Sandra Bowie Award for Social Change

Named after Trustee Sandra Bowie, the namesake Award recognizes champions of equity and justice in arts education. It acknowledges individuals who have made a substantial impact fighting for BIPOC communities through their work in the arts.

2024 Awardee

Mariah Rankine-Landers, Co-Principal, Studio Pathways, is most proud of her 12 years as a kindergarten and first grade teacher. She stepped out of the classroom in 2011 to lead for teacher leadership and school transformation at Alameda County Office of Education, a role she was asked to lead due to her outstanding methodology and equity outcomes in her classroom leading through the arts. Mariah is sought out for her ability to design responsive curriculum centered in creative inquiry. She’s a coach to school leaders, classroom teachers, and educators at large to interrupt master narratives in favor of systems whose outcomes are justice. Mariah’s work promotes and invites the educational system to redesign its purposes with the role of the contemporary artists at the forefront of how young people can develop the capacity for imagination, innovation, perception, and critical thought that will bridge and build a society that we all deserve.  Mariah leads with conviction that if you tend to your heart, tend to the art that motivates you, and lead with love, that our schools can dissolve the oppressive systems they uphold and become the sanctuaries we all need to fully bloom and become.  She was particularly motivated to co-found Rise Up! An American Curriculum inspired by the musical “Hamilton, An American Musical” to transform teaching and learning through creative inquiry. Mariah as a doorway to activate the changes in attitudes, assumptions and patterns of knowing that teachers and students should wrestle with. In recent years, Mariah Rankine-Landers, has been a fellow for the National Arts Strategies Harvard Business Program, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and Harvard’s Project Zero.  She was featured on The Electric Company (PBS), The Teaching Channel, Education.com, Teaching Artists Guild, and Happy Black Girl.  She co-founded Canerow, a resource and database of literature for children of color written by authors of color.  She is also a founder of Chapter 510, a writing center for youth in Oakland and served on the board for 7 years.  She still studies tap dance, which has been a lifelong love affair.