Shaina Simmons

Teaching Artist

Shaina Simmons is a Teaching Artist, multidisciplinary artist, and children’s author whose work explores storytelling, culture, movement, healing, and the power of imagination. She holds an MFA in Acting from California Institute of the Arts, an MFA in Social & Environmental Arts Practice from Prescott College, and a BA in Theater Arts from Marymount Manhattan College.

As an actor, Shaina has appeared on television, including FOX’s Fantasy Island, and her artistic practice spans performance, film, writing, education, and cultural work. She describes her practice as “organic archaeology,” using personal and ancestral memory to explore the histories, stories, and embodied knowledge of Black communities across the Americas.

Shaina is also the author of the children’s book The Cat & the Lion and the forthcoming picture book Bayou Blues, a New Orleans-rooted story created for young readers. Through her writing and creative work, she is passionate about creating stories in which Black children can encounter imagination, culture, belonging, and expansive possibilities for who they can be.

Shaina has worked across arts, education, and community programming, including as an international educator. She is trained in social-emotional learning and is a mindfulness teacher, bringing movement, mindfulness, storytelling, and embodied learning into her creative practice.