Dr. Mila Parrish, Associate Professor, is the Director of Dance Education at the University of North Carolina Greensboro. She is internationally recognized for her work in dance pedagogy and educational technology. Mila has led over over 100 professional development courses, seminars and workshops thought the US and in Canada, China, Finland, Brazil, Greece, Denmark, Portugal and the Netherlands. She has established numerous longstanding service and community engagement initiatives including Dancers Connect a free community dance program and dance pedagogy laboratory.  In addition to serving as NCDEO’s founding President, she currently serves on the dance and the Child international (DaCi) board as Newsletter Editor. Dr. Parrish is the 2011 recipient of the SCDA Dance Advocacy Award, the 2012 Faculty Advisor Award from USC and the 2015 Leadership Award from NDEO for her community initiatives and scholarly work that has had a significant impact on the field of dance education.

Dr. Marissa Beth Nesbit is Assistant Professor and coordinator of the Dance Education program at East Carolina University. Prior to joining the faculty at ECU, she completed her PhD in Art Education at The Ohio State University, where she was awarded both the Graduate Associate Teaching Award and the Manuel Barkan Dissertation Fellowship. Dr. Nesbit has extensive experience teaching dance in K-12 schools through programs with the North Carolina Dance Theatre and the Southeast Center for Education in the Arts at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, where she was Director of Dance Education. She also holds an MFA in Dance from Texas Woman’s University and a BA in Psychobiology from Pitzer College.

Kate Cummings is the Director of the Dance Program and Fine Arts Department Chair at Millbrook High School in Raleigh. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance Education from East Carolina University. She teaches younger students at several Raleigh studios, serves on the education curriculum committee for Carolina Ballet as a curriculum writer and participates in organization of danceSPARK in downtown Raleigh as part of SPARKcon.

Beth Wright Fath graduated from UNC-Greensboro with an MFA in Dance and is a Certified Movement Analyst from the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies. Currently she is on faculty at NC State. Prior to NC State, she was an Associate Professor and Director of Dance at Peace College. She also taught at Meredith College, Cardinal Gibbons High School, and in studios in NC and WV.

Beth has performed and presented her work: at Movement Research and Danspace; at American Dance Festival’s Opening Acts; at ACDA conferences; with the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, Rick McCullough, NickWalk Dance Project, 2 Near the Edge, Rhynard And Dancers; regionally in WV and NV. She produced curated performances as a founding member of Five Chick Posse Productions and as a co-producer of NC Dances. Additionally, Beth is a former officer and Board member for NCDA.

Susan Hill is the Director of the Dance Program and Fine Arts Department Chair at Mills Park Middle School in Cary, NC.  She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance from The State University of New York at Purchase and her teaching licensure from East Carolina University.  Susan also works with Raleigh Little Theater as an instructor and choreographer, as a guest artist with City Ballet for their annual Nutcracker, and works on various dance related projects for Wake County Public Schools.

Laura graduated from the University of the Arts, (BFA/Dance Ed) and Teachers College, Columbia University (MA/Dance Ed).  She served as Dance Director at HWB Magnet School for the Arts, FL. and East Millbrook Magnet Middle School, NC.  Additional teaching credits include North Carolina Dance Institute, Infinity Ballet, the former Virginia School of the Arts and the regional and national highschool dance festivals in Norfolk, Miami and Philadelphia. Her choreography was commissioned by St. Petersburg College and The Tampa Visitor’s Bureau and was awarded to be performed at DPAC to open for the Radio City Rockette’s Christmas Spectacular.  Ms. Stauderman is a Nationally Board Certified Teacher and was one of the first educators to  implement the National Honor Society for Dance Arts at both the middle and high school levels in North Carolina.  She is presently in her 11th year as the Dance Director at Holly Springs High School.