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Kristen Brayson | Director of Visual & Performing Arts | kbrayson@pps.net

Kristen Brayson (she/her) is the Director of Visual & Performing Arts for Portland Public Schools (PPS). Kristen works closely with 200+ dance, music, theatre, and visual arts educators in over 78 schools and oversees the mission and vision of Visual & Performing Arts in PPS. Prior to her current role, she served as Arts Teacher On Special Assignment (TOSA) in the PPS central office for four years. Before working at the district level, Kristen spent 22 years delivering dance education to students across PPS.  

As a young child, Kristen discovered dance and embraced it as a soul-satisfying avenue to provoke internal and personal expression. After numerous years of classical, modern/contemporary, jazz, and tap dance study and performance, Kristen joined the dance staff at Jefferson High school in their noteworthy pre-professional training program. After her tenure at Jefferson, Kristen became a founding teacher of da Vinci Arts Middle School as the director of its dance department. Over the next 17 years, Kristen taught five comprehensive levels of dance, choreographed over 300 pieces of work, directed numerous productions, and oversaw the growth of the da Vinci dance program from 33 students to 350. 

As a fervent equity-focused educator, Kristen believes that arts education provides unique tools to unlock a student’s personal voice, physical expressions, and abstract, critical and creative thinking — all crucial cornerstones to healthy human development. She is a tireless advocate for arts education as a vehicle that supports and drives student purpose and fosters deep learning around concepts of culture, identity, and place. Kristen believes that the artifacts of dance, music, theatre, and visual arts occupy space and time and cause engagement, pause, reflection and celebration, the fruits of which make students feel seen, heard, and valued for their unique contributions. 

Kristen holds a Bachelor of Performing Arts degree with a dance focus from St. Mary’s College of California, a Master’s of Education degree from Marylhurst University, and a professional Administrator License degree from Portland State University. 

Li Ezzell | Program Administrator for Visual & Performing Arts | lezzell@pps.net

Li Ezzell (he/him) is a visual arts educator and arts advocate who is returning to Portland after nearly 25 years! He is a Reed College graduate (Studio Art, 1998), and taught in Japan for 7 years after finishing Reed. He returned to the US with his family in 2008, and taught art at all grade levels in the Sacramento area. In addition to teaching art, Li has worked as district VAPA specialist, and district Art Coordinator. He served on the state council of the California Art Education Association (CAEA) for many years and is currently CAEA’s Past-President. Since 2010, Li has worked with The California Arts Project (TCAP) to provide professional learning to VAPA teachers across California. In addition to an art credential, Li holds credentials in science and elementary education, as well as an administrative credential. He earned his M.Ed. in Integrated Teaching through the Arts from Lesley University. Li’s personal artistic practice has focused on the intersection of art and science, particularly biology, anatomy, and natural history, as expressed through sculpture, printmaking, photography, painting, and drawing.

Laura Arthur | Music TOSA | larthur@pps.net

Laura Arthur is the K-12 Music Teacher On Special Assignment (TOSA) for Portland Public Schools in Portland, Oregon. In her TOSA role, she supports all 88 of PPS’ music programs at the district level through arts advocacy, creating and delivering professional development, curating curriculum, coordinating events, and instructional coaching.

Before becoming a part of the PPS Visual & Performing Arts team, she taught middle school band for 12 years, directing concert and jazz band ensembles along with teaching orchestra, guitar, percussion, and general music classes. Laura has presented at local, state, and national conferences around beginning band pedagogy, literature, and arts advocacy, and serves on the board of the Oregon Music Education Association as the state-wide Advocacy Chair. She is a graduate of the University of Oregon (B.Mus, Music Education) and Portland State University (M.Ed).

Laura is a passionate advocate for equity, and believes that a comprehensive and high-quality music education can, and should, be accessible to ALL students. She enjoys performing on bass clarinet and bari sax, baking, softball, comics, trivia, and spending time with her husband and daughter.