Candidate for
Trustee; Palm Springs Unified School District; Trustee Area 4

Vanessa Sheldon, Doctor of Musical Arts, is a passionate educator and Palm Springs resident.

A native Southern Californian, she received her earliest formal education at Peninsula Montessori School followed by public middle and high schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Entering college at the age of 13, she received her Bachelor's and Master's degrees at California State University Los Angeles, where she received several awards and scholarships for her academic as well as musical performance.

Dr. Sheldon settled in the Coachella Valley after receiving her doctorate from the University of Arizona at age 19. For over 15 years she has taught in private, elementary, middle school, community college and university settings. Maintaining a private music studio at her home in Palm Springs with students of all ages from the local community and surrounding areas while managing a career as a professional harpist, she is savvy in the business world as well.

Since 2005 she has taught at the College of the Desert and participated as a musician in many college concerts, events and fundraisers. She also served as an associate faculty member at Norco College and currently works in the same role at Mt. San Jacinto College. While at Norco College she served on the District Academic Standards Committee, whose duties include refining minimum qualifications for faculty and graduation requirements. She also represented the district at many California Teachers' Association conferences and events and now acts as a CTA delegate for College of the Desert. She is a member of the Part-Time Issues Committee for the Community College Association, also part of the CTA, where part of her duties involve furthering state legislation and collective bargaining. Serving on the CCA State Council, her duties include work on the Association's $1M budget. Throughout her nine years as a community college instructor she has taken part in student and program learning outcomes implementation, assessment and reporting. She also currently sits on PSUSD's Citizen's Advisory Board.

For several years Dr. Sheldon worked with the McCallum Theatre Institute, partnering with elementary schools, their teachers, principals and students, across all three Coachella Valley school districts in the fields of music, dance, theatre and visual arts, retaining residencies at several PSUSD elementary schools. As the Dean of the College of Arts and Humanities at World Education University she developed curriculum, recruited instructors, chaired the Academic Standards Committee and wrote the general education philosophy and requirements for the University as a whole. In her work as an Osher instructor previously for UC Riverside in Palm Desert and currently for the CSU San Bernardino College of Extended Learning, she develops and teaches courses at their main extension campus in Palm Desert as well as the Palm Springs Art Museum, and gives yearly lecture-recitals open to the general public. Partnering with the Steinway Society of Riverside County, Dr. Sheldon has participated in fundraisers to support their shared mission of bringing music to schools, as well as given solo harp concerts in PSUSD elementary schools. She also regularly concertizes across the community with student musicians at Palm Springs High School.