Debora Wondercheck

The Arts & Learning Conservatory

Founder & CEO

As founder and CEO of the Arts & Learning Conservatory, Debora Wondercheck has spent two decades transforming arts education across Southern California through programs that now serve more than 3,800 students annually. She built the nonprofit from a 13-student summer camp into an award-winning network delivering more than 50 music and theater offerings in over 50 schools, prioritizing campuses that otherwise lack arts funding. Drawing on childhood experience of finding refuge in music after fleeing domestic violence, Wondercheck champions equitable access and mentors young artists to use creativity as a pathway to confidence and hope. Beyond ALC, she teaches string pedagogy, performs as a cellist, conducts Pacific Symphony outreach projects such as “Symphonic Soul” and advises districts on arts integration and was recently appointed 2024 Arts Commissioner for Costa Mesa. In 2024, she secured a district-wide partnership in Compton that will introduce weekly music instruction to 4,500 additional students beginning this academic year.