2011-2012 Doctoral Fellows
Linda Aicher graduated from Konservatorium Wien and University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna with a guitar performance degree and a Masters degree in music education. She also holds a Masters degree in Business Administration from the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration. Currently she is a Fulbright scholar studying PhD music education in her first year at Northwestern University. Currently she is
a Fulbright scholar pursuing a PhD in music education.
Kimberly Lansinger Ankney graduated from Temple University, Philadelphia with a Bachelor of Music in music education, and received an Master of Music in music education from University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. While at University of Michigan, Kimberly completed a study on improvisation in high school alternative string ensembles. As a teacher she has worked extensively as a choral and string educator in the private and public school settings. Most recently, Kimberly worked at Lancaster Country Day School in Pennsylvania directing all the choral ensembles, beginner and middle school strings, as well as primary and secondary general music courses. She has also held positions as artistic director of the Mennonite Children’s Choir of Lancaster; and as assistant artistic director of the Saline Fiddlers, Michigan. Kimberly’s current research interests include improvisation, intrinsic motivation and creativity, and metacognition.
Julie Bannerman taught general music for five years in Seattle, Washington and California’s Bay Area. In diverse public and private settings, she has worked with early childhood, elementary, and middle school students. While serving in the United States Peace Corps (Nicaragua, 2003-2005) Julie collaborated with elementary and middle school students and teachers in environmental education and literacy programs. Julie completed undergraduate work in General/Choral Music Education and Gender Studies at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. She earned a Master of Music Education at the University of Washington, Seattle, focusing on world music pedagogy and gender issues in choral ensembles. Currently a third-year PhD student in music education at Northwestern, Julie’s research interests include socio-cultural issues in music education, policy issues in music education, and music teacher education.
Donna Gallo has served as a summer faculty member at Silver Lake College where she taught Research in Music Education and Kodály Level III. Prior to her doctoral studies, Donna taught K-6 general/choral music for eight years in Simsbury, CT and Fairfax County, VA. Donna received the International Kodály Society scholarship and earned a diploma from the Zoltán Kodály Pedagogical Institute of Music in Kecskemét, Hungary where she studied for two years. She holds a BME from Indiana University, Kodály Levels I-III and an MME from Silver Lake College, and Orff Levels I-II. She served as an assessment clinician in Connecticut and Illinois school districts, and collaborated with the Connecticut Common Arts Assessment Initiative to build performance-based assessment tasks for the elementary general music classroom. Donna has presented sessions at national and regional OAKE, AOSA, and MENC conferences. Recent research presentations include a collaborative session at the 2011 Mountain Lake Symposium and a paper presentation at the 2012 AERA conference. Donna is currently an editor for the AOSA Reverberations quarterly publication.
Susanna Guthmann
(information will be added when available)
Jon Harnum has taught music in diverse settings throughout Alaska, from a remote Alaskan village in the Aleutians, to a large rural Alaskan high school, to studio teaching. He is currently in his 4th year of the music education PhD program at Northwestern University. Although well-steeped in the teaching of high school band, he is now interested in studying Community Music, High School General Music, and the details of how effective music practice techniques are learned.
Daniel Healy graduated from Indiana University with a Bachelor of Music Degree in Music Education and received a Master of Music degree in Jazz Performance from William Paterson University. Prior to coming to Northwestern University, Daniel taught elementary school band and high school jazz band in the greater New York area for four years. He is currently a first year Ph.D student and his research interests include improvisation, student identity, and students with learning disabilities.
Sara Jones received her Bachelor of Music Education degree from Baylor University and her Master of Music degree in music education from Michigan State University. Prior to entering the PhD program at Northwestern, Sara assisted with a New Horizons Band in East Lansing, Michigan, taught middle school and high school band in Texas, and maintained a private trumpet studio. Currently a second year PhD student in music education at Northwestern, Sara's research interests include lifelong learning, secondary general music, and democracy in music education.
Nasim Niknafs is a fourth-year PhD student at Northwestern University. After graduating from University of Art Tehran in piano performance, she pursued two Masters degree in Music Education from Kingston University London and New York University. Her research interests are curriculum policies, community music programs, and multicultural issues in elementary schools.
Julia Shaw holds a Master of Music in choral conducting from Butler University and a Bachelor of Music Education from Indiana University. Her teaching experience includes eight years working in diverse school settings in Indianapolis and Chicago. She also has worked extensively with children’s choirs, having served as Neighborhood and In-school Conductor for the Chicago Children’s Choir, Associate Director of the Indianapolis Children’s Choir, and musicianship teacher for the Indiana University Children’s Choir. As the choir director at Zionsville West Middle School, she was honored as Teacher of the Year for the Zionsville Community Schools and Boone County in 2007. Her school choirs have performed at the Indiana Music Educators Association State Convention and on subscription concerts with the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir. Julia has also served as a clinician and guest conductor for the Indiana Music Educators Association Non-Competitive and Circle the State with Song festivals. She has taught child voice development at the University of St. Thomas and Kodály pedagogy at James Madison University. Her current research interests include child voice development, urban education, music teacher education, and socio-cultural issues in music education.
Jason D. Thompson earned music education degrees from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro School of Music and has ten years of choral, piano, and general music teaching experience at elementary, secondary, and collegiate levels in NC and VA. Prior to working toward the PhD in Music Education degree in the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL, Thompson served on the choral faculty at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC. Thompson has served on the board of directors for the Southern Division of American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), NC ACDA, and NC Music Educators Association. His research interests include music teacher education, socio-cultural issues in music education and critical race theory and he has presented his work at state, division and international conferences and symposia. Thompson is an active choral clinician and is published in the Music Educators Journal.
Richard S. Webb earned degrees in viola performance from Bowling Green State University and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where his teachers included Bernard Linden, Nathan Gordon, Pamela Ryan and Masao Kawasaki; and where he pursued chamber music studies with the Bowling Green, Tokyo and LaSalle Quartets. He has appeared as both viola soloist and guest conductor with the Toledo Symphony and Lima Symphony Orchestras. A former orchestra director for the Lima and Bryan (OH) City Schools, his students consistently earned top ratings at large ensemble and solo & ensemble adjudicated events. He is also a composer and author of several arrangements for middle- and high-school string and symphony orchestras. "Rick" is currently pursuing PhD studies in music education at Northwestern University, while assisting and teaching string techniques, music education rehearsal practicum, and instrumental methods courses. His research interests include modeling aspects in the performance ensemble classroom, and string class pedagogy.