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Meet the PD Team
Our Professional Development Team
Kimberly Chaffin |
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Kimberly Chaffin (soprano) graduated from the University of Northern Colorado with a Bachelor of Music degree in Vocal Performance, and graduated with her Master of Music degree in Vocal Performance from the University of Arizona. Mrs. Chaffin has performed solo roles in the Fauré Requiem, the Mozart Requiem, Rossini's Stabat Mater, and Mozart's Coronation Mass. Kimberly's operatic roles include Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro, Pamina in The Magic Flute, Rosalinda in Die Fledermaus, Magda in La Rondine, and Alice Ford in The Merry Wives of Windsor. Currently, Kimberly teaches private voice, and she is involved with the OMA project (Opening Minds through the Arts), as a Teaching Artist, and Opera Team Trainer and Mentor. This is a program which integrates the arts (opera in the first and fifth grades) with the tested core curriculum.
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Paula Karrer |
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Paula Karrer, flutist, made her solo debut at the age of 16, with members of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra. She received her B.M. summa cum laude from the Boston University School of Music. While in Boston, Paula was a member of the wind trio Vista Winds, semi-finalists in the 1990 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. She received her M.M. from the University of Miami, where she won the University of Miami Concerto Competition in 1991. In 1992, she was a finalist for the Myrna Brown Young Artist Competition in Texas. Paula held the post of Principal Flute in the Orquesta de San Luis, Argentina (1991) and Principal Flute of the Catalina Chamber Orchestra (1996-98). Paula is currently enjoying playing Piccolo in the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, and Principal Flute in both the Arizona Opera and the Utah Festival Opera Company. She has the unique opportunity to participate in Tucson Unified School District’s Nationally Recognized program “Opening Minds Through the Arts.”
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Wendy Joy Koltnow |
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Wendy Joy Koltnow has a Master of Fine Arts (1998) in Theatre Arts with a dance concentration from the University of Arizona and a Bachelor of Arts (1986) in dance from Douglass College at Rutgers University. In addition to working for the Tucson Unified School District as an OMA dance teaching artist she is the director/developer of PROJECT:connect, an innovative program that fuses a dance education certification tract with the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at the University of Arizona. She is also an original member of Zuzi!, a local modern dance company.
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Thom Lewis |
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Thom Lewis’ movement experience includes walking on fire, rappelling down buildings, riding an elephant, and street performing in France - he has also danced in more traditional French venues, as well as in Australia, Japan and Las Vegas. He has received numerous awards and fellowships and his choreography has been performed in Europe and South America by the New York based company, Dalton-Hartel Dance. Locally, he has been noted in the Tucson Weekly’s annual “Best of Tucson” selections for ‘Best Artist-In-Residence” in 1997, a curious nod for “Best Nixon Impersonation in a Dance Performance“ in 2003, and in 2004 “Best Political Dance.” He holds an MFA in choreography from the University of Arizona.
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Julie Patrick |
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Julie Patrick received her BS from the University of Arizona, and worked for several years in Aerospace before returning to school to pursue her first love, education. Earning a Post Baccalaureate from Arizona State University, she returned to Tucson to complete her student teaching and to begin her new career. As a beginning teacher, she completed a Masters degree in Language, Reading and Culture with an emphasis in Children’s Literature. Julie taught grades 1, 2, 3, and 5 before transferring into the OMA Project. Having always included the arts in her lessons in order to enhance the curriculum, becoming an integrated arts specialist was a natural career move. Julie believes in being a life-long learner and continues to improve her pedagogy through professional development opportunities and readings.
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Lisa Renteria |
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Lisa Renteria, bassoonist, born in Washington
State holds a Bachelor of Music degree in performance from the University of Arizona, a Master of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY and a Doctorate in Musical Arts from The University of Arizona. She has won numerous performance competitions. While at the University of Arizona she won first place in the Tucson Symphony Young Artists Concerto Competition both in 1994 and 1995. In 2002 she won the University of Arizona Concerto Competition with the Weber Bassoon Concerto and performed it at the University of Arizona as well as in Mexico at both the Civic Auditorium in Hermosillo and the Ortiz Tirado International Festival in Alamos. In 2003, after winning both the state and regional levels, Mrs. Renteria was a national finalist in the Music Teachers National Association Competition. She currently plays with the Tucson Chamber Orchestra and Tucson Pops and occasionally has the opportunity to perform with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra as well as many other local ensembles. She maintains a private studio and teaches music theory to young students enrolled in the Arizona Study Program. Mrs. Renteria has had the wonderful opportunity to work in the OMA program since 2001. She teaches in the kindergarten and fourth grade classrooms as part of an instrumental trio using music as a tool to teach the curriculum.
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John Snavely |
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John Snavely or “Dr. John” as he is known to his elementary students is a musician-educator based in Tucson, Arizona. He assisted in the formation and implementation of the OMA (Opening Minds Through the Arts) Project in the Tucson Unified School District, is the Arts Integration Specialist at Howell Elementary, and is currently working on the OMA Professional Development Writing Team under a U.S. Department of Education Grant. Dr. John’s School, Howell Elementary, was one of two original “OMA” schools and was written up in a book about exemplary arts integration projects, Third Space: Where Learning Matters published by the Arts Education Partnership. John earned a doctorate in clarinet and music education from the University of Arizona, performs with the Tucson Symphony, Tucson Pops Orchestra, Arizona Musicfest, and is an artist on the roster of the Arizona Commission on the Arts. He has taught students of all ages from preschool through university.
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Rick Wamer |
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Rick Wamer serves as the OMA Program Co-coordinator, directs Theatrical Mime Theatre, Tucson's premier Mime Ensemble Company and the International School for Mime Theatre at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. He has toured North America, Asia, Western and Eastern Europe, Canada and Puerto Rico.
A recipient of several awards and international recognition in his art form, Rick is currently engaged in facilitating the Professional Development projects for OMA Teaching Artists, Arts Integration Specialists and the Fine Arts Summer Institute's arts integration training for classroom teachers with TUSD. He is finishing his M.F.A. at the University of Arizona in Theatre Arts.
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