Karla Nweje is an arts educator, choreographer, performer, and literary artist. She holds a BFA in Dance Performance from Brooklyn College/CUNY. As a literary artist, Karla is a published author, contributing writer to literary publications, and a writer/presenter of interactive assemblies for youth. After obtaining teaching credentials, she worked as a NYC high school ELA teacher by day and a performer by night. During this time, she used movement and theater arts techniques to enhance the learning process in her classroom. The positive results she witnessed affirmed her conviction that the arts are vital to the comprehensive development of youth. Ms. Nweje has performed and toured with dance and theater companies in NYC, Atlanta, and the Twin Cities. For the last 2 seasons, she has created, shared her work, and performed as co-director of DanceCo in Minneapolis. Karla was named COMPAS’ 2019 Teaching Artist of the Year & received Ordway’s 2013 Excellence in Educational Service Award. Additionally, she served for 10 seasons as a teaching artist and design team member for Ordway’s Dance to Learn program. Through arts residencies, workshops, professional development and more, Ms. Nweje continues to cultivate partnerships across organizations, programs, and school districts to make quality arts experiences accessible to all learners.