2020 Professional Biography for ROBERT SIMON ROB SIMON is a deeply experienced and credentialed Kansas educator and entertainer who has worked as a speaker/performer and trainer/consultant for school systems and other agencies from coast to coast - including 21 years as a former teacher and teaching specialist for USD 259. In a variety of ways, Rob has consistently worked to promote personal and community empowerment throughout his long career. He has applied his skills and insights with school systems, congregations and various other agencies and organizations - much of it through his own POSITIVE RHYTHM PRODUCTIONS. In addition to a number of other creative enterprises, Rob is currently working as a Restorative Practices Consultant and Advocate for the Wichita Public Schools, based at West High School. In this environment, he and partnering consultant, Jan Fox-Petersen, work with others in a real-world laboratory that allows them to be innovative in promoting universal empowerment strategies based on the Restorative Practices (a.k.a. restorative justice in education) paradigm. At West High, and from their Center for Restorative Community (CRC), Rob and Jan produce and network to deliver group facilitation, mediations, and workshops; provide classroom, assembly, and other creative presentations; work with students, school staffs, families, businesses, and community groups; and present for trainings, conferences and conventions. Rob also directs music for contemporary worship at College Hill United Methodist Church, provides lead and background vocals and percussion for local band, Blue Eyed Soul, and works as a teaching artist with Arts Partners. He is also a professional storyteller with the Wichita Griots for whom he has written, co-produced and directed fourteen (14) original stage productions Rob has long considered his work the pursuit of a personal mission, which he says is to ignite within all of us . . . the desire and the power to be the best we can be, and to live a fruitful life. Rob and his wife, Denise, live in Wichita, and are the proud parents of one grown son, Arri Lawton Simon. For more information, see: www.positiverhythm.org.
