<p><i>Photo by Karen Stone</i></p><p><span style="background-color:transparent;color:rgb(0,0,0);">Dr. Dale Schmid’s career spans artistic practice, teaching, research, assessment, public policy, and national leadership. A former professional dancer and teaching artist, he trained with and performed under influential modern dance artists including Nancy Hauser, Hanya Holm, Isa Bergsohn, Erick Hawkins, Peter Sparling, Billy Sigenfeldt, and Bill Evans, among others. Before entering education full time, he toured nationally for 17 years, performing in 36 states. Schmid currently serves as Associate Adjunct Professor in the Ed.D. Dance Education Program at Teachers College, Columbia University, and as a Research Fellow with the Arnhold Institute for Dance Education Research, Policy &amp; Leadership. Previously, he spent over two decades as Visual and Performing Arts Coordinator for the New Jersey Department of Education, overseeing arts education policy and practice affecting 1.4 million students. His statewide leadership encompassed standards development, assessment, teacher licensure, arts integration, career and technical education, research, and program evaluation. Nationally, Schmid has served as President of both the National Dance Education Organization (NDEO) and the State Education Agency Directors of Arts Education (SEADAE), and in leadership roles with the National Coalition for Core Arts Standards. He contributed to the 2015 National Core Arts Standards, NDEO’s Standards for Learning and Teaching Dance in the Arts and Professional Teaching Standards for Dance in Arts Education, and the K–12 Model Program Standards: Opportunities to Learn in Dance Arts Education. His newest work, “Assessment as a Pedagogical Tool and Research Method for Programmatic Evaluation,” appears in the Intellect Handbook of Dance Education Research. A nationally recognized authority on arts assessment, Schmid led the development, psychometric validation, and national implementation of NDEO’s Dance Entry Level Teacher Assessment (DELTA), supported by successive National Endowment for the Arts grants. His scholarship advances authentic and formative assessment as tools for student learning, teacher development, and systemic improvement. His honors include NDEO’s Outstanding Leadership Award and Presidential Service Award, multiple New Jersey Governor’s Arts Awards, and the 2021 Governor’s Arts Award for Outstanding Lifetime Contribution to Arts Education. Across more than four decades, his work remains grounded in expanding access to rigorous, equitable, and artistically meaningful dance and arts education.</span></p>

<p>Elizabeth McPherson is a Professor, Dance Division Director, and MFA Dance coordinator at Montclair State University. She is the author of <em>The Contributions of Martha Hill to American Dance and Dance Education, </em>co-author of <em>Broadway, Balanchine and Beyond: A Memoir</em>, and editor/compiler of <em>The Bennington School of the Dance: A History in Writings and Interviews</em>. Her newest book <em>Milestones in Dance in the USA</em>, an edited collection designed for dance history courses, is a 2023 recipient of NDEO&rsquo;s Ruth Lovell Murray book award. Executive Editor of the journal <em>Dance Education in Practice</em>, she has also written numerous articles and reviews for a variety of publications. Elizabeth received her BFA from Juilliard, an MA from The City College of New York, and a PhD from NYU.</p>