"All of my work, in all its mediums, is an expression of my self-care practice and using creativity to inspire personal and communal wellness." -LaTreice V. Branson
LaTreice V. Branson, MFA, GISFA is an award-winning artist, educator and keynote speaker who enriches communities through nature-informed performances, lectures and rest empowerment trainings that inspire stress and trauma relief.
As an artist, LaTreice has exhibited her multidisciplinary works in the US and abroad for over 20 years, and her work has been published in Other Heroes: African American Comic Book Creators, Characters and Archetypes, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Philadelphia Tribune, Art In a Woman’s World, Magnet Magazine, and Tom Tom Magazine. Her artworks are in collection at The Ohio State University, the Frank W. Hale Black Cultural Center, Art Sanctuary and the William H. Thomas Gallery.
With a renewed focus on communal wellness, LaTreice uses her experiences as a woman with disabilities to facilitate engaging performance lectures on "The Exhaustion Complex", "Radical Adventures in Wellness”, “The RAW Method,” and "Becoming Well in a Sick Body", which have been featured at the Common Field Conference, Black Lotus Wellness Retreat, Intercultural Journeys, Jefferson University Medical School, The National Park Service
and the 2023 Taking Nature Black Conference. Her wellness programs have served communities in conjunction with New Jersey Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired, Unite4 HER Cancer Foundation, The Lupus Foundation,The National Sexual Assault Conference, The Barnes Foundation, The Philadelphia Museum of Art and Drexel University’s Department of Public Health, and more.
LaTreice is a proud graduate of a Historical Black College and University, serving as Valedictorian of the Cheyney University of Pennsylvania graduating class of 2005. As a Graduate Fellow of The Ohio State University’s Department of Art, she is the first recipient of the Graduate Interdisciplinary Specialization in Fine Art program. In 2010, LaTreice was honored as one of Philadelphia's Top Women Professionals, and in the same year, she was awarded the Presidential Service Award, signed by President Barack Obama. In 2016, LaTreice was awarded the prestigious Leeway Transformation Award for her outstanding service and impactful, collaborative work in Philadelphia.
Having served as faculty at The Ohio State University, Columbus State Community College, and Cheyney University of Pennsylvania, LaTreice is now an educator whose classroom has no walls. Her teachings are no longer informed by her formal education, but by the wisdom of the trees.