University of Iowa

With a strong interest and practice in peacebuilding, meditation, yoga, group singing, and improvisation, I am a Professor of Music Education at the University of Iowa. I research music-making and well-being, songwriting, and collaborative communities and am lead author of Music-Making in U.S. Prisons: Listening to Incarcerated Voices (2022) with Stuart Duncan. As co-founder and facilitator of the International Music and Justice Network: IMAJIN Caring Communities, a group of researchers from 14 countries who meet monthly and collaborate on projects, I am building connections among people across the globe focusing on music-making in prisons. From 2009 to 2020 I led the Oakdale Prison Community Choir and songwriting workshop where participants have written over 150 songs, and the Oakdale Choir has performed over 75 of these songs, available with the Creative Commons License. I have been a keynote for conferences in Germany, Canada, and Portugal, interviewed by the BBC3 Music Matters radio show, and has over 40 publications in journal articles, book chapters, and conference proceedings. I implemented ungrading in my college courses and am working on a collaborative autoethnography about grading contracts with four graduate students. I am creating songwriting partnerships between incarcerated and non-incarcerated songwriters. Available for: Project Collaboration, Research Consulting, Writing/Speaking, Performing, Organizing Workshops, Education Consulting, Composition/Songwriting