Deanna Sortino (Illinois Secondary Art Educator of the Year 2020) hails from Willow Springs, IL, and has been teaching for over 15 years with more than a decade focused on the digital arts at Niles West High School in Skokie, IL. During her teaching career, she has won a Sponsor Recognition Award for her contribution to the 2017 Ocean Awareness Student Art Contest, presented multiple times at the National Art Education Association (NAEA) and Illinois Art Education Association (IAEA) art conferences, is a member and contributor to the Digital Art Teachers’ Association (DART), co-creator of the Niles West Mini Portfolio Day, and will soon be published in School Arts Magazine.
Ms. Sortino is the Portfolio Coordinator, Data Analysis Coordinator, Assistant Graphic Designer, Assistant Early College Program Coordinator, and Educator Art Throwdown Co-Creator for the Illinois High School Art Exhibition (IHSAE). She has helped lead The Black Creatives Matter Initiative Team for the IAEA by spending several months putting together a comprehensive list of over 500+ Black creatives and anti-racist resources to share with teachers across the world. This document is intended for art educators to communicate diverse perspectives and narratives of Black artists to their students and increase access to works, techniques, and concepts by BIPOC artists within their curriculums (https://bit.ly/BCMIAEA). Within the IAEA, she is a part of the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Team, Collaborating for Excellence Pilot Model Team, and Design Interest Group. She has helped create a Visual Art Educators Summer Institute and will be teaching a Digital Photography and Photoshop Bootcamp class in the Summer of 2021 (www.vaesi.org).
Her art students continue to receive top scores on the AP exam (74% of her students earned 5s); and within the past six years, Ms. Sortino’s students have won 10 National Scholastic Art Awards and 440 Regional Scholastic Art Awards. Her students have also received over $8.4 million dollars in college scholarship offers during the past four years. Deanna is also the Auroris Dance Company Director at Niles North High School (with the group performing at Nationals four times, and State nine times), UNICEF Club Sponsor (raised over $12,000 for UNICEF’s efforts), Graphic Arts Club Sponsor, and National Art Honor Society Co-Sponsor. Ms. Sortino earned her master’s degree in Educational Technology from Lewis University (‘10) and her B.A. in Studio Art with a concentration in Photography from The University of Notre Dame (‘05). https://deannasortino.weebly.com
All artwork by Deanna Sortino.
Ms. Sortino is the Portfolio Coordinator, Data Analysis Coordinator, Assistant Graphic Designer, Assistant Early College Program Coordinator, and Educator Art Throwdown Co-Creator for the Illinois High School Art Exhibition (IHSAE). She has helped lead The Black Creatives Matter Initiative Team for the IAEA by spending several months putting together a comprehensive list of over 500+ Black creatives and anti-racist resources to share with teachers across the world. This document is intended for art educators to communicate diverse perspectives and narratives of Black artists to their students and increase access to works, techniques, and concepts by BIPOC artists within their curriculums (https://bit.ly/BCMIAEA). Within the IAEA, she is a part of the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Team, Collaborating for Excellence Pilot Model Team, and Design Interest Group. She has helped create a Visual Art Educators Summer Institute and will be teaching a Digital Photography and Photoshop Bootcamp class in the Summer of 2021 (www.vaesi.org).
Her art students continue to receive top scores on the AP exam (74% of her students earned 5s); and within the past six years, Ms. Sortino’s students have won 10 National Scholastic Art Awards and 440 Regional Scholastic Art Awards. Her students have also received over $8.4 million dollars in college scholarship offers during the past four years. Deanna is also the Auroris Dance Company Director at Niles North High School (with the group performing at Nationals four times, and State nine times), UNICEF Club Sponsor (raised over $12,000 for UNICEF’s efforts), Graphic Arts Club Sponsor, and National Art Honor Society Co-Sponsor. Ms. Sortino earned her master’s degree in Educational Technology from Lewis University (‘10) and her B.A. in Studio Art with a concentration in Photography from The University of Notre Dame (‘05). https://deannasortino.weebly.com
All artwork by Deanna Sortino.