Malissa Feruzzi Shriver

2014 Honoree - Arts Education Award

Biography

Malissa Feruzzi Shriver is an arts education advocate with numerous leadership positions in California and nationally. National positions include the 1st Vice President of the board for the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies (NASAA) and Chair of the NASAA Arts Learning Advisory Committee; the governing board for the Western States Arts Federation; and the advisory board for the Center for Research on Creativity. In California, she was appointed by California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson to co-chair a task force on creative education after chairing the California team for the National Endowment for the Arts' Education Leaders Institute. This work led to her co-founding CREATE CA (Core Reforms Engaging Arts to Educate in California), a statewide initiative to address the erosion of arts education in public schools. She is also the executive director of Turnaround Arts California, a program aligned with the California Department of Education to reform low-performing schools with comprehensive and integrated arts education. She served two terms on the California Arts Council with multiple years as Chair, is on the California Alliance for Arts Education policy board, is a California Institute for the Arts trustee and the political advocacy advisor for Frank Gehry Partners.

Feruzzi Shriver majored in women's studies at UCLA and attended the state and local government program at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. She received an honorary doctorate from the Laguna College of Art and Design. She is a member of the Screen Actors Guild, Arts for LA, California Arts Advocates and Americans for the Arts.