Karen Hurt – Academic Director
Before joining Greenbrier Academy, Karen experienced working with teens in theatre and at a co-ed college preparatory day and girl's boarding school where she taught middle and high school Social Studies and Photography.
In the fine arts, Karen worked within the visual and performing arts community for over 30 years. She studied and taught art and photography in Virginia, and developed and directed a youth theater education program there for a nationally recognized organization known for producing high-quality plays with children and teens at risk. She worked to expand and focus the scope of these events through creating interdisciplinary study guides for teachers to use with school groups, acting classes, and drama camps targeting the needs of specific age groups.
Her research in theater and education led her to link methods and opportunities to use the arts across the curriculum to help teachers create enriched, actively based learning environments. She developed a workshop for teachers on "Using Theater across Curriculum" and published a bibliography of useful readings and activities for teaching through the arts. She also developed and led workshops for teachers and community leaders based on Zephron Conté's work with "Peacemaking Through the Arts".
Karen says, "I am thrilled to join the staff of Greenbrier Academy. Here we have the opportunity to (as John Rawls puts it) 'create a society in which we would want to live, if we did not know what particular hand we were dealt by fate'. Greenbrier Academy is the kind of place that encourages us to share our higher values and be our better selves."
