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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, Board Chair
  Cerylion, Inc,; Cambridge, MA

• Elaine Chu, Treasurer
  East Village Community School; New York, NY

• Amy Lieberman, Secretary
  New York, NY

• Jasanna Britton
  New York, NY

• Melissa Coley
  Brookfield Properties Corporation; New York, NY

• Louise Eastman
  New York, NY

• Alexander Gray
  Alexander Gray Associates, LLC; New York, NY

• Jean Kluver
  La Jolla, CA

• Michael Martin
  Michael Martin Gallery Foundation; Dallas, TX

• John Ramsbacher
  Ramsbacher Prokey, LLP; San Francisco, CA

• Barbara B. Young
  Sonoma, CA

• Mimi Wheeler
  Venice, CA

Staff

Oren Slozberg, Executive Director
Oren Slozberg joined VUE 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. 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, pursued graduate studies in instructional technologies at San Francisco State University, and is an expert trainer in Visual Thinking Strategies.
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Karin DeSantis, Senior Research Associate
Karin DeSantis began working with Abigail Housen in 1988. She received her degree in Museum Education from Massachusetts College of Art and her Master’s degree in Human Development and Psychology from Harvard University. In addition to her work as a researcher, Karin has worked as teacher and administrator in schools, museums, and art centers. She has taught studio art to a wide range of ages, from preschool to adult, and classes and workshops on teaching, curriculum development and research methods. Prior to entering the field of art education she studied history, languages, and women’s studies, and worked as counselor and teacher of developmentally-delayed children and adolescents.
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Nick Gardner, Administrative Director
A native of St. Louis, Missouri, Nick Gardner graduated from Webster University with a Bachelor’s degree in both Literature and Education. He is currently in the Wagner School of Public Service at New York University, pursuing a graduate degree in Public Policy and Management. His interest in combining progressive education reform and public service drew him to Visual Thinking Strategies, where he has been since 2006.
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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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Yoon Kang-O’Higgins, Regional Director, Pacific Northwest
Yoon Kang-O’Higgins, joined VTS in 1997 as a college intern. She worked with various VTS projects in NYC in until 2004, and then moved to Seattle to become the NW Regional Director. Yoon studied Art History at Barnard College and University College London as well as 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.
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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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Corinne Zimmermann, Regional Director, Boston
Corinne Zimmermann joined the VTS team in April 2008. She is a longtime museum educator whose work has focused on building partnerships between museums and schools. She has Masters degrees in both art history (Tufts University) and art education (Harvard University) and is passionate about creating opportunities for students to engage in meaningful ways with works of art.
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Stephanie Hughes, Events Coordinator
Stephanie grew up in Southern Illinois and attended Webster University in St. Louis, MO, where she studied education and playwriting. She taught middle school English, writing, and drama for two years in St. Louis Public Schools, and was named “Most Promising New Teacher” in 2004. She recently received an MA in theology from Union Theological Seminary where she continues to study hagiography and early church history. Recently, she contributed to How to Coach Teachers Who Don’t Think Like You, from Corwin Press.
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Lee Houck, Executive Assistant
Lee Houck joined the VTS team in February 2007. His writing appears in numerous anthologies published in the US and Australia, including From Boys to Men: Gay Men Write About Growing Up. His first novel “Yield,” was the winner of Project:Queerlit 2008, and is forthcoming from Kensington Books in 2010. Additionally, he has worked with Jennifer Miller’s renowned “Circus AMOK!” for many, many seasons.
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