Dr. Laura Dunbar

Laura Dunbar is Associate Professor of Music Education, Elementary Specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire where she also serves as Music Education Coordinator and teaches music education courses. Dr. Dunbar taught ten years in the public schools beginning her career teaching instrumental music to grades 5-12 at Elmwood Local Schools in Ohio. When her family relocated to Arizona, she accepted a K-8 position in Sedona, Arizona where she taught general, instrumental, vocal, and steel drum music for seven years. While teaching in Sedona, she completed a Master in Music with an emphasis in Music Teaching from Northern Arizona University. She then traveled to the University of Arizona where she graduated with a PhD in Music Education and a minor in Educational Psychology.

Dr. Dunbar has presented at local, state, and national conferences and in-service workshops including Wisconsin Music Education Association, National Association for Music Educators, Society for Music Teacher Education, Mountain Lake Colloquium, Desert Skies Symposium, Arizona Music Education Association, and the Interdisciplinary Society for Quantitative Research in Music and Medicine (ISQRMM). She has also served as webmaster for ISQRMM, technology columnist for General Music Today, and council member for Wisconsin Music Educators Association. Dr. Dunbar also teaches graduate level courses, including Level II Pedagogy and Materials for the summer Kodály Program at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, Music Psychology for the MME at University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, and a research methods course and a statistics and assessment course for the Master of Education in Professional Development (MEPD) program at UWEC. Currently Dr. Dunbar is also serving as the program coordinator for the Chippewa Valley Youth Choirs and Very Young Composers at UWEC.