Jason Porter Email & Phone Number

Seattle, Washington, United States

In accordance with the museum's mission to "connect art to life," I lead the division that oversees education, public engagement, and interpretation at all three sites. I represent the division on the Director's Advisory, oversee the budget, hiring, and professional development activities undertaken by members of my team, and work closely with leaders of other departments to engage the public and connect with communities. Equity is at the center of my work at SAM, and it comes into play in hiring, program decisions, representation of artists and works of art, and in how we engage with and create space for members of communities traditionally underinvited into museums.

Seattle, Washington

In the interest of advancing the museum's mission of making creativity a life-changing force, I led the team that develops and facilitates education and public programs, including school and teacher programs, exhibition openings, youth artistic and career development, gallery activities, and community partnerships and outreach. I served on the senior leadership team, collaborating on institution-wide management and goal setting and cross-departmental staffing, programming, and culture-building. I managed staffing and budgeting and long-term planning for the institution's public-facing programming and support efforts aimed at addressing structural racism and uplifting BIPOC creators and communities at the museum. Since the beginning of the pandemic, I led efforts to develop digital education and public programs and collaborated on the creation of a long-term digital content strategic plan.

Greater San Diego Area

As director, I oversaw a team of full and part-time educators and administrative staff who created, implemented, and maintained Education programs that support 21st century skills acquisition, global citizenship and reflect the museum's mission. Along with my team, I worked to create museum experiences that move, empower, surprise, delight, amaze, inspire and welcome visitors. Content areas that I oversaw included school and teacher programs, community engagement activities such as partnerships and public programs, volunteers, and gallery programs for general audiences.

Skirball Cultural Center

Oversaw the content of the Education department for family, school, and teacher programs. In collaboration with the Director of Education, set priorities to help the department work toward its desired visitor outcomes and vision and keep current with best practices in the field. Managed a staff of twenty-one full-time employees, working closely with managers on departmental initiatives, staff needs and professional development. Role also encompasses evaluation for Education programs, which has included projects such as exhibition evaluation, prototyping and testing of programs, summative evaluation of programs, and staff and docent teaching assessment. Served as the departmental liaison with Curatorial, Adult Learning, Communications and Marketing, Operations, and Public Programs Departments, collaborating on exhibition development, program design and evaluation, and institution-wide initiatives.

Created and oversaw programming for school groups, including gallery tours, performance programs, in-school residencies, and self-guided tours for students, and for teachers, which included the initiation of a year-long teacher professional development workshop focused on training teachers to integrate the arts into their curriculum and practice. I managed a staff of five educators and administrative support staff who, in collaboration with me and with one another, developed content for museum tours, create and led teacher professional development workshops, trained volunteer docents and gallery staff, and advised on museum exhibitions and programming.

Private counseling and coaching with students with special needs and their families in a therapeutic context.

Taught 6,7,8 grade English, History, K-8 art, Health and Fitness, and Study Skills and was an 8th grade advisor at an alternative K-8th grade school.

Taught courses in seventh grade History and English, developed curriculum commensurate with state standards, and supervised the discipline, counseling needs, and teacher support of the seventh grade.

Doctor Of Education (Ed.D.), Educational Leadership

Completed doctoral work in Educational Leadership. Dissertation, entitled Start-up Charter Schools and Special Education: Ascertaining.

Ma, Education

Activities and Societies: Grant Recipient: Behavior Disorders

Ba, English

Activities and Societies: Literary Magazine Environmental Club Tennis Team