Thom Knab, NAEA President

Thom Knab has been an elementary visual arts educator for 31 years, the last 30 years at Dodge Elementary School in Western New York State. He earned his BA and MA in Art Education from Buffalo State College. Thom was president of the New York State Art Teachers Association from 2013-2015. He was honored with the New York State Art Educator of the Year award in 2018. Thom has served on the National Art Education Association (NAEA) Board of Directors as the Elementary Division Director from 2015-2017, President elect from 2018-2019, and serves currently as NAEA President. He was honored as both the NAEA Eastern Region Elementary Art Educator as well as the NAEA National Elementary Art Educator in 2018. Thom is a finalist for National Teacher Hall of Fame induction in 2020. Thom has been published multiple times in School Arts magazine. He is an exhibiting artist having hosted two solo shows in 2017 and one in 2018. He has been a keynote speaker for several state conferences as well as nationally. In 2019, Thom was a featured speaker at the Global Aesthetic Education Summit sponsored by SMART Education in Beijing, China. He was chosen a Lowell Milken Fellow in 2019. He has also been an almost yearly presenter at state and national conferences. In addition to an art educator he has also been a boys’ volleyball coach for thirty-six years and was honored in 2013 by being inducted into the WNY Boys Volleyball Hall of Fame.