2025 NAEA National Convention

Derek Fenner is an artist, educator, and researcher working in the Carolinas. He earned his MFA in writing and poetics from the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University. After a decade of experience as an art educator and administrator in the Massachusetts juvenile justice system, he completed an MA and Ed.D in educational leadership from Mills College. His research interests include, youth participatory action research as pedagogy, juvenile justice education, decolonizing methodologies, and arts based research. He is an assistant professor of art education and director of FOCUS Gallery at the University of South Carolina Upstate.