TSLCA Staff

Magnet Administration

Tarpon Springs High School Administration TEAM

Principal, Mrs. Leza Fatolitis contact at FatolitisLe@pcsb.org
Curriculum Assistant Principal, Lisa Lennox contact at lennoxl@pcsb.org
District Music Supervisor, Ajori Spencer contact at spencera@pcsb.org
TSHS Arts Department Head & Magnet Director, Kevin Ford contact at fordke@pcsb.org
Associate Director and Director of Jazz, Tim Sexton contact at sextonti@pcsb.org
Percussion Director, Dan Hartung,
Dance Director, Sam Ingram contact at ingrams@pcsb.org
Color Guard Director, Jeannine Ford contact at jeannine@inspiremusic.com
Chorus Director, Gabriela Santos contact at santosg@pcsb.org
Orchestra Director, Rebekah Chambers contact at chambersre@pcsb.org
Middle School Magnet Instrumental Director, Chris Touchton contact at touchtonc@pcsb.org

Magnet Director

Kevin Ford

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Associate Director &
Director of Jazz

Dr. Tim Sexton

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Color Guard Director

Jeannine Ford

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Director of Percussion

Dr. Dan Hartung

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Director of Dance

Sam Ingram

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Tarpon SPrings Leadership cONSERVATORY FOR THE ARTS

1411 Gulf rd Tarpon springs, fl. 34689

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Kevin Ford

Magnet Director

Kevin Ford is the founder and Director of the Leadership Conservatory for the Arts at Tarpon Springs High School. He is presently in his twenty-eighth year of teaching in the public school system as the Director of Bands at Tarpon Springs High School. His responsibilities include directing the Wind Ensemble, Marching Band, Solo and Ensemble Coach, supervising all conservatory performance ensembles, and developing the curriculum for the Conservatory Student Leadership Courses. In addition to his duties at Tarpon Springs High School, Mr. Ford enjoys an active schedule as a leadership speaker, guest clinician, and adjudicator throughout the country. He has also been a nationally accomplished show designer for the past 30 years. Mr. Ford is one of the co-founders of the Inspire…. Music and Entertainment Production Company.

Mr. Ford received his Bachelor of Arts in Music Education from the University of Florida. He is a member of the Music Educators National Conference, the Florida Bandmasters Association, the Pinellas County Music Educators Association, and serves as a member of the Bands of America Educational Advisory Board. In 2008 and 2011, Mr. Ford was featured in the national publication School Band and Orchestra Magazine for his innovative approach to partnering leadership and the performing arts curriculums. Most recently, he was selected as a Yamaha Master Educator.

Mr. Ford’s performance ensembles have received national recognition and have performed with many professional guest artists. His wind ensembles received top honors performing at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, John F. Kennedy Performing Arts Center, Chicago Symphony Hall and the Music for All National Concert Band Festival. In 2015, the Tarpon Springs High School Leadership Conservatory for the Arts were awarded the prestigious National Band Association’s Blue-Ribbon Award for program excellence and the John Phillip Sousa International Sudler Shield award in 2009. In 2014, The Tarpon Springs High School Marching Band was awarded Bands of America Grand National Champions and in both 2014 and 2016 the WGI Scholastic World Champions. Additionally, the Tarpon Springs Marching Band was selected to perform in the 2013 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City and have been invited to perform again in the 2022 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

In 2021 Mr. Ford received the Inspire Award by the Pinellas Chamber of Commerce for his dedication to youth in our community. In 2018 he was inducted into the Bands of America Hall of Fame. Mr. Ford was selected as the 2015 NAfME National Band Director of the Year. In 2015 he was selected by the Florida Department of Education as the Educator of the Year State Finalist. In 2014, he was selected as the Pinellas County School District Educator of the Year and the Pinellas County Music Association Secondary Music Educator of the Year. In 2013, Mr. Ford was selected as a top 100 National finalist for the prestigious Maxwell Leadership Award for Americans. Mr. Ford was the 2005 recipient of The University of South Florida School of Music and Clarion Society Outstanding Teacher Award for his Outstanding Achievements to the Music Education Profession. Most notably, Mr. Ford was selected as the Artistic Designer for The Opening Ceremonies of the 2002 FIFA World Cup Soccer Games in Daejeon Metropolitan City, South Korea.

Mr. Ford currently resides in the Tampa Bay Florida area and is happily married to his wife Jeannine and is the proud father of two daughters, Madison Riele, and Brooklyn Avery.

Jeannine Ford

Color Guard Director

Jeannine Ford has been the Director of Color Guards at The Tarpon Springs High School Leadership Conservatory for the Arts for the past twenty-five years. Her responsibilities include directing the marching band color guard, WGI World Class and A Class Winter Guards, and assisting with the dance technique curriculums. The Tarpon Springs Color Guard is one of the most accomplished scholastic color guard programs in the country. In both 2014 and 2016, the Tarpon Springs World Guard were crowned the WGI Scholastic World Champions in Dayton, Ohio at the WGI World Championships. Jeannine directed the Tarpon Springs World and Arts Colorguards to an FFCC Scholastic State Champions in 2021.

Mrs. Ford is one of the most successful guard directors and technicians in the United States. She infuses leadership skills and character development into all aspects of her curriculum. In addition to her responsibilities at Tarpon Springs High School, Mrs. Ford has designed and choreographed for many color guards throughout the band and drum corps idioms. In 2002, Jeannine had the distinct honor to choreograph the visual ensemble for The Opening Ceremonies for the FIFA World Cup Soccer Games in Daejeon Metropolitan City, South Korea. Jeannine attended Fresno State University, where she majored in dance and minored in theatre. She has been a performer in many dance troupes as well as a performing member in The DCI World Champions Cadets of Bergen County, and WGI World Champions Emerald Marquis. In 2005, Jeannine was selected as choreographer and color guard director for The Bands of America Rose Bowl Honor Band and again in 2009. Jeannine is a member of the FFCC advisory Board and the Education Committee and a member of the FFCC mentors program which provides fellowship and guidance for new Colorguard Directors. She is also a member of the WGI Advisory Board.

In addition to her responsibilities at the Conservatory, Jeannine is the office manager for Inspire Music and Entertainment Productions. Where she collaborates with band programs all across the United States and parts of Asia. Jeannine is an Executive partner at KW Ubaldini Group and Space Coast Market Center. Most recently, Jeannine was awarded the prestigious Inspire award by the Pinellas Chamber of Commerce for her dedication to our youth.

Jeannine has been married to husband Kevin since 1995 and is the proud mother of two beautiful daughters, Madison Riele and Brooklyn Avery.

Dr. Dan Hartung

Dan Hartung is a percussionist and educator from Austin, TX. He taught at Vista Ridge High School and James Bowie High School. Dan is also the founder and artistic director of the Austin Percussion Collective (APC), an organization that provides performance opportunities for a network of over 40 local educators, freelancers, students, and professors.

As a percussionist, Dan has commissioned and participated in consortiums for over 20 new works by acclaimed composers including Marc Mellits, Ivan Trevino, Ian Whillock, Darian Thomas, Sophie Mathieu, and Louis Raymond-Kolker. He regularly performs chamber music with Flat Water Trio, Density512, and LNK Percussion who were artists-in-residence at the Avaloch Farm Music Institute in 2022. As an orchestral percussionist, Dan has served as principal percussionist for The Orchestra San Antonio, Opera San Antonio, Ballet San Antonio, and the Classical Music Institute Orchestra for the Andrea Bocelli World Tour in 2023.

An active educator for over a decade, Dan is passionate about providing an evolving pedagogy that accommodates a broad scope of interests in percussion. His students have succeeded in making all state bands, drum corps international, and collegiate percussion studios across the United States. In his first four years teaching at Gretna High School, his drumline students achieved their first best percussion award and continued to win best percussion overall at the Nebraska State Bandmasters Championship in 2019. Recently, several of his students at Vista Ridge High School won 1st place in the Large Ensemble division of the 2024 Black Swamp Percussion Solo & Ensemble Showcase.

Dan is also passionate about studying Afro-Diasporic percussion. He travels to Havana and Matanzas, Cuba to study batá, güiro, and rumba with renowned musicians Octavio Rodríguez Rivera, Miguel Bernal, Miguelito León, and members of the Latin Grammy Award winning Los Muñequitos de Matanzas. Additionally, he performs with Tambores del Pueblo, an Afro-Puerto Rican Bomba group, the Austin West African Drum and Dance Company, and has participated in Afro-Venezuelan Tambor celebrations with San Juan New York City.

Dan has earned degrees from the University of Texas at Austin (D.M.A.), Michigan State University (M.M.) and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (B.M.E.). He has been fortunate to study with some of the foremost collegiate educators including Dave Hall, Gwen Dease, Jon Weber, Kevin “Bujo” Jones, Ivan Trevino, Richard Huntley, and Tom Burritt. Dan is an endorsing education artist for Vic Firth sticks and mallets and Zildjian cymbals.