journal, as author of the book Strategies for Teaching High School Chorus published by MENC (1998), and as co-author of Shaping Sound Musicians (GIA, 2003). He also serves on the American Symphony Orchestra League Board of Directors-Youth Orchestra Division.
Swiggum, who makes his home in Madison, is in his eighth season as Music Director of the Elgin Youth Symphony Orchestra in suburban Chicago, as well as conductor of the Madison Boychoir. He was Artistic Director of the Madison Children's Choir from 1996-2000, and has also taught at Whitefish Bay High School (Milwaukee), and at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Lawrence University. His degrees are in choral music education (B.M.) and orchestral conducting (M.M.) and he is currently a Ph.D. candidate in musicology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Laura Gembolis is the Grants Manager at the Richard and Ethel Herzfeld Foundation. The Herzfeld Foundation makes grants in the areas of Arts and Culture, Education and limited Civic Funding. Funding is limited to Wisconsin with an emphasis on the Greater Milwaukee area. She previously worked at the Donors Forum of Wisconsin, a professional membership organization for effective grant making. She is currently working towards her Masters in the License to Master program at Alverno College.
Miranda McClenaghan is a faculty associate at UW Madison, Division of Continuing Studies. She is the director of theatre education and the School of the Arts at Rhinelander. Program, areas include the WI Theatre Festival, Wisconsin Theatre Auditions & Technical Interviews, Drama Institute for Theatre and Classroom Educators and the National Director's Conference. Before moving to Wisconsin in 2004, she was a theatre director, adjunct professor, actor and arts administrator in California. Her educational background includes two graduate degrees in theatre, a Masters of Art in directing and a Masters of Fine Art in acting. Professionally, her credits include directing and teaching at the Tony Award winning theatre, South Coast Repertory in the adult conservatory program, working at CBS Studios on and off screed for the daytime drama, Young and the restless and directing at theatres in New York to California.
Ex Officio Members
George Tzougros
Wisconsin Arts Board
George Tzougros is the Executive Director of the Wisconsin Arts Board, the state agency responsible for the support and development of the arts in Wisconsin. Mr. Tzougros works with the arts community, Wisconsin Arts Board members and staff, the Governor and state legislature to create funding programs and services to meet the needs of the citizens of Wisconsin. Mr. Tzougros is a member of the Governor's Council on Tourism, the Cultural Coalition of Wisconsin, and the Film Wisconsin Task Force. He is the President of Wisconsin/Chiba Incorporated, an advisory board member of the Wisconsin Foundation for the Arts, and a board member of the Robert E. Gard Wisconsin Idea Foundation and Wisconsin Alliance for Arts Education.
Anne Katz
Arts Wisconsin
Ms. Katz is the first executive director of this nonprofit statewide community arts action and development organization (formerly known as the Wisconsin Assembly for Local Arts), whose mission is to nurture, serve, promote, and speak up for the arts in Wisconsin and all of its communities. She guides Arts Wisconsin's programs and activities, serves Wisconsin's diverse and ever-expanding creative community, and advocates and builds partnerships in the public and private sectors for the arts and creative industries on the local level.
Before she joined Arts Wisconsin in 1995, Ms. Katz was the director of development and outreach for the Madison Civic Center, Madison, WI, for four-and-a-half years. During that time, she made the Civic Center-a major, municipally owned performing arts center that presents a full season of music, dance, and theater performances and events-available and accessible to the entire Madison community. She also spent two years as the city of Madison's arts coordinator and a staff member of the Madison Committee for the Arts. She has worked in administrative roles with a number of other arts organizations around the country, including the Madison Repertory Theatre and Festival of the Lakes in Madison; Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center in Waterford, CT; The Big Apple Circus; New Dramatists, Inc.; and The Feld Ballet in New York City.
Ms. Katz was an arts administration fellow in the Locals Program of the National Endowment for the Arts in 1988; was selected as a member of the first class of Leadership Greater Madison in 1993-1994; and recently graduated as a member of Group X of the Wisconsin Rural Leadership Program, a two-year statewide leadership program. She has participated in and spoken at numerous conferences and summits on the arts, arts advocacy, the creative economy, and economic development; was a member of the Cultural Alliance of Greater Milwaukee Steering Committee; served as a member of the State of Wisconsin's Special Legislative Study Committee on Arts Funding in 2000-2001; and has been a peer review panelist for the Wisconsin Arts Board, City of Milwaukee Arts Board, Dane County Cultural Affairs Commission, National Guild of Community Schools of the Arts, Iowa Arts Council, and the South Dakota Arts Council. She is a member of the State Arts Action Council, affiliated with Americans for the Arts, the national service organization for the arts.
Melvin Pontious
Department of Public Instruction
Melvin Pontious began service with the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction in 1985 as the Music Education Consultant and is currently the State Fine Arts Consultant. His teaching experience spans 27 years at the elementary, junior high, high school, and university levels. His degrees are from the University of Wichita (BME), Oberlin (MME), and University of Illinois (Ed.D).
Dr. Pontious has served as an adjudicator, guest conductor, clinician, and lecturer throughout Wisconsin and the Midwest and has published numerous articles on curriculum, instruction, and assessment for state and national publications. He presently serves on the Governing Board of the Wisconsin Alliance for Arts Education, the Wisconsin Comprehensive Musicianship through Performance (CMP) Committee, the Wisconsin Music Educators Association, and on the Board of Control of the Wisconsin School Music Association.
He has served as chair of the Music Committee of SCASS-Arts, a national consortium of states working on assessment in the arts. He has presented at MENC Biennial Inservices, in other states throughout the Midwest, and at several conferences annually in Wisconsin. He was involved in developing the NAEP assessment tasks and chaired the task force for developing the Wisconsin Music Standards and revising the State Curriculum Guide in Music. In 1992 he directed the highly successful Arts PROPEL Project in Wisconsin and has presented inservices on combining the PROPEL model with Wisconsin's Comprehensive Musicianship through Performance (CMP) model throughout Wisconsin, in other states, and at national conferences. Currently he is directing an action research project on implementing and assessing the standards using the CMP/PROPEL model.
Member Organizations
Wisconsin Art Education Association - represented by Jean Harper
Wisconsin Music Educators Association - represented by Ken Liske