Roshunda Jones-Koumba Accepts 2022 Excellence in Theatre Education Award at Radio City Music Hall

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Tunie and Jahanian pose with Jones-Koumba in front of Radio City Music Hall.

Theater director Roshunda Jones-Koumba traveled to New York City to accept the 2022 Excellence in Theatre Education Award at Radio City Music Hall. Carnegie Mellon University alumna, trustee, and Tony Award-winner Tamara Tunie (actor, director, producer) served on this year’s Excellence in Theatre Education Award judges’ panel. Tunie and CMU President Farnam Jahanian presented Jones-Koumba with her award during the Tony Awards Ceremony on June 12, 2022. 

The Tony Awards® organization announced in late May that Jones-Koumba had been named the recipient of this year’s award, which recognizes a K-12 theatre educator in the U.S. who has demonstrated monumental impact on their students and embodies the profession’s highest standards. Jones-Koumba has long lauded the collaboration and community within the theater that supports students pursuing the arts or non-art-related fields. A panel selected Jones-Koumba from among more than 5,000 entries.

CMU is home to the first degree granting drama program in the United States. Since the award was co-founded in 2014, CMU, the American Theatre Wing, and The Broadway League have recognized extraordinary teachers across the country.

As she announced Jones-Koumba, Tunie and Jahanian shared that impassioned endorsements from past and present students and peers from the Houston arts community helped make Jones-Koumba the standout winner.

Jones-Koumba received a standing ovation as she came out to accept her award. She thanked CMU, the American Theatre Wing, and The Broadway League for honoring her with the distinguishing award; she thanked her parents, her husband, her theater partner, Jabari Collins, her family, mentors, and the late Clarence Lee Turner. She also acknowledged the Aldine Independent School District, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, and the Acres Homes Community as champions of the arts. Jones-Koumba also thanked her students at Carver High School and the school’s Panther Players Troupe 6753, citing that they are her inspiration and her reason why.

“The arts, especially for Black and Brown communities, provide a fertile soil with which our students flourish. We must continue to enrich them with our love and a passion for the arts, which shows them that even the unattainable is possible. I accept this award on behalf of all the arts educators who work tirelessly to ensure their students have a safe space to be seen and heard. And as Maya Angelou reminds us, ‘Do it with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style. Thank you.”

Jones-Koumba received $10,000 for her theatre program and tickets to be able to accept her award at the Tony Awards and attend the Gala.

Jones-Koumba is currently in her 18th year of education. She has dedicated all those years to AISD students, especially her theater students at Carver High School for Engineering, Applied Technology and The Arts. In 2020, Jones-Koumba was inducted into the Texas Thespians Hall of Fame and received the inaugural Arts Educator of the Year from the TUTS Leading Ladies organization. She was TxETA’s 2017 Educator of the Year and Aldine ISD Carver High School’s teacher of the year in 2009 and 2014. As the Carver Panther Players Director, the troupe has been successful on the state and national level at UIL One-Act Play (OAP) contests, Tommy Tune Awards, Texas Thespians State, and International Thespian Festival. Most recently, Jones-Koumba received the Stephen Schwartz Musical Theatre Teacher of the Year Award and the International Thespian Society Inspirational Theatre Educator Award. The ASCAP Foundation presented the Stephen Schwartz Award. The award represents the highest level of achievement for a middle or high school theatre teacher.

Jones-Koumba is a Board member of the Texas Education Theatre Association (TxETA), Texas Thespians, Black Theatre Educator’s #39 Caucus, and UIL OAP Advisory Committee.