About the Author

Tracey Hunter-Doniger

I first learned about The Art of Education University through social media and thought, “I wish I had professional development like that when I was teaching art K–12.” I wanted to be part of AOEU, and when a posting came up, I thought this was my chance to provide art teachers with quality PD relevant to them and their students.

I began my career in education as a visual arts teacher in elementary and secondary levels for 15 years in the public schools in Indiana. In 2012, I earned a PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. This was great because now I could be called Dr. Hunter-Doniger (Dr. HD for short). For the past ten years, I have worked at a university in South Carolina, and in 2019, I received the South Carolina Higher Education Art Educator of the Year award. I was also the recipient of the National Art Education Foundation Research Grant, where I conducted a comprehensive investigation of arts education course content, environment, and pedagogical practices for non-arts generalists. Currently, my central research focus is forest schools, STEAM education, and child-centered approaches. In 2018, I was awarded a sabbatical and studied STEAM connections found in forest schools of Germany and the Netherlands. I have authored and co-authored over 50 articles in Studies in Art Education, Art Education, Art Education Policy Review, International Journal for Education Through the Arts, The Clearing House Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues and Ideas, School Arts, and Young Children. 

Applying my research to practice, I am the director of a summer STEAM camp focusing on arts integration. I am also the director of the Inspire Project, an arts-based environmental outreach program for Title I schools. Because of my fondness for research in art education, I am on the National Art Education Association Research Commission’s Professional Learning Through Research Group, and I am on the review team for Art Education Journal and NAEA Translations. I love education, and I also serve as the Director of Teaching Fellows and Teacher Cadets at my university.