Bold and Inspiring

Meet Our Outstanding Faculty

DANNY BROADWAY, Artist in Residence Middle and Upper School Art Teacher

Danny Broadway has been inspiring student-artists at SGIS since 2006. Mr. Broadway has produced work for PBS, FedEx, Regional One, Memphis Grizzlies, Major League Baseball, National Civil Rights Museum, as well as galleries in Nashville, Little Rock, and San Francisco. His work portrays movement, light and emotion in colorfully expressive ways. With a love of experimentation, he uses different types of mediums and imagery to connect with the soul of humanity. A lifelong artist, Mr. Broadway graduated from the University of Memphis and is pursuing an MFA from Belmont University in Nashville.

GIA BROADWAY Germantown Campus Music Teacher

A performer at heart, Gia Broadway’s professional career has spanned a wide range of experiences.—from a principal ballerina with the River City Ballet Company and a dance captain/vocalist with the Blues City Cultural Center and Nubian Theater Company to choreographer/instructor in ballet, African, jazz, modern, and ballroom dance. She is a commercial and stage actress with Hattie Lou Theatre, CETA, Evening of Soul with Erma Clanton and Blues City Cultural Center, and has been in a choral ensemble with composer John Rutter at Carnegie Hall. Mrs. Broadway received a BFA in Communications/Film Production from the University of Memphis.

KAREN DEAN Director of Theater Arts

Karen Dean has taught “all things theater” at SGIS since 2017. Now in her 31st year of teaching, she enjoys helping students find their self-confidence and develop their talent. Mrs. Dean was awarded Best Direction by a Teacher at the 2017 Orpheum High School Musical Theater Awards.

She is a graduate of Xavier University in Cincinnati with teaching certifications in theater, speech, and English. She received a masters degree in directing at Memphis State University.

NATE DUMSER Middle and Upper School Chorus

An accomplished conductor and teacher, Nate Dumser works with singers and instrumentalists in a broad spectrum of repertoire, bringing performances to life through movement and vibrant singing. He has conducted groups in Atlanta, Chicago, and Memphis, but most notably the University of Kentucky Men’s Chorus at the Lincoln Center in NYC and performing in the ACDA Southern Division Conference in 2018. Mr. Dumser served as the interim director of the Memphis Choral Arts Men’s Choir and assistant director of the Memphis Symphony Chorus. He also organizes the Southwest TN Jr. High Honor Choir. Mr. Dumser holds a Master of Music in Choral Conducting from the University of Kentucky and a Bachelor of Music in Choral Music Education from the University of Memphis.

TOM LINK , Artist in Residence Middle and Upper School Music Teacher

Tom Link’s work focuses on the music of the Mid-South and the Mississippi Delta. His ensembles have garnered seven Downbeat Magazine Student Music Awards, including best blues/pop/rock group in 2022. An in-demand saxophone player, Mr. Link has performed with Aretha Franklin, B.B. King, Jason Isbell, Three 6 Mafia, and many others. He is also a voting member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Mr. Link holds a master of arts in jazz composition and improvisation from the University of Memphis, where he is a member of the University of Memphis Faculty Birth of the Cool Ensemble.

MORGAN PATTISON, Artist in Residence Germantown Campus Art Teacher

Morgan Pattison has been teaching at St. George’s for six years. As a practicing artist, she works mainly with ink and watercolor and is inspired by leaves and nature. Her work is hanging in the Children’s Museum of Memphis and she shows her work in the St. George’s Art Show in the fall. Ms. Pattison’s art room is a no pressure environment where children are encouraged to try new things, explore their own abilities and feel safe enough to take healthy risks. Prior to St. George’s, Ms. Pattison taught elementary and high school art through Shelby County Schools and middle school art in Columbia, TN. She graduated from University of Memphis with a degree in Art Education.

KATY SIMMONS-CARROLL , Artist in Residence Middle School Art Teacher

As an artist in residence, Katy Simmons-Carroll has often joked that since becoming a teacher, her medium has become her students. However, over the past few years she has returned to her own artmaking practice, most recently with mixed media portraiture and experimentation with jewelry. She believes that finding balance is essential for a sustainable career as a teaching artist. Ms. Simmons-Carroll has taught K-12 visual art for over thirteen years—in public, private, and independent schools, in the museum setting, and at festivals in Tennessee and Louisiana. She holds a BFA from the University of Memphis and an MA from the University of New Orleans.

ALLISON WEBB, Artist in Residence Fine Arts Department Chair, MS/US Art Teacher

As a practicing artist, Mrs. Webb works primarily in oil paints and her colorful work focuses on the landscapes and great southern blues musicians like Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, and B.B. King. Her work has been shown in the Memphis Brooks Art Museum, Memphis Botanic Gardens, Salon Vela in Austin, TX, Memphis Heritage, Memphis Collage of Art, Kroc Center Memphis, Playhouse on the Square and other venues around Memphis. She earned a BFA at the University of Memphis, graduating magna cum laude, and studied Plein Air Painting at the Florence

Academy

of Art in Italy.

ADAM WOODRUFF, Artist in Residence Memphis Campus Music and Visual Arts Teacher

Mr. Woodruff was inspired by his parents, who are educators, and through his work as a peformer at the Playhouse on the Square in Midtown, to become a teacher. Trading bright lights for bright, young minds, Mr. Woodruff has served as the Lower School music and arts teacher at St. Georges since 2020. Building a collaborative, globally minded classroom culture is essential to Mr. Woodruff, who was trained in the Responsive Classroom methodology. This educational method seeks to teach students important critical thinking, emotional and social skills through creative thought processes.