Ms Rae, as known by her students, is a member on our Board of Directors. She plays plays a key role in fundraising, the sharing of resources, the development and overseeing programs, strategic planning, & the ensurement of legal and ethical integrity within the organization.

Ms. Rae is also the Founder of Art Studio Inc., which she founded in Miami, FL in 2007, after working professionally for over twenty years in NYC, DC, and LA in creative areas of corporate multi-media, educational publishing and advertising/marketing, as a director managing project teams of 100+ employees. Also a freelancer she worked as a content developer, graphics and website designer and mural painter. Because of her interest in real estate development and her additional studies in urban community design, and sustainable environments, she utilized her project management skills to work on neighborhood renewal projects in Brooklyn NY and has project managed the renovation of over five multi-million dollar buildings and homes. During her corporate work she also utilized her arts & education degrees serving as a volunteer teaching artist working with at-risk youth evenings, weekends and holidays in New York, Philadelphia, Washington DC and Los Angles CA.

She first earned an A.S. degree in Fine Arts and Art Education from Cazenovia College in New York State. She then continued on earning a B.F.A. degree from Moore Collage of Art & Design in Philadelphia, PA where she continued her studies in Fine Arts and Art Education. She continued her education as a Teaching Assistant in various areas of educational study in Steiner, Waldorf, and Montessori. Later she studied Positive Psychology, Conscious Discipline, Mindfulness Energy Flow, Yoga and Qi-gong, as well as Dis-Ease Prevention and Nutritional Medicine with Doctors at both Mt Sinai NYC and Miami and Columbia NYC. She continued to receive specialized training and certifications as a Teaching Artist through intensives at the Community Word Project in NYC, Arts For Learning in DC, C.A.P.E arts training, based in Chicago and the Hall Farm Art Integration Curriculum Training offered summers in Vermont working with academic classroom educators to cross train artists with teachers to develop arts integrated curriculums. Her areas of interest and specialty are networking outreach within community collaborations and curriculum development to bring creative thinking tools to youth and families in communities in need.

Ms Rae knows first hand that creating sustainable art integration programs to educate and empower at-risk youth towards successful futures, is the solution needed to halt the “cradle to prison path” plaguing impoverished communities. If the same tax dollars used to build future prisons were spent on providing LIFE ARTS prevention programs we would see hope in action create positive change. I am an example of what art integrated education and project-based learning can do for a struggling student. I know this first hand and through my continued involvement with art education, I know the need continues to be there for many students. I see this as an opportunity to find my place as a positive role model and art educator. I plan to continue my life’s mission, expanding with other artists; groups and arts focused organizations as partners, collaborators and to learn from. In closing I would like to reiterate that my commitment and involvement in art education today has developed from my own experiences and from being a child who greatly benefited from art programs. My journey towards becoming an adult with a positive outlook on life started out as a struggle but it was one that has now given me tremendous compassion for what parents, teachers, mentors and the youth of today are experiencing as creative thinking tools like the arts, are removed from schools. I am a sincere example of what caring teachers and mentors using the arts in education and positive encouragement can do to turn a teenager’s life around. I want to now carry that message by example and return the arts to all areas of education.