Roshunda

Roshunda Jones-Koumba, winner of the 2022 Excellence in Theatre Education Award presented by the Tony Awards and Carnegie Mellon University, graduated from Prairie View A&M University with a B.A. in theatre and a Master of Education in administration. She is the proud recipient of Ebony Magazine’s Power 100, NFHS Outstanding Arts Educator, Stephen Schwartz Musical Theatre and Inspirational Theatre Teacher of the Year Award. Jones was inducted into the Texas Thespians Hall of Fame in 2020, TxETA’s 2017 Educator of the Year and Theatre Under the Stars Leading Ladies inaugural Arts Educator of the year. She has taught in Aldine ISD for over 20 years and all of those years but one spent at George Washington Carver Magnet High School in the Acres Home community in Houston, TX.

As the director of Carver’s Panther Players Troupe #6753, the troupe has been successful on the state and national level at the UIL One Act Play contest, Tommy Tune Awards, Texas Thespians State Festival and International Thespian Festival. Jones-Koumba currently serves on the chapter board for Texas Thespians, UIL OAP Advisory Committee Chair, president of the C. Lee Turner’s Black Theatre Educators’ Caucus and an active member of the Texas Educational Theatre Association where she previously served on the board. In addition, she was the director of the Litefooter youth program at the Plaza Theatre for eleven years where she was part of the board of directors for four. She has been honored with a proclamation from the City of Houston and Wharton for the work she does in the community. She also works professionally as an actor, director and theatre consultant.

Some of her directorial credits include No One Owns Me (AD Players), It Ain’t Nothin' but the Blues (2017 Broadway World Houston award for Best Director-Musical), Lady Day @ Emerson's Bar & Grill (2016 Broadway World Houston award for Best Director- Play), Working (TUTS HSMT), Bring it On (TUTS HSMT), Legend of Mountain Mama & A Beautiful Death on 34th and Fifth (Ensemble Theatre), Soundtrack to Black History (PVAMU), Tobacco Fields (Fade to Black Fest), The Bodyguard the Musical, Summer: The Donna Summer Musical, Sister Act, The Bluest Eye, The Wiz, Carmen Jones, Jelly’s Last Jam, Once on this Island, Hairspray, Memphis, In the Heights, Color Purple & Dreamgirls.