2025 AOY Honoree, College of Fine Arts - Class of 1974, 1976, 1986
Joan Ashcraft serves as director of fine and performing arts for Tucson Unified School District, where she oversees arts educators and teaching artists, provides training and mentoring, supervises multicultural resources, provides musical instruments for students and administers the Arizona Seal of Arts Proficiency for qualified high school seniors. She is the co-creator and director of Opening Minds through the Arts (OMA), recognized nationally for its integration research and student achievement results. The model has been featured in several national publications, and OMA schools have been observed by numerous institutions as well as visiting educators from China.
Joan has served on the Kennedy Center Partners in Education Advisory Committee, has participated in the Metropolitan Opera and Smithsonian Institution education programs, and was a cadre member for the U.S. Department of Education’s Teacher-to-Teacher Initiative.
Joan earned a doctor of musical arts degree from the University of Arizona in 1986. She previously studied piano at the summer home of the Paris Conservatory in Fontainebleau, France. She also studied pipe organ in Salt Lake City and choir at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey. She has received the University of Arizona Faculty of Fine Arts Distinguished Alumni Award, was named the Arizona Music Educators Association Music Educator of the Year and Music Administrator of the Year, and twice received the Governor’s Arts in Education Award. On Media Productions presented her with the Arts Hero Award, and the Rotary Club of Tucson honored her with its Four Way Test Service Above Self Award.
