Gigi Schroeder Yu, PhD is an assistant professor in art education in the art department at the University of New Mexico.  She has also previously taught at Millikin University and DePaul University. Yu has over 20 years of experience teaching art with young children to adults in community settings, museums, and public school classrooms in Arizona, Chicago, Wisconsin, and New Mexico.  For the past several years, Gigi partnered with the Albuquerque Art Museum, the Santa Fe Opera, and other museums and community organizations in both New Mexico and the Chicago area to provide pedagogical leadership for workshops and classroom guides to engage young children.  She also worked to develop a unique position as an early childhood art resource specialist within the Albuquerque Public School system. Her work with the APS teachers was recently featured in a book edited by Cathy Topal and Lella Gandini, Beautiful Stuff from Nature.  Gigi Yu received the Art Education Advocacy Award  from the NM Art Education Association in 2016.

Gigi is also an editor for the North American Reggio Emilia Alliance (NAREA) journal, Innovations in Early Education: The International Reggio Emilia Exchange. Gigi Yu is interested in implications the Reggio Emilia philosophy has for art educators, in particular the role of the atelierista, the culture of the atelier, pedagogical documentation, and the many languages of children and adults.  She supports teachers in action research and arts based research approaches within their classrooms.  She presents on her research both nationally and internationally.  

Gigi received her Masters in Art Education from the University of Arizona and a Doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction from the Curriculum, Aesthetics, and Teacher Education program at the University of Illinois at Champaign Urbana.  Gigi Yu is originally from Wisconsin and she moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico with her husband, three children, and dog Rosie in 2010.