Biography

Chevon Stewart (she/her), Ph.D., BC-DMT, LCSW, is core faculty in CIIS’ Expressive Arts Therapy program. She is a 2nd generation, Jamaican American of Black and Chinese ancestry. As a dance/movement therapist researcher, educator, and social justice advocate, she values the embodied experiences of those she collaborates with. Dr. Chevon uses qualitative arts-based research methods to explore embodied anti-oppressive pedagogy in dance/movement therapy education. Additional research interest are in embodied anti-oppressive clinical practices with adolescents and adults of the African diaspora.

Prior to her work in academia she worked with adolescents in middle and high school settings in the New York City public school system. In addition, she supervised dance/movement therapy and social work students. Additional settings she has worked in are community mental health and forensic hospital in California. In 2015 and 2017, she volunteered in Kenya co-facilitating creative art therapy camps for adolescent survivors of sexual violence.

Past awards received are the American Psychological Association's Leadership Development Institute’s minority fellowship, Innovative Cultural Advocacy Fellowship from the Caribbean Cultural Center of the African Diaspora Institute in NYC, Racial and social justice grant from Antioch University New England, and Doctoral Dissertation research fellowship from Lesley University’s Expressive Therapies PhD program.

She currently serves as the chairperson for the Research and Practice Committee of the American Dance Therapy Association.

Education

Ph.D., Lesley University, Cambridge, Massachusetts

MSW, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California

R-DMT, Alternate Route DMT Training Harkness Dance Center, New York, New York

B.A., Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Geneva, New York

Publications

Stewart, C. (2025). Abstracts from the 2024 research and thesis poster session of the 59th annual American Dance Movement Therapy conference, Moving through to regenerate: Dance/movement therapy, October 24-27, 2024. American Journal of Dance Therapy: Publication of the American Dance Therapy Association, 47(1), 70–76, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10465-025-09413-7 

Stewart, C. (2024). Anti-Oppressive pedagogy in Dance Movement Therapy Education: Embodied Experiences of Black, Indigenous, and students of color, The Arts in Psychotherapy, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aip.2024.102151 

Stewart, C., & Kawano, T. (2024). Intersectional Perspectives incorporating movement based experiential learning: A liberatory framework for Dance/movement therapy education. In M. Capous-desyllas and E.Papouli (Eds.) Creative critical pedagogies: Use of arts based approaches for online and in-person learning (1st ed.,pp. ). Cognella. https://titles.cognella.com/creative-critical-pedagogies-9798823308441 

Kawano, T., & Stewart, C. (2023). A review of the book Dance/movement therapy for trauma survivors: theoretical, critical, and cultural perspectives: edited by Rebekka Dieterich-Hartwell and Anne Margrethe Melsom, New York, Routledge, 2022, pp.302, $160.00 hardback, $42.95 paperback, $38.65 ebook. isbn 978-0-367-62908-3, 978-0-367-62907-6, 978-1-003-11138-2. American Journal of Dance Therapy, (20230120). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10465-022-09375-0 

Bryl, K., Fontanesi, C., & Stewart, C. (2023). Abstracts from the 2022 research and thesis poster session of the 57th annual american dance therapy association conference, Renewed Connections :Dance/movement therapy fostering community healing, October 27–30, 2022. American Journal of Dance Therapy : Publication of the American Dance Therapy Association, 451), 109–121. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10465-023-09381-w 

Bryl, K., Fontanesi, C., & Stewart, C. (2022). Abstracts from the 2021 research and thesis poster session of the 56th annual american dance therapy association conference, dance/movement therapy: ancient healing, modern practice, virtual, October 14–17, 2021. American Journal of Dance Therapy : Publication of the American Dance Therapy Association, 44(1), 85–92. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10465-022-09361-6 

Presentations

Co-Facilitator, Becoming the Mosaic: DMT evolution and its legacy pedagogy, American Dance Therapy Association Annual Conference, October 2024

Co-Facilitator, Online and Synchronous vs. in-person learning, American Dance Therapy Association Annual Conference, October 2024

Invited Panelist, Trauma Informed Creative Art Therapy Panel, American Dance Therapy Association Virtual Summit, April 2023

Invited Presenter, Anti-oppressive Pedagogy in DMT Education, Lesley University Continuing Education Workshop, February 2023

Invited Panelist, Creating Inclusive School and Community Environments for Youth in all their diversity, Promise Neighborhoods and Full-service Community Schools National Network Conference, December 2022

Invited Panelist, DMT and Technology (Teletherapy and Education), American Dance Therapy Association Virtual Summit, April 2022

Co-Moderator, Research Poster Sessions Question and Answer, American Dance Therapy Association Annual Conference, October 2021

Research Panelist, The Lived Experience of People of color in dance/movement therapy education, American Dance Therapy Association Annual Conference, October 2020

Invited Panelist, International Panel: Journey to becoming a dance/movement therapist, American Dance Therapy Association Annual Conference, October 2020

Co-Presenter, Diversity, Equity, &Inclusion: Deepening the Dialogue in DMT Education, American Dance Therapy Association Annual Conference, October 2020

Presenter, Dance Therapy a Culturally Responsive Intervention, Rex Nettleford Arts Conference at Edna Manley School of the Arts, Kingston, Jamaica, October 2019

Presenter, Dance/Movement Therapy and Healing traumatized populations, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Geneva, NY, September 2016

Co-Trainer, Dance/Movement therapy basic interventions with sexual violence survivors, Art and Abolition training, Nairobi, Kenya, November 2015

Co-Presenter, Creative art therapy and trauma, PAWA 254 Rising! And Art and Abolition, Nairobi, Kenya, December 2015

Presenter, Dance/Movement Therapy and Healing traumatized populations,Rex Nettleford Arts Conference at Edna Manley School of the Arts, Kingston, Jamaica, October 2015

Trainer, Introduction to Dance/Movement therapy with children and adolescent trauma survivors, UCLA Neuropsychiatric Center, Los Angeles, CA, July 2014