Submitted by Lowell Milken Center for Unsung Heroes.
The Lowell Milken Family Foundation (LMFF) has announced the 2024-2025 cohort of ARTEFFECT Ambassadors, a prestigious visual arts education online fellowship for educators working directly with students in grades 6-12. The 34 fellows in the second annual cohort hail from 21 states and include 26 visual arts teachers. Members of the cohort represent diverse educational, professional, and geographic backgrounds, including specializations in visual arts, social studies, STEAM, and administration.
This year’s ARTEFFECT Ambassadors will participate in a series of online professional development sessions, learning from other high-level practitioners in a collegial peer-learning community. These virtual sessions—four of which are also open to all interested educators and free to join—explore varied themes and subject areas with a focus on Unsung Heroes including STEAM, character education, social impact, and visual storytelling.
“The Ambassadors fellowship continues to foster visual arts education by directly engaging educators with remarkable stories of Unsung Heroes,” said Dr. Toni Guglielmo, Director of AREFFECT. “Through the teaching and learning in this program, students are equipped with new insights that allow them to make a positive impact on their communities by championing Unsung Heroes.”
In the online sessions, participants:
- Explore various approaches for considering and creatively interpreting the stories of Unsung Heroes as role models through the visual arts.
- Use lesson plans focused on the Unsung Heroes that provide step-by-step modeling to create artworks in varied 2D and 3D mediums and artists’ impact statements.
- Engage with other educators nationwide to deepen their own instructional practices.
The Lowell Milken Center for Unsung Heroes (LMC) works with students and educators to discover and develop the stories of Unsung Heroes from history—individuals not commonly known who took extraordinary actions in service to others and society.
LMC and ARTEFFECT Founder Lowell Milken noted, “Unsung Heroes from prior generations demonstrate the power of one person to profoundly better the lives of others and positively impact the course of history. This is of critical importance today as generations young and old, local and global, need positive role models from the past to serve as beacons to light the path to a secure future.”
In addition to participating in professional development modules, Ambassadors develop learner-centered visual-arts-based capstone projects. The program running through June 2025 culminates with Ambassadors presenting their capstone projects—such as developing a new lesson plan, a student art exhibition, a teacher-training program, a publication, or other activities—that have been implemented effectively within their classrooms and communities. The projects create new pathways in visual art education by harnessing the inspiring stories of Unsung Heroes at the core of ARTEFFECT’s offerings, including its professional development, student art competition, and online exhibitions. ARTEFFECT Ambassadors receive an unrestricted stipend of $1,250, a $250 materials credit, and a Certificate of Participation upon completion.
ARTEFFECT is an initiative of the Lowell Milken Family Foundation. Since 2016, ARTEFFECT has run an annual international art competition for middle and high school students. Last year’s competition awarded over $25,000 in prizes. The next cycle is accepting submissions from October 1, 2024, through April 27, 2025.
Introducing the 2024-2025 ARTEFFECT Ambassadors
Corina Salas Alvarezdelugo
Upper School Art & Design Faculty – King School – Stamford, CT
Anna August
Art Teacher – Sinai Akiba Academy – Los Angeles CA
Visual Art Teacher – Flinthills USD 492 – Rosalia, KS
Pnina Benperlas
Hebrew Teacher – Milken Community School – Los Angeles, CA
Jennifer Browning Bolesta
Visual Art Teacher – Visitation Academy – Saint Louis, MO
Aja Brown
STEM Teacher – Metropolitan Soundview High School – Bronx, NY
Maureen T. Bryant
Visual Art Teacher – Visitation Academy – Saint Louis, MO
Elisabeth Yvonne Diaz
Visual Art Teacher – Twain Dual Language Academy – San Antonio, TX
Rosemary Dodson, Ed.S.
Visual Art Teacher – Savannah Arts Academy – Savannah, GA
Brian James Dussel, Ed.D.
Social Studies Teacher – Jericho Senior High School – Jericho, NY
Sarah Espinal
Social Studies Teacher – Jericho School District – Jericho, NY
Samantha Fields, Ed.D.
Lead Art Teacher – Dougherty County School System – Albany, GA
Joshua Freeman
Visual Art Teacher – Providence High School – Burbank, CA
Assistant Principal – Compass Academy – Idaho Falls, ID
Archana Kamani
Visual Arts Teacher – Plainfield Academy for the Arts and Advanced Studies – Plainfield, NJ
Jennifer Kay-Rivera, Ed.S.
Art Educator – Sterling Heights High School – Sterling Heights, MI
STEAM + Robotics Teacher – V. Sue Cleveland High School – Rio Rancho, NM
James Lawlor
Social Studies Teacher – Jericho Middle School – Jericho, NY
Cheryl Lunger
Retired/Drawing/Painting Teacher – LaVilla School of the Arts – Jacksonville, FL
Soudabeh Memarzadeh
CTE Visual Art Teacher – Del Lago Academy – Escondido, CA
Mary Esther Morrow, Ed.S.
Visual Arts Teacher – St. Clair County High School – Odenville, AL
Stephen Charles Newbold Jr., Ph.D.
Digital Arts and Design/Photography Teacher, MacArthur High School, Washington, D.C.
Kathryn L. Pascal
Pottery Teacher – Franklin Pierce High School – Tacoma, WA
U.S. History Teacher – Wachter Middle School – Bismarck, ND
Keri Reynolds, Ed.D.
Visual Arts Teacher & Secondary Fine Arts Lead – Kerr High School – Houston, TX
Visual Art Teacher – Preston County High School – Kingwood, WV
Mindy Ray Sizemore
Visual Art Teacher – Spring Mills High School – Martinsburg, WV
Susannah L. Van Horn, Ph.D.
Visual Arts Educator – St. Thomas Aquinas Parish School – East Lansing, MI
Monico Orlando Vitela
Visual Art Teacher – Bonham Academy – San Antonio, TX
Visual Art & Art History Teacher – Central Falls High School – Central Falls, RI
Visual Art Teacher – Pleasure Ridge Park High School – Louisville, KY
Visual Art Teacher – Ida B. Wells Academic and Performing Arts Complex – Jackson, MS
Visual Arts Teacher – Pickerington High School Central – Pickerington, OH
Rosemary Anne Ziegler
Visual Art Teacher – Troy Buchanan High School – Troy, MO
To learn more about ARTEFFECT Ambassadors and view profiles, visit:
https://www.lowellmilkencenter.org/competitions/arteffect/ambassadors
About the Lowell Milken Family Foundation
The Lowell Milken Family Foundation (LMFF) creates and supports initiatives that cultivate human capital—the knowledge, skills, and experiences essential to leading productive and satisfying lives. LMFF pursues this mission through education programs that are both groundbreaking and comprehensive. By fostering and inspiring excellence, creativity, and responsibility within the formal education environment and beyond, LMFF equips people to pursue and attain lives that have value to themselves and to others. To learn more about LMFF, visit LowellMilken.org.
About the Lowell Milken Center for Unsung Heroes
Established in 2007 by Lowell Milken, the Lowell Milken Center for Unsung Heroes (LMC) discovers, develops, and celebrates the stories of Unsung Heroes who have made a profound and positive impact on history, yet are largely unrecognized by contemporary generations. LMC has reached over 3,000,000 students in all 50 states and countries around the world. To learn more about LMC, visit Lowell Milken Center for Unsung Heroes.
