Curriculum Development Team

Mary Conage serves as the special projects director for Pinellas County Schools, Florida. She enjoys facilitating effective teaching and learning by sharing insights, perspectives, and practical knowledge gained over more than 30 years in education as a teacher, instructional coach, elementary mathematics supervisor, and Title I director. Building on her doctoral studies at the University of Florida, she advocates culturally responsive practices and pedagogy to create learning conditions that lead to improved academic outcomes for diverse learners. Conage developed the 6 Ms of Culturally Responsive Instruction, Continuum of Education Equity, and CR for Equity Walkthrough instrument as tools to support authentic reflection, intentional planning, and focused action. She continues to connect with educators through presentations at various conferences, including Learning Forward, ASCD, Magnet Schools of America, and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

Libya Doman, curriculum development team and instructor/facilitator, is a National Board–certified visual arts educator and a diversity and inclusion facilitator. Using art and conversation as “mirrors and windows” to seeing ourselves and others, Doman designs and delivers curricula, workshops, and keynotes to help educators grapple with topics that are often deemed “uncomfortable.” Presentation focuses include—but are not limited to—race, gender, orientation, (dis)ability, language, SES, and other special populations. Doman is proud to have an art history degree from Spelman College, an HBCU. She received a postbaccalaureate at an art school for women, Moore College of Art & Design. She earned her master’s degree in art education and 2D art from Teachers College, Columbia University. She is currently a visual arts educator and Equity ADVOCATES Lead at Lynbrook Elementary in Fairfax County, Virginia. Doman is an alumna of NAEA’s School for Art Leaders (SAL) program.

Flávia Bastos, project evaluator, is a Brazilian native who lives and works in Cincinnati. She is a distinguished research professor in visual arts education in the School of Art at the University of Cincinnati. Bastos also directs the Art Futures Program, a community-based initiative that prepares local youth through the process of socially engaged art to consider professional careers and college. Her research and scholarship are indebted to her Brazilian roots, as well as experiences with social and cultural diversity, and inspired by the educational philosophy of educator Paulo Freire. Therefore, her art education practices are fueled by progressive education ideas that honor the artistic potential and celebrate the possibilities and talents of all people.

Bastos’s accomplishments include being the Director of the Higher Education Division of NAEA and a member of the Council of Policy Studies in Art Education; receiving in 2009 the Ziegfeld Award of the International Society for Education Through Art (InSEA) for her distinguished service in international art education and in 2007 the Mary J. Rouse Award of the NAEA Women’s Caucus. She is a past senior editor of the Journal of Art Education and has published and lectured extensively in the United States and other countries, including South Africa, Brazil, Chile, Indonesia, Spain, and Portugal. Her books include Transforming City Schools Through Art: Approaches to Meaningful K-12 Learning, a coedited volume published by Teachers College Press (2012), and the anthology Connecting Creativity Research and Practice in Art Education: Foundations, Pedagogies, and Contemporary Issues, released by NAEA.

NAEA Support Staff