Roxanna Conner joined Victory Gardens as the Director of Education in June 2018. In her 22 years in arts education, she has worked as a teaching artist, arts administrator, director, and producer. Her career began as an actor-educator for CLIMB Theatre (Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota), using theater to explore social issues such as violence prevention and environmental conservation while touring to schools across five states in the upper Midwest. Following a year of touring, she was promoted to Teaching Company Director and was responsible for managing an ensemble of actor-educators; creating curriculum; and evaluating programs for Kindergarten through 12th grade students in urban, rural, and suburban schools. As Audience Education Director at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts (University of Illinois Urbana Champaign), she programmed and coordinated student matinees for 10,000 students in downstate Illinois. She also created the Saturday family enrichment series Art4Kids and co-chaired Jazz Reach, a year-long community engagement initiative. Roxanna has worked in the Education Department of Chicago Shakespeare Theater twice, spending a total of nine years with the organization as the Education Programs Coordinator and Team Shakespeare Manager. She played a pivotal role in the implementation of the teache-student ensemble CPS Shakespeare! and the Chicago Shakespeare Slam. She rebuilt the Education Department at Congo Square Theatre, by developing a curriculum for American Literature classes using theater strategies to help Southside high school students improve their reading skills. Roxanna received a BA in Speech Communications and Theatre Arts from Clark Atlanta University, Atlanta, GA. She’s the mother of two children and wife to Chicago actor, Ron Conner.
