Meet Aubrey Lisowski - Founding Member and Non-profit Expert

Read about her journey and how teaching led to her career running large education programs in the DMV area.

Aubrey Lisowski is a long-time Arts Management Specialist, Music Educator, and Violinist with over 15 years of experience leading both students and professionals. As a Founding Member of AstroCat Consulting and Non-profit Strategist, she has been an integral part of multiple well-known organizations in the DMV area and continues to share her wisdom and experience with fellow leaders.

Aubrey completed her Bachelors of Music Education at Shenandoah Conservatory and went on to earn her Masters in Arts Management from George Mason University. Her specialized educational background and years of experience working with non-profits allows her to provide deep insights into operations, program development and management, data-analysis and reporting, board relations, and more.

Starting out as a professional, Aubrey first worked as an educator, both in tutoring private violin students and in the public-school classroom setting. In this field, she gained a tremendous amount of experience with detailed lesson planning, classroom management, inventory tracking, and concert planning for the school ensembles’ productions. But it was her growing desire to support music and arts education as a whole during this time that led to a new interest and passion for Aubrey in the field of Arts Management.

Following this dream of working with organizations and non-profits in the Arts, Aubrey had the opportunity to pursue her advanced degree in Arts Management at George Mason University. While studying, Aubrey was also able to work with the esteemed Washington Performing Arts as an Education Intern. After graduating, she worked in the Education Department of Workhouse Arts Center, a well-known non-profit visual arts center based in Northern Virginia, ultimately heading the department as Director within 2 years. During her tenure there, Aubrey oversaw both administrators and over 50 visual art teachers, organized and hosted more than 100 individual classes per quarter, and ran the organization’s robust summer camp and music lessons program. Due to her leadership, the organization was able to successfully launch and implement Tessitura, a popular CRM, for their Education Department and led the most profitable department in the organization with a team of only two administrators.

Following her passion for music education and the performing arts, Aubrey returned to the field in 2024 as an educator, pedagogy coach, and Assistant Director to Lessons In Your Home, D.C. and Baltimore — a large, in-home music lessons program that was launched and run by Heather Amelia Johnston. LIYH develops successful music studios for highly-trained, independent teachers, and there, she was able to facilitate successful, long-term business relationships between professionals and recurring clients.

In addition to establishing long-term teacher / student relationships at Lessons In Your Home, Aubrey also had the opportunity to mentor music professionals in both the business of successful lessons and the art of teaching. Being able to serve that intersection of art and industry is Aubrey’s passion. She believes small businesses and entrepreneurship are important vehicles to keep music, visual arts, and performance alive in our culture, and she continues to positively contribute to this community with her work.

Aubrey is an advocate for the importance of music and arts education, and as a mission, she strives to help programs in both the non-profit and commercial spaces succeed. In addition to serving the arts, she also works with small businesses and professionals in a wide range of creative fields to help them improve their operations, establish lean systems, and organize complex infrastructures.

In the Summer of 2024, Aubrey Lisowski joined forces with Heather Amelia Johnston, and they became AstroCat Consulting – a 2-person management team with the mission to help music schools and other small businesses achieve the same success they created for LIYH D.C., Workhouse Arts Center, and others. Through their combined teamwork and strategy with Lessons In Your Home, D.C. from 2024 through 2026, AstroCat was able to scale the school’s local operations to its next level and prime it for its next milestone, as well as sharpen workflow processes and create synergy and community within the staff.

Today, Heather and Aubrey work as a team to bring these same results to a wide array of organizations – from music schools to sales teams, yoga studios, catering businesses, and more!