The Speakers

Bethanie Irons is an artist and educator residing in Columbia, Missouri. She earned a BFA in Art from the University of South Dakota and MFA in Art from the University of Missouri. Irons also earned a PhD in Art Education from the University of Missouri with an emphasis on higher education and teaching with technology. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Graphic Design and Art Therapy at William Woods University in Fulton, Missouri.

Sheryl Lamme is a fibers artist and doctoral candidate at the University of Missouri. She has been the art teacher of Partridge Elementary School, located in Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri for 21 years. Slamme, as she is known to friends and colleagues, is actively involved with the Missouri Art Education Association and was recognized as Missouri’s Elementary Art Teacher of the Year. In 2018. Slamme is passionately committed to the visual arts as meaningful making. She regularly crusades against cookie-cutter art lessons, and endeavors to create experiences that challenge her students to see themselves as having both voice and agency.

I am a Digital Media and Graphic Design instructor for Columbia Area Career Center. I have been teaching graphic design for five years in Columbia, Missouri.

By applying my knowledge of graphic design, I merge art and technology within the art studio/classroom, providing opportunities for students to explore the realms of print, video, mobile, digital, and web, as well as traditional art media and processes. Technology is a 21st century tool used to discover personal voice and learn new skills that are relevant to today’s digital society.

Mary Franco is a veteran art educator, Visual Thinking Strategies trainer and lecturer, and adjunct instructor with the Mizzou Online program. She is a VTS consultant for the Daum Museum of Contemporary Art in Sedalia, MO and a midwestern partner with the VTS WatershED Collaborative. Mary achieved National Board Certification in Early/Middle Childhood Art in 2004 & 2014, was awarded a PhD in Art Education from the University of Missouri in 2017, and was selected as K-12 Art Educator of the Year by the Missouri Art Education Association in 2018. Mary is a fiber artist who uses garments and fiber collage to explore family legacy and feminist themes. She is also a wife, mother of 2, and grandmother of 5.

Currently, I am in my fifth year as the 2D Art teacher at Winfield High School in Winfield, KS. Also I am in my third and final year in the Masters of Art Education program at the University of Missouri. In 2017, I was named a Kansas Horizon Teacher. I graduated from Benedictine College in Atchison, KS in 2016 with a Bachelors in Art Education. As an artist, I love exploring new art supplies especially watercolor and gouache, as well as, painting florals and landscapes. As a teacher, I enjoy teaching about contemporary and historical art, facilitating VTS discussions and finding ways to get my student artists to complete their sketchbook assignments.

Derrick Gwinner teaches at Mill Creek Elementary in Columbia, MO and is the Lead Elementary Art Teacher for Columbia Public Schools. He lives with his wife, two children, several dogs, a cat, and 14 chickens, just outside of Columbia and enjoys gardening and video games. He has a master's degree in Art Education and a bachelor's degree in English, both from the University of Missouri.

Liv is an Assistant Professor of Art Education at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina.She spends her time teaching, advising, researching, creating tiny pieces of artwork, and being a mother to Erin Louise. Her art teacher origin is as a K - 5 and 9 - 12 art educator for 10 years. Her interest is centered upon the effect of policy written for art education with other content in mind, how improvisational skills could become a pedagogical asset from an era of "pivot" intelligence (totally invented term, that might be useful) and contextual re/dis/location. Mostly though, Liv is an over-caffeinated, joyful, office supply and glittery shoe addict, that is over the moon about art being a part of future artist teachers' university experience.

Shirley Boudreaux was born in Ogden Utah. She has been married for 36 years to the love of her life Paul. They have three grown children Derek, P.J., and April, and seven grandchildren. She enjoys traveling with her family, looking for her next treasure by antique hunting, or just sitting on her porch in the south where she watches the world go by. She holds an (M.F.A.) Master of Fine Art in Fiber Arts and Sculpture from the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri 2015, Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio Art from Mississippi University for Women in Columbus, Mississippi 2011, and Associate of Art from Northeast Mississippi Community College 2008. She is certified to teach in Mississippi with a (K-12 Art) Mississippi Teaching Certificate and a Missouri Professional Teaching Certificate in (Art K-12). Shirley is a Visual Arts Teacher at West Point High School North Campus in the West Point Consolidated School District in Mississippi. Her last Exhibition was the “Threads: A Survey of Fiber Art" Exhibition at Mississippi University for Women.

Lydia Clark is the K-5 Art Specialist at Rock Bridge Elementary in Columbia, Missouri. She loves to travel, ride bikes, explore national parks and museums, and see live musical performances with her husband and two sons. This is her 8th year teaching Art and she has a BFA from the University of Arkansas, with an emphasis in Art Education, Ceramics, and Photography. She will graduate with her master’s degree in Art Education from the University of Missouri this Summer.