As one of the largest art education programs in Ohio, we have four full-time faculty members. Therefore, you will learn under the direction and guidance of faculty with backgrounds in a variety of research areas in our field, providing you with the opportunity to develop your own personal teaching philosophy. Current faculty research interests range from design education, diversity, social justice education, gender studies, teaching art to students with autism, and local art education.
Linda Hoeptner Poling
Associate Professor and Program Coordinator
lhoeptne@kent.edu
Phone: 330-672-7895
Linda Hoeptner Poling, Ph.D., is an associate professor of Art Education at Kent State University and holds a certificate in Gerontology. She is past president of the National Art Education (NAEA), Association Women’s Caucus (now Coalition for Feminisms in Art Education), a Distinguished Fellow for the Ohio Art Education Association (OAEA), a member of the Kent State Brain Health Research Institute, the 2018 OAEA Ohio Art Teacher of the Year, and the 2021 recipient of the NAEA Women’s Caucus Maryl Fletcher De Jong Service Award. She was recognized at Kent State in 2022 with a Distinguished Teaching Award. Hoeptner Poling is a co-editor of the 2021 anthology, National Art Education Association Women’s Caucus Lobby Activism: Feminism(s) + Art Education (Taylor and Francis & NAEA), and is co-editor of the forthcoming Art Education and Creative Aging: Older Adults as Learners, Makers, and Teachers of Art (Routledge & NAEA). She co-authored four editions of the VSA Teacher Resource Guide: A Series of Visual Art Lesson Plans Designed to Engage Students with Disabilities (Kennedy Center) in addition to the Educator Resources for TEXTURES: The History and Art of Black Hair, focusing on equitable and inclusive art curricula for PreK-12. Diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) work centers Hoeptner Poling’s service and scholarship. She is a member of the Kent State/University of Akron Gerontology Certificate Advisory Council and served as a Provost Faculty Associate for the Division of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at KSU for two years (2016-2018). Hoeptner Poling is also an HERS Institute Alum, class of 2018.
Koon-Hwee Kan
Associate Professor
kkan@kent.edu
Phone: 330-672-9508
Koon-Hwee Kan is an Associate Professor of Art Education at Kent State University School of Art. Koon earned her Doctor of Education and Master of Arts degrees in Art Education from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. Her dissertation, an ethnographic case study entitled, A Story Told Visually: The Singapore Secondary School Art Style, won several awards. Her research interests include intercultural, distance, and continuing education through interactive technology and preservice art teacher education as well as qualitative methodology, especially visual narrative inquiry.
Koon has published more than 20 articles in art education journals such as the Studies in Art Education, Journal of Museum Education, Art Education, Visual Arts Research, and International Journal of Education & the Arts. She has presented her scholarship locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally. Funding for Koon’s research has been provided by the Kent State University Research Council and Kent State University College of the Arts Catalyst Interdisciplinary Project Grants, as well as the University Moulton Scholar Program Scholarship, Marilyn Zurmuehlen Award for Distinguished Research in Art Education, and Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities Seminar Fellowships.
Her recent scholarship emphasizes the engagement of diverse, worldwide communities dedicated to successful global and local connections through the visual arts. In addition to teaching myriad graduate and undergraduate classes for the School of Art, Koon has served as coordinator for the KSU Art Enrichment for Young People program for 17 years. She regularly exhibits works in local and regional juried shows. Her favorite art medium include mixed medium watercolor and digital photo collage.
Robin Vande Zande
Professor and Division Coordinator
rvandeza@kent.edu
Phone: 330-672-7866
Robin Vande Zande has taught art in a variety of settings, including elementary, middle and high school as well as higher education at Kent State University. She received her Ph.D in urban education with a concentration in art education at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Her research area is design education for K-12 students, with publications on teaching sustainable design and urban planning, design education and brain-based principles, design education as community outreach, the design process of problem-solving, and teaching aesthetics through everyday objects. She has been a guest speaker at national and state events, speaking on the advantages of teaching design as it relates to social responsibility and the economy.
Dr. Vande Zande is chair of the Design Issues Group of the National Art Education Association and a member of the Board of Trustees Education Committee of the National Building Museum in Washington, DC. She is a co-founder of the organization DESIGN-ED. See link for more information. She has been a consultant for the Frank Lloyd Wright Wescott House Museum, Springfield, Ohio, and the Design Lab Early College High School, a design-based Cleveland Public School.
Missy Higgins-Linder
Associate Lecturer - Art Education
mpaxson@kent.edu
Melissa (Missy) Higgins-Linder is passionately curious about the impact of the arts on how and why people learn, which has served her well throughout her career as an educator, leader, and advocate in arts and museums. She began her career as a K-12 art teacher in Akron Public Schools before shifting her focus to museum education. As Director of Education at the Akron Art Museum and Senior Director of Learning and Engagement at the Cleveland Museum of Art, she led teams of inspired colleagues guided by a unifying mission to use the transformative possibilities and power of art to instigate inquiry and discovery for learners of every age, stage, and ability. Her research experience includes studies of art museum-based professional development for K-12 art teachers and work as Project Manager for a national study on the impact of single-visit art museum programs on K-12 students co-sponsored by the National Art Education Association (NAEA) and Association of Art Museum Directors.
In addition to her professional work, Missy has served as the Ohio Art Education Association’s (OAEA) Museum Division Chair; chair for OAEA’s statewide student writing competition, the Jerry Tollifson Art Criticism Open; and Coordinator for the NAEA Women’s Caucus annual, juried exhibition. She received the OAEA Museum Education award in 2011 and the NAEA Western Region Museum Education award in 2019. Missy is proud to be a Kent State University Alumni with a B.A. and M.A. in Art Education. Outside of work, you will find her making food and art with her two inquisitive kids, trying to convince her patient husband to adopt more pets, rearranging the house to make room for more books, or hanging out by the water in Northeast Ohio.