KD Kurutz is the founding director of the Academy’s School of Art Education which launched in the spring of 2010. She holds an MS in Industrial-Organizational Psychology, a BA in Psychology and a broad background in the arts which prepared her for a career that spans teaching, gallery directing and museum curating. For 17 years, she served as Curator of Education for the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento where she established model educational programs for all audience levels, particularly through museum-community collaborations. Kurutz has also served as an advisor and consultant for the CSU, Sacramento School of the Arts, California Arts Council, Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission, California Department of Education and the National Endowment for the Arts.

From 1997 to 2001, Kurutz was co-director of "Transforming Education through the Arts Challenge" in California, part of a national initiative in arts education and K-12 school reform, funded in part by The Getty Trust and the Annenberg Foundation. Following this, she co-founded the California Consultancy for Arts Education, a non-profit dedicated to providing teachers with the training and resources needed to incorporate the arts into their teaching.

Kurutz has written and lectured widely on museums, art education, programming for audiences with disabilities, and California art. She is co-author of the award-winning volume California Calls You: The Art of Promoting the Golden State, 1870-1940. (California Book Award, 2001) She was also a contributing author for Artworks for Elementary Teachers, Ninth Edition. The California Art Education Association presented her with their Award of Merit in 2002.

As the Online Program Manager for the School of Art Education at Academy of Art University, Rachel Shirkey utilizes her education and experience in visual arts, education, and project management. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Design Communication from the University of Minnesota, and then worked as a project manager at design and brand agencies for several years. Rachel returned to the University of Minnesota and earned a Master of Education degree in Art Education and teaching credential, and has been working in art education since. Prior to joining the Academy, she was a high school visual arts teacher, teaching all areas of fine arts and computer arts, for eight years. She also held positions as a school district Visual Arts and Multimedia Magnet Coordinator.