FOUNDER/EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Pat Drewry Sanger, A.P.R.N., is the creator of ARTS-KIDS and is an Advanced Practice Psychiatric-Mental Health Registered Nurse, Child and Adolescent Specialist. Before she moved to Park City, Utah, in October 1997, she served in several capacities at the Virginia Beach Community Mental Health Agency. For the last 17 years she has been a psychotherapist specializing in the treatment of children, adolescents, and families. In VA her practice included serving as a clinician at Barry Robinson Child and Family Guidance Center in Norfolk, Virginia. There she noticed that children growing up in traumatic environments (home and/or community) began to become hardened and emotionally shut down by age 9 or 10 years old. Parents were often too burned-out from the efforts to survive and provide for their family to be able to give to their children on an emotional/spiritual level. This observation led to the inspiration for the program. Currently Pat is a Board Member for the Park City/Summit County Arts Council.