LAB COHORT FACULTY AND LEADERS
Planning and engagement
Clarinetist and educator Jessica Zweig believes that all children deserve the opportunity to benefit from the highest quality music education. Prior to being selected as Executive Director in July of 2023, she served as POP’s Director of Education Programming where she oversaw all aspects of the music education experience for close to 400 young people in West Philadelphia. An educator and community builder at heart, Jessica has crafted engaging curriculum, led professional development for talented teaching artists, and cultivates partnerships with local, national and international artists to ensure young musicians learn from the best of the best. Jessica is equally committed to teacher training within POP and across the country and served as the founding Director of Programming for the Teaching Artist Training Institute, created to prepare a new generation of El Sistema-inspired educators.
Jessica formerly served a multitude of roles at POP since joining in 2016, including running our Music Center at St. Francis de Sales School. Prior to POP, Jessica served as Program Manager at Harmony Program in New York City. As a Board Member of El Sistema USA, Jessica served as the chair of the 2018 Symposium focused on collective impact and racial equity and currently chairs the Membership and Engagement committee.
As a trained, professional clarinetist, Jessica has performed extensively throughout the Washington, DC area as well as in Perigord, France and Vienna, Austria. As the Founder and Artistic Director of All Points West chamber music collective, she collaborated with notable institutions such as the Woodrow Wilson House, the Sackler Gallery, the Atlas Performing Arts Center and the National Trust for Historic Preservation to create innovative classical music programming in unusual spaces. As an educator, Jessica taught elementary school music at the Sheridan School (Washington, DC) and served as clarinet faculty at Suitland High School for the Performing Arts. Jessica received her B.M. and M.M in Clarinet Performance from the University of Maryland, School of Music.
JESSICA ZWEIG
Teaching Artist Values and Philosophies
Lab 1 highlights the importance of reflecting on personal and organizational values before refining teaching practices, emphasizing how personal beliefs and experiences influence music transmission and the creation of a teaching philosophy that shapes instructional style and learner outcomes.
Dr. Rebecca MacLeod is Professor of Music Education at the University of North Carolina
Greensboro, where she directs the string education program and conducts the UNCG Sinfonia.
She is the author of Teaching Strings in Today’s Classroom and is published in the Journal of
Research in Music Education, International Journal of Music Education, Bulletin for the Council of Research in Music Education, Update: Applications of Research in Music Education, Journal of Music Teacher Education, String Research Journal, Psychology of Music, The Strad, American String Teachers Journal, and various state music education journals. She has served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Research in Music Education, the String Research
Journal, and as guest reviewer for the International Journal of Research in Music Education.
She is the recipient of the North Carolina Board of Governors Teaching Excellence Award, the
UNCG School of Music, Theatre and Dance Outstanding Teaching Award, the American String
Teacher Association National Researcher Award, and the UNCG Junior Research Excellence
Award.
A passionate advocate for increasing access to string education to all students, Dr. MacLeod
directs two community partnership programs that provide string instruction to underserved
students: the Lillian Rauch Beginning Strings Program and the Peck Alumni Leadership
Program. Students of these programs have performed for Dr. Maya Angelou, Dr. Gloria Ladsen-Billings, and the Sphinx Virtuosi. Her research on working with underserved populations, vibrato technique, music teacher education, and music perception has been presented at the International Conference of Music Perception and Cognition (Thessoloniki, Greece), Music
Research and Human Behavior International Conference (Barcelona, Spain), International
Society for Music Education (Glasgow, Scotland), Music Educators National Conference,
National Association for Music Education National Conference, American String Teachers
National Conference, Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic, Society for Music Teacher Education, and music educators state conferences.
Prior to joining the UNCG faculty, she taught elementary, middle, and high school orchestra in
Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania and was orchestra director and chair of music activities in Beaver,
Pennsylvania. She was the assistant artistic director and conductor of the Tallahassee Symphony Youth Chamber Orchestra and Philharmonia Orchestra in Tallahassee, Florida. She is currently President for the American String Teachers Association. She was a guest lecturer at Xi’an University and Shaoguan University (China) in summer 2016 and 2017.
Dr. MacLeod received her undergraduate degree from Duquesne University and her MME and
PhD from Florida State University. She is a frequent guest conductor and clinician throughout
the United States and abroad.
DR. REBECCA MACLEOD
Goal-Oriented Planning
Emphasizing long-term planning for intentional musical skill development, this session offers Teaching Artists skills in community music programming that promote ownership, deeper purpose, and a focus on concert readiness and skill building through creating specific learning goals, understanding scaffolding strategies, exploring scope and sequence, and effectively planning instruction.
Jackie truly believes in the power of music education and the importance of creating safe
environments for youth to learn in. She has spent the last 10 years teaching in the public school
systems as well as in various non-profits. Jackie holds a a dual degree in Music Education and
French Horn Performance from the Hartt School of Music and a Master of Arts in Teaching
(MAT) through Bard College. Post graduation, Jackie worked as a teaching artist with the Los
Angeles Philharmonic in the Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles Neighborhood Project, where she
implemented music curriculum into general education classes at the kindergarten through second
grade levels. She also was a brass specialist with YOLA at Heart of Los Angeles and Exposition
Park and taught elementary general and instrumental music for Pasadena Unified School District.
Currently, Jackie serves as the Children’s Orchestra Conductor for YOLA at Heart of Los
Angeles. She is also the cofounder, associate director, and brass teacher for Global Arts
Corporation, a non-profit based in the Pico Union Neighborhood of Los Angeles. Global Arts
mission is to contribute to educational equity by providing exceptional music classes for
underserved youth and continual professional development for educators.
Jacqueline DesRoser
Classroom Management and Student Engagement
This session employs a trauma-informed approach to delve into healthy classroom management techniques, emphasizing the concept of Culturally Responsive Care by setting high expectations while caring for students as individuals, incorporating non-verbal strategies, prioritizing healthy relationships, understanding brain states' impact on student responses, and fostering safe spaces physically and through dialogue.
Instruction and Support
Alysia receives national recognition for advancing access, equity, and decolonization with leaders, organizations, and communities. Her methods center on youth leadership, anti-racism, creativity, and justice.
Alysia is the inaugural President of the Baltimore Children & Youth Fund, the bold hyperlocal grantmaker stewarding public funds to support the success of Baltimore’s young people. BCYF is committed to authentic community engagement, and all strategy and grant decisions are shaped and led by Baltimore community members and youth leaders. With the core values of Racial Equity, Intergenerational Leadership, Community Ownership, and Collective Decision-Making, BCYF strives to resource a future where children and youth programs have the resources they need to equitably serve all young Baltimoreans.
Lee is the Founder and Artistic Director of Sister Cities Girlchoir (SCG), the El Sistema-inspired, girl empowerment choral academy in Philadelphia, Camden, and Baltimore in its 11th season. SCG is an award-winning and trendsetting choral education program with performance credits from Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, and numerous school and community stages.
Lee has an emerging voice as a choral composer. She is the series editor of Hal Leonard’s Exigence for Young Voices, the new choral series uplifting Black, Brown, Indigenous, and Asian composers for young choir ensembles. Her piece ‘Say Her Name’ is published by Hal Leonard. She has recent composition commissions from Baltimore Choral Arts, Artemisia Trio, and the Portland Lesbian Choir.
Lee is also a Board member of Chorus America and a National Advisor to ArtsEdSEL.
Lee is formerly the education program supervisor for Fine Arts Education for the Maryland State Department of Education across five arts disciplines: music, dance, visual art, theatre, and media arts. She supported the statewide arts learning community through policy, evaluation, technical assistance, and advocacy that centered on equity and excellence.
Recent recognitions include awards from The Kennedy Center, The Knight Foundation, National Association of University Women, Stockton Bartol Foundation, Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, and BEQ Pride. Recent speaking/facilitation engagements include the U.S. Department of Education, The Kennedy Center, VH-1 Save the Music, Carnegie Hall, Arts Education Partnership, TEDX, many colleges and universities, and national and state professional associations.
A Baltimore native, Lee is an alumna of Maryland public schools (Baltimore County Public Schools). She earned her graduate degree from Peabody Conservatory. Alysia also completed Executive Education programs at Harvard University and La Salle University.
Alysia Lee
Social-Emotional Learning
Participants explore supporting students' identity, agency, and belonging, developing personalized SEL pillars translated into actionable strategies via the "STAY" model, encompassing understanding SEL, translating concepts into practical strategies, recognizing the link between relationship building and SEL, and crafting supportive classroom routines.
Heather Bryce is a teaching artist, choreographer, and the artistic director of Bryce Dance Company. Bryce has expertise in working with people of all ages including populations often under-represented in the arts such as older adults, students who have disabilities, and people living with dementia. Bryce has over 20 years of experience as a teaching artist and educator.
She currently works as a teaching artist for organizations including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Lincoln Center Education, Durham Arts Council, and The Center for Arts Education. She holds her M.F.A. in Interdisciplinary Arts from Goddard College.
Heather Bryce
Varying Abilities and Differentiated Instruction
TATI cohort members will learn practical strategies for supporting students with diverse abilities, including understanding disability inclusion and language, exploring key disabilities encountered in music classrooms, and linking consistent procedures to fostering a safe and engaging environment for all students.
Gowri is a visual teaching artist whose practice includes sculpture, illustration and writing. Born in England, she moved to the US in 2007. Savoor has been a teaching artist for over 20 years with experience in arts integration and community building. She has partnered with multiple organizations in the UK and across the US, including Community Engagement Lab (VT), Lincoln Center Education (NY), The Learning Alliance (FL), and ITAC, the International Teaching Artist Collaborative.
Savoor is the instigator of A River of Light, a movement committed to bringing art to the community through participatory art events, lantern parades and installations. She is also the co-founder of Teaching Artists Connect which provides creative and inspiring professional development workshops for teaching artists and educators. Gowri is the creator of Tiny Hero Tales.
Gowri Savoor
Varying Abilities and Differentiated Instruction
TATI cohort members will learn practical strategies for supporting students with diverse abilities, including understanding disability inclusion and language, exploring key disabilities encountered in music classrooms, and linking consistent procedures to fostering a safe and engaging environment for all students.
A licensed social worker, Stefanie Wakeman brings a lifelong love of the arts to her role as Astral’s Director of Community Partnerships. Stefanie has expertise in the areas of training and education, community engagement, and trauma-informed care. Prior to joining Astral, she developed innovative pilot programs with the Drexel University Center for Nonviolence and Social Justice and the Pennsylvania Montgomery County System of Care. Throughout her career, she has had the privilege to support survivors of violence, individuals experiencing serious physical and mental illness, and children and families involved with child welfare and juvenile justice systems. She has served as a training and facilitation consultant for multiple city, county, and state social service organizations, and has worked on federally funded grant projects through the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). She holds a Master of Social Work degree from the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis, where her focus of study was Children and Youth, with a specialization in Non-Profit Management.
stefanie wakeman
Trauma-Informed Classrooms
Participants learn about trauma-informed approaches in education, including the impact of trauma on the brain, the protective role of music, and practical strategies to create safe, student-centered environments in the music classroom.
Cultural Equity and Inclusion
Originally from South Africa, Monique Van Willingh is an educator, musician, and advocate for social and racial justice with cultural humility and brave dialogue as her central approach. As the Director of Cultural Equity and Belonging at the New England Conservatory of Music, Monique is committed to creating and sustaining spaces
of belonging.
In her past position as Director of the Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) Program at Longy School of Music of Bard College, Monique oversaw Longy’s one-year music education credential program in Los Angeles, that focused on music pedagogy, performance, and social justice. Monique has taught graduate level courses such
as Historical and Social Foundations of Education, Social Justice Music Research Project, and Culturally Responsive Teaching. A graduate of the Sistema Fellows Program at the New England Conservatory of Music. In 2013, Monique explored the Venezuelan El Sistema music for social change program model. She holds a Master of Arts in Teaching Degree from Longy School of Music of Bard College. Monique was the Music Director for the El Sistema inspired program, Youth Orchestra LA (YOLA) at Heart of Los Angeles (HOLA), serving over 275 youth and families.
Monique serves as the Vice Chair of the El Sistema USA national board. In this capacity, she co-led the ESUSA Equity-centered Pedagogy Working Group and serves as the chair of the Governance Committee. Monique is the Curriculum and Learning Specialist for the Teaching Artists Training Institute (TATI) and serves as the Chair of Academic Citizenship at the College Music Society. Monique has been a panelist, presenter and facilitator at conferences and organizations such as ProArts Consortium, El Sistema USA, Sphinx, YOLA National, iTAC,
Global Leaders Program, Global Arts, and From the Top.
Monique Van Willingh
What’s My Story?
Members explore Cultural Equity and Identity, reflecting on their own backgrounds and privilege, using Cultural Humility to guide lifelong learning, and considering students' diverse identities authentically without assumptions or tokenism. This session encompasses discussions on racial identity, Cultural Humility, systemic oppression, privilege, power, and intersectionality in understanding and connecting with students.
Lorrie Heagy, Ph.D., has been involved in the advancement of music education for social change in public schools, Sistema-inspired programs and the university system for over twenty years. As a K-5 music teacher at Sítʼ Eetí Shaanáx̱ Glacier Valley Elementary School in Juneau, Alaska, Lorrie works closely with the community to fund and provide access to quality arts and music experiences for every student. After completing a Sistema Fellowship at the New England Conservatory in 2010, Lorrie created Juneau Alaska Music Matters (JAMM), an El Sistema-inspired program serving over 500 students in the Juneau School District. Lorrie provides teacher training across the U.S. in positive youth development, brain-based learning and student engagement and served as the 2011 Alaska Teacher of the Year.
Lorrie holds a PhD in Education with a concentration in Learning, Instruction and Innovation from Walden University and an honorary doctorate in Education from the University of Alaska Southeast. She also holds three masterʼs degrees in elementary, music and library education and traveled to the UK in 2019 as a Fulbright Distinguished Awardee in Teaching where she researched music pedagogies that support student identity, agency, creativity and well-being. She holds both a Waldorf and English as a Second Language teaching certificate.
As an Alaskan K-12 educator and adjunct professor, culturally responsive-sustaining education has been an integral part of Lorrieʼs teaching standards for decades and increasingly so as the Juneau community strives to revitalize the Lingít language and culture. In 2014, she was adopted into the Kiks.adi (Frog) clan for her work with music and native Alaskan children and is carried by the name, Gax.áansán. With roughly 40 fluent native speakers left worldwide, Lorrie has been studying and integrating Lingít language and culture into her classroom. In 2020 she completed 50 hours of culturally sustaining pedagogy through Sealaska Heritage Foundation and a year-long national professional learning community with Zaretta Hammond, Culturally Responsive Education by Design. For the 2021-2022 school year, Lorrie is honored to team with native and arts organizations, university faculty, and school district to launch Haa Tóo Yéi Yatee, which will teach violin to all kindergarten and 1st grade students at Sítʼ Eetí Shaanáx̱ Glacier Valley through the medium of the Lingít language and a place-based curriculum.
Dr. Lorrie Heagy
Relationship-Building
The second session of the Cultural Equity and Identity series emphasizes relationship-building with students and its integration into teaching practice, exploring the link between Culturally Responsive Teaching and relationship building as well as the 5 C's of Positive Youth Development, and learning practical strategies to understand students meaningfully, fostering student ownership and courage while exploring techniques supporting relationships among students.
In the Fall of 2023, Dr. Derrick Fox will begin his appointment as Professor of Choral Music and Associate Dean of Graduate Studies and Creative Endeavors at Michigan State University. Prior to MSU, he was the Director of Choral Activities and Distinguished Professor of Music at the University of Nebraska-Omaha and Assistant Professor of Choral Music at Ithaca College. Dr. Fox has taught at the middle school, high school and collegiate levels. His conducting experiences have included singers from upper elementary choirs through collegiate and community choirs. Recently, he was awarded the 2021 Bryan R. Johnson Service Award by the Nebraska Music Educators Association and the 2022 University of Nebraska Omaha Award for Distinguished Research/Creative Activity.
Dr. Fox has conducted all state choirs, led international, national and regional choral concerts/residencies and presented professional development workshops across the United States and internationally. His professional workshops focus on assessment in the choral classroom, building classroom community, rehearsal strategies, choral conducting techniques and shape note singing in the African American community. Dr. Fox has held teaching residencies at the Latvian Academy of Music and Syracuse University, led performance tours through Lithuania and Estonia. His recent engagements include presentations in Idaho, Nebraska, Kansas, New York, South Carolina, North Dakota, Missouri and Florida; as well as conducting the Hawaii All State Choir, Alabama All State Choir, New York All State MS/JH Choir, the Wisconsin Collegiate All State Choir and the 2019 National ACDA Middle School/Junior High Mixed Honor Choir. He recently traveled to South Africa as a 2019 ACDA International Conductor Exchange Fellow where he led choral workshops and rehearsals in Johannesburg, Pretoria and Potchefstroom.
As a baritone soloist, Dr. Fox has collaborated with various organizations; among them are the Arkansas Symphony, Lansing Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Columbia Chorale, the University of Nebraska at Omaha, Omaha Symphonic Chorus, University of Missouri, Michigan State University, Webster University and the Espaço Cultural (Brasilia, Brazil). He can be heard singing selections from Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess on the compact disc In This Hid Clearing, available on the Naxos Classical Music label.
As an author, Dr. Fox has written articles for many organizations and was a contributing author in the Hal Leonard/McGraw Hill choral textbook Voices in Concert. His compositions and arrangements are published by Hal Leonard and Brilee Music. His book, Yes You Can: A Band Director’s Guide to Teaching Choirs is published by Carl Fischer. He launched The Derrick Fox Choral Series with Music Spoke to publish works by and about marginalized and minoritized people. He created the Professional Choral Collective (PCC) to collect and create learning activities and teaching strategies for choral music educators around the world to use during the 2020 Coronavirus virus pandemic and beyond. He also partnered with the Country Music Association Foundation to create the Unified Voices for Music Education Initiative which provides learning activities for instrumental and elementary music educators.
Dr. Fox serves on the advisory board for the Sound Spirit, a research lab and publishing initiative promoting collaborative engagement with the songbooks that sound America’s musical landscape. He is also a member of the advisory board for the Choral Singing in America documentary series. https://www.drderrickfox.com/
Dr. Derrick Fox
CEI In My Classroom
The final session of the Cultural Equity and Identity series explores CEI in the classroom by understanding the concepts of equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging. To support and affirm all students in the classroom, Growth Mindset and Culturally Relevant Pedagogy will be shared.