Karen McGarry is an artist educator and works as a teacher educator, guiding preservice art teachers into professional educator roles through visual art education certification. Her work as a K12 art educator and higher education teacher educator began in 2009, working in California, New York, Ohio, and now Michigan. McGarry has contributed scholarship presentations at state and national conferences for art education and graduated from the NAEA’s School for Art Leaders in 2025. She serves as the Visual Art Section Editor for the International Journal of Education and the Arts, volunteering her service and expanding scholarship engagement. She employs Arts-Based Research practices to guide her work, continually developing her A-R-T-identity: Artist-Researcher-Teacher. Service-learning and social justice practices ground her work as a Teacher Educator, emphasizing equity, diversity, inclusion, access, and belonging while preparing and mentoring tomorrow’s art educators as they build their own informed, professional A-R-T-identities.