Paulette Black

Paulette Black, M.S., ATR-BC, is program officer for the Kirkpatrick Foundation. She is a graduate of Oklahoma State University and completed post-graduate work at the University of Oklahoma, leading to national registration and board certification as an art therapist by the Art Therapy Credentials Board (ATCB).

Ms. Black has twenty years of experience in Oklahoma state government as a program director in two state agencies, providing grant oversight and leadership for programs in arts education. Her experience includes interpreting and implementing public policy, designing and conducting professional development for educators and school administrators, and serving as advisor to the boards of directors of numerous nonprofit organizations. While working with the Oklahoma affiliate of a national social service agency promoting equal opportunity, she received appointments to the Equity Committee of the Oklahoma City Public Schools and the Legislative Committee on Affirmative Action in Higher Education. She is an advisor to Freedom School in Oklahoma City, an affiliate of the Children’s Defense Fund.

As an art therapist, Ms. Black has worked with mothers and their children in a substance abuse treatment facility and with children in a community counseling center and long-term residential facility. She taught college classes in studio art and art therapy and served on grant-review panels for state agencies in Arkansas and Kentucky and for the National Endowment for the Arts and the U.S. Department of Education. Ms. Black is a member of the American Art Therapy Association, the American Adoption Congress, Adoption Knowledge Affiliates, and the Association of Black Foundation Executives.

To contact Paulette, send her an e-mail: pblack@kirkpatrickfoundation.com.