Atelier 7, Inc. Board of Trustees

About Us

We are an all-volunteer board. Each of us is a Certified Teacher. Between us we have over one hundred years of experience in working with special-needs populations. Two of us are also National Board Certified and Licensed Professional Counselors.

About our Founder

Lauren Parmelee Murphy founded Atelier 7 after 20 years of art teaching experience with all age levels, kindergarten through adult. She is the recipient of a 2001 Teacher of the Year Award as a public elementary school art teacher in New Jersey. She became very interested in art therapy during her work with troubled teens in an alternative high school and went on to study counseling and psychodiagnostics. She anticipates completing a Ph.D. in creativity and cognition in 2012. Mrs. Murphy has presented at multiple conferences including the National Art Education Association's Annual Convention and the World Festival of the International Child Art Foundation. She organizes the ArtReach strand for Art Therapists and Art Educators who present therapeutic strategies for special needs populations at the Art Educators of New Jersey annual conference.  She has been married to William for 30 years.  They have three grown children.