DORENE BLAIR,
EDUCATION director

Dorene's journey as an educator is a natural evolution of who she is. It reflects her desire to nurture, educate and mentor others. She is a Lifelong Learner and Educator, with a Bachelor’s in Applied Violin Performance, a Bachelor’s in Music Education with an emphasis in Special Education, a Masters in Education in Creative Arts in Learning, and a C.A.G.S. in Educational Administration with an Elementary Principal Certification. She is also a Certified Dementia Practitioner and a Certified Life Coach.

Her journey has been centered around educating people from when she was 13 years old as a Counselor in Training. As a High School and College student she was a camp counselor and weekend program teacher. After college she began to teach in the public schools in Texas and then Massachusetts. While teaching music in the schools, she became interested in how students learn and wanted to be able to offer a broader experience in her classroom. This led her to look at the Creative Arts as a tool for diversified learning for the whole school population. She loved being able to create integrated units with many subject goals embedded in the curriculum and soon realized that she could have a greater impact as an administrator, exposing teachers to the concept of project-based learning.

In her last position before retiring from the public schools she began to see a new side of herself. Something she had never noticed before. She instinctively had the ability to affect change in peoples outlook and used much of what she learned in her administration program to affect personal and organizational change. Both became fascinating to her as she began to combine instinct and methodology to bring about purposeful change. She has worked with all age groups from young children through senior citizens and have loved every minute.

She and her husband have two beautiful children, two wonderful in-law children, and two amazing granddaughters who call them Oma and Opa (Dutch for grandparents).