Megan Koza Mitchell is an independent curator and scholar.  She also serves as Development Director for the New Orleans Film Society and Director of Guns in the Hands of Artists Foundation based in New Orleans, she is also the Project Manager for Big State Art, in Central New York. As a curator and scholar, Koza Mitchell’s research focuses on the reformation of community identity in the wake of trauma, specifically regarding public art and public space. Koza Mitchell is interested in the ways that visual interpretations of trauma can create, or recreate, collective cultural identity following catastrophic events, as well as the overall social and cultural ramifications of public art. She is a co-editor of the Public Art Dialogue Newsletter and The Feminist Art Project Regional Coordinator for Louisiana.  Koza Mitchell has contributed to various exhibition catalogues and outlets for contemporary art criticism.  She is ABD in Art History form the University of Kansas, holds an MA in Art History from the University of Alabama, and will complete her MPS in the Business of Art and Design from the Maryland Institute College of Art in December 2021.