Erin Preston is an emerging educational researcher and former arts educator who draws upon eight years of teaching visual and digital art. She has worked with the Chicago Humanities Festival, Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education, and Project Zero on program evaluation and research. Her research focuses on tensions of knowing, trust, and values in adult and student collaborative learning in a variety of contexts including professional development settings and arts integrated classrooms. She is particularly interested in the role of tension in learning driven by artistic processes, collaboration, and interdisciplinary inquiry.