The Tennessee Arts Academy is the nation’s premier professional development institute for arts education. A program of the Tennessee Department of Education, the Academy has been held annually since 1986 on the campus of Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee! This page will serve as the starting point whenever there is a need to conduct virtual TAA programming. Information will be provided here on when and how to access the virtual site. Please feel free to contact the TAA office by email (taa@belmont.edu) or by phone (615-460-5451) if you desire further information.
Nolan Jager Loyde received a degree in music education from the University of North Texas, his master’s degree in educational leadership from Stephen F. Austin State University, and is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in education and community leadership from Texas State University. He serves as the director of fine arts for the Round Rock Independent School District. He has performed and conducted on many world class stages, including the Midwest Clinic and the Texas Music Educators Association convention. Loyde is a nationally recognized adjudicator, clinician, and advocate, appearing at Music for All and Drum Corps International events and numerous state music educator conferences and marching championships. Loyde is passionate about sharing his experiences and perspectives with educators, students, and community members who advocate for student achievement through the arts.
David Dockan is an assistant professor of music education at Louisiana State University where he teaches elementary music methods, courses in teaching music in diverse settings, and where he champions the integration of popular music in the curriculum. His goal is to help teachers design a curriculum that mirrors the diverse musical landscape of their students’ lives. His research has been published in leading journals, including the Bulletin for the Council of Research in Music Education, the Music Educators Journal, and The Orff Echo, focusing on democratic music education, popular music pedagogies, and inclusive music classrooms. In 2022, he collaborated with Dr. Martina Vasil to develop a masterclass on Orff Schulwerk and popular music education. Dockan envisions classrooms where students create music that reflects their diverse experiences and cultural backgrounds.
David Dockan is an assistant professor of music education at Louisiana State University where he teaches elementary music methods, courses in teaching music in diverse settings, and where he champions the integration of popular music in the curriculum. His goal is to help teachers design a curriculum that mirrors the diverse musical landscape of their students’ lives. His research has been published in leading journals, including the Bulletin for the Council of Research in Music Education, the Music Educators Journal, and The Orff Echo, focusing on democratic music education, popular music pedagogies, and inclusive music classrooms. In 2022, he collaborated with Dr. Martina Vasil to develop a masterclass on Orff Schulwerk and popular music education. Dockan envisions classrooms where students create music that reflects their diverse experiences and cultural backgrounds.
Michele Henry is a professor of choral music education and the director of music education at Baylor University. Henry teaches undergraduate music education courses, supervises student teachers, and oversees the music education program. She specializes in vocal sight-reading instruction and assessment. Henry is the co-author of the Level Up! sight-reading series which focuses on a systematic approach to individualized sight-reading instruction and assessment. Her research appears in many top journals, as well as Oxford and GIA presses. Henry is on the editorial boards for the Journal of Music Teacher Education, the Southwestern Musician, and Texas Music Education Research. She is also heavily involved with certification policies for music teachers. She holds a doctorate from the University of Minnesota and a master’s degree from the University of North Texas.
Michele Henry is a professor of choral music education and the director of music education at Baylor University. Henry teaches undergraduate music education courses, supervises student teachers, and oversees the music education program. She specializes in vocal sight-reading instruction and assessment. Henry is the co-author of the Level Up! sight-reading series which focuses on a systematic approach to individualized sight-reading instruction and assessment. Her research appears in many top journals, as well as Oxford and GIA presses. Henry is on the editorial boards for the Journal of Music Teacher Education, the Southwestern Musician, and Texas Music Education Research. She is also heavily involved with certification policies for music teachers. She holds a doctorate from the University of Minnesota and a master’s degree from the University of North Texas.
Chris Knighten is director of bands and professor of music in the department of music at the University of Arkansas. His duties include conducting the wind ensemble, leading the graduate instrumental conducting program, teaching conducting and band literature courses, and overseeing all aspects of the band program. Under his direction, the University of Arkansas Wind Ensemble has performed at three College Band Directors National Association divisional conferences. In his previous role as director of athletic bands, the Razorback Marching Band grew to more than 350 members and performed at the FedEx Liberty Bowl, BCS SugarBowl, and AT&T Cotton Bowl. Knighten has presented sessions on band literature and pedagogy for numerous conferences. His articles on conducting and band literature have been published in the Teaching Music through Performance series, The Journal of Band Research, The Instrumentalist, and Today’s Music Educator. Knighten holds a doctor of musical arts degree in instrumental conducting and a master of music degree in wind conducting from the University of Colorado Boulder.
Sara Simons is an associate professor of instruction at University of Texas at Austin, where she is the head of the bachelor of fine arts theatre education program. Her teaching interests include theatre for social change, process drama, multicultural education, and curriculum design. She teaches classes for pre-service theatre educators, which include designs for instruction and creative drama I and II. Simons received a grant to develop a signature course called Art and the Epidemic, where students examine art created in response to both the AIDS crisis and COVID-19. The University of Texas honored her with the 2020-21 College of Fine Arts Distinguished Teaching Award. Simons has a degree in theatre and women’s studies from Wellesley College, a master’s in theatre education from Emerson College, and a PhD in educational theatre from New York University. Her research has been published in Youth Theatre Journal, TYA Today, The Journal of Applied Arts & Health, and Annals of Behavioral Medicine.
Drew Richardson, known as Drew the Dramatic Fool, is the first person in the 21st century to have new, short, silent films shown in major motion picture theatres. In addition to being a silent film star in the wrong century, he has toured his solo shows at art centers, theatres, and festivals nationally and internationally, including the International Comedy Festival in China. Richardson played with Squonk Opera in the Broadway touring production of Bigsmorgasbordwunderwerk and has devised and directed for theatre companies across the United States. He has a degree from Ohio University and a degree in theatre performance pedagogy from Virginia Commonwealth University. Richardson studied with Jacques Lecoq in Paris, is a certified Essential Somatics exercise coach, and has a teacher’s certificate from the Michael Chekhov Association. He teaches many varieties of physical acting and comedy for theatre companies, colleges, and universities, both in-person and online, around the world.
Paige Medlock teaches visual art and art education courses, and she supervises student teachers at Middle Tennessee State University. She serves on the board of the Tennessee Art Education Association (TAEA) as president-elect and was awarded the TAEA 2024 Art Educator of the Year award for Middle Tennessee. Medlock holds a degree in art education from Asbury University in Kentucky, a degree in visual culture from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, and a practice-based doctorate in visual culture from the University of Stirling, Scotland. Medlock is a practicing artist with large-scale commissioned stained-glass installations in three countries. She presents at regional, state, national, and international conferences on ways that visual art education can navigate trauma and provide pathways to well-being. Her research and artwork focus on visual art as a place where an inner shift can occur that transforms the way people act and interact.
Thom Knab was an elementary art educator at Dodge Elementary in East Amherst, New York, from 1990 until his retirement in 2024. He earned degrees in art education from Buffalo State University, and in 2023 he served as an instructor at the elementary level for the Tennessee Arts Academy. A past president of the National Art Educators Association (NAEA), he received their Eastern Region Art Educator Award in 2024 and both the National and Eastern Region Elementary Art Educator Honors in 2018. He has been a keynote speaker for many state, regional, and international conferences. Knab has been published several times in SchoolArts Magazine, the NYSATA News, and the NAEA News, and has exhibited artwork in four solo shows as a collage and assemblage artist. He is a 2020 inductee to the National Teachers Hall of Fame, 2023 NAEA Distinguished Fellow inductee, and was named the 2025 NAEA Art Educator of the Year.
Bradley Foust is the fine arts supervisor for Bartlett City Schools in Bartlett, Tennessee, and is an online instructor of music history and appreciation for Southern New Hampshire University. He received his doctorate in music education from Boston University and has worked as a music teacher and fine arts administrator for more than twenty years in Kentucky, Oregon, and Tennessee. In 2018, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Within the Profession Award from the Tennessee Art Education Association.
Bryan Braue serves as associate director of bands and director of athletic bands at Middle Tennessee State University, where his responsibilities include directing the Band of Blue Marching Band, overseeing the athletic band program, conducting the university’s symphonic band, and teaching a variety of music education courses. He earned his doctorate with an emphasis in instrumental conducting from the University of Florida, and studied with Dr. David Waybright, professor Jay Watkins, and Dr. Chip Birkner. Prior to his appointment at Middle Tennessee State University, Braue served as director of bands at the University of Texas Permian Basin and taught courses in conducting and music education. In addition to his work at the university, Braue is a nationally recognized clinician, guest conductor, and adjudicator.
Christy Bock is an elementary music educator with twenty-six years of experience in Knox County Schools. She is fully certified in Orff-Schulwerk and has been active in music education leadership at both the local and state levels. Bock is involved in local chapters of the American Orff-Schulwerk Association and the East Tennessee General Music Association.
Emily Knight teaches elementary music in Camden, Tennessee, and has sixteen years of experience as an elementary music educator. She is fully certified in Orff-Schulwerk and is a founding member and past president of the Quad State Orff Chapter. Knight holds a bachelor’s degree from Webster University and a master’s degree from Kent State University. She frequently presents for Orff chapters around the nation.
Abbi Miller is in her eighth year of teaching elementary music and currently teaches in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. She is fully certified in Orff-Schulwerk and is working toward Kodály certification. Miller holds a bachelor’s degree from Middle Tennessee State University, a master’s degree from Anderson University, and an education specialist degree in curriculum and instruction from the University of West Florida.
Will Chander is the current director of Schola Cantorum at Middle Tennessee State University, where he also teaches courses in choral conducting and music theory. Prior to teaching in college, Chandler spent seven years as a public-school choir director in the state of Texas. Outside of his teaching duties, Chandler is an active guest conductor, clinician, and presenter. He has worked with all-region and district honor choirs and will be making his Carnegie Hall debut in April 2026. He has presented for the Texas Music Educators Association and the American Choral Directors Association National Conferences. He received his doctor of musical arts in choral conducting from the University of Kentucky and holds additional degrees from the University of Southern Mississippi and Millsaps College.
Rebecca Pogue Fields serves as head of elementary school programs at the Alliance Theatre at the Woodruff Arts Center in Atlanta, Georgia, where she facilitates the design, administration, and delivery of arts integrated, in-school residency programs in more than three hundred classrooms each year. She also facilitates theatre education programs and teacher training utilizing the STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) education model. STEAM learning integrates the arts into the traditional STEM curriculum to enhance creativity and critical thinking skills. Fields enjoys training educators at various levels to introduce best practices in arts integration, transform teacher practices, and establish strategic partnerships. She graduated from the University of Georgia with a fine arts degree in dance and received a master’s degree from the University of Kentucky. Fields has previously worked with Young Audiences Arts for Learning and the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta.
Brad Willcuts is associate professor of musical theatre and choreography at Michigan State University. His professional credits include Broadway, national tours, international and regional theaters, and the Metropolitan Opera. He served as associate director and choreographer for the Dolly Parton musical Here You Come Again, which premiered at the Delaware Theatre Company then toured internationally. Willcuts has also served as associate choreographer or fight choreographer on Amazing Grace (on Broadway), Legende Holmes (Sherlock Holmes, the Legend – in Prague), Catch the Wind (in Denmark), and Porgy and Bess (with the Metropolitan Opera). He choreographed the reimagined, pre-Broadway production of The Fantasticks.
Nichole Hahn is the product designer and educational consultant for MoxieBox Art. She has more than twenty years of experience as a visual arts educator. Hahn received a degree from the University of Wisconsin-Stout then continued her education at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota (formerly known as the University of Saint Mary’s.) She has been a member of the National Art Education Association since she was a university student and was honored as the Minnesota Art Educator of the Year 2018. Hahn has a blog called MiniMatisse.blogspot.com, which has connected her with educators from around the world.
Laura Sturgill has been an art educator for twenty-one years. She taught for twelve years in the Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools and nine years at Oak Hill School in Nashville, Tennessee. She has presented at Tennessee Arts Academy, as well as in district-wide professional developments. She currently teaches second through sixth grade students and especially enjoys collaborating with local artists and educators to keep her lessons exciting. She loves painting, fiber arts, traveling, and spending time with her husband and two sons.
