Staff & Board
Founders
Abigail Housen, Co-Founding Director
Abigail Housen is co-founder of Visual Understanding in Education and co-author of the VTS Curriculum. Housen has been involved in aesthetic research for 30 years and received her Ed.D from Harvard in 1983. She was professor of Art Education and Director of the Graduate Program at Massachusetts College of Art, and has served as consultant and evaluator to numerous museums and schools. Housen's research into the stages of aesthetic development provided the theoretical foundation for VTS. Her longitudinal research studies on the impact of VTS have shown that, in addition to growth in aesthetic understanding, VTS supports the growth of creative and critical thinking skills, which transfer to other subject areas.
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Click to download CV.
Philip Yenawine, Co-Founding Director
Philip Yenawine is co founder of Visual Understanding in Education (VUE), a non profit educational research organization that develops and studies ways teaching visual literacy and of using art to teach thinking and communication skills. Director of Education at The Museum of Modern Art from 1983-93, he worked in 1992-94 as consulting curator at the Institute for Contemporary Art, and during the academic year 1993-94, as Visiting Professor of art education at Mass College of Art, both in Boston. Yenawine is the author of How to Look at Modern Art, Key Art Terms for Beginners, and has written six children's books about art.
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Click to download CV.
Board of Directors
- Harry Lasker, President
Robust, Inc.; Cambridge, MA
- Melissa Coley, Treasurer
Brookfield Properties Corporation; New York, NY
- Amy Lieberman, Secretary
Teacher, New York, NY
- Jasanna Britton
Early Childhood Educator, New York, NY
- Tricia Claudy
Boston, MA - Louise Eastman
New York, NY
- Jean Kluver
Explorer Elementary Charter School, La Jolla, CA - Judy Sherman
Mill Valley School Board Member
- Barbara B. Young
Retired School Superintendent, Point Richmond, CA
- Mimi Wheeler
Venice, CA
Staff
Oren Slozberg, Executive Director
Oren joined the VTS team as Executive Director in May 2006, bringing more than 20 years of experience in nonprofit leadership and the arts. As the leader of several San Francisco Bay Area agencies over the years, he has formed organizations from their start-up phases, raised more than $5 million, and doubled participation in programming. Oren has been the founding executive director for several organizations including the San Francisco LGBT Community Center and the MMG Foundation that delivered VTS in Northern California. Oren is an expert trainer in Visual Thinking Strategies. Oren has trained hundreds of educators in VTS working in a variety of setting ranging from teachers in elementary schools to college faculty. Since 1999, he has been a consultant to nonprofit museums, art organizations, government agencies, and social service institutions in the areas of strategic planning, management development, program development, and fundraising. He has a BA in mass communications and linguistics from UC Berkeley and pursued graduate studies in instructional technologies at San Francisco State University.
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Yoon Kang-O'Higgins, VTS Program Director
Yoon joined the VTS team in 1997 as a college intern in New York City and now oversees VTS programs across the US, serving as the National Program Director. Before taking on a national role for VTS, Yoon led and supported long term VTS school and museum partnerships in the Pacific Northwest. She has led workshops and presentations for organizations across the US and abroad including the Detroit Institute of Arts, the University of Washington, University of Oregon, and Microsoft. Yoon studied Art History at Barnard College, NYC and University College London and Studio Art at the Leith School of Art in Edinburgh, Scotland. Along with her involvement with VTS, Yoon has taught studio art to NYC public school students and has worked as an administrator at various organizations including Parsons School of Design and the Tony Smith Estate. Email Yoon.
Lisa Lurie, Finance and Operations Director
Lisa joined the VTS team in October 2010. Prior to joining the VTS team, Lisa worked as the Finance Manager at the Park Avenue Armory in NY. Lisa earned her MA in Arts Administration at Columbia University and is working towards an MS in Accountancy at Zicklin School of Business, Baruch College. Lisa is one of the founding members, and currently serves as Co-Chair, of Emerging Leaders of New York Arts (ELNYA), a program of the Arts and Business Council of New York. Email Lisa.
Nick Gardner, Strategic Initiatives Director
Prior to serving as the Strategic Initiatives Director, Nick served as the Director of Administration and Finance, joining Visual Thinking Strategies in 2006. He is a graduate of Webster University holding Bachelors' degrees in Literature and Secondary Education and the Wagner School of Public Service at New York University, where he obtained a Master's in public policy and management. Nick has worked with Visual Thinking Strategies as a classroom teacher, teacher trainer, and organizational director. His current focus is on the development of new program capacities and models for extending the reach and accessibility of VTS resources and experience to more educators across the country and abroad.
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Amy Chase Gulden, Regional Director, New York
Amy Chase Gulden joined VUE in the Fall of 2006 as Regional Director for NY where she has launched VTS school & museum programs in New York City, Long Island, New Jersey and Connecticut, and provides professional development in VTS to a broad range of audiences (classroom teachers, art teachers, administrators, arts-education conferences, graduate students). Amy was Director of Studio in a School's Long Term visual-arts residency program for seven years before she began consulting in 2005 on the design and content of its interactive website aligned with the NYC Blueprint for Teaching and Learning in the Visual Arts. As a Senior Researcher at the SchoolWorks Lab., she has been involved in numerous federally-funded arts education studies, and serves as researcher, faculty and facilitator for numerous initiatives of the New York State Council on the Arts. Amy holds masters degrees in Education and English Literature. She is a visual artist and writes a weekly column, The Gallery, devoted to emerging contemporary artists for ApartmentTherapy.com
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Tad Yenawine, Regional Director, Los Angeles
A resident of Los Angeles, Tad Yenawine worked in the film industry until the need for fundamental change on a massive scale outweighed his need to make a living. He hopes that the implementation of VTS across the country will be the difference in shaping the future of America.
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Jacqueline Cossentino, Regional Director, Boston & New England
Jackie has been involved with visual thinking since 1992, when she developed museum resources for teachers at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and directed a partnership between the Museum and the Buckingham Browne & Nichols School. She has served as a middle school and high school teacher in Chicago and Cambridge, principal of two Montessori schools, and professor of Educational Leadership at the University of Maryland, College Park. She holds masters and doctoral degrees from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and publishes and presents widely on the development of teaching expertise, ambitious approaches to school reform, and Montessori education.
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Sarah O'Leary, Boston & New England Regional Coordinator
A Boston native, Sarah was first introduced to VTS in 2006 while interning with the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and enjoys working with children as they build connections with one another and with the works of art. Sarah received a Bachelor’s degree in Studio Art from the College of Wooster and a Masters in Child Development from Tufts University. Her graduate work, in collaboration with an internship at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, focused on the cognitive and social benefits of Visual Thinking Strategies for children in the early childhood years. She has worked as an elementary and preschool teacher in Ireland and the Boston Area and, as a teacher, focused on the creation and implementation of inclusive classroom environments.Email Sarah
Robyn Muscardini, North Bay Regional Coordinator
Robyn was first introduced to VTS in 2006 at California College of the Arts. Soon after, while completing her masters degree in Education, she met Oren Slozberg and suggested they work together to bring VTS to schools in Sonoma County. A graduate of California College of the Arts, she has taught visual arts in both Berkeley and Sonoma public schools. She has worked with Sonoma Valley Museum of Art bringing visual arts to the schools and has served on the Board of Directors of Museum of Children's Art (MOCHA) in Oakland, California.
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Liz Harvey, Regional Director, SF Bay. Liz joined VUE in July 2009 after working with San Francisco Bay VTS for two years. Harvey's work in education encompasses work with children, families, and adults, linking communities with museums. Liz spent eleven years bringing schools and university students together in programs at a university art museum. More recently, she managed artists working with youth in San Francisco schools and juvenile hall, and created public art in programs with underserved children in Los Angeles and Long Beach. Since her first teaching job in Koreatown, Los Angeles, Liz has long been drawn to facilitation as a route to equitable and powerful teaching, while centering her educational work around artworks both in and out of the museum, and their resonance for all students of all ages. Liz has coached and taught pre-service and in-service teachers in arts integration, including working with the faculty of East Oakland School of the Arts high school for three years. Liz also ran Artful Weekends, a summertime family art program for the J. Paul Getty Museum; coordinated a school program for the Los Angeles County Art Museum; and served as a gallery educator for adults at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. She taught courses in art education for California State University, Long Beach preparing elementary teachers to utilize art and museums to explore critical thinking. Her work in sculpture, often preoccupied with feminist history and memory, has been shown since 1993 in galleries, museums, and alternative spaces in California, New York, and Italy. She is a recipient of the California Arts Council Fellowship in Sculpture (1996) and two Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department Artist in Residence grants. Currently, she collaborating with dancers/choreographers on new work.
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Lee Houck, Executive Assistant
Lee Houck joined the VTS team in February 2007. His first novel, Yield, was the winner of Project:Queerlit 2008, and was published by Kensington Books in 2010. His short fiction, essays and poems have appeared in journals and anthologies in the U.S., France and Australia, and on The Nervous Breakdown.com. Additionally, he has worked with Jennifer Miller's renowned "Circus AMOK!" for many, many seasons.
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Erica Sera, Training & Administrative Program Coordinator
A Pittsburgh native, Erica joined the New York VTS team in September 2011. Erica has years of experience in event and project planning and coordination at DDI, a human resource consulting firm. Erica received her bachelor’s degree in Art Education from Slippery Rock University in 2005.
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