Dean Sanchez is a thought leader in higher music education. He is a past president of the Music & Entertainment Industry Educator’s Association (MEIEA), and a founding board member of the Association for Popular Music Education (APME). He is actively involved with the College Music Society (CMS), serving on their Presidential Task Force on Leading Change, and most recently as Chair of the Technology and AI Group for the CMS Think-Tank Summit, Reimagining Music Schools for 2026 and Beyond. Dean Sanchez is a pioneer in popular/commercial music education and an expert in related curriculum design. He has consulted with notable institutions such as Florida State University, Virginia Tech, and the Iceland University of the Arts, among others.

Dean Sanchez has had a strong interest in computer-generated music throughout his career. He’s been working extensively with emerging AI tools, investigating their effect on the creative process, their ethical/legal implications, and their potential impact on the future of music. He has presented on this topic at numerous conferences and industry events, including the National Association of Music Merchandisers (NAMM), the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM), and CMS, for which he also led the CMS Cohorts on Artificial Intelligence in Music.

Dean Sanchez not only brings that enthusiasm and exuberance to the classroom, but to every project he undertakes. An accomplished artist in his own right, Dean Sanchez has worked with numerous international artists, including Latin superstar Chayanne, for whom he served as his longtime musical director.  His lengthy career has found him associated with such distinguished organizations as EMI Music Publishing, Sony Music, Universal Music, Univision, Telemundo, and Columbia Pictures Publications, among others. He is an author of numerous educational guitar books published by FJH Music Publishing. In addition, his band Yerba Blue released its debut album Americaña in 2010, a fusion of Bluegrass, Americana and Latin music. He continues regularly to work on a variety of recording projects.

Dean Sanchez holds degrees in Music Theory & Composition and Studio Writing & Production.

She is internationally recognized for the creation and performance of ferociously interactive media and won the 2019 Pamela Z Innovation Award. Her solo CD, Signal through the Flames, will be released by Parma Records in2020. She holds a certificate in Deep Listening with Pauline Oliveros and has studied composition with Mara Helmuth, Cort Lippe and McGregor Boyle and Geoffrey Wright and improvisation with George Lewis and Mark Applebaum. Schedel is a joint author of Cambridge University Press's Electronic Music and recently edited an issue of Organised Sound on using electroacoustic terminology to describe pre-electric sound. Her work has been supported by the Presser Foundation, Centro Mexicano para laMúsica y les Artes Sonoras, and Meet the Composer. She has been commissioned by the Princeton Laptop Orchestra, Ictus, reACT, Yarn|Wire and the Unheard-of//Ensemble. Her research focuses on gesture in music, the sustainability of technology in art, and sonification of data; she co-authored a paper published in Frontiers of Neuroscience on using familiar music to sonify the gaits of people with Parkinson's Disease. She serves as a regional editor for Organised Sound and is an editor for the open access journal Cogent Arts and Humanities. From 2009-2014 she helped run Devotion, a gallery in New York City focused on the intersection of art, science, new media, and design. As an Associate Professor of Music at Stony Brook University, she taught SUNY’s first Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) for Coursera, and formerly served as the director of the Consortium for Digital Arts Culture and Technology. Schedel currently serves as the co-director of computer music and leads the Making Sense of Data Workgroup at the Institute of Advanced Computational Science. She also teaches composition for new media at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University. In her spare time, she curates exhibitions focusing on the intersection of art, science, new media, and sound while running www.arts.codes, a platform and artist collective celebrating art with computational underpinnings.

His research explores connections and interactions in musical ensembles, from the coordination of musical activity to the influence of programming and performance. He has published in journals, including Frontiers in Psychology, Music & Science, the Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, and the Journal of Research in Music Education, and presented at conferences in North America, Asia, Australia, and Europe. Additionally, Dr. Meals serves as the Head of Analysis for the Institute for Composer Diversity.

A native of northwestern Pennsylvania, Dr. Meals earned his bachelor's degree from VanderCook College of Music, a master's degree in wind conducting from the University of Houston, and a doctorate in music education from the University of Washington. He has a successful history of teaching in Texas public schools, having served as a band director in the Keller, Klein, and Waller school districts. He joined the Moores School of Music in 2017 after serving as an Assistant Professor of Music Education at Kennesaw State University.

She brings experience designing and performing with movement-based interactive systems and immersive installations. Her research and creative work have been published in the Journal of New Music Research, Organised Sound and Routledge Publications. She has also developed music technology programs for Miami-Dade schools, making music engineering and professional-level production accessible to underserved students. A PhD candidate in Interdisciplinary Neuro-Music Synchrony at Virginia Tech, Susie's work demonstrates that music technology education deepens rather than dilutes musicianship, creating essential interdisciplinary pathways for all musicians.

Her work has been presented by Town Hall Seattle, the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Modern Orchestra, and the Fresh Squeezed Opera Company (NYC), and has received support from the Jack Straw Cultural Center, Seattle Office of Arts and Culture, the Allied Arts Foundation, the International Alliance for Women in Music, and 4Culture.

Eaton holds a MM in Vocal Performance from the Longy School of Music of Bard College and a DMA in composition from the University of Washington. A passionate educator, she serves as Associate Professor of Music at Cornish College of the Arts at Seattle University.

As Director of Voice Studies for the Grammy Award-winning San Francisco Girls Chorus, Montigne oversaw the vocal development of 350 singers, supervised the voice faculty, and prepared soloists and ensembles for opera collaborations. He teaches voice, diction, and music direction for musical theater productions at the University of North Dakota. His research explores early music, interdisciplinary concert curation, and innovative technology in vocal performance.

Dr. Montigne's performance focus is early music, art song, consort singing, and contemporary works. He toured and recorded with the Grammy Award-winning ensemble Chanticleer, and as a founding member of Clerestory developed over forty concert programs across fifteen seasons. Dr. Montigne continues to produce diverse performances for students at UND and in virtual spaces.

She is widely recognized for developing high-impact, student-centered curricula, including popular music surveys centered on Taylor Swift. Additionally, she promotes cross-cultural musical collaborations with international artists, notably with the Dal’Ouna Ensemble.

As an administrator she has led music humanities initiatives that increased relevance and expanded access to music-based courses for students across campus. Her leadership in curriculum development has shaped multiple undergraduate programs, including the creation of new minors, honors programming, and community-based music projects, including a partnership with the Carnegie Hall Lullaby Project. 

Her research explores popular music studies, feminist pedagogy, AI and creativity, and community-engaged musical practices. She currently serves as an editor for a forthcoming special issue of Popular Music and Society: Taylor Swift. Dr. Brinker has presented work at national and international conferences, including the International Musicological Society, Popular Culture/American Culture Association, and the Alliance for the Arts in Research Universities (a2ru).

His master’s thesis focused on the waltzes of Florence Price, examining them through a pedagogical lens. Elias’s research interests include generative artificial intelligence and American composers such as Florence Price and Charles Griffes. He has presented at state and national conferences including MTNA TEMPO, NCKP, and SCMTA, has published an article in the California Music Teacher Magazine on the waltzes of Florence Price, was the winner of the 2025 South Carolina MTNA Young Artist Piano Competition, and alongside his ensemble partner Wenyu Deng was the winner of the 2021 OHMTA/Graves Duet competition- Young Artist Division.

Ben is currently working on a $1.8m National Science Foundation collaborative research grant called “Toward an Ecosystem of Artificial-intelligence-powered Music Production (TEAMuP),” where an interdisciplinary team aims to empower future musicians to fully leverage AI tools in the creation, performance, and dissemination of their music, while also accelerating audio AI research.

Ben holds a Bachelor’s in Drum Set Performance and Contemporary Writing & Production from Berklee College of Music. He earned his Master’s in Music Technology from New York University and PhD in Music Education from the Eastman School of Music.

Ben currently serves on NAfME’s AI Task Force. He previously taught at James Madison University and El Paso Community College in his hometown of El Paso, TX. He’s taught percussion at various middle schools and high schools and has presented at state, regional, national, and international music conferences.