Kimberleigh Aarn

Ms. Aarn is a theater artist, teacher, facilitator and professional development designer. Currently she is the Arts Ed Planning and Implementation Manager at the LA County Arts Commission. She is also a teaching artist and theater mentor with PS Arts. Previously she was the Senior Arts Educator with The Galef Institute/Different Ways of Knowing; Drama Specialist, Crossroad Arts & Science; Drama Specialist, New Roads School, and a teaching artist with Inner City Arts. With a history of facilitating instruction in theater, movement and visual arts, she has also supported the development of arts integrated lessons and theater curriculums with a focus in literacy. Her professional acting background consists of Broadway, Off-Broadway, regional theater, film & television with nominations for a Tony Award and Drama Desk Award for August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come & Gone. Kimberleigh Aarn was nominated for a 2005 LA Stage Alliance Ovation Award for The Merchant of Venice, Los Angeles Women's Shakespeare.

David N. Connors

Dr. Connors is a Professor of Music and Chair of the Department of Music at California State University, Los Angeles. At Cal State LA he teaches courses in the master's degree program in music education as well as general music methods courses, supervises student teachers, and directs the Orff Schulwerk Certification Program. He holds MM and DME degrees from the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati. He is a program author for Making Music, 2002 and Making Music, 2005 published by Silver Burdett, Pearson Education/Scott Foresman. He is also an author of Making Music with Movement and Dance. He has been a soloist with the Los Angeles Bach Festival where he has sung the tenor solos in J. S. Bach's Mass in B minor and Magnificat and has sung the role of the Evangelist in the Christmas Oratorio and the St. Matthew Passion.

Leilani Lattin Duke

Ms. Duke developed a long range plan for arts education for Los Angeles Unified School District in 1999, which was unanimously adopted by the LAUSD School Board and is being successfully implemented today. Between 1981 and 1998, she directed the Getty Education Institute for the Arts of the J. Paul Getty Trust. Prior to joining the Getty, she served as executive director of the California Confederation of the Arts and spent seven years at the National Endowment for the Arts in Washington, D.C., developing programs in arts education and the performing arts. Lani Duke has served as a member of the California Arts Standards Committee and the National Music Educators Advisory Committee. She holds an Honorary Doctorate of Music from the Eastman School of Music, Rochester, NY, and an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from the University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA.

Virginia Gembica

Mrs. Gembica has experience as a classroom teacher, a special education teacher, elementary school principal, District Director for State and Federal Categorical Programs and Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction. She has also served on Arts in Education panels for the National Endowment for the Arts. Currently, Ginni Gembica is the Director of the Southern California Institute for Educators on the Visual Arts, which provides teacher training in comprehensive classroom/school/district visual arts programs.

Paul Gothold

Currently, Mr. Gothold is serving as the Acting Director for Curriculum and Instruction 9-12 at Montebello Unified School District, while pursuing a doctorate at USC. Prior to that, he was the Principal at Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, and three years as Principal at Southern Principal Administrative Unit in Long Beach. Mr. Gothold has also served as an adjunct professor at Whittier College teaching Secondary Curriculum Methods to prospective high school and intermediate teachers. As a musician, Paul performed in various musicals, sang baritone in the Chorale Bel Canto and Whittier College Choir and studied piano for many years.

Lois Hunter

Mrs. Hunter is Chair of the Theatre Department at the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts. She held the position of Director for the UCLA California Arts Project for five years and was a member of the State's Curriculum Committee that revised the Visual and Performing Arts Framework in 1996. She served as a member of the State Superintendent of Education's task force and is currently a member of the California Arts Assessment Network. As a member of the Arts Standards Committee, she worked on the new arts standards that were state board approved in the spring of 2001. Lois Hunter was also a 1992 BRAVO Award winner as an arts specialist.

Bobby Rodriguez

A native of East Los Angeles, Dr. Rodriguez is a Grammy nominated and award winning trumpeter/educator, with over 40 years experience. He is an author of "ABC's of Latin Jazz." Dr. Rodriguez's achievements include three platinum and two gold records. He is the winner of the Los Angeles Times Salsa/Tropical Artist of the Year (2001), the Lifetime Achievement Award in Jazz from Drew University (2000), and KLON's Best New Latin Jazz Artist (1999). Bobby holds a Doctorate (DMA) from UCLA and currently is the Latin Jazz Director at UCLA, UC Irvine and Pasadena City College as well as Musical Director of Jazz Adventure.

Judith Scalin

Ms. Scalin is the Assistant Chair of the Department of Theatre Arts and Dance at Loyola Marymount University and a consultant for the Arts Education Steering Committee at the Manhattan Beach Unified School District. She is the former president of the California Dance Educators' Association and was elected Policy Board Chair by the Board of the National Association of Schools of Dance. She has led many workshops on Dance Administration and Dance Curriculum and is currently preparing a book on Dance Administration. She is the recipient of awards such as the Lestor Horton Award, the Loyola Marymount Distinguished Teaching Award, and the Teacher of the Year Award from the California Dance Educators Association.

Carl Schafer

Dr. Schafer has been a principal, music teacher, visual and performing arts and physical education coordinator of the Ontario-Montclair School District. He proposed, planned and implemented the Buena Vista Arts-Integrated Elementary School of Choice. He is currently a coordinator of Music Education at California Baptist University and teaches at CSUSB, CSUF and Mt. San Antonio College. He is a part-time music consultant and recently received the 2003 Retired Music Educator Award at the California Music Educators Association Conference. Carl Schafer earned his BA in Music from UC Santa Barbara, MA in Music Education from CSU Los Angeles and an Ed.D. in Education Administration from UCLA.

Marilyn Wulliger

Mrs. Wulliger has an extensive background as an educator. A teacher for more than 20 years in the Beverly Hills Unified School District, she has presented at conferences nationally and has been honored by numerous awards and grants, including the Music Center's 1993 BRAVO Award, an Outstanding Teacher Award by the Beverly Hills Chamber of Commerce, an Independent Study in the Humanities grant, and a Fulbright-Hay Fellowship to Ghana, West Africa. She was a member of the Advisory Panel for the California High School Exit Examination and worked closely with TETAC (Transforming Education through the Arts Consortium), a five year Getty-Annenberg grant for arts reform awarded to 36 schools in the United States. She received her BA from University of California, Los Angeles, and an MA in English from Middlebury College.