Dr. Dale Schmid is a Research Fellow/Arnhold Institute for Dance Ed Research, Policy & Leadership and an Associate Professor for the Doctoral Program in Dance Education at Columbia University, Teachers College. He is the former Co-Facilitator & current Co-Chair of Governance for National Coalition for Core Arts Standards (NCCAS) & senior advisor to the National Dance Education Organization’s (NDEO) DELTA initiative; a national endeavor to codify dance teacher prep through data collection & consensus building.

Dr. Schmid is also the  co-facilitator representing NDEO’s efforts as part of the Connected Arts Network (CAN) grant; a five-year US Department of Education sponsored initiative. The overarching vision of CAN is to build a sustainable model of professional development for arts educators to strengthen their pedagogy, instruction, and leadership skills to better serve students. Additionally, Dr. Schmid serves on the senior advisory boards of The Center for Arts Education & Social Emotional Learning & Joy 2 Learn Foundation.

He is a Past-President of NDEO and the State Education Agency Directors for Arts Education (SEADAE); a longstanding member of the National Arts Education Policy Working Group, and the national Arts Education Partnership Advisory Panel (DC); and served as the Visual and Performing Arts Coordinator for the New Jersey Department of Education for 22 years (1999-2021).

Other former leadership experience includes the Executive Steering Committees of the Arts Education Partnership (AEP), ArtsEdNJ, and NJN Public Broadcasting Authority, among others. Schmid holds a Doctorate in Educational and Organizational Leadership from the University of Pennsylvania, with a dissertation in the field of psychometrics. He also spent several decades touring the country as a dancer, actor, choreographer, director, and teaching artist and studied with and/or danced for many luminaries in the field of dance.