About

 Jeannie Breen has been with St. Joseph School teaching staff since 2005, first as an aide in the pre-school and Kindergarten and then, since 2010, as the art teacher. She was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio. While growing up her summers were spent in Lakeside Ohio, an independent chautauqua community on Lake Erie that fosters the arts.  She has always spent her free time pursuing creative endeavors and loves bringing those experiences and an appreciation of art history to the students at SJS. She went to work for AT&T upon graduating with a BS in Business Management from WV Wesleyan College. During her career with AT&T, part of which was spent teaching abroad in Europe and Asia, she attended Penn State and MIT, acquired an MBA from the University of Dayton, and moved across the country multiple times. After 20 years with AT&T she retired to raise her children in Chicago where she also returned to school to earn an MAT from North Park University. All three of her children attended St. Joseph School graduating in 2009 (Jimbo), 2011 (Maria), and 2015 (Grace).   Other favorite pastimes include power-walking, hanging with her dog Scout, and reading. Among her many favorite quotes is one that resonates with her current position albeit altered slightly courtesy of “a collaborative effort” between Ms. Breen and William Butler Yeats, “ART Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” She loves exposing her students to a wide variety of visual art forms, not only encouraging their creative efforts and strengthening their application of various techniques, but also stretching their understanding of the nature of creativity, a skill set critical for their future.