April’s New Member Spotlight  - Renee Hanson, PhD

Hometown:  Kensington, MD

Media and Subjects:  Graphite, charcoal, and colored pencil drawings of people, portratis and environments. 

Why you joined MAA:  I would like to connect more with local artists. 

Something fun about you:  I am a self-taught artist.  I have been illustrating on and off since childhood as a hobby.  I was interested in fashion design as a teenager.  When I was fifteen years old, one of my design drawings was created and featured in a Washington, DC fashion show.  I am mostly an academic but I soon realized that I still love to create art and that this skill will always be part of my life.  

Artist Biography:  Renee Hanson completed her Joint PhD. degree at Rutgers University, the New Jersey Institute of Technology: School of Architecture, and Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences: Rutgers School of Nursing specializing in Urban Systems:  Global Urban Studies/ Education, Health, and Environment.  Renee was also awarded a highly competitive dissertation fellowship from Rutgers University-Newark to complete her degree.  Hanson has a master’s degree in sociology from American University and a bachelor’s degree in African American Studies from the University of Maryland, College Park.  Her areas of interests are in education, health, environment, history, sociology, urban studies, data science, and policy.  

Renee has over fifteen years of professional expertise as a scholar for public policy corporation, researcher, education program and project coordinator, education specialist, teacher, and consultant.  As an emerging scholar, Renee was funded for research on K-12 education issues, health, poverty, and other areas concerning communities of color.  She was the program coordinator for American University Ronald E. McNair Scholars program which recruits low-income, first generation and/or underrepresented undergraduate students at American University and the University of the District of Columbia in preparation for doctoral study. 

Renee has a dozen published articles/reports in the areas of education, health, sociology, and history.  She was designated as a peer reviewer by the American Educational Research Association (AERA) for their 2016 Annual Meeting and was recently a peer reviewer for the 2021 AERA Annual Meeting.  She served as the project coordinator for the National Center for Science and Civic Engagement’s (NCSCE) STEM project, and hosted by the Department of Technology and Society at Stoney Brook University. 

Renee most recently submitted work to the MAA Still Life Show in December 2020.  Please enjoy a few of Renee’s art pieces below.