Varissa McMickens is Director of ArtsRising, a collaborative initiative between the Ed Fund, Fleisher Art Memorial, and Public Citizens for Children and Youth (PCCY). As Director, Ms. McMickens is utilizing her experience in arts and education to help further develop ArtsRising to improve and expand access to arts education for children in the Greater Philadelphia Region.
Prior to her appointment as Director of ArtsRising, Ms. McMickens served as Executive Director for the DC Arts and Humanities Education Collaborative, a collective voice of approximately 80 arts and cultural members. She has held positions with the Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts, as Regional Coordinator of its local DC area professional development program and then as Assistant Director of the Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning Through the Arts. Ms. McMickens has held positions that focus on developing and managing public school and early childhood educational programs. She worked in the for-profit sector, directing community affairs and news for three local radio stations and helping to launch a national African American history magazine.
Ms. McMickens also served as co-chair of the Professional Development, Summer Institute for Teaching Artists, and Arts Education Initiative (funded by the Ford Foundation and the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities), which were committees of the DC Arts & Humanities Education Collaborative. She served as primary liaison to the Wolf Trap Institute's 15 Regional Replication Sites across the nation, and was responsible for the establishment of five new regional sites.
Ms. McMickens holds a B.S. in Speech Communication from Syracuse University.