ABOUT ELEVATING LEGACIES
Our Story
Elevating Legacies is an educational consulting organization providing curriculum development, program evaluation, and strategic support to educational leaders and mission-driven organizations. We specialize in arts-integrated curriculum design, leadership development, museum-based learning, and transformational learning design — grounded in research and built to produce measurable results.
Our work is grounded in the belief that sustainable change emerges when communities unite around shared purpose and are equipped with rigorous, evidence-based tools for transformation. By pairing research-driven curriculum design with clear evaluation frameworks, we help mission-driven leaders not only plan for impact but demonstrate it — creating an interconnected ecosystem of changemakers whose work resonates across generations.
Our Founder
Dr. Denise Davis-Cotton brings over 40 years of expertise as a researcher, curriculum designer, and champion of high-quality, accessible arts-integrated education" excellence in arts-integrated education and educational leadership. As founder and first principal of Detroit School of Arts, she designed and implemented innovative curricula serving thousands of students through community-grounded, arts-integrated learning through engaging, accessible, well-rounded arts-integrated learning — and built the evaluation systems to track their impact over time.
Her career spans school district- professional development, curriculum design, museum-based, and leadership development for superintendents and district leaders, alongside a sustained research agenda: she has served as Principal Investigator on federal grant portfolios, developed grant applications and program designs for partner school systems nationally, and published peer-reviewed scholarship on arts-integrated practice. She has partnered with cultural institutions across the country to help educators engage with primary sources and complex histories, deepening understanding of how historical contexts shape contemporary educational experiences.
Through Elevating Legacies, she provides independent consulting, curriculum development, program evaluation, and professional development services to educational organizations nationally.
Our Approach
We believe the world can be made better through education. Sustainable change emerges when communities of practice unite around shared purpose and are equipped with rigorous tools, sound research, and ongoing support to transform vision into action. Our work is grounded in scholarship, responsive to context, built on well-designed curriculum, and focused on measurable impact.
We partner with leaders throughout their journey — not just delivering recommendations, but designing the curriculum, building the evaluation frameworks, and helping leaders build the internal capacity to sustain results long after an engagement ends.
Founder & Executive Director
Dr. Denise Davis-Cotton is an educational leader and consultant with over 40 years of experience in arts-based education, museum partnerships, and leadership development.
As founder of Detroit School of Arts, she established innovative programs integrating arts education with academic excellence, serving thousands of students and established a research-informed model for community-grounded, arts-integrate learning. Her work demonstrated how centering students' lived experiences and creative expression can transform educational outcomes and community engagement.
Her career includes extensive experience in educational research and professional development design, with particular expertise in curriculum design responsive to varied community contexts, and leadership development for superintendents and district leaders. She has designed multi-year cohort models bringing educators into partnership with school districts and community arts outreach institutions to connecting students' backgrounds and creative expression to academic learning.
Dr. Davis-Cotton's work is grounded in the belief that all students deserve access to high-quality, engaging education that reflects their communities, and that educational leaders need sustained, rigorous support to create the conditions for all students to thrive.
Areas of Expertise:
Arts-integrated education and community-connected pedagogy
Museum-based professional development and historical inquiry
Educational leadership development and strategic planning
Curriculum and professional development design
Facilitation of complex organizational change
Partnership development with cultural institutions