Biography
My career reflects my varied interests and talents: I am an arts education leader, performing artist, and writer. Read on to learn more about my current projects, professional activities, and education.
Arts Education Leader I am a passionate arts education leader with a demonstrated commitment to equity and accessibility. My broad experience as a leader, educator, scholar, and entrepreneur includes work in community education, PK-12 education, and higher education. I incorporate Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy in my teaching and explore a diverse range of music traditions in the classroom, studio, and on stage. I am the PK-12 Director of Visual and Performing Arts at The Blake School. I work with Blake arts faculty, collaborating with them in the evolution and alignment of the arts curriculum and co-curricular program. In addition, I administer the PK-12 programming in the visual arts, instrumental and vocal music, theater arts and debate. In February 2024, I presented a day-long faculty and staff workshop on "Storytelling in the Arts" as part of The Blake School's annual Intercultural Competency Professional Development Day. Prior to my time at The Blake School, I taught courses in music and culture at the Dougherty Family College, voice lessons in the Music Department of the University of St. Thomas (UST), and an introductory course for first-year UST students. My community arts and leadership experiences include past tenures on the University of St. Thomas Charter Accountability Board, the Board of Directors at the Saint Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists, and chair of Journey North Opera Company's Board of Directors. Performing Artist I am a classically trained vocalist who continues to perform as well as teach. In February and March 2024, In recently presented a series of educational recitals for Blake students ages 4 to 18 as part of The Blake School's Equity Lab Series. The recitals explored African American cultural aesthetics and history through art songs by noted African American composers William Grant Still, Charles Lloyd Jr., and H. Leslie Adams. In 2023, I sang the role of African American contralto Marian Anderson in Theatre Elision's production of "First Ladies Suite" (LaChiusa). Audiences and critics loved the show! In summer 2023, I sang Gershwin and Puccini arias with Bloomington Symphony Orchestra led by conductor, Manny Laureano and performed in Journey North Opera Company's third-annual Changing the Narrative event. Writer Writing on music and pedagogy is a natural extension of my teaching, lecturing, and curriculum writing. My first published writing came out in October 2023. I contributed a chapter in the book, “Engaging Pedagogies for Diverse Learners" published by Rowman & Littlefield Education. The chapter explores a college-level music curriculum I wrote, which guides students through a storytelling and songwriting project for social change. I am currently working on a new Reggaetón Project, writing a general interest book on the cultural forces, artists, and producers that together created reggaetón, the pan-Latinx genre, to be published in Fall 2026. Education In 2022, I earned an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership from the University of St. Thomas, Department of Educational Leadership, and my dissertation received the department' highest distinction of passing with honors. Entitled "Mixed People, Mixed Music: Hybrid Contemporary Commercial Music Genres and the Multiethnic Artists Who Create Them," the dissertation studied the experiences and contributions of multiethnic artists working in the contemporary commercial music industry and the historical development and racialization of country, hip hop, and reggaetón. Click here to read the dissertation abstract. I hold an M.Mus., Vocal Performance, from the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins, and a B.A. in Italian Studies (Phi Beta Kappa) from the University of Minnesota. To learn more about my professional work, or to contact me, please click the buttons below. |
Image: SCAD Hong Kong classroom.JPG. (2020, October 31). Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository. Retrieved 05:51, July 22, 2022 from https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:SCAD_Hong_Kong_classroom.JPG&oldid=508239474.
Image: Libri books2.jpg. (2022, May 29). Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository. Retrieved 03:56, July 31, 2022 from https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Libri_books2.jpg&oldid=659658064.
Image: Libri books2.jpg. (2022, May 29). Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository. Retrieved 03:56, July 31, 2022 from https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Libri_books2.jpg&oldid=659658064.