Maria V. Bonilla has taught art in NYCDOE for over 20 years. She is currently the art teacher at the Veritas Academy in Flushing, and has taught art at intermediate schools in Jackson Heights.  Maria was on the Guggenheim's Teacher Advisory Committee for the Asian Arts Initiative from 2018-2019. She was part of the team that revised the artmaking section of the NYC  Blueprint for Teaching and Learning in the Visual Arts.  She completed the Metropolitan Museum's Astor Educator program in 2015. In 2004, I.S. 230, the school where Maria taught, was selected as an Exemplary School in Visual Arts. Maria facilitated an artistic collaboration between artist Wendy Ewald and students culminating in show at The Queens Museum. The same year she collaborated with the Center for Art Education on a television series Constructing Communities. Maria received the NYCATA Middle School Teacher Award in 2002. Maria is a facilitator for NYC Citywide Visual Art Professional Development, and was a Teacher Effectiveness facilitator for NYC Office of Arts and Special Projects. 

Susan Bricker teaches elementary school art at PS/IS 49 in Queens. Susan is part of the Blueprint Facilitator team and has led numerous professional development workshops for NYC art teachers. She has contributed to several curriculum writing and editing projects for the Office of Arts and Special Projects including the 2015 Blueprint, the Arts Achieve Assessment, Common Core linked units of study, and the document: Aligning the NYC DOE Blueprint Benchmarks & the NYS Standards of Visual Arts Performance Indicators. Susan believes that art education is an essential part of a child’s development at every stage of learning, and that quality visual art instruction provides authentic learning experiences that have deep and lasting effects on students’ lives. In her thirteen years teaching visual art, Susan has come to appreciate how art teaches children that problems can have more than one solution, questions can have more than one answer, and that in art, different perspectives and voices can all be expressed and seen 

Amie Robinson is an art educator at P77K where she teaches middle through high school students with (dis)abilities. She is a visual arts facilitator for the citywide professional learning series and has served on the Chancellor’s Teacher Advisory Board as a Big Apple Teacher. As a NEA Foundation Global Learning Fellow and Fund for Teachers Fellow, she has traveled to South Africa and Greece, where she works with displaced minors in summer. Recognizing the power of creative expression, she believes that all students should have access to the arts

Lara Tyson is currently an art educator at P.S./M.S. 161 Don Pedro Albizu Campos School. She serves on the OASP team of Visual Arts Professional Learning Facilitators and is a curriculum writer and reviewer. Lara was a network member of the Wallach Art Gallery at Columbia University and currently serves as the Arts Education Liaison in her school. As an alumna of programs and fellowships in the Brooklyn Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, she is an avid believer in museum education. Having rich discussions of art history goes hand in hand with meaningful art-making.