Critical Links: Learning in the Arts and Student Academic and Social Development
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Critical Links: Press Conference Speaker Biographies

James S. Catterall is Professor at the UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information Studies where he has served on the curriculum and education policy faculty since 1981. He is Director of the Imagination Group, a collaboration group of academics, students, teachers, and art professionals interested in learning through the arts.

Dr. Catterall's research focuses on the roles of the arts in human development, with an emphases on basic roles of imagery in cognition and on arts-related instructional and curriculum policies impacting teaching and learning. He is nationally known for works related to children at risk, and in recent years for his studies examining the influences of participation in the arts and learning development. Dr. Catterall also served as director of multi-year evaluation of the Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education, a program which pairs artist and teachers for interdisciplinary teaching. Reports of his longitudinal studies and the CAPE research can be found in the Champions of Change volume available on the Arts Education Partnership website.

Professor Catterall currently heads the Design Team for the new Riverside School for the Arts, a collaboration between the University of California at Riverside, the Riverside Community College, and the County Office of Education.

Professor Catterall holds a Ph.D. in education from Stanford University, an M.A. in public policy from the University of Minnesota, and an AB with honors in economics from Princeton University. He is founding member of both the Topanga, CA Symphony (cello) and the Topanga Brass (euphonium), both groups established in the early 1980s.

Richard J. Deasy is the director of the Arts Education Partnership. The Partnership is a private, nonprofit coalition of education, arts, business, philanthropic, and government organizations that demonstrate and promote the essential role of arts education in enabling all students to succeed in school, life, and work. Over 100 national organizations committed to promoting arts education in elementary and secondary schools throughout the country have joined the Partnership to help states and local school districts integrate the arts into their educational improvement plans under the Goal 2000 legislation and other state initiatives. The Arts Education Partnership was formed in 1995 through a cooperative agreement between the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), U.S. Education Department (USED), National Assembly of State Arts Agencies (NASAA), Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO).

Mr. Deasy has enjoyed successful careers in education, international cultural affairs and journalism. He has served for ten years as Assistant State Superintendent of Schools for Maryland, where he had responsibility for all curricular areas and all statewide assessment as well as service to special student populations. Mr. Deasy was responsible for adoption of the first curriculum requirements in the arts, creation of the first curricular frameworks in the arts discipline and the first arts graduation requirements. He also established a summer center for students in the visual and performing arts and providing grant support to educational and cultural institutions in the state to provide professional development for arts teachers and outreach programs for students.

Mr. Deasy has also served as executive assistant to the Secretary of Education in Pennsylvania where, amount many responsibilites, he administered the Distinguished Faculty Awards Program for the state university system and annually convened distinguished artist and arts educators for the arts awards that were included in that program.

For ten years, Mr. Deasy was the president and CEO of the National Council for International Visitors, an association of some 135 international and domestic organizations involved in educational and cultural exchange programs involving distinguished political, educational, and cultural leaders from the nations of the world.

Mr. Deasy was a prize winning journalist, covering politics and government at the state and local levels. He was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on housing and urban affairs in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. Mr. Deasy has been a teacher of English, religion and philosophy at the secondary and university levels and has served on a variety of nonprofit boards of directors, including president of the International Brass Quintet Festival in Baltimore.

Dr. G. Thomas Houlihan is the Executive Director of the Council of Chief State School Officers, a nonprofit association dedicated to the improvement of education and located in Washington, DC. He is the former President/CEO of the North Carolina Partnership for Excellence, a nonprofit selected as a National Alliance of Business "State Coalition of the Year" award recipient in 1999.

Dr. Houlihan previously served as Senior Education Advisor to Governor James B. Hunt Jr.,; Governor of North Carolina. With a background as a teacher, principal and superintendent, Dr. Houlihan was the first educator in history to hold Cabinet level status in a North Carolina Governor's administration.

Dr. Houlihan's contributions to North Carolina's children, education and business partnerships have earned him the state's highest civilian honor: the Order of the Long Leaf Pine

An author and frequent speaker/consultant, Dr. Houlihan was selected "Superintendent of the Year" in North Carolina and was one of four finalist for national "Superintendent of the Year". He has also been honored by his alma mater, Indiana University and from Phi Delta Kappa for leadership and contributions to education. Dr. Houlihan has written two books and published over 200 professional and news media articles.

Education:
B.S. History and Psychology, Indiana University, 1972
M.Ed. Guidance and Personnel Services, NC State University, 1975
Ed.D Administration and Curriculum, UNC-Chapel Hill, 1982

Eileen B. Mason is the Acting Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. Prior to coming to the Endowment, Ms. Mason served for twenty-two years as a manager and policy maker at two federal energy agencies.

Before entering the federal service, Ms. Mason was a book editor at Little, Brown in Boston and Acropolis Books in Washington, DC.

Ms. Mason is a talented violinist who has played with the Cornell Symphony, the M.I.T. Symphony, and most recently with the American University Symphony Orchestra. Her twenty-two years of public service included service on the Board of Directors of the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County, as Vice President for Grants, and on a Music Advisory Panel for the Maryland State Arts Council.

Ms. Mason has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Cornell University, where she majored in English; and a Masters in Public Administration from American University. She is a member of Pi Alpha Alpha, the National Honor Society for Public Affairs and Administration.

Susan K. Sclafani is currently Counselor to the Secretary of Education in the United States Department of Education. In that role, she advises the Secretary on educational issues and initiatives, with a particular emphasis on accountability and assessment, mathematics and science education, international partnerships, and leadership issues.

Previously, Dr. Sclafani was Chief of Staff for Educational Services in the Houston Independent School District. In that position, she represented the Superintendent on educational issues and coordinated activities of the departments directly involved in the education of children, including School Administration, Educational Programs, Legal Services, Community and Public Relations, Reading, and the Superintendent's Office. Prior to that, she held a variety of positions, from teacher to leadership roles in High School for Engineering Professions and the department of technology, curriculum, and construction management.

Dr. Sclafani received her A.B. degree from Vassar College, an M.A. in Germanic Languages and Literature from the University of Chicago, and a M.Ed. and Ph.D in Educational Administration for the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Sclafani participated in the Cooperative Superintendency Program at the University of Texas while completing her doctoral work. She is also a charter member of Superintendents Prepared, an initiative to identify and train the next generation of urban superintendents.

Gerald E. Sroufe, Ph.D. most recently served as interim executive director of the American Education Research Association (AERA), the singular organization of education researchers. This month, Dr. Sroufe returns to his previous position as director of government relations at AERA.

During the past two years, Dr. Sroufe served as one of the seven compendium advisors for the Arts Education Partnership's Critical Links: Learning in the Arts and Student Academic and Social Development. AERA, which represents 23,000 members in the United States and abroad, supports research fellowships and training programs, and six major research publications, including the American Educational Research Journal. It also holds an annual meeting that approximately 12,000 education research attend. The association's primary goals are to enhance the quality of education research, and to stimulate its use to improve education practice and policy.

Dr. Sroufe, who earned his Ph.D. degree in education at the University of Chicago, has education experience as a middle school teacher, a university professor and university administrator. He also served as executive director of the National Committee for Support of Public Schools, a citizens' group that focuses on education policy. His primary research interest include federal education research policy and infrastructure, and state and federal politics of education.