Carmen "Millie" Fulford has been an educator with the DOE for the past 33 years. She is currently an Assistant Principal at Nathan Straus PS140, a Pre-K – 8th grade public school on the Lower East Side. As part of her work at PS140, Fulford supervises the 21st Century grant, which provides the school with access to services from community-based organizations as well as a variety of after school programs. She has been fortunate to have a twelve-year relationship with both Artists Space and Smartworks (Gustavo Asto).
Chrysanne Stathacos is an artist and the Director of Education for Artists Space's Expanded Art Ideas program. She has presented over 25 installations and art works in museums, galleries, and public venues in Canada, U.S.A., Europe, and Asia, and has received awards from Art Matters, the Japan Foundation, the Canada Council, and the Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation. Most recently, she initiated MOMMY, a collaborative art blog with artist Susan Silas, and is Founding Director of Dongyu Gatsal Ling Initiatives, an organization that helps Tibetan Buddhist women practitioners in Tibet and India. This March she will participate in the conference Law and the Curated Body at York University, Toronto.
Joy Episalla is a multidisciplinary New York-based artist. Episalla has exhibited widely in the United States and in Europe since the 80s. She is a founding member of the lesbian art collective fierce pussy. As an art educator Episalla has taught in BFA and MFA programs, as well as the Artists Space program for the past 9 years. A solo exhibition of her work is slated for March 2015 at Participant Inc. in New York.
Dipti Desai is an Associate Professor and Director of the Graduate Art + Education Programs at New York University. As a scholar and artist-educator she is committed to addressing the formative role of visual representation and its politics in order to affect social change. She is the co-editor of Social Justice and the Arts (2014) and her co-authored book History as Art, Art as History: Contemporary Art and Social Studies Education (2010) received an Honorable mention for Curriculum Practice Category by Division B of American Education and Research Association (AERA). She received the 2012 Ziegfield Service Award in Art Education and Specialist Fulbright Award in 2014.
Doug Israel is the Director of Research and Policy for The Center for Arts Education, directing the organization’s government affairs, public policy, research, and advocacy work. As part of CAE’s campaign to ensure that all of New York City’s 1.1 million public school students receive a quality arts education, Israel focuses on educating policymakers and the public about the need for arts education as essential to a well-rounded education and contributor to children’s health and well-being. In 2013, Israel oversaw CAE's work in the New York City election, making access to quality arts education a visible campaign season issue, and resulting in Mayor de Blasio's inclusion of a new four-year $92 million funding line in the city budget for arts education.
Robert Sember is a member of the international sound art collective Ultra-red, which collaborates with constituencies involved in migrant rights, fair housing and anti-racist struggles, and efforts to combat the AIDS crisis. Recent projects include: SCHOOL OF ECHOES, a multi-year exploration of militant sound investigations initiated during a three month residency at Raven Row. He has taught in programs including the Medical Anthropology Program in the Department of Sociomedical Sciences, the Department of World Arts and Cultures at UCLA, and the Center for HIV/AIDS Networking at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa.