Debra Hedrick, B.F.A.

Mrs. Debra Ann Sutherland Hedrick, Mrs. Deb as the students call her, has had the pleasure of teaching in the New Orleans area for the past forty years. Of those forty years, almost twenty of them has been as the lead Art teacher for Holy Name of Jesus School. She received her teaching credentials from the University of New Orleans and has taught at St. Joseph School in Gretna, freshman Mass Communications classes at UNO, and was Art Director for the Marketing and Communications Department of the University. All the while Mrs. Deb worked at the University, she had a yearning to go back to teaching young people.That yearning came to fruition after taking time off to have her daughter, Kati, who is a graduate of HNJ. One day while in fourth grade, Katie volunteered Mrs. Deb to be a substitute for her sick art teacher, and I she has been in the art room ever since...and loving it! Mrs. Deb's favorite saying about teaching art at HNJ is that "where else can you work and get paid to play all day?"

Mrs. Deb has taken many professional development courses in the art field over the years. During graduate school, she studied with renowned regional artist Ida Kohlmeyer. She has been a member of the ADDA (Art Director and designers Association) of New Orleans, attended a workshop at the Sedona Arts Center under professional ceramic artist, George Ott, is a member of the NAEA (National Art Education Association), and a memeber of the LAEA (Louisiana Art Education Association). Mrs. Deb has also attended many national conventions and has taken many workshops on timely developments in the art education field. Most recently, she has studied the artistic  and cognitive development of the middle school learner as well as that of the early childhood learner.

Mrs. Deb's hobbies include traveling with her husband and visiting art museums where she has also had the opportunity to study. Mrs. Deb's married daughter, Katie, graduated with BFA in graphic design and art business from Spring Hill College and is now a web designer, but most importantly she is the mother of her first grandchild, Wylder.

During the summer along with travels, Mrs. Deb is the printmaking and mixed media art teacher for the Loyola Kids Art Summer Camp. She has a passion for creating art and shares it in the Later Gator After school care program, as well as in monthly art club meetings. Art Club has developed into a high demand extra-curricular activity with many young budding artists participating.

Mrs. Deb looks forward to a great year teaching the children that "Art is not perfect, so give it a try". She loves to incorporate art history in lessons, along with the use of  current technology. Mrs. Deb achieves great artistic growth in students by meeting their needs through small group instruction in the classroom while exploring different cultures and art movements in history.

Mrs. Deb has an open door policy with parents and loves visitors in the art room. Throughout the years, she has had other teachers come and learn from her new methods of how to incorporate art into their classrooms. Parents are welcome to come and discuss their jobs in the art field. Each year, she hosts the Spring Art Salon of Student Art. In the past year, she has had the support of the administration to revive the second grade Greek Fest and look forward to the revision of Christmas Crafting with Parents this year. Mrs. Deb has been fortunate enough to have seen many of my former students enter the art field with successful careers and hopes to see many more learn that "Art is not perfect...so give it a try!"