What is ED&I:

For the purposes of consistency and to align with NAEA's definitions so that our work will be fully supported by NAEA's ED&I's Commission, I will site their definitions:

Equity: Refers to conditions that support fairness and justness based on individual needs and circumstances whereas all members have opportunities to thrive and realize their best within the NAEA community (adopted December 2017).

Diversity: The term ‘diversity’ describes both observable and non-observable individual differences (life experiences, work context, learning and working styles, personality types among others) and group/social differences (race, gender identity and expression, age, social class, country of origin, ability, beliefs, intellectual and cultural perspectives, among others) that can contribute to organizational vibrancy and a dynamic professional community.

Inclusion: The term ‘inclusion’ describes proactive, intentional, and thoughtful engagement with diversity to the extent that all have the ability to contribute fully and effectively throughout the NAEA community."

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MAEA ED&I Strategic planning session Set

Please join us in Helena at our state conference to hear from our NAEA Director of ED&I, Ray Yang, as our keynote followed up with a lunch work session to develop a strategic plan for Montana's response to ED&I.

Dr. Mara K. Pierce
NAEA ED&I Liaison
Associate Professor of Art Education
Art Department, Montana State University Billings

Mara was born in Maine, but spent most of her life moving to diverse locations. She spent her first few years in California, then her school-age years in Texas. After finishing high school in Houston, she attended the University of Texas in Austin, TX for one year. However, she left school before finishing her first year and returned to work in Houston, then went to work behind the scenes in film in Hollywood, CA. She returned to school to earn her Associate of Fine Arts with a concentration in Photography and then began her Bachelor of Fine Arts with a concentration in Illustration and Design at the University of North Carolina Charlotte. Before graduating, She returned to Hollywood to continue to learn about filmmaking, but did so in front of the camera. Concurrently, she worked as an illustrator, graphic & website designer, winning the LA Times Best User Interface award for website design in 2002. In 2003, she moved to New Mexico and began teaching Art, English, and Adult Education at a Tribal college on the Navajo Nation Indian Reservation. In 2006, she finally completed her BFA. In 2007, she began her graduate work at the University of New Mexico where she focused on Art Education and American Indian Education, specifically culturally responsive inclusion in the art classroom, and earned an additional eighteen graduate credits in 2-dimensional studio art (printmaking and drawing). She graduated with her PhD from the University of Arizona in 2015 having focused on Art and Visual Culture Education, with a doctoral minor in American Indian Studies/Education. She continues to create intermedia printmaking artwork as a method for collecting data. For her most recent exhibition, she investigated how the Indian Education for All policy could be interpreted for better utilization by Montana's art teachers.