NAEA President Kim Huyler Defibaugh states, "This award is being given to recognize excellence in professional accomplishment and service by a dedicated art educator. Juliann Dorff exemplifies the highly qualified art educators active in education today: leaders, teachers, students, scholars, and advocates who give their best to their students and the profession."
Ms. Dorff has been teaching Art Education at the School of Art since 1999. She has been recognized as a Friend of the Kent Public Schools for her efforts to establish collaborative partnerships with area educators providing art education students with the knowledge and experience to address the needs of students with exceptionalities through art. She is beloved and respected by her students as evident by her receipt of the Outstanding Teaching Award from Kent State University in 2005.
She is the past-president of the Special Needs in Art Education Interest Group of the National Art Education Association (NAEA) and is the president for the Division of the Visual and Performing Arts (DARTS) of the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC). The 2015 Ohio Art Education Association (OAEA) Higher Education Division Award winner, she has presented extensively at the OAEA, NAEA and CEC conferences. Ms. Dorff was one of 50 invited participants at Examining the Intersection of Arts Education and SpecialEducation: A National Forum sponsored by the Kennedy Center in 2012. Additionally, she was inducted into the OAEA group of Distinguished Fellows in 2017.
Co-author of the four editions of the VSA Teacher Resource Guides: A series of visual art lesson plans designed to engage students with disabilities, Ms. Dorff has published on the importance of collaboration as well as best practice strategies for preparing preservice art educators to teach all children.