Professional Recognition
• 2015 United States Presidential Scholar's Most Influential Teacher, United States Department and Secretary of Education.
The White House Commission on Presidential Scholars, appointed by President Obama, selects honored scholars based on their academic success, artistic excellence, essays, school evaluations and transcripts, as well as evidence of community service, leadership, and demonstrated commitment to high ideals. U.S. Presidential Scholars in the Arts are students who demonstrate exceptional talent in the visual, literary and performing arts. The awarded scholar (Dominque Thorne) names their most influential teacher.
• 2004 SSDC Traube Fellowship Nominee
Professional Experience
Trauma Work and Consulting
2015-2016 A Thousand Joys
• Consultant hired to offer agencies coaching in trauma-informed communication, trauma training education and mindfulness programs. Worked 1:1 with Executive Directors, Social Workers and all staff group facilitation.
• Good Shepard domestic violence residential shelter for women and children.
• Prototypes- serving incarcerated women struggling with substance abuse, mental illness and domestic violence, who get to keep their children with them while serving sentence.
2009-2016 Joyful Heart Foundation
National Healing & Wellness Consultant, Practitioner and Retreat Specialist
• Developed and lead programs, classes, workshops and retreats for survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence and child abuse and the healers working on the frontlines of trauma, addressing vicarious trauma.
• Co-developer and lead practitioner of retreat team in partnership with Georgetown University research team, creating an evidenced based, trauma-informed, national replicable, healing retreat model.
2010-Present Emotion in Motion Workshops
Selected trauma Work / Retreat / Crisis Work
Joyful Heart Foundation
• Co-Developer and Lead Practitioner for Survivor programs,Retreats and Heal the Healers model - NY and LA
Georgetown University Research Project with Joyful Heart Foundation
• Creating national replicable retreat model for trauma survivors and first responders
Sandy Hook Healing Project- Newtown, Connecticut
• Part of team of trauma specialists serving the families, teachers and first responders impacted by the mass shooting
Hurricane Sandy Evacuation Center, the Armory
• Wellness Practitioner
National Women in Policing Conference
• Co- Keynote Presenter
Detroit Police Department Heal the Healers
• Co-Lead with Laura van Dernoot Lipsky
National Domestic Violence Hotline 3 day retreat-
• Co-lead with Laura van Dernoot Lipsky
California Coalition Against Sexual Assault-
• Presenter Somatic Experiential Workshop
National Sexual Assault Conference
• Led Somatic Movement Workshops
Division of Criminal Justice Services, Forensic Sciences Crime Lab-
• Co-led Heal the Healers for criminalists from largest Medical Examinerʼs Office in the United States
Good Shepard Domestic Violence Shelter Los Angeles
NY Domestic Violence Shelter
• On-going class for 1 year
Good Shepard Safe Homes Project
Metro Chapter of New York Association for Marriage and Family Therapy
• Co-led Darkness To Light: An Experiential and Theoretical Workshop for Therapists Helping Adults Heal from Childhood Sexual Abuse
Teaching:
2018-2019. Urban Dove Team Charter School Brooklyn
Trauma Informed theatre and creative arts teacher.
2016-2017 New York City Children's Theatre- Shelter Program
• Trauma Specialist Consultant overseeing, training and implementing trauma informed practice into existing model
•Provided one on one supervision and coaching for Teaching Artists
2011-2013 Department Head of Dance, Movement and Devising- Professional Performing Arts High School of NYC
• Taught Emotion in Motion- my movement technique to create original multi-media theatre.
• Designed and led students through an innovative curriculum, each year building on developing their own voice, vision and artistry, culminating in directing and devising their own movement based theatre piece.
• Observed classes in the department and met with teachers to collaborate.
2007-2011 New York University’s Goldberg Department of Dramatic Writing
• Directed productions, staged readings, scenes, monologues and plays with professional actors from NYU's First Look Theatre Company.
• Collaborated with writers in the graduate dramatic writing program, offering feedback in the development of their scripts, writing assignments, scenes and monologues.
• Participated in feedback, question and answer sessions after performances and showings.
2008-2009 The Savannah Theatre Project
• Director
• A three-month performance tour and workshop exchange for artists in the United States and South Africa.
• Physical Theatre workshops and trainings at Universities, Schools and communities - South Africa
• Physical Theatre Workshops - Dartmouth College
• Directed and toured Thom Pasculli's play Freedom! and the Sticky End of Make-Believe in New England, New York City and the Hilton Arts Festival in South Africa.
• Hosted and participated in a symposium for theatre artists from five different countries at The Savannah Africa Wildlife Reserve in Parys, South Africa. We led workshops and performances.
• URL: http://thompasculli.com/TSTP%20Photos.html
2006-2008 SOCAPA - School of Cinema and Performing Arts
• Taught Meisner Technique to students pursuing careers in theatre, film and television.
2002-2009 Urban Arts Partnership (Working Playground)
• Theatre, Movement and Devising Teaching Artist
• Worked in New York City Public Schools, in a wide variety of communities, both In-School and After-School programs for middle-school and high-school students.
• Collaborated with classroom teachers to create a theatre arts curriculum that supported subjects they were currently teaching.
• Created and Directed a spoken word theatre piece, with High-School students called, Why Should I Vote, which was chosen to open the 24 Hour Plays on Broadway.
2004-2006 National Theatre Workshop for the Handicapped
• Theatre and Movement Teaching Faculty
• Taught Meisner Technique Acting and Embodied Movement to adult performers with varying disabilities, including wheelchair, quadriplegic, loss of sight and cerebral palsy.
2000-2001 Gallery37 Chicago
• Theatre teaching artist specializing in working with middle-school students with disabilities, including cerebral palsy, autism, cognitive challenges and intellectual developmental disorders.
• Taught a year long course, culminating in an original play created by the students.
