Sign Language Choir & Visual Arts Teachers

JULIE SHARP

Julie Sharp is a freelance Sign Language Interpreter working in CT and MA. She has over 10 years of experience working in numerous settings, including K-12 and post-secondary education, medical, mental health, corporate, and performance interpreting. Julie was heavily involved in CT Inclusive Art’s pilot program in the spring of 2019 supporting students in classes and in SPARC’s LIVE ART performance in Richmond, VA. Julie is serving as CT Inclusive Arts Director of ASL and Lead Teacher for CTIA’s Sign Language Choir. She just completed an intensive performance interpreter training in Nashville, TN and looks forward to bringing her new ideas and skills to share with all of us here!

In her prior life, Julie was a paramedic in New York City, serving lower Manhattan for 10 years. After treating numerous Deaf patients, she realized it was time to go back to school to become a certified ASL interpreter. She was thrilled to eventually make the move back to CT, where she grew up and her love of sign language and the Deaf Community had begun 25 years prior. When she isn’t working, she can be found spending time with her 3 sons, family and friends, at the gym, or with her dog, Bella.

MARK WOODCOX, M.ED.

Mark is a professional artist and art educator, teaching visual arts (painting, drawing and advanced ceramics) at Lewis Mills High School in Burlington, CT where he has taught for 23 years in the district. He has a Masters in Art Education as well as a six year degree from the University of Hartford in art with a concentration in ceramics. Mark is a practicing artist with artwork that has been featured in local and national galleries including the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts and the New Britain Museum of American Art.

In additional free time, Mark enjoys nature and gardening and he and his wife Jane are avid music and concert goers. He loves volunteering for programs like AIM for a Better Tomorrow and CT Inclusive Arts, as well as spending time with his sons. A music enthusiast, Mark sings and plays guitar locally, often performing in Collinsville, CT and in other acoustic music settings. Mark is also currently enrolled at the American School for the Deaf in a community ASL-1 semester with a passion to improve his fluency in American Sign Language.