Autor: Teresa Marie Staal-Cowley

Teresa has had a lifetime of listening to children, advocating for them, helping them to communicate and learn in creative ways as an artist when all other programs seemed to fail. Teresa is the oldest of six children, raised four of her own children that are adults and spent many years in childcare. She volunteered and worked in education in her children’s schools. Teresa studied art in elementary school, middle school, high school and college in Southern California. She worked as a mixed media calligraphy artist, teaching artist, muralist, face painter and illustrator. Once her children were grown, Teresa completed a program at the Evergreen State College called Prior Learning from Experience (PLE) documenting 35 years working as an artist and the benefits of those she served. She graduated in 2012. Immediately upon graduation she was invited to become a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for children. In 2019 she completed a Teaching Artists Training (TAT) Lab with Washington State. In 2020 the CASA program became the Dependency Guardian Ad Litem (DGAL) program.