Featured Speakers

Pre-conference; Thursday, October 15, 2026 in the Launchbot Makerspace on PCT campus; 4-6 pm

Eric Anthony Berdis

Eric Anthony Berdis (b. Erie, Pa, now between State College and Pittsburgh) is an artist and educator whose social practice work centers relationality, care, and the lived complexities of queer experience across educational and communal spaces. Their ongoing project, " Don’t let them clip your tiny little insect wings, operates as a participatory, multimodal inquiry into vulnerability, resilience, and the fragile yet generative structures that shape how we come to know ourselves and one another. Rooted in queer pedagogies and art-based research, Berdis invites participants into collaborative acts of making, using the metaphor of the bug, fiber-craft materials, and storytelling to reflect on moments of feeling diminished or “squashed” and to reimagine those experiences as sites of growth, protection, and becoming. These intimate contributions are gathered, stitched, and reconfigured into evolving installations, where individual gestures accumulate into collective forms of care.

Berdis invites PAEA conference attendees to join him at the Penn College Makerspace (INSERT DATE TIME, ADDRESS) to partake in a bug making workshop honoring small everyday acts of resistance, and collective making together using tools part of the Penn College makerspace.

Eric has received honors from the Amos Lemon Burkhart Foundation, the Lydia McCain Artist Fellowship, and the DayGlo Color Corp Fund. He has had solo exhibitions at The Marlin and Regina Miller Art Gallery, as the Artist in Residence at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, and at the University Galleries at Illinois State University. Random Access Gallery (Syracuse, NY), Project 1612 (Peoria, Illinois), Practice Gallery (Philadelphia, PA), and 934 Gallery (Columbus, OH). They have also shown work at Amos Eno Gallery (NYC), Iridian Gallery (Richmond, VA), Stay Home Gallery (Paris, TN), the Erie Art Museum, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Delaware Contemporary. Eric has held residencies at Waterloo Art Center (Cleveland, OH), Bunker Projects (Pittsburgh, PA), and the Intercity Neighborhood Art House (Erie, PA). His work has been published in the Teaching Artist Podcast, the Emergency Index Annual Performance Publication, and New American Paintings.

Eric holds his BFA from Slippery Rock University, a post-baccalaureate from the Tyler School of Art, Fibers & Material Studies Program, an MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University, and an M.Ed in Early Childhood Education from PennWest Edinboro University. Eric is currently pursuing his PhD in Art Education at Penn State University

Website: ericanthonyberdis.com

Pre-conference; Thursday, October 15, 2026 in the Gallery at the Madigan Library on PCT campus; 6-8 pm

Olivia Kuzio

Olivia is the Lead Technical Imaging Specialist in the Getty’s Digital Imaging Department, where she guides institution-wide advanced imaging initiatives to improve the capture, management, and dissemination of scientific imaging data. Her projects focus on optimizing technical imaging workflows across the institution’s numerous photography studios to enhance how Getty supports imaging for Open Science, Open Content, and computational cultural heritage efforts, with an emphasis on supporting conservation-driven investigations using spectral imaging techniques and technologies. Olivia earned a PhD in color science from Rochester Institute of Technology, as well as MS and BS degrees in chemistry from RIT and Penn State, respectively. She is a Williamsport, PA native and a proud graduate of the Williamsport Area School District.

Friday October 16, 2026 - in the Clerestory Ballroom at the Pajama Factory; 6-8 pm

Raine Valentine

Raine Dawn Valentine is an award-winning Indigenous artist, educator, and community leader of Turtle Mountain Chippewa (Anishinaabe) heritage. She has been teaching art with Baltimore County Public Schools since 2008, where she is a full-time middle school art educator, and she also serves as adjunct faculty at Towson University and Notre Dame of Maryland University. With more than 15 years of experience in public education and higher education, Raine’s work centers on choice-based art education, Teaching for Artistic Behavior (TAB), arts integration, social-emotional learning, equity, and the role of spirituality in art education.

Raine has received national and regional recognition for her leadership and contributions to the field. She is the NAEA National Middle Level Art Educator of the Year (2025) and the NAEA Eastern Region Art Educator of the Year and Eastern Region Middle Level Art Educator of the Year (2026). Her additional honors include the MAEA Linda Popp Leadership Award, MAEA Agent of Change Award, multiple NAEA Agent of Change nominations, and the Brainly Educator of the Year Award. She currently serves as Commissioner-at-Large for the NAEA EDI Commission and previously served as Chair of the Caucus on the Spiritual in Art Education, advocating nationally for culturally responsive, inclusive, and soul-centered approaches to teaching and learning.

As an artist, Raine is an intuitive painter whose work explores energy, light, ancestral knowledge, and interconnectedness. Guided by Indigenous teachings, mindfulness, and deep listening, her creative process honors art as both a personal and collective healing practice. She works intuitively with color and movement, using her hands to respond to the energetic relationship between the canvas, the self, and the greater mystery. Her artwork has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including the Toronto International Visionary Art Exhibition, the Baltimore Museum of Art Indigenous Artist Showcase, and multiple solo and juried exhibitions. She is also a published writer and illustrator, contributing to SchoolArts Magazine, the NAEA Newsletter, and The Mindful Studio, and illustrating the children’s book Grandmother Turtle Creation Story.

Raine’s teaching philosophy is rooted in the belief that art is a pathway to self-awareness, agency, and transformation. She views creativity as a lived practice—one that nurtures identity, emotional intelligence, and a sense of belonging. By honoring students as artists and whole beings, she creates learning environments where curiosity, compassion, cultural identity, and creative voice are centered. Through both her teaching and artmaking, Raine invites others to remember that creating is not just something we do—it is a way of being in relationship with ourselves, each other, and the world.

Saturday October 17, 2026 - At the Bunny Hole; 2-4 pm

Emily Armstrong

Emily Armstrong is a multimedia artist with a practice of community-based event production. She seeks to facilitate local opportunities for collective creativity with time-limited interactive installations. Her most recent work is The Bunny Hole, a pop-up micro venue project, which creates a sustainable way to produce free all-ages events.

Post-conference; Sunday October 18, 2026 - At Lycoming College; 9-11 am

Howard Tran

Howard Tran's artwork ranges from figurative sculpture to abstract two-dimensional pieces. Utilizing traditional and non-traditional materials, he creates pieces that emphasize texture and symbols and reflect his Vietnamese Chinese background.

Howard Tran received his MFA in sculpture from Boston University in 2000. He received his BFA in sculpture from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco in 1998. His work has been exhibited nationally in solo and group exhibitions. Howard Tran is a Logan A. Richmond Endowed Professor of Art at Lycoming College where he teaches sculpture, figure modeling and drawing.

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