Our Team
Dedicated Teaching Artists and Visionary Leaders with a Deeply Rooted Heart for Mentorship and Educational Equity
Creative Collaborations for Arts Education is profoundly powered by an exceptional team of unique individuals who seamlessly combine high professional artistic accomplishment with a deep, heartfelt, and persistent commitment to holistic youth development and educational equity. Each member of our diverse staff, ranging from our strategic executive leadership to our highly specialized teaching artists, is carefully selected not solely for their impressive academic and professional qualifications, but more critically, for their nurturing demeanor, proven ability to inspire and connect authentically with young people, and their experience navigating the needs of diverse cultural and socio-economic backgrounds. We proactively foster a highly collaborative, supportive, and intellectually stimulating work environment where individual creative passion is robustly encouraged, continuous professional development is strategically prioritized, and teaching artists are fully supported with resources, ensuring our team remains at the absolute forefront of contemporary arts pedagogy and culturally responsive teaching methods. This unwavering internal dedication translates directly into external excellence, ensuring that every CCAE program is delivered with unparalleled enthusiasm, deep expertise, consistency, and the crucial personal touch that creates a lasting, positive difference in a student’s life, thereby establishing a powerful mentorship dynamic that extends far beyond simple technical instruction to truly empower and equip the next generation of creative, compassionate Dallas leaders.
Jane Doe, Executive Director
Jane Doe is universally recognized as the central, visionary force and driving strategic mind behind CCAE, bringing an invaluable breadth of over fifteen years of dedicated experience in complex non-profit organizational management, rigorous fiscal oversight, and passionate arts advocacy to her demanding role as Executive Director. She possesses a Master’s degree in Educational Leadership from a top-tier university and has previously served with distinction as a successful high school arts department head, granting Jane a unique, comprehensive understanding of both the administrative, fundraising, and logistical challenges inherent in sustaining arts education, as well as the crucial, day-to-day instructional necessities within the constraints of the public school system. Her dedication to the mission stems from a deeply personal, foundational belief in the immediate, transformative power of a single, meaningful creative experience to fundamentally alter a child’s academic and personal trajectory. Strategically, she focuses on cultivating diversified, sustainable funding streams, forging high-impact strategic partnerships with major Dallas cultural institutions and foundations, and meticulously ensuring that the organization’s innovative, expanding curriculum remains rigorously aligned with its core organizational mission of absolute accessibility, instructional excellence, and measurable student outcomes. Jane leads her team with a rare combination of strategic acumen, fiscal responsibility, and genuine, empathetic warmth, fostering an organizational culture that consistently prioritizes the overall well-being and long-term creative growth of every student above all else, thereby guiding the entire team toward achieving profound, measurable, and enduring community impact throughout the city. She is the public face of CCAE, constantly advocating for the essential role of the arts in civic life and educational reform.
Marcus Chen, Director of Programs
Marcus Chen meticulously manages the entire diversified portfolio of CCAE’s educational programs, overseeing the continuous curriculum development process, rigorous training and mentorship of all teaching artists, and the systematic, ongoing program evaluation and efficacy studies. Marcus himself is an accomplished professional muralist, a certified educator, and a highly skilled digital designer, holding a BFA in Studio Art and an advanced certification in adolescent youth development, allowing him to bring a working artist’s high-level perspective, a pedagogical innovator’s drive, and a true mentor’s heart to the organization’s leadership team. With extensive, invaluable direct experience—eight years spent successfully teaching intensive arts residencies in diverse, challenging urban educational environments—he possesses profound practical knowledge of the factors that most effectively engage contemporary students and the strategies required to manage dynamic, complex classroom settings effectively and empathetically. His day-to-day work involves meticulously crafting the detailed learning objectives, project guidelines, and engaging activity sequences for all in-school and after-school workshops, constantly ensuring that every single lesson plan is pedagogically sound, culturally responsive to the Dallas community, fully compliant with academic standards, and maximizes active student engagement and creative output. Marcus holds a particular, intense passion for leveraging modern digital arts and media tools to connect authentically with modern students, firmly believing that mastery of contemporary tools like professional graphic design software, video editing suites, and digital music production are essential, valuable forms of contemporary literacy and powerful expression for today’s rapidly developing youth.
Sarah Lee, Community Outreach Coordinator
Sarah Lee serves as the proactive, tireless driving force behind CCAE’s robust community partnerships and comprehensive family engagement initiatives, effectively acting as the critical primary liaison between the organization and the diverse, multifaceted neighborhoods and families we are committed to serving. Sarah’s impressive educational background includes a specialized degree in Social Work and Community Organizing, and her extensive professional history is deeply rooted in successful, grassroots efforts aimed at empowering families through coordinated resource access, comprehensive educational advocacy, and strengthening local civic infrastructure. Her crucial role involves actively and empathetically listening to the expressed needs and logistical concerns of parents, community leaders, and school administrators, ensuring that CCAE’s programs are thoughtfully scheduled, structured, communicated, and delivered in a manner that maximizes equitable family participation, sustained support, and cultural relevance. She is personally responsible for coordinating all public student showcases, managing crucial volunteer recruitment efforts, and executing community-wide events, constantly striving to build a strong, pervasive sense of shared ownership and genuine excitement for arts education within every neighborhood and school we operate within. Sarah’s naturally approachable manner, exceptional cross-cultural communication skills, and unwavering, infectious enthusiasm make her a trusted and highly visible figure, authentically embodying the essential ‘Collaborations’ part of our name by fostering genuine, productive, and long-lasting relationships throughout the entire Dallas area.
David Perez, Lead Teaching Artist (Music)
David Perez is widely recognized as one of Creative Collaborations for Arts Education’s most influential and beloved Lead Teaching Artists, bringing his specialized expertise in music composition, digital audio production, and classical and contemporary instrument instruction. As an accomplished, professional performing jazz musician and a dedicated music educator who holds a Master’s in Music Education, David brings an exceptionally high level of performance artistry, rigorous discipline, and genuine pedagogical patience directly into the classroom, simultaneously inspiring students with both his technical skill and his deeply patient, encouraging teaching style. He is responsible for managing our musical theatre development and digital audio production workshops, where he expertly teaches students how to utilize industry-standard professional software to compose their own original soundtracks, produce high-quality podcasts, and arrange musical pieces, effectively blending timeless traditional music theory with indispensable modern technological skills. David is widely known for his unique ability to establish immediate, deep connection with even the most hesitant or reserved students, using the universally understood power of music as a common language to break down social barriers, build crucial collaborative skills, and instantly boost self-confidence. His core teaching philosophy centers on the profound idea that every single student possesses an innate, unique musical rhythm and expressive voice waiting to be discovered and nurtured, and he meticulously works to cultivate that rhythm, helping them find and amplify their voice, whether through mastery of a piano keyboard, rhythmic discipline on a drum kit, or confident articulation through a microphone, emphasizing the discipline, joy, and collaborative necessity inherent in all forms of musical creation.
Community & Engagement
Proactively Partnering with Parents, Building Shared Advocacy, and Fostering Creativity at Home and School
Creative Collaborations for Arts Education views parents and guardians not just as recipients of information, but as essential, active collaborators in every student’s creative and educational journey, and we are intentional in cultivating multiple, accessible avenues for deep family involvement, structured communication, and ongoing support. We regularly host scheduled “Open Studio” days, family art workshops, and evening “Meet the Artist” sessions where parents can actively participate in the creative process alongside their children, gaining direct insight into our inquiry-based teaching methodologies and collectively building a shared appreciation for the developmental necessity of the arts. Beyond these interactive events, we maintain robust, open lines of communication through detailed monthly newsletters, dedicated secure parent portals, and personalized digital check-ins that provide frequent updates on curriculum goals, individual project progress, and actionable tips and creative prompts for proactively fostering and supporting creative thinking in the home environment. Our primary goal in this engagement is to fully empower parents to become informed, vocal, and effective arts advocates within their own homes, social networks, and local schools, operating under the psychological principle that a child’s academic confidence, emotional resilience, and willingness to take creative risks soars exponentially when their artistic and creative pursuits are genuinely valued, understood, and proactively supported by their primary caregivers. This strong, reciprocal home-school partnership ensures that the profound, positive impact of our arts programs is consistently reinforced, sustained, and amplified long after a student physically leaves the classroom or workshop.
Join Us/Work With Us
Professional Opportunities: Become a Teaching Artist, a Creative Leader, and Join a Career Where Artistic Passion Meets Educational Purpose
Creative Collaborations for Arts Education is consistently and actively seeking dynamic, exceptionally talented, and dedicated individuals who are ready to fully blend their professional artistic accomplishments and technical skills with a profound, unwavering commitment to innovative youth education and mentorship. Working with CCAE offers a unique, fulfilling, and high-impact career path for experienced artists who possess a strong pedagogical mindset, deep empathy, and a genuine, innate desire to mentor and guide the next generation of creative thinkers. We actively hire professional Teaching Artists across all our core disciplines—including advanced visual arts, music, drama, and digital media—to expertly lead our structured in-school residencies, specialized community workshops, and summer camps. Our employment opportunities are diverse, ranging from highly flexible part-time contracted residencies to stable, full-time staff positions with benefits, all offering competitive compensation and the immeasurable benefit of working within a supportive, mission-driven, and artist-centric organization focused on educational excellence. We rigorously look for candidates who are not only verifiable masters of their artistic craft but who also possess excellent, empathetic classroom management skills, a sophisticated understanding of child and adolescent development theory, and the crucial ability to collaborate effectively and professionally with diverse school faculty, ensuring our innovative programs are integrated seamlessly and delivered with excellence, passion, and enthusiasm across every site.