Emily Gasoi has gained experience in her twenty-year career in education as a classroom teacher, curriculum and assessment developer, researcher, program evaluation specialist, new teacher mentor, and adjunct professor. A classroom teacher for nearly a decade, Emily taught grades 2, 3 and 4 in both private and public school settings. Beginning in 1997, she worked with MacArthur award winning educator, Deborah Meier, to found the now internationally recognized Mission Hill School in Boston. After leaving Mission Hill School in 2004, Emily earned a doctorate in Educational Leadership from the University of Pennsylvania. Her dissertation research focused on identifying common cultural elements within schools that facilitate the ability of staff to balance the need for ongoing, responsive change while remaining rooted in core values. In 2016, Emily collaborated with Ms. Meier to co-author the book, These Schools Belong to You and Me about the importance of educating students for informed and active engagement in a democratic society. In addition to her Artful Education practice, Emily was recently elected to serve on the D.C. State Board of Education and is an adjunct professor in the Education, Inquiry, and Justice Program at Georgetown University.
Sonya Robbins Hoffmann was most recently Manager of VSA Programs at the Kennedy Center where she worked at the national level designing arts education programs and curriculum for students with disabilities. Previously, she was Director of Community Partnerships at Washington Latin Public Charter School in Washington, D.C. where she created a program to connect students and teachers to arts programming tied to curricular goals. Between 1996 and 2002, she served as Education Director at Dobama Theatre in Cleveland, producing and directing the longest running playwriting festival for students K-12 in the nation. As a teaching artist and arts integration curriculum designer, she worked extensively in the Cleveland Public School district. As an advocate for arts education in non traditional settings, she has worked with a range of organizations, including Playhouse Square Foundation, The Aids Taskforce of Cleveland, Great Lakes Theater Festival, and N Street Village. Sonya Robbins Hoffmann earned her M. Ed in 1998 from Ursuline College in Lyndhurst, Ohio.