Fine Arts Focus Teacher, holds a Colorado Professional Teaching License in K - 12 Art Education and is a member of The National Art Education Association (NAEA), the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC), Colorado Art Education Association ( elected CAEA Representative for Independent, Charter and Private Schools, 2005-2007), ArtSource Colorado and Colorado Association for Gifted Children. Nan received a BA in Fine Art (with a Psychology/Sociology minor) from New York State University at Albany. Nan has presented at both State (CAEA- 10/04, 10/05) and National (NAEA-3/05) art education conferences, as well as The National Association for Gifted Children Annual Conference in Louisville KY (11/05, 11/06). Nan is an aspiring potter, an amateur photographer, an occasional quilt maker, a life long bird watcher and a poor but avid golfer. She has two daughters, Libby and Hannah, both in college.

Describing her approach to teaching art, Nan says “I am an art teacher who was raised by an art teacher. Creative expression and invention have been a way of life for me, but I never considered myself an “artist” until very recently, when I began to teach art in a new way at Rocky Mountain School for the Gifted and Creative. The art room is now an art studio, and the students are artists. We have built a community of artists which has expanded beyond the walls of our school. The ideas of the students; their interests and their passions, are honored, nurtured and developed. Students discuss ideas such as: “what do artists do?”  “Where do artists find inspiration?” It is not unusual to have a group consider the more basic question: “what is art”. Students learn that artists work in different ways, in different media, on different scales and at different speeds. Artists at RMS can work independently or collaboratively; both are valid artistic behaviors. It is my belief that there is an artist within each person, that this is a basic human quality and has always been so, across borders, and throughout time.”