Dr. Jenn Katona, Founder and President 3 Looms

Jenn has been lucky to work in Arts Education for over 20 years in almost every capacity, as a classroom teacher, teaching artist, school administrator, arts administrator, graduate professor, consultant and performer. She has seen the work from every angle. It is this unique perspective that allows Jenn to be flexible in her thinking when it comes to how best to serve educators, schools and cultural organizations and foundations.

Currently serving as Visual and Performing Arts Sr. Manager for the Norwalk Public Schools, Jenn oversees over eighty K-12 arts education staff across twenty schools servicing 12,000 students. Norwalk is a Title 1 district and her work includes curriculum writing, establishing and sustaining quality arts programming, and helping the district move to a stronger arts integration model. Jenn is the former director and founder of the Graduate Program in Educational Theatre at the City College of New York (CCNY), overseeing the certification of pre- and in-service theatre teachers and the training of non-certified theatre educators. Through her work at CCNY, Jenn created and oversees the middle school afterschool drama program at PS 161 the neighboring K-8 school in Harlem.

She is the 2015 recipient of the Lin Wright Special Recognition Award given by the American Alliance for Theatre and Educators (AATE) for Outstanding Achievement in Theatre Education. She is also the 2014 recipient of the President’s Award for Outstanding Faculty Service at CCNY.

She served for three years on the NYC Arts Advisory Council, designed to advise the Chancellor on arts education policy related issues and currently serves on the Blue Ribbon Commission on the Arts for the New York State Department of Education.

Jenn has served as the Arts Education consultant for Westport Country Playhouse in Connecticut and has served as a curriculum consultant for Disney Theatrical Education, Broadway’s Come From Away. She has facilitated workshops on curriculum mapping for the New York City Department of Education Office of Arts and Special Projects as well as facilitated webinars on the same topics for teachers nationwide through AATE, where she also serves on the Board of Directors as Board Chair and previously as Director of Regional Programming, overseeing Theatre In Our Schools initiatives. She has also served on the college advisory for the Educational Theatre Association (EDTA).

Jenn taught middle school theatre in Brooklyn and worked as Teaching Artist for numerous cultural organizations throughout the tri-state area, most notably New Victory Theatre, Arts Connection, NorthShore Music Theatre and Starlight Youth Productions.

Jenn holds a Ph.D. in Urban Education: Arts Policy and her current research explores Factors Which Influence the Decision of a School Leader to Maintain or Eliminate Arts Programming in their School and building sustainable arts programming in urban schools. Jenn has spoken and presented on this topic at many conferences across the country.