Felicia Latoya Brown is co-lead of the arts, media, and entertainment area of interest for the Engineering and Education Technology Division of the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE). She is the past president of the Career and Technical Association of New Jersey and has been working as a CTE theatre educator for over five years. She was awarded the NJ New CTE Teacher of the Year in 2021 before being nominated for the presidency that year. She has a drive to see arts, media, and entertainment-related CTE programs get the recognition and support that is needed for all students involved to succeed.
She taught several subjects at Life Center Academy before leaving to teach at Trenton Central High School. She brings her experiences from acting, singing, directing, stage managing, dramaturgy, traveling, and teaching to her tenth through twelfth-grade students. To find out more about the CTE program at TCHS, visit http://www.tchstheatre.com
Brown holds an MA in theatre studies and another MA in arts administration. She holds three NJ standard teaching certifications for theatre, CTE/vocational theatre, and English. She is a part of the Association for Career and Technical Education fellows program for the Engineering and Educational Technology Division and is developing her portfolio to be able to start her EdD in theatre education at NYU within the next few years She was the regional programming director for the American Alliance for Theatre and Education (AATE), helping to shape the Theatre In Our Schools (TIOS) Month campaign during the pandemic. She remains a member of that organization. She sat on the board for the Ritz Theatre Company for over a year. She is an active member of the Educational Theatre Association (EdTA) in which she is a NJ Thespian troupe director and also helps nationally as a part of a committee for diversity accountability. Ms. Brown also holds membership in Theatre Communications Group (TCG) and four unions: National Education Association (NEA), the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA), Mercer County Education Association (MCEA), and the Trenton Education Association (TEA). Her work for diversity and anti-racism within and outside of several of these organizations can be found here.
She has a passion for reading and learning, especially about cultures. She taught short theatre programs in Kenya, Brazil, and Costa Rica. The latter of which included drama therapy with former child prostitutes. Her international performances have included singing in Egypt and Slovakia. She visited and lived in Slovakia, which allowed for her to be the language editor for the first Slovak civil law book to be translated into English. Her research in Slovak theatre has made her one of the few Americans to be repeatedly invited to the Slovak Theatre Nova Drama Festival.
She was also one of the associate producers for the award-winning independent short film The Sand Box.
Within the last few years, she learned that she is autistic. Her low support needs and her ability to mask made it difficult for people to notice. She embraces this new explanation to the parts of her that have gone unnoticed or marked as "quirks". Armed with the words she felt she were missing for years, she is now a better advocate for neurodivergent people and looks for ways to make the environments in which she works and teaches more equitable on a neurological level.
She taught several subjects at Life Center Academy before leaving to teach at Trenton Central High School. She brings her experiences from acting, singing, directing, stage managing, dramaturgy, traveling, and teaching to her tenth through twelfth-grade students. To find out more about the CTE program at TCHS, visit http://www.tchstheatre.com
Brown holds an MA in theatre studies and another MA in arts administration. She holds three NJ standard teaching certifications for theatre, CTE/vocational theatre, and English. She is a part of the Association for Career and Technical Education fellows program for the Engineering and Educational Technology Division and is developing her portfolio to be able to start her EdD in theatre education at NYU within the next few years She was the regional programming director for the American Alliance for Theatre and Education (AATE), helping to shape the Theatre In Our Schools (TIOS) Month campaign during the pandemic. She remains a member of that organization. She sat on the board for the Ritz Theatre Company for over a year. She is an active member of the Educational Theatre Association (EdTA) in which she is a NJ Thespian troupe director and also helps nationally as a part of a committee for diversity accountability. Ms. Brown also holds membership in Theatre Communications Group (TCG) and four unions: National Education Association (NEA), the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA), Mercer County Education Association (MCEA), and the Trenton Education Association (TEA). Her work for diversity and anti-racism within and outside of several of these organizations can be found here.
She has a passion for reading and learning, especially about cultures. She taught short theatre programs in Kenya, Brazil, and Costa Rica. The latter of which included drama therapy with former child prostitutes. Her international performances have included singing in Egypt and Slovakia. She visited and lived in Slovakia, which allowed for her to be the language editor for the first Slovak civil law book to be translated into English. Her research in Slovak theatre has made her one of the few Americans to be repeatedly invited to the Slovak Theatre Nova Drama Festival.
She was also one of the associate producers for the award-winning independent short film The Sand Box.
Within the last few years, she learned that she is autistic. Her low support needs and her ability to mask made it difficult for people to notice. She embraces this new explanation to the parts of her that have gone unnoticed or marked as "quirks". Armed with the words she felt she were missing for years, she is now a better advocate for neurodivergent people and looks for ways to make the environments in which she works and teaches more equitable on a neurological level.
