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Susan McGreevy-Nichols represents Dance on the CAN steering committee and oversees the overall dance component of the grant.
As a teacher at Roger Williams Middle School in Providence, Rhode Island from 1974-2002, Susan found and developed that institution’s nationally renowned middle school dance program. The program treated dance as a core subject and emphasized the creating, performing and responding processes as they link to the arts and other disciplines. She is the developer of a cutting-edge reading comprehension strategy that uses text as inspiration for original choreography created by children. This literacy-based methodology combines the creative process with reading instruction. In 1995, Susan was honored as the National Dance Teacher of the Year. Susan McGreevy-Nichols is the co-author of five books: Building Dances (1995), Building More Dances (2001), Experiencing Dance (2004), Dance about Anything (2006) and Exploring Dance Forms and Styles (2010). Prior to becoming NDEO Executive Director/CEO in 2012, Susan moved to CA and worked as an independent National Arts Education Consultant. Her consulting work included coaching districts in Los Angeles County as part of the Arts for All initiative and in Northern California in Alameda County as a part of that county’s initiative Revitalizing Classrooms Through Arts Learning: Strategic Plan as well as an adjunct professor at Loyola Marymount University and CSU/DHU. She/Her/Hers.
Dance Content manager(s) have a deep understanding of SEL, ED&I, Leadership, and Standards-based Dance Education. Duties include:
Nicole Robinson (BS, CSU San Bernardino/MA, CSU Long Beach) is a dancer, teacher, choreographer and dance education advocate from Riverside, CA. She is the dance specialist for the Fontana Unified School district leading professional development projects and workshops for teachers grades K-6 and is the lead teacher for the FUSD Dance Collaborative which provides dance education for students in grades PK-8 grades. In 2015, she was named California League of Teachers' Teacher of the Year for Region 10 and was named the 2017 Carlston Family Foundation Teacher of the Year. She has served as a team lead for the California Arts Standards Revision Committee in Dance and is a teacher leader for the California Arts Project. Currently, Nicole is the past president for the California Dance Education Association which is the statewide professional organization for California dance educators. She has served as a committee member for the National Dance Education Organization’s Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access advisory.
Dr. Dale Schmid is a Research Fellow for The Arnhold Institute for Dance Education Research, Policy & Leadership and adjunct Associate Professor for the EdD Dance Education Program at Columbia University, Teachers College. He is also the Co-Facilitator and Co-Chair of Governance for the National Coalition for Core Arts Standards and senior advisor to Dance Entry Level Teacher Assessment initiative; a national endeavor to codify dance teacher preparation through data collection and consensus building. Additionally, he is a member of the senior advisory boards of The Center for Arts Education and Social Emotional Learning, and the Joy 2 Learn Foundation. Dr. Schmid is a Past-President of the National Dance Education Organization and State Education Agency Directors of Arts Education; a longstanding member of the National Arts Education Policy Working Group and Arts Education Partnership Advisory Panel (Washington DC); and served as the Visual and Performing Arts Coordinator for the New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE) for 22 years. Former leadership roles include the Executive Steering Committees of the Arts Education Partnership; Arts Ed NJ, and NJN Public Broadcasting Authority, among others. He is also a published author and contributing author of the College Board’s Pre-AP Arts Curriculum as well as a sought-after public speaker.
Early in his career, Dr. Schmid spent close to two decades on the regional and national touring circuit as a dancer, actor, choreographer, director, and teaching artist and was fortunate to have studied with Modern Dance Pioneers Hanya Holm, Isa Bergsohn, Erik Hawkins, Nancy Hauser and many others. Subsequently, he taught dance and theatre at the high school and collegiate levels and is an aspiring jazz percussionist. Dale holds a Doctorate in Educational & Organizational Leadership from the University of Pennsylvania, with a dissertation in the field of psychometrics. He also earned an M.Ed. from Temple University, and two undergraduate degrees from Bemidji State University.