Author and founding principal of the Arts-Based Elementary (NC Charter) School, Sanders Ph.D. in Education was earned at the University of North Carolina Greensboro (1999), his MFA in Studio Art awarded by Southern Illinois University-Carbondale (1976), and his BFA from Arkansas State University (1974). The tangle of topics Sanders studies include educational policy, visual culture, artful inquiry in the visual and performing arts, community cultural practices, and theorizing sexualities. Sanders is a founding trustee of the International Curriculum and Pedagogy Group, a board member of Ohio Citizens for the Arts since 2005, and has served as Treasurer of the International Society for Education through Art since 2008.