Professional Development

2007 Heartspring Award for Innovation and Creativity in Special Education

Ana Jimenez, Ph.D., Santa Ana, CA
Ana Jiminez, Ph.D. Ana Jimenez is the founder and executive director of the Orange County Children’s Therapeutic Arts Center, a community based organization in Santa Ana dedicated to empowering at-risk youth and children with disabilities through arts, literary and therapeutic programs. Founded in 2000, the Center has quickly grown to be one of Santa Ana’s most successful new non-profit organizations. This is the only facility in Orange County that offers an after-school program where arts, academics and creative therapies for children and youth with special needs are intertwined. The program stresses the importance of family participation in the therapy of their children. Families with limited resources are frequent attendees and participation in the program requires volunteer assistance from family members so that all feel that they have made a contribution. They currently serve 500 children, half of whom are children with special needs and half of whom are normally developing children.

Ana has a doctoral degree in Educational Psychology and Special Education from the University of Southern California. Her passion is to “use the creative arts as a therapeutic intervention to heal children and youth with disabilities, empower at-risk youth through literacy and leadership development and research educational methods that will empower the Latino community and underprivileged families to succeed in the academic world and reach for higher educational goals.”

Ana has a dream that this program could benefit thousands of families and children. She has received several awards, and we are pleased to honor Dr. Ana Jimenez with the 2007 Heartspring Award for Innovation and Creativity in Special Education.