2020 naea award winners

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SOUTHEASTERN REGION MIDDLE LEVEL ART EDUCATOR

• Nancy Von Brock has  taught at Louisiana State University Laboratory School for the past 27  years.  She has taught everything from Kindergarten to College level  classes but has spent the past twenty-two years teaching middle school  art and Art I.  She has been a member of LAEA and NAEA since 1998,  serving LAEA as Member-at-Large, Middle Level Representative,  President-Elect, President, Past-President and Treasurer.  She has  helped with several state conferences and chaired the 2010 Fall  Conference in Baton Rouge.  
  Nancy  has been a mentor teacher for many student teachers and has worked with  the Louisiana State Department of Education’s Arts Curriculum and the  Louisiana Task force on Art Education and Assessment.  She was a  National Board Certified Art Teacher from 2005-2015.  She retired this  May and hopes to spend lots of time creating art and playing with her  two grandchildren.

LOUISIANA ART EDUCATOR OF THE YEAR

• Adair  Watkins has been teaching art for 40 years.  She started teaching in  1978 at high school level in a private school in New Orleans. From there  she went on to a position at another private school where she taught  all 5th through 8th grades and some high school classes.  During this  time, she married the love of her life who happened to be a music  teacher with a passion for musical theatre productions. She also  completed M. Ed. After the addition of two children, she chose a  position closer to home at a public Jr. High that grew to 1300 students  at one point. In 2005, the year of Katrina, she made her first attempt  at National Board Certification. She finally accomplished this  certification in 2007 in Young Adolescent through Young Adult Art.  Currently, she is teaching in the Talented Art Program in Louisiana  working at 4 different schools with students in grades 1 through 8.
  Adair  is a lifelong learner continuing to take courses to expand her  professional and personal horizons including Art Educator Forums at the  Savannah College of Art and Design (1988), National Gallery of Art  Teacher workshop on the Renaissance (1991), New Orleans Academy of Fine  Art oil Painting Class (2012) and Leadership Training with St. Tammany  Parish School Board (2016). She also is a member of the St. Tammany Art  Association and has had her work displayed there. She was on the hospitality committee for the NAEA National Convention in  2015 and has served in many roles in the Louisiana Art Educators Association  where she is now a Vice President of the Southeast Region. She has  hosted regional meetings, been on multiple state conference planning  committees, co-edited the state newsletter, and was a state conference  co-chair in 2016. She attended National Leadership Conference in  Charleston in 2018 and SE Leadership Conference in 2019. Extra-curricular  activities have include membership in Kappa Delta Pi, mentoring at  least 12 student teachers, art educator volunteer for Safe Harbor Home  for Abused Women and Children, member of the advisory board of St.  Timothy Unity Methodist Church, Senior Warden of St. Michael’s Episcopal  Church, and is currently volunteering with James Samaritan, working  with foster children services.  She has also embraced new activities  such as yearbook sponsor (9 years), boys’ soccer coach (2 years), garden  club sponsor (3 years), editor of Art and Literary Magazine (18 years.) Adair  is most proud of the work of her students and has said, “Every little  step and accomplishment of discovery by my students, I count as my own.  Many times as an artist I am asked which my favorite medium is. My  answer remains the same – “children” because first and foremost, I am a  teacher.”