OUR TEAM
DAVID BLAIS
Director & Lead Facilitator
David brings over 20 years experience in public education to his work. He has served as a public school art teacher, an ELA/writing teacher and as a teaching artist in all five boroughs where he specialized in the integration of character education/SEL into academic classrooms. He founded The Vivid Voice Endeavor as a vehicle to collaborate with educators to create meaningful project-based learning in a way that is flexible and tailored to the needs of each school and each classroom. His educational projects have been featured in Ed. Magazine and designated as Promising Practices in Character Education by Character.org. David holds a Bachelors in Theatre with a Minor in Visual Art from Northeastern University, a certificate from The William Esper Studio Actor Training Program, and a Master’s in Education Policy and Management from Harvard Graduate School of Education.
MARY PAOLA
Teaching Artist
Mary is both a visual and performing artist with over five years experience as a New York City teaching artist. Her artistic work spans painting and fine art, costume and props design, combat choreography, and acting. Mary’s creative practice informs her approach to arts education; she builds an environment for creativity and then let’s that environment and the available materials inspire her work and her storytelling. Mary holds a BFA from The Conservatory of Theater Arts at Purchase College.