Residing in Nixa with her husband and two daughters, Dr. Allison Fleetwood holds a doctorate in educational leadership, curriculum, and instruction from Evangel University as well as a master’s and a bachelor’s degree in theatre education from Missouri State University. With nineteen years of teaching experience, the past seventeen years have been spent in the Nixa Public School District in Nixa, MO as the head of the Nixa Theatre Department. Over the past seventeen years Fleetwood has taught high school 9-12 Drama, Acting, Dual Credit Theatre, Advanced Acting, and Dance.Over the past nineteen years, Dr. Fleetwood has directed more than 56 mainstage and readers’ theatre productions. Under her leadership, the Nixa High School Theatre program has become the largest Thespian Troupe in Missouri, and she has successfully expanded staffing at both the high school and junior high levels. Additionally, Dr. Fleetwood has developed and implemented a comprehensive middle school drama club program.
In addition to her role as Head of Nixa Theatre, Dr. Fleetwood also serves as the Head of Operations for the Aetos Center for the Performing Arts, Nixa’s newly opened district performing arts center. With a capacity of 1,150 seats, the Aetos Center provides a premier venue for band, choir, and theatre performances, offering a unified space for all Nixa schools to showcase their talent year-round. The center also hosts national touring productions, attracting visitors to Nixa and generating economic opportunities for local businesses and organizations. As Head of Operations, Dr. Fleetwood oversees all logistical aspects, including coordinating pre-show meetings with tour managers, managing backstage responsibilities, collaborating with the in-house technical director to ensure proper equipment reservations, and handling security and other operational details. Perhaps the most rewarding aspect of her role is Dr. Fleetwood’s ability to hire students to work backstage alongside professional technicians, providing them with a unique, hands-on opportunity to gain technical theatre experience that is unparalleled at the high school level.
The highlight of Fleetwood’s time in the classroom is her leadership of the Nixa Public School District’s first ever Arts Integration Initiative, which focused on high levels of professional development for all teachers from elementary to high school to integrate the arts into their curriculum. She implemented the program with the same hands-on delivery she uses in her theatre classroom, modeling how to integrate the arts in ways teachers may have never dreamed.
She has taken her research, knowledge, and experience and is sharing it across the district as well as leading workshops across the nation on how teachers can begin integrating the arts. Fleetwood stresses how the arts help all students access curriculum in purposeful ways to help them achieve their maximum potential, develop a love of humanity, an obligation to community, and find joy in living their authentic life!