Staff

Varissa McMickens

Director

vmcmickens@philaedfund.org

215-665-1400 ext. 3342

Varissa McMickens serves as the Director of ArtsRising and is responsible for guiding the strategic partnerships that focus on the important role that arts can and should play in educating our children.  In this capacity, Varissa works with the three organizations that provide overall guidance for this initiative – The Philadelphia Education Fund (the Ed Fund), Public Citizens for Children and Youth (PCCY), and the Fleisher Art Memorial (Fleisher) as well as with a Steering Committee consisting of arts, education and civic leaders. 

Prior to being named Director of ArtsRising, Varissa served as Executive Director of the DC Arts & Humanities Education Collaborative, a collective voice of approximately 80 arts and cultural members in Washington, D.C.  She represented the DC Collaborative to arts and education colleagues, funders, board members and international dignitaries. She also worked with the DC Collaborative’s members, and partner organizations locally and across the country such as Big Thought, Young Audiences, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, VSA arts, Ford’s Theatre, Arena Stage, The Smithsonian Institution, The Shakespeare Theatre Company, and many others.

Prior to her work at the DC Collaborative, Varissa worked at the Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts as Regional Coordinator of its local DC area professional development program and then as Assistant Director of the Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning Through the Arts.  In this capacity, she managed programs in DC and Maryland, and worked closely with staff colleagues to craft and guide the development of the Institute’s professional development services. She also served as primary liaison to the Wolf Trap Institute's 15 Regional Replication Sites across the nation, and was responsible for the establishment of 5 new regional sites during her tenure.

Varissa has also served on numerous committees for other arts and education organizations.  She was co-chair of Professional Development, Summer Institute for Teaching Artists, and the Arts Education Initiative (funded by the Ford Foundation, the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, and Capitol Hill Community Foundation), which were committees of the DC Arts & Humanities Education Collaborative.  She was a founding member of the DC Arts Commission’s Arts Education Task Force, a founding member of the Cultural Alliance of Greater Washington’s Arts Huddle Steering Committee, and a steering committee member of DC Advocates for the Arts. She also currently serves on the Board, the finance committee, and the education committee for the Arts and Technology Academy Public Charter School in Washington, DC.

Varissa is a native of Cleveland, OH, where she held positions in the nonprofit sector, developing and managing public school and early childhood educational programs. She also worked in the for profit sector, directing community affairs and news for three local radio stations, and helping to launch a national African American history magazine.  She is a graduate of Syracuse University’s College of Visual and Performing Arts, with a Bachelor of Science degree in speech communication.