Kim Howes Zabbia, a lifelong resident of Ponchatoula, is an author, artist and teacher. With a B.A. from Southeastern Louisiana University in English & Journalism and an M.F.A. in Studio Art from LSU, Kim retired in 2007 from Ponchatoula High School with thirty-three years of experience.
As an artist, Kim has had twenty solo exhibitions since 1990, including a 25 year retrospective exhibit at the Pensacola Museum of Art in 2014. Kim is currently represented by Ariodante Gallery in New Orleans, LA, Leader Art Consultants of Pensacola, FL and gallery43 of Roswell, GA.
Author of Painted Diaries: a Mother and Daughter’s Experience through Alzheimer’s, Kim delivered forty lectures around the country, including the Byron D. Griffith Memorial Lecture at Tulane University School of Medicine. She also served on the Governor’s Task Force on Alzheimer’s Disease.
Named the 2006 Teacher of the Year for the state of Louisiana, Kim’s vision of lifelong learning in the arts came to fruition when she opened The Art Station, a center for artistic imagination in Ponchatoula in 2007 which received the Innovator of the Year Award from N.O. City Business magazine. Zabbia inspires her fellow artists to embrace their fears and benefit personally, professionally and monetarily from their art.
Chair of Ponchatoula’s Public Arts Commission for six years and a member of the Louisiana State Arts Council for two, Kim received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Northshore Regional Endowment for the Arts in 2007 and an Art Education Endowment was begun in her name. In 2011, Kim completed four years on the Board of Friends of Louisiana Public Broadcasting and became the Chair of Louisiana’s first painted Quilt Trail that spans the five Northshore parishes.
Kim is married to Mayor Bob Zabbia, and they have one daughter and son-in-law, Kate and JD Stuart, and three grandchildren.