About Allison Russo

Consultant, writer, and educator Allison Russo has dedicated her career to creating more ethical and effective arts learning spaces. As an elementary band teacher and nonprofit arts leader, Allison has designed and delivered music programming to thousands of students and teachers. Allison founded the arts education consultancy The Critical Good in 2021, where she facilitates the creation of values-driven strategic plans for the arts departments of schools and nonprofits. Using the lenses of educational psychology and culturally responsive pedagogy, Allison empowers arts teachers to create ethical classroom cultures that reflect their unique reality. Allison taught elementary school band in Ithaca, NY where she increased band program participation in each of the three schools she taught in as much as 300%. After moving to New Jersey, she joined Jazz House Kids, a jazz education nonprofit, and quickly rose to become the Senior Manager of Education and School Programs. There, Allison managed in-school jazz education programs, primarily in Newark, NJ, and also directed the Chica Power program, a gender-equity instrumental jazz program. It was this program that sparked Allison’s focus on the importance of classroom culture, educational psychology, and culturally responsive pedagogy. She is also a graduate course facilitator for the Longy School of Music at Bard College, a collaborator with consulting firm WolfBrown, and freelance grant writer. She has presented at state and regional conferences, colleges, and public schools on topics including ethical classroom culture, trauma-informed care, and gender equity in jazz education. Allison has a BM from Ithaca College and an MM from Boston University, both in Music Education. She is also a graduate of the Victoria Emerging Leaders Program (VELP) at Rutgers University’s Institute for Ethical Leadership. Allison envisions a world where arts education is boundless, universally accessible, and joyful for all.