Summary of Professional Experience
I am currently a Professor of Music at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE). I began my teaching career in 1985, teaching public school instrumental, vocal and general music, k-12. During that time I also created and taught a college preparatory course in Humanities for college-bound seniors. After a few years of teaching and learning I entered graduate school at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where I studied with important leaders and innovators such as G. David Peters, Charles Leonhard, Mary Hoffman, Eunice Boardman and Marilyn Pflederer-Zimmerman in music and Professors Levin, Waugh, Farmer, West and Reuben in Curriculum and Instruction and educational technology.
My doctoral dissertation (1992) was, as far as I know, the first study to examine the quality of survey data collected through online venues (compared to traditional means, i.e., paper surveys sent through the mail) and pre-dates the 1993 public blossoming of the World Wide Web. Although a common practice now, collecting survey data in music education via online networks was a fairly new phenomenon and because it predated the web, data collection took place via the J. W. Pepper online bulletin board system for music educators with the help of executives at Pepper and their programmers.
Beginning in 1994 I worked as an Instructional Designer and Software Developer. I developed university level educational materials and software for Human Kinetics Publishing, a multi-national leader in Physical Activities and Sport education. I conceived and developed the company’ s first electronic instructor guides and sports management software, including the first electronic instructor guides for the YMCA amateur coaching instruction series.
In 1996 I accepted the position of Assistant Professor of Music at SIUE, teaching in the areas of Music Education, Music Theory and Music Technology, a unique position. I became Area Head for Music Theory in 2000 and served 12 years in that capacity in addition to my teaching in Music Education and Music Technology, enjoying the opportunity to bring new ideas and my curricular experience to music theory pedagogy for our students. I enjoy professional collaboration and thinking with valued colleagues who are like-minded in the need to constantly evolve teaching, especially in music theory. I have been a member of the MayDay Group for Music Education for many years and helped to found and create both their online journals, Action, Criticism and Theory for Music Education and TOPICS for Music Education Praxis. I designed and implemented the online organizational infrastructure, website and interface and “house style” and served as Production Editor for ACT and Associate Editor and head of production for TOPICS.
New courses I’ve developed and taught at SIUE include: Music and Society, an upper-level course for a now extinct Dean’s Scholar Program involving high-achieving scholarship recipients who were not music majors; Music and Technology, an upper-level course primarily for teachers but open to all seniors and Master’s students (as an elective) in music, Advanced Music Theory: Music Since 1900, an upper level course primarily for Theory/Composition majors but also offered as a Master’s level elective. Most recently, I founded our new World Music Ensemble, a means for fostering cultural exchange and exploring music from around the world. These are courses that were created as brand new but essentially, I rethink all of my courses every few years, often re-developing a course from the ground up. A complete list of courses I’ve taught can be found on my Curriculum Vitae.
Teaching, Performing and Learning Music 