A. ZSIBA

Alesandra Zsiba is a documentary storyteller, dance artist, and a poet at heart. As Founding Artist of The Identity Project, Alesandra's pedagogical approach celebrates educating the whole student, and introduces the arts as a method of cultivating self-made meaning in learning and life. Alesandra has studied with and been on the staff of nationally recognized arts organizations such as the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, Duke Center for Documentary Studies, Santa Fe Photographic Workshops, and the School at The International Center of Photography. Alesandra graduated from Oberlin College with a B.A. in Interdisciplinary Performance, and is proud to have served a year in AmeriCorps. In 2016, Alesandra won first prize at LaunchU, Oberlin College’s accelerator program and pitch competition for alumni entrepreneurs. This seed funding, together with a 2017 fellowship-in-residence from the Women’s International Study Center and an incubation partnership with the Museum of Indian Arts & Culture (Santa Fe, NM), enabled Alesandra to launch The Identity Project in the Southwest. In 2021, Alesandra received her M.A. from Bread Loaf School of English at Middlebury College where her studies concentrated on youth literacies, creative practice, and humanizing pedagogies.

Alesandra and The Identity Project have been honored in a variety of high profile arenas, including a feature presentation at the National Council of Teachers of English Annual Convention (2020); selection as a finalist for the Robert Wood Johnson Culture of Health Leaders Fellowship (2020); a photography exhibit supported by the Museum of Indian Arts & Culture and the Indian Education Division of New Mexico’s Public Education Department (2017); winning the grand prize at Oberlin College’s LaunchU pitch competition and accelerator program (2016); a first prize photography award from the Forward Thinking Museum in New York (2014); two gallery exhibits at the Arts Education Partnership National Forum on Arts Education (2013); and a report spotlight in “Advancing Arts Education Through An Expanded School Day,” published by the Center for Time and Learning and the Wallace Foundation (2013).