Board of Directors
Kathleen Overfield-Zook
Kathleen Overfield-Zook has had a multifaceted career as musician, pedagogue and entrepreneur alike. Kathleen holds two degrees from the University of Michigan in Viola Performance. Kathleen worked for over a decade as a freelance musician in New Jersey, Philadelphia area and Virginia. It was after the founding of her company, The Bloom Trio and Event Musicians, LLC, a network of professional musicians for special events, that Kathleen found her passion for arts entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship education. She is now the Assistant Director of the Gilliam Center for Entrepreneurship at James Madison University which promotes the entrepreneurial mindset across campus.
Dr. Amy Lewis
Amy Lewis is currently an assistant professor of music education where her research is focused on critical race theory in music education. Beforehand, she studied her doctoral work at Michigan State University in music education with a research focus on critical race theory, antiracism education, and activism in music education. Also, she taught K-1; 6-8 general music, beginning band, middle school choir, and jazz band in the Chicagoland suburbs as a public music teacher. In 2019, she was awarded the Black Faculty, Staff, and Administrators Association Emerging Leader Award and was also named the 2015 Illinois Education Association Teacher of the Year. She is an active clinician and guest lecturer on topics pertaining to equity in music education. She earned her B.M.E. degree from DePaul University and an M.A. from Concordia University.
Dr. David Stringham
David A. Stringham is Associate Professor of Music at James Madison University, where he serves as founding director of JMU’s Center for Inclusive Music Engagement. His teaching and research interests include generative creativity, lifelong music engagement, and music teacher education. Dr. Stringham’s work has been supported by the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the 4-VA Collaborative, and disseminated through a variety of presentations and publications. He serves as chair of National Association for Music Education’s Creativity Special Research Interest Group, editorial board member for College Music Society’s Emerging Fields in Music series, and editor of the peer-reviewed, open-access journal Research and Issues in Music Education.