Dennis E. Horn

Vice President

Communications and Arts for Learning

Dennis says one of the most beneficial and educational jobs he ever had as a high school student was working at a large hardware store in south Louisville, where he had to listen carefully to customers and help them find practical and sometimes creative ways to solve real problems. It was great preparation for his work at CTL, where he oversees all communications, marketing and development activities, including outreach to clients, education agencies, and CTL’s board of directors. A former elementary school art teacher in rural Caldwell County, Kentucky and, later, interim executive director of the Kentucky Arts Council (KAC), Dennis was drawn to CTL in 1996 by our commitment to making the arts integral to all aspects of education. 

 

During his tenure at the KAC he also served as assistant executive director and grant program officer, and directed the Basic Arts Program, an initiative designed to help schools incorporate the arts into the daily curriculum. He was also project director and editor of Building a Case for Arts Education: An Annotated Bibliography of Major Research, which sold 10,000 copies in the United States and abroad. At CTL, Dennis directs the work in arts for learning, leading projects such as the recent field evaluation of a Kentucky Department of Education statewide school arts accountability pilot, and the survey of the status of arts education in West Virginia public schools for the Appalachian Education Initiative.

 

Dennis represents CTL as a member of the National Arts Education Partnership, and in 2005, conducted the first ever survey of the status of arts education in Kentucky public schools. As a member of CTL’s executive team, he also assists with strategic and business planning, product development, budget oversight and staffing decisions.

 

“I’ve always loved working in the non-profit sector,” Dennis says, helping to improve the lives of individuals through critical services and programs. “To get to do that and help students in the process is the icing on the cake.”

 

Dennis is an active community volunteer, including assisting his father as a cabinetmaker for Habitat for Humanity, and as block captain for a neighborhood watch program, .  He and his wife led a successful fundraising effort to renovate a local community park with new play equipment and a walking path in Shelbyville, Kentucky, where they live with their two teenage children.