05/27/2026
Save the date! The 2026 Professional Development Day for Arts Educators is November 3rd, 2026!
Feating Keynote Speaker: Rhoda Bernard, Accessible Arts Education
at the Visual and Performing Arts Center at Western Connecticut State University
This seven hour day offers music, art and theatre educators the opportunity to continue their professional development by choosing workshops in their disciplines. Workshops are taught by WCSU faculty and guests artists and lecturers. Workshop selections will be announced at a later date. Registration will open September 1st. You will receive an email when registration goes live.
Rhoda Bernard, Ed.D. is the Founding Managing Director of the Institute for Accessible Arts Education and the Assistant Chair of the Music Education Department at Berklee College of Music. She holds a Bachelor of Arts cm laude in government from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Music with academic honors in jazz voice from New England Conservatory. She earned both her Master of Education and Doctor of Education degrees from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Dr. Bernard's book, Accessible Arts Education: Principles, Habits, and Strategies to Unleash Every Student's Creativity and Learning, was released by Solution Tree Press in 2025. An internationally renowned expert in Accessible Arts Education, she is highly sought after as a speaker, presenter, and facilitator. Bernard regularly presents keynote presentations and research at conferences throughout the US and abroad, and she provides professional development workshops for educators in local, national, and international forums. Her work has been published in several book chapters and in numerous journals. In 2025, Bernard was awarded a Fulbright Specialist Residency in Dublin, Ireland. She has been honored with the Irene Buck Service to Arts Education Award from Arts|Learning (2023), the Berklee Urban Service Award (2017), the Boston Conservatory Community Service Award (2011), the Boston Conservatory Faculty/Staff Spirit Award (2007), and the Outstanding Dissertation Award, Honorable Mention (Second Place) from the Arts and Learning Special Interest Group of the American Educational Research Association. An active arts education advocate, she is the immediate past chair of the Arts Education Advisory Council of Americans for the Arts, and she serves on its speakers bureau. A vocalist and pianist who specializes in jazz music and Jewish music in Yiddish and Hebrew, she performs regularly with a number of klezmer bands and has recorded two CDs with the band Klezamir.
