Melissa-Ann Ledo
Melissa is the mentor for you if you are: a practicing artist interested in teaching youth; are an art educator looking to develop their career; or are interested in artful inquiry, queering education, and/or arts-based research.
Melissa-Ann Pereira Ledo (she/her/they) is of azorean settler background, is a proud queer mother, and is an educator/artist/researcher. She has over a decade of teaching and leadership experience in formal and informal educational systems, is a former Pedagogical Consultant for the English Montreal School Board, and co-founded the social enterprise non-profit inPath. She has worked as part-time faculty for the Art Education department of Concordia University, consultant for Equitas’s Young Leaders for Equality LGBTI project in Haiti, and Consultant / Director for Fabrique Familiale la Cabane. Ledo holds roles at McGill University as Research Assistant, Course Lecturer, and Teaching Assistant. She is also the Program Manager for exChange: an initiative whose aim is to break isolation and promote dialogue in Montreal/Tiohtià:ke english-speaking 2SLGBTQIA+ communities, organizations, and peoples, with a focus on intergenerational work, the Social Media Coordinator for Queer Studies in Education and Culture, and a mentor for Concordia’s Art Volt. Melissa-Ann Ledo holds both undergraduate and graduate degrees in Art Education from Concordia University, and is currently pursuing her PhD at McGill University.
Melissa-Ann Ledo embraces the idea that learner-centered education can offer an enriched education to all students, of all levels. She strives to provide and inspire the implementation of authentic education to lead learners to engagement and creativity, in ways that develop critical thinking and communication skills. Ledo’s work is grounded in a core belief that the arts are the heart of education. Ledo’s experience in youth education, arts teacher training, and arts pedagogy, paired with her commitment to creating safer learning spaces for all, contribute to her strengths in supporting artful facilitators in curriculum creation. Ledo strives to provide and inspire the implementation of authentic art education and creating space for youth’s voice. Her work is strongly influenced by non-violent communication, restorative justice practices, healing/trauma-informed practices, and social emotional learning.
As a proud queer woman, invested in giving back to her own local Queer community, she began The Queerest Little Ledo Productions, an organization focused on queering education. This work was inspired by her Master’s thesis which had her working with elementary school teachers as she focused on the question: how can Queering Contribute to Elementary School Teachers' Understanding and Classroom Practice, as They Design and Implement LGBTQ Sensitive Visual Arts Curriculum? Her current PhD research is SSHRC funded, and is entitled Representation Matters: Informing Schools on Becoming Human Rights Leaders Through the Transformative Power of Queer Teaching Artists. As a researcher her work focuses on curriculum development, queering curriculum, ideas of representation, community building amongst educators, and facilitating through the arts with a focus on how to best support marginalized youth.
Ledo is also a practicing visual artist whose work focuses on storytelling, and whose art practice ranges from drawing, embroidery, poetry to conceptual visual work.
